|
The pubococcygeusmuscle, PC, pelvic floor muscle or 'love muscle' is the muscle that you 'squeeze', when you try to hold back urine. Tightening or squeezing the pubococcygeal muscle should feel like 'pulling everything up inside of your pelvis' rather than pushing down.
 Your PC muscles are responsible for holding all the pelvic organs within the pelvis. Slung like a hammock at the base of your pelvis, the pelvic floor consists of a deep muscle layer and a superficial muscle layer that work together to keep your pelvic organs healthy and in good working order. The muscle (the darker red in the diagram) 'wraps' around the rectum and the vagina in a figure of '8'.
As well as creating strength and tone to the muscle itself, exercises increase the blood flow to this region, which helps with healthy cell renewal. Like any other muscle within the body they benefit from exercise and toning on a regular basis.
Finding the correct muscle
If you are unsure about what squeezing and relaxing the pubococcygeal muscle feels like, try the following steps:
 When you need to pass urine, sit on the toilet with your legs apart. See if you can start and then stop the flow of urine without moving your legs. If you can stop the stream of urine, you are tightening the pubococcygeal muscle. If you can start the stream of urine, you are relaxing the pubococcygeal muscle.
If you don't succeed the first time, keep trying until you have discovered what it feels like to tighten and relax the pubococcygeal muscle.
If you cannot identify or control the pubococcygeal muscle, discuss this with your doctor or health care professional. Making sure that you are exercising the correct muscle will ensure that you get the most benefit from doing exercises.
Another approach to help you identify the correct muscle group is to insert a finger into the vagina. You should then try to tighten the muscles around your finger as if holding back urine. The abdominal and thigh muscles should remain relaxed.
 When the PC muscle weakens, a number of things can happen. A woman may develop urinary or stool incontinence, that is, an inability to control the bladder or bowel. A weak PC muscle can also lead to poor muscle control during labour and delivery; a decrease in sexual pleasure; or genital prolapse, an uncomfortable condition in which the bladder, rectum, or uterus moves down into the vagina.
Kegel exercises can improve these conditions if they are due to a weak PC muscle.
There may be other reasons for these problems, however, such as infection, inflammation, injury, abnormalities of internal pelvic organs, or even emotional factors. Thus, it is important for women experiencing any of the symptoms described to check with their health care provider to determine the cause and proper treatment of the problem.
There are two types of urinary incontinence: stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
In stress incontinence, urine leaks out occasionally when doing such things as coughing, sneezing, lifting, or exercising.
Urge incontinence means that a woman is unable to hold her urine when there is a strong need to urinate.
Both conditions, especially stress incontinence, can be helped by Kegel exercises. The exercises can also help bowel control by strengthening the muscle surrounding the rectal opening, preventing the loss of stool.
A strong PC muscle can enable a woman to carry a baby more comfortably during pregnancy and to relax better during labour and delivery. Moreover, Kegel exercises performed after delivery can help restore PC muscle tone and can help minimize damage done to the pelvic area from an episiotomy (an incision made between the vagina and rectum to ease delivery of a baby).
Sexual difficulties in women can occur because of a weak PC muscle or because a woman is not producing sufficient lubrication (the fluid produced in the vagina when a woman is sexually aroused). These difficulties include: vaginismus (an extremely uncomfortable spasm of the muscles surrounding the vagina), painful intercourse, and an inability to experience orgasm.
As women enter the menopausal years (35-54) their oestrogen levels decline. Oestrogen is a female hormone that readies the body for childbirth and is no longer produced in large amounts once menstruation ends. This decrease in oestrogen can cause changes in vaginal tissue and a decrease in vaginal lubrication. This loss of adequate lubrication can cause painful intercourse and increases the chance of injury and infection to the vagina or bladder.
Kegel exercises can strengthen the PC muscle and improve blood circulation to the pelvic area. Increased blood circulation improves lubrication by causing secretions to seep through the walls of the vagina. This can help prevent discomfort during sexual activity. In addition, there are many nerve endings in the PC muscle. If it is firm, the PC muscle responds to stimulation by contracting (tightening). This increases pleasurable sensations.
Genital prolapse can result from a weak PC muscle or from stretching of the ligaments that support the uterus. Symptoms include: discomfort when bearing down to have a bowel movement; occasional, slight vaginal bleeding; vaginal infections; or loss of bladder or bowel control. Kegel exercises can help prevent genital prolapse and improve the pelvic muscle support system. |
