How Can I Tell if I'm Doing My Kegels Correctly?

With urinary incontinence, you may experience bladder control issues and leak urine. This leakage is usually uncontrollable, often very embarrassing, and can negatively impact your life. Fortunately, there are exercises that can help control the problem.

At Revive Health Clinic, our expert team uses state-of-the-art diagnostics and advanced treatments to help patients with urinary incontinence in and around Lady Lake, Florida. One tried-and-true method for treating incontinence is pelvic floor exercises, better known as Kegel exercises. Here’s how you can tell if you’re doing them correctly.

Why does incontinence occur?

Your urinary system is made up of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra. The kidneys filter waste products from your blood, creating urine. Next, the urine moves down through two thin tubes, the ureters, which are connected to the bladder, a storage area.

Once the bladder is full, the brain sends a signal to it that you need to urinate. A sphincter muscle opens, allowing the urine to flow freely from the bladder, through the urethra, and out of the body.

When this system works as it should, you usually have time to get to a bathroom before needing to urinate. If any part of the system doesn’t work properly, though, urinary incontinence is the result. It can happen for many different reasons throughout your life.

Many people think incontinence is just a normal part of aging and can’t be helped. However, while it’s true your risk of incontinence increases as you get older,  several treatments are  available to help you manage the problem.

What is the pelvic floor?

The pelvic floor muscles span the bottom of the pelvis and support the pelvic organs in a sling-like hammock. These include the bladder, bowel, and uterus in women, with the urethra, anus, and vagina all passing through the muscles.

In men, the muscles support the bladder and bowel, with the urethra and the anus passing through the muscles.

The pelvic floor muscles form the base of the muscle group commonly referred to as the “core.” The pelvic muscles work together with the deep abdominal and back muscles and the diaphragm (breathing muscle) in supporting the spine and controlling the pressure inside the abdomen.

When you contract the pelvic floor muscles, they lift the internal organs in the hammock and tighten the openings of the vagina, anus, and urethra. Relaxing them allows passage of urine and feces.

Leakage and incontinence occur when the pelvic floor muscles weaken, and instead of contracting to hold urine in until you get to the bathroom, they remain relaxed, and urine’s free to move out of the body.

What are Kegel exercises? And am I doing them right?

Pelvic floor exercises, often called Kegel exercises, strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor. They help both men and women having difficulty with urine leakage or bowel control.

Performing the exercise is a bit like pretending you have to urinate, and then holding it in. You’re relaxing and tightening the muscles that control urine flow, so it’s important to know which are the right muscles to work with.

The next time you have to urinate, void a little, and then stop. Feel the muscles in your vagina, bladder, or anus get tighter and shift upward. If you feel them tighten, you’ve found the pelvic floor muscles and have done the exercise right.

Don’t make it a habit of doing the exercises while you urinate. Once you can reliably identify the muscles, do the exercises while seated, but not when you’re urinating. And since doing them isn’t obvious to the outside observer, you can do them any time you like.

If you’re still not sure if you’re tightening the right muscles, remember that all of the muscles of the pelvic floor relax and contract at the same time, and so the following tips may help:

Women: Insert a finger into your vagina, tighten the muscles as if you’re holding in your urine, then let go. You should feel the pelvic floor muscles tighten and move up and down.

Men: Insert a finger into your rectum, tighten the muscles as if you’re holding in your urine, then let go. You should feel the pelvic floor muscles tighten and move up and down. These are the same muscles you’d tighten if you were trying to prevent yourself from breaking wind.

Dealing with urinary incontinence and need help with Kegel exercises or other related treatments? Revive Health Clinic can help. To schedule a consultation, call our office at 352-290-0896, or book online with us today.