Do
You Kegel? Do You Sexercise?
-The Kegel Exercise: An Overlooked Exercise for Core Stability
& Sexual Function
By Mark Alderson, CSCS
Copyright © 2006 MaxPerformanceTraining.com, All Rights Reserved.
The Kegel Exercise, named after Dr. Kegel, who developed the exercise,
has many positive health benefits. This particular exercise works
the muscles of the pelvic floor. These muscles are the pubococcygeus
muscles, sometimes referred to as the "PC" muscles.
These important muscles hold the pelvic organs, help provide core
stability, control urination, and can enhance sexual performance
and/or enjoyment. So why haven’t you been doing your kegels?
Who Should Do Kegel Exercises?
Kegels can be performed by both men and women.
There are significant benefits for both sexes. Many pregnant women
are instructed by their doctor to perform Kegels to prepare for
giving birth. Older adults can derive significant benefits related
to both core stability and incontinence. The Kegel Exercise provides
significant benefit to everyone from children to adults, men,
women, and athletes alike. Consult your physician prior to commencing
or adding any exercise to your program.
BENEFITS OF KEGEL EXERCISE:
General (everyone)
Men:
Kegel exercises increase the blood flow to the genital area, and
so support sexual arousal mechanisms.
Kegel exercises help strengthen and tone the muscles that are directly
involved in ejaculation; Men who Kegel can, if they practice, gain
greater control over their ejaculations.
Kegel exercises aid in overall core stabilization; strengthening
of your midsection to help prevent injuries.
Women:
Kegel exercise conditioned muscles will make birthing easier, help
prevent perineum damage, including fewer tears and episiotomies.
Kegel exercises increase the blood flow to the genital area, increasing
support of sexual arousal mechanisms.
Kegel exercises strengthen and tone the muscles of the vaginal canal;
Women who Kegel can, if vaginal stimulation is their choice, and
if they do some additional work on themselves, improve their capacity
to orgasm by means of vaginal play, in terms of both the intensity
and the frequency of their orgasms.
Kegel exercises are essential to the treatment of sexual difficulties
such as vaginismus and dyspareunia (pain on vaginal intercourse).
Kegel exercises prevent incontinence, prolapses, and many other
problems of the pelvic floor that are often associated with aging.
Elderly:
Kegelling for the baby boomer. With the aging
baby boom population entering retirement, the problem of adult
incontinence has become much more visible. Some data suggests
over $5.2 Million US is spent on adult diapers each year. Kegel
exercises when properly performed can help prevent a person from
developing incontinence that is simply the result of aging and
decreased muscle tone.
How do you do a Kegel Exercise:
The most difficult part of the kegel exercise
is to contract the PC muscles properly. Most people mistakenly
contract the
abdominal or thigh muscles, which may help them
in some ways, but will not give them the results they are after;
which a properly completed kegel exercise can provide.
The First thing you need to do is locate the proper muscle to
contract. You are looking for the pubococcygeus muscles, sometimes
referred to as the "PC" muscles. Both men and women
should locate them in the following manner:
Go to the bathroom and sit on the toilet / commode seat. Begin
to urinate. In the middle of your stream of urine, stop and start
the stream several times. The muscles you use to do this are your
PC muscles. At first, you may find that you are also squeezing
other muscles such as your abdominal muscles or your anal muscles.
The more you practice, the more control you will develop. Work
to isolate the PC muscles and separate out the other muscle groups
when you kegel.
As you get better, you will be able to kegel exercise while sitting
in a chair, at home watching television, in a boring office meeting,
at your desk at work, in the car, or any other time you want.
The Full Kegel:
We recommend you start out kegelling by contracting or squeezing
your PC muscles hard for 3 to 5 seconds. I find that many people
starting out can better isolate the PC muscles while lying down
on their back with their knees bent at 90 degrees (the position
you would be in for a sit-up or abdominal crunch). Do not push
from your heals and do not contract your abdominal muscles like
you are doing a crunch. Just squeeze the PC muscles.
Recommended Progression:
Two times per day complete the kegel squeeze and hold for 3 to
5 seconds as described above. Complete this 10 times per session.
You should feel some fatigue of the muscles with this.
After 5 to 7 days, most people find this to be easier, less fatigue.
If so, increase the repetitions to 12 to 16 kegel repetitions.
Work up to 20 kegel repetitions, then add a second set and build
that up to 20 repetitions just as you did with the first. Consider
working up to three sets total.
The Keys to Kegel Success:
Take care in finding the PC muscles. If after you commence your
“kegel program” you have any doubt as to whether or
not you are contracting the correct muscles, return to the initial
step and sit on the toilet, then contract the muscles to stop
the stream of urine. It may take some time to develop the proper
muscle coordination to control the muscle groups, so do not rush
or get frustrated. If you don’t learn the proper muscles
to contract, your results will not be good, even if you are putting
forth the effort. Some find it helpful to experiment with how
they contract the muscles. Feel free to try slow long contractions,
or quick hard contractions, or pulsing contractions.
The second most important key to success in kegelling
is to do your kegel exercises on a consistent basis. Initially,
you should consider doing your kegels everyday, at least once,
but up to twice (while you are doing 1 set of 10 kegel repetitions).
As the repetitions of kegels build and you are adding additional
sets of kegels, you may want to go to an “every other day”
routine, similar to working out at the gym. The PC muscles must
be used on a regular basis to maintain their strength. As we become
less active as we age, we need to pick up the slack with our exercise
program. Work your kegels on a regular basis, just like you would
do with crunches or sit-ups.
Once you have mastered the Kegel exercise and can complete three
sets of twenty repetitions with little fatigue, you may want to
get creative. You can then work on incorporating kegel exercise
in with other core stability and functional stability programs.
Stay tuned for how to incorporate the kegel into your core training.
Written By: Mark Alderson, CSCS
Copyright © 2006 MaxPerformanceTraining.com Please contact
Webmaster
for with requests regarding reposting or distribution.
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