Pelvic floor muscle exercises

A lot women experience light bladder weakness at some point in their lives. By exercising your pelvic floor muscles you can seriously reduce the risk of little leaks – or even get rid of leaks altogether.

Identify your pelvic floor muscles

Get started by finding the right muscles. To identify your pelvic floor muscles, try to stop urination in mid-stream, this is only to identify the right muscles to use and should not be continuous training.

Once you've identified your pelvic floor muscles and learnt how to exercise them in the right way, you can do them anywhere, at any time and it’s never too late to get started. In the beginning, when the pelvic floor muscles are not so strong, we recommend to do the exercises laying down. Then it is easier to relax and ensure you are using the right muscles.

The strengthening exercise

Once you´ve learnt the right technique you can start with the strengthening exercise. To become strong in the muscles you should clench with maximum strength. The length of the clench is depending on how strong you are from the beginning. Start to clench for 5 seconds and then relax for 5 seconds – repeat 5-10 times. Don´t clench more times than you can handle at maximum strength. When you get stronger you can increase the exercise time and decide on the preferred position to train your pelvic floor muscles.

The endurance exercise

When you do the endurance exercise you activate the muscles that helps you to hold it till you can find a toilet. This means that you learn to keep a continuous clench for a longer time (minimum 30 seconds). Clench with medium tightness and try to keep your clench in 30-60 seconds. You must clench again over time if you lose your clench. Do this exercise after every finished round of strengthening exercise. In time, you will be able to hold the contraction for longer and longer as increased muscle endurance.

The quickness exercise

The quickness exercise is important to be able to stop a leak when the pressure is higher against the pelvic floor as it is when coughing, sneezing or a sudden giggle. Clench as hard as you can for two seconds. Then relax for two seconds. Repeat this exercise 10-20 times and do this daily – and each time you feel a sneeze, cough or laugh coming.

You can exercise almost anywhere

It will take some time to sense a real improvement - so don’t forget to build pelvic floor exercises into your daily routine so that the pelvic activates automatically without you having to think about it.

You do not need any equipment and you can exercise almost anywhere: on the subway, in front of the TV, from the car or in the office. Remember that it only takes as little as 5 minutes a day, continue to do the exercises regularly, after a couple of months you start to notice the difference. It takes about 6 months, sometimes more to build up the muscles to full strength.

If you have a problem doing the exercises, or feel you are not seeing any improvement please discuss this with your doctor.

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