KEGEL EXERCISES

The DEEP PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLES

The Kegel exercises help maintain the health of the deep pelvic floor muscles, improving the stability of the pelvis as well as the organs therein. Good tone prevents incontinence, improves sexual performance. These exercises are a simple way of strengthening the vital pelvic floor muscles.

Normal posture of the pelvis is vital, not only for the spine, which has the sacrum has its foundation, but also for the support of the internal organs of the pelvis. The most important muscles of the pelvic "corset" are:

1. The abdominal muscles

2. The small lumbar extensor muscles, and

3. The deep pelvic floor muscles.

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PUBO-COCCYGEUS (PC) muscle

PC in the male

PC in the female

Again, can you see the 'hammock' made up by nine muscles, primarily the PC which stretches from the pubic bones in the front to the coccyx posteriorally?

All three groups of muscles of the pelvic 'corset' of course are vital for good spinal and organ health, but the third, the deep pelvic muscles are the most often neglected. To maintain good spinal posture and healthy internal organs, it is vital that these muscles have continuous, partial contraction (tonus), quite apart from any conscious control.

Note how the vagina and urethra pass through the PC muscle. A healthy PC promotes greater pleasure in coitus and prevents a leaking bladder during and after pregnancy, and in old age.

Reflexes

A healthy PC muscle behaves similarly, able to contract spontaneously and clamp the urethra closed, preventing any leakage when a woman goes jogging for example. It acts in exactly the same way in the male, preventing premature ejaculation, and increasing his and his partner's pleasure. In women, if these muscles are weak then the bladder, uterus and even the bowels could drop down pressing onto the vagina and contributing to urinary incontinence, a horrid and embarrassing, and largely preventable, condition. Hence the need for the Kegel exercises.

Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome = Non-Bacterial Prostatitis

Trigger points in these muscles are a major cause of prostate pain in men. Whilst there is much relief to be had from intra-rectal cross-friction of the deep pelvic floor muscles and the prostate itself, it is obviously an awkward procedure, and the Kegel exercises are a better preliminary treatment.

The NIH did some very interesting research on a group of men whose doctors had typically attributed their pelvic pain to a prostatitis infection. By intrarectal examination they assessed the pain and tenderness in the deep pelvic muscles:

41% had pain in the prostate gland itself, but in 27% the pain was in the deep pelvic muscles.

PHYTOSTEROLS

TREATMENT

In practice? Neither medical doctors, nor chiropractors frequently do the required simple, basic, relieving cross friction of the prostate and pelvic floor muscles. Medical doctors give anti-biotics that research proves don't help, and most men find it too awkward to mention to their chiropractor, or don't realise that chiropractic can help. Frankly, I too don't do this procedure (it's simple, quick, largely painless, but unpleasant for doctor and patient) unless asked to by a patient. Not many ask perhaps, but there are a good many men out there suffering unnecessarily.

So the Kegel exercises are perhaps a better option. If they don't work, then talk to your chiropractor if you have 'prostate' pain that is not responding to your doctor's treatment.

INTERCOURSE

PREGNANCY

There is special benefit from the Kegel exercises during pregnancy which places great strain on the pelvis in general, causing pain in the

and of course urine leakage. They are simple and quite safe.

UTERINE and/or BLADDER PROLAPSE

How the Kegel exercises are done

So, lying flat on your back, imagine you are having a sweet pee and you want to stop the flow. Squeeze those deep muscles, and relax them again. That's the Kegel Exercises.

You don’t actually stop the urine flow obviously. (Don't do them on the loo, literally stopping the flow. That's bad.)

You should feel the pelvic floor rising and falling as you contract the deep pelvic muscles, hold for several seconds, and then allow the floor to fall again. Repeat several times.

It’s usually recommended that you do the Kegel exercises lying down, but for my money you can do them just as effectively standing and sitting. Standing in a queue whilst waiting for the bus, when you switch the computer on and are waiting for Windows to wake up, or every time you have a cup of tea.

Do them slowly and rhythmically first, feeling the contraction grow, and reaching a climax, relax. You might then want to repeat the Kegel exercises by doing them really quickly, contracting and releasing in rapid succession.

Best of all, do them first thing in the morning, by lying on your bed and combining the Kegel exercises with a pelvic tilt. The Maignes Syndrome exercises ... In this beautiful exercise you combine all three muscle groups that constitute the pelvic corset. First thing in the morning, on your bed, and then at night again. Good for the back, great for the sagging abs, stop the dripping bladder, wonderful sex, what more can one ask for?! I do them EVERY morning. I mean it! Dinkum.

Unsure that you are contracting the correct muscles? Two things you can do:

1. Place your hands lightly across the abdoman. During the Kegel exercises you should feel no contraction of the Abs. Now place you hands just above the pubes: contract - you should feel the deep muscles contracting.

2. An alternative way for women to be quite sure is to insert a finger into the vagina (wash carefully first!), and then feel if the the deep vaginal muscles are contraction.

PELVIC TILT EXERCISE INCORPORATING THE KEGEL EXERCISES

1. Oblique abdominal muscles
2. Multifidi muscles - small muscles in the back
3. Deep pelvic muscles

It's particularly useful to incorporate the Kegel exercises into the Pelvic tilt exercise to build strong "core muscles" - good for the low back, good for the bladder, better sex... See here how the Pelvic tilt can be done incorporating the Kegels... Pelvic tilt on YouTube ...

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Anecdotes, true and false

• Yes, an APPLE a day does indeed keep the doctor away. APPLE DIET ...
  
  
• No, there's no evidence that shows drinking water will help a headache, nor that you should be drinking eight glasses a day. Nor will it help you lose weight.
  
  
• Nope, no research proving that adjusting the Pubic Symphysis will cure Athelete's Foot. ANECDOTE OF THE JAR ...
  
  
• Astonishingly, there is research showing that ingesting INTESTINAL WORM OVA helps with the DISEASES OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM like Ulcerative Colitis and even MS.
  
  
• More anecdotes from the CHIROPRACTIC COALFACE ....
  >

One last thought whilst we are discussing the deep pelvic muscles...

One of those muscles, the Ilio-coccygeus muscle, arises from the ischium and is attached to the coccyx. When all else fails, talk to your chiropractor. Take hubby along if you agree on a course of treatment... that protects both you and your chiropractor. Or ask your gynae if he would examine the area, only he may not understand too much about treating trigger points in a muscle.

My Pilates Exercises - PELVIC FLOOR TECHNIQUE

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS

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KEGEL EXERCISES

Did you find this page and the videos useful? Then perhaps forward the Kegel exercises to a friend suffering from lower back or bladder problems.