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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. The Kegel 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:

The abdominal muscles
The small lumbar extensor muscles, and
The deep pelvic floor muscles.

PUBO-COCCYGEUS (PC) muscle

There are nine different muscles belonging to the deep floor of the pelvis, most note-worthy of which is the Pubo-coccygeus (PC) muscle, which is slung like a hammock from the pubic bones in the front to the coccyx at the back. Notice that in the male the prostate rests on the PC, and the urethra must penetrate through a small hole in the 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

I’m sure you’re aware that when your chiropractor tests to see whether the nerve circuits in your leg are intact - by tapping on a tendon, for example just below the kneecap - that the Quadriceps muscle responds automatically, tightening in an unconscious manner, and making your foot shoot forward. It is very important that the body responds immediately in this way if any sudden demand is placed on a muscle.

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

Numerous medical groups have suggested that this annoying and painful male condition, often thought to eminate from an infection of the prostate gland, but known not to respond to anti-biotics, is in fact an abnormal pelvic muscle spasm.

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.

TREATMENT

Every chiropractor, and medical doctor, is trained to examine the prostate muscle. There remains debate: is this a 'medical' condition? If the prostate is involved, then yes, probably. But if trigger points in the PC are the culprit (just the same, say as in a tennis elbow) then your chiropractor is the expert who should be treating this condition.

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.

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 medication.

INTERCOURSE

The Kegel exercises are beneficial to both sexes increasing the pleasure of sexual intercourse, by helping men not ejaculate too soon, and women to tighten the vagina, enabling them both to reach a more fulfilling and better timed climax.

PREGNANCY

See where the 'sling' would run from the pubic bones to the coccyx?

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

sacro-iliac joints

the pubic bones,

in the groin,

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

How the Kegel exercises are done

The Kegel exercises should not be done when you have a full bladder. But the best way to isolate these muscles is to IMAGINE you are urinating, and are going to stop the stream. Don’t actually stop the urine flow. You should feel the pelvic floor rising and falling as you contract the 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, feeling the contraction grow, and reaching a climax, and then repeat by doing them really quickly, contracting and releasing.

Best of all, first thing in the morning, lying on your bed comine 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:

Place your hands lightly across the abdoman. During the Kegel exercises you should feel no contraction of the Abs.
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.