Kegel’s exercises can help you find solutions to simple problems you face during pregnancy. They Kegel’s benefit you not only during and after pregnancy, but their good effects stay with you for a lifetime. Try Kegels during pregnancy for a week, and you will feel the improvements. Once you understand how much benefit they provide, you will automatically be motivated to continue them on a regular basis.
At the same time, it is important to do the exercise correctly in order to stimulate the right muscles. Consult your doctor, who will help you out with the right technique. Find out everything about Kegels during pregnancy.
In This Article
- What Are Kegel Exercises?
- How Can I Do Kegels?
- When Should I Do Kegels?
- Top 5 Benefits Of Kegel Exercises In Pregnancy
- Side Effects Of Kegel Exercises
- Who Should Avoid Kegel Exercises During Pregnancy
- FAQs
What Are Kegel Exercises?
Kegel exercise is basically the exercise of the pelvic muscles. It involves continuous contraction and relaxation of these muscles which helps a lot during pregnancy. Muscles surrounding the uterus, bladder, and rectum can be strengthened, and Kegels are highly recommended (1).
Both men and women can benefit from this set of exercises. They can help you in many ways, from strengthening muscles to easing delivery. Here, is the list of the benefits you can reap from it if you are pregnant.
How Can I Do Kegels?
Kegels are easy and can be done everywhere. To start with, you can try with an empty bladder, and imagine you are trying to stop the urine flow in between by ‘contracting and releasing’ the urine. You can check that you are doing them right by simply inserting a clean finger in your vagina. When you ‘contract’, you should feel the pressure around the finger.
However, when you are doing Kegels, make sure that only your pelvic floor muscles are working, and your stomach or legs, or buttocks are not getting pulled in or tightened. Some regular practice will enable you to do Kegels easily and in a more relaxed way.
There are many different ways of doing Kegels exercises. Choose the one that suits you the best and make it a part of your regular exercise regime. Kegel exercises during pregnancy are all about preparing your body for giving birth. Studies have even shown that women who do Kegels exercise have shorter labor due to strong pelvic floor muscles (2).
When Should I Do Kegels?
You should aim at making Kegels a part of your daily routine, gradually doing them a few times during the day. The contractions as well as the time you hold them will increase with practice, which can be something to the tune of 10 seconds. However, the most important thing is that you must do them regularly – how, when, where and how many are not crucial.
Top 5 Benefits Of Kegel Exercises In Pregnancy
Kegel exercises are simple to perform. These are some of the effective exercises you can do to make your pelvic floor muscles flexible and strong. Below are the sheer benefits of including a Kegel’s routine in your exercise regime:
1. Easy Labor and Birth
If you do Kegels, you will have less pain during labor, and the process will be a lot easier. Flat out. As the exercise involves postures that help the pelvic muscles stretch, the whole process of giving birth, which is all about contraction and relaxation of muscles, becomes a lot easier. These exercises tone up your muscles and give you the ability to control them [3].
2. Bladder Control
One of the things that continually bother you during pregnancy is the frequent urge to urinate. For some, it might be bearable whereas for some it is too much to handle. This happens because during pregnancy your uterus expands and puts pressure on the bladder. Sometimes omen may even experience leakage of urine if the pressure is too much.
While frequent urination is a common ailment during pregnancy and even considered a healthy sign that the pregnancy is progressing as it should be, sometimes it can cause permanent damage to the nerves surrounding the bladder. Through Kegels, you can achieve some control over your urination. Exercising the pelvic muscles will strengthen them and improves the function of the rectal sphincter and urethra [4].
3. Prevent Those Little Leaks After Childbirth
Your baby makes its space in your pelvic region pushing the uterus and other pelvic organs a little away. After you give birth to your baby the organs return to theirthe original pre-baby position. As your muscles have gone through a lot of exertion while giving birth, the muscles tend to become weak and even loosen a little bit. If you keep practicing Kegels then it will help your muscles to tighten up and spare you those unwanted leaks while sneezing or coughing.
4. Healing Your Pelvic Muscles
It is inevitable that your muscles are going to be tired after you have given birth because they have undergone tremendous exertion. So, after pregnancy, you have to give your strength back and proper time to heal [5]. You can do this through Kegel’s exercise.
Kegel’s help will increase blood circulation and help heal the perineal muscles faster. It will also help in stimulating the growth of new muscle tissues, which will ensure the healing of the muscles that might have been torn in the process. Kegels will give you all the strength you need
5. Get Back in Shape
Kegels exercise will hugely help you in getting back to shape post-delivery. You will be able to get back to your pre-baby shape and fitness faster. It will also help in toning your vaginal muscles and enhancing recovery (6).
Side Effects of Kegel Exercises
Kegel exercises during pregnancy are safe. However, doing them incorrectly or beyond the limit can exert force on the muscles. This can tighten muscles, leading to pain. Further, strained muscles cannot perform their normal functions. Moreover, it’s essential to target the right muscles while performing Kegels. Targeting the wrong muscle groups may worsen the condition.
Addedly, Kegel exercises may lead to premature ejaculation in men when we compare their benefits for women. This is because they contract the prostrate, triggering the sympathetic system to initiate ejaculation.
Other side effects of overdoing Kegels include;
Increased Incontinence
Women may experience an increase in the urge to urinate more than normal. This may occur due to inappropriately toned muscles that result from overdoing Kegels. Moreover, overstrained muscles can cause difficulty during urination and fecal discharge.
Low Back Pain
Using pelvic floor muscles excessively may cause discomfort and pain in the hip and lower back.
Sexual Dysfunction
Hypertonic pelvic floor muscles may cause pain during intercourse or sexual dysfunction. Both in men and women, tight muscles can cause gynecological, sexual, and urological problems (7).
Who Should Avoid Kegel Exercises During Pregnancy?
Kegel exercises can be helpful during pregnancy and after childbirth. They can be useful to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles to ease delivery and tackle post-delivery symptoms like urinary incontinence. However, Kegels might not be appropriate for women with severe urine incontinence, where urine leaks when sneezing or coughing. Also, these exercises might not work in overflow incontinence, characterized by a small amount of urine discharge while urinating.
Kegel exercises will only help you. It has no side effects but of course, when you are pregnant, it is important that you discuss every change you make in your routine with your doctor and do it only with his permission. So, get started and prepare your body well.
Also Read: [12 Simple Exercises During Pregnancy For Every Trimester]
FAQs
1. Do Kegels Prepare For Labor?
The muscles in your pelvic floor are strengthened by doing Kegel exercises. It’s a great method to give your body a head start on labor and postpartum care. You may consider should start doinging them when as soon as you find out you’re pregnant and keep up with them every day until you give birth.
2. How Many Kegels Should I Do A Day During Pregnancy?
Your pelvic floor will be toned and healthy if you work on it every now and then, day or night. Plan to do Kegels for a few minutes about two or three times a day while you are pregnant.
3. Who Should Not Do Kegels?
If you have pain in your stomach or back after doing Kegel exercises, it means you’re not doing them right and you shouldn’t keep doing them. Also, if a woman has a pelvic floor that is too active, doing Kegels will probably make her symptoms worse or make her more likely to get symptoms if she doesn’t already have them.
Refrences
- Kegel Exercises
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555898/ - EFFECTS OF PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLE TRAINING DURING PREGNANCY
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1807593222030885 - Prenatal and Postpartum Experience, Knowledge and Engagement with Kegels: A Longitudinal, Prospective, Multisite Study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336225/ - Kegel Exercise Training Program among Women with Urinary Incontinence
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9777910/ - Chapter 9 – Evidence-based physical therapy for pelvic floor dysfunctions affecting both women and men
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780702044434000091 - Effects of Prenatal Perineal Massage and Kegel Exercises on the Integrity of Postnatal Perine
https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=55995 - “The Overactive Pelvic Floor (OPF) and Sexual Dysfunction” Part 1: Pathophysiology of OPF and Its Impact on the Sexual Response
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32238325/
