Exercising the Pelvic Floor

Louise Renton outlines the importance of exercising the pelvic floor and explains how to do this effectively

As an experienced exercise instructor with specialist qualifications in ante and post natal exercise and modern pilates, I cannot emphasise strongly enough how important it is to pay attention to this little talked about area of our bodies. Until I had children, I don't think I even knew it existed. I teach it during ALL my classes regardless of sex (men have pelvic floors too!) It is vital that you start exercising your pelvic floors now - whatever stage you are at - and continue for the rest of your life. An enormous number of women suffer from stress incontinence as a direct result of pregnancy and childbirth - don't allow yourself to be one of them.

The pelvic floor is a sling of muscles forming the floor of the pelvis from the coccyx (tail bone) to the pubic bone. It is shaped like a figure of eight: the top part of the 8 contains the front two passages; the lower part of the 8 containing the back passage. It is there to support the abdominal contents, prevent leakage(!) and also plays a part during sex. A slack pelvic floor can lead to stress incontinence and lack of enjoyment for both partners when making love. These muscles undergo a great deal of extra strain during pregnancy and delivery and are also affected by the hormone relaxin. And therefore need to be exercised to maintain its strength.

How do you exercise the Pelvic Floor?

You can perform this exercise in ANY position, making sure that the legs are not pressed tightly together and that the rest of the body is relaxed - just concentrating on and isolating the pelvic floor:

· Tighten the muscles around the back passage
· Take this feeling forward to the front two passages and tighten as if you were bursting for a pee!
· Keep breathing throughout and hold the muscles tight for a count of 4
· Slowly release the muscles

Try looking at yourself in a mirror when you first start practising and check you are not screwing up your face with the effort - you should be able to perform the exercise without anyone else being aware of what you're doing!

Once you're accustomed to doing the exercise - trying varying the speed of the muscle contraction, doing some slowly to a count of 4 and some little bounces of the muscles - say 10 contractions in succession.

Vary the position you adopt when exercising your pelvic floor - you need to be able to control the muscles in all sorts of different situations.

How often should I be doing Pelvic Floors?

Ideally, you should be doing them between 50 and 100 times a day! I know it sounds an impossible target but it really is so important that you should attempt to fit them into your everyday life so they become second nature. So, build in some automatic reminders for yourself: each time you put the kettle on, open the fridge, answer the phone, change a nappy, clean your teeth, etc.

If you have a problem identifying whether or not you are doing it properly, every now and then check that you can stop the flow of urine. However, this should ONLY be used as a checkpoint for you - DO NOT use this as your exercise and DO NOT do it on your first wee of the day (your urine is very concentrated at that time) as stop/starting like this could cause a build-up of bacteria around the urethra and provoke a urine infection but it is an extremely useful sign to you that you are tightening the targeted muscles.

Louise Renton is a fitness specialist and runs classes in modern pilates, step, body conditioning and Ante and Postnatal exercise in Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells. Call her on 01892 863075