Pelvic Floor exercises anyone??

[Rommy'sMummy]

Hi All,

I am finding that my pelvic floor isnt all that it should be !

I am sure I should be doing some exercises to improve it and prepare for the extra pressure of third trimester and birthing.

What are you doing?

Is is supposed to be short and quick repetitions or longer and more sustained (I find I cant really hold the longer ones much).

Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks,

Rachel

[jackrose]

Hi Rommy'sMummy

I am going to cheat to answer your question as it is an important one and I want to give you a thorough answer (I don't have time to now!) I am going to cut and paste from a previous answer I have given before here, so please excuse me!

I second the advice to seek some assistance from a professional, but you really need to find someone who specialises in Pelvic floor exercises. They can be really tricky to get right when you begin to try to exercise them without an expert guiding you, but are really easy when you know how.

I have so often seen people who are doing the exercises incorrectly and very recently had a friend in this camp who doggedly performed her pelvic floor exercises for months in frustration when they have no effect, then after heading off to a professional for advice, re attempted the exercises and then was amazed at the difference it made and the quick solution to her pain and dysfuntion.

My advice would be to go back to basics. If you are using your butt cheeks etc when you do the exercise, you are most likely not only contracting your pelvic floor but also other abdominal and gluteal muscles. You really don't want to use these muscles when training the pelvic floor as they tend to take over and don't really allow you to properly train, you need to isolate the pelvic floor and its partner in crime the transverse abdominus (a really deep abdominal muscle) otherwise the bigger muscles take over.

The best thing to do is to contract the pelvic floor to a really subtle amount, without clenching your butt. I mean a really subtle amount, almost to the point where you don't feel as if you are doing it at all. This helps you to isolate the muscle from the others. Firstly, try to begin while lying on your back on the floor, knees bent with feet flat on the floor. Breath in and as you breath out, really slowly draw in your pelvic floor (concentrate on keeping your butt and everything else relaxed). Your stomach may draw in just a little, but it should more be like a contraction and tightening across the lower abdomen rather than a hollowing of the belly. Hold your muscle contraction breath in and then release the contraction slowly as you breath out again.

You wont need to draw the pelvic floor up much to have an effect, the more subtle the better as exercising this muscle is more about control rather than about brute strength. That is, it is all about internal contraction and control rather than strong contraction of the muscles you are aware of on the outside of the body. This is where most people make mistakes, they feel as if they are not doing the exercise properly if they cannot feel it and see it - but you really cant see the pelvic floor doing its thing.

You have to have faith in your ability at this point and consider that your wonderful brain is doing a lot of the work, contracting the right muscle at the right time. Once you can be sure you can contract the muscle, you can work on holding it for longer periods (ie another breath in and out before releasing) then work on doing it while doing other things during the day, sitting up, driving, walking around, exercising in other ways etc.

I hope that all makes sense and is what you are looking for!

In response to your own question:
It is better to start with short repetitions until you are sure you have the right muscle co-ordination going on and you are confident. Once you have this down pat, you can begin to hold each contraction for longer each time. The fact that you find that you cannot hold the contraction for a long time suggests that your muscle control needs a bit more work so definately go back to basics and work up to longer contractions.

Believe me, with pelvic floor, it is really important to get the control right rather than being able to hold a contraction for a big length of time.

[Rommy'sMummy]

Thank you SO much Jackrose. Thats a really comprehensive answer. I will get going on that tonight!

Rachel

[Taurean]

Hi Rommy (and to anyone else reading this!). I saw the physio for my back last night and she told me I'm not doing my pelvic floor exercises right as I'm using my abs too much (she specialises in pregnancy issues). She's going to do an ultrasound on me in the next couple of weeks to check my pelvic floor and show me how to do it right.

When we practice pelvic floor exercises in my aqua aerobic classes, we start by holding them for 5 seconds, then 10 then 15 seconds - only if we can do it.

Just had a look at Jackrose's response and that all sounds pretty good!!

[jackrose]

Taurean, you are really lucky to have such a fantastic physio! An ultrasound is the best way to both check if you are contracting your pelvic floor correctly and retrain the right muscles really easily. It is using biofeedback- you get to see in real time which muscle you are contracting. I have seen people go from no muscle control to excellent muscle control in 15 min using an ultrasound! It helps so much to "see".

Rommy'sMummy, my pleasure!
It is a real interest of mine. Something so simple, so important and one with such confusion surrounding it! I hope you have great success from here!