What Are Kegel Exercises and Why Are They Important?

Kegel exercises strengthen the vaginal muscles, allowing the muscles and organs to function better during urination and bowel movements. These exercises also offer many benefits during pregnancy, facilitating normal delivery, shortening the duration of labor, and reducing the risk of tearing during childbirth. Women who experience urinary incontinence can easily perform these important exercises at home.

How to Perform Kegel Exercises

There is a lot of misinformation about how to do Kegel exercises. For example, these exercises should never be done with a full bladder. First, you need to empty your bladder. The exercises should be done regularly to learn which muscles to contract during the exercise, and this is crucial to reap the benefits.

You can easily strengthen your pelvic floor muscles by doing Kegel exercises 15 to 20 times a day. It is important not to do fewer than 15 repetitions. Otherwise, the effectiveness of the exercises may decrease, and you may have to wait longer to see the benefits. The exercise is performed by tightening the muscles and holding for 6 seconds before releasing. The muscles that need to be contracted are the pelvic floor muscles, and you need to make sure that the urethra and anus are also contracted during the contraction.

If these areas are not contracted when you contract your muscles during Kegel exercises, you may be contracting the wrong muscles. However, if these areas are also contracted, you have learned which muscles to contract. By the way, you can do the exercise at home, outside, or anywhere you want, and you can complete 15 repetitions a day wherever you want, taking advantage of the fact that it is not noticeable from the outside. You don't have to be in the bathroom to do the exercise. We should also mention that doing more than 20 repetitions is not recommended. Doing too many exercises can cause some malfunctions in the muscles and organs.

What are the benefits of Kegel exercises?

They strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which play an important role in the vagina.

They help strengthen the bladder and hip muscles.

Performing them during pregnancy helps make childbirth easier and faster.

They reduce pain after normal childbirth.

They reduce vaginal tightness that occurs after menopause in women.

They help women achieve sexual pleasure more easily.

How Long Does It Take for Kegel Exercises to Show Results?

One of the questions that influences patients' decision to start the exercises is when they will feel the benefits of Kegel exercises. However, the answer to this question may vary from patient to patient. Factors such as the condition of the muscles, whether the exercises are performed regularly, and whether the correct muscles are being contracted during the exercises also affect when you will begin to feel the benefits. However, in general, we can say that people who perform Kegel exercises begin to notice benefits after 15 to 20 days. In patients with a high level of muscle relaxation, this period can extend to 30 to 40 days.