Are You Looking After Yours?
Healthy pelvic floor muscles are so important for bladder control, bowel control, preventing prolapse, and sexual function, so it makes good sense to look after them. Have you been looking after yours? Here’s our 5 top tips for a healthy pelvic floor. Prevention really is better than a cure.
1. Technique Is Everything
Did you know that 50% of women and 30% of men don’t know how to correctly contract their pelvic floor muscles? And what is even scarier, is that lots of people actually use a technique that could make their problem worse! Making sure you have the right technique is the key to getting good results from a pelvic floor exercise program.
2. Relax & Let Go
Most people assume all pelvic floor problems are due to muscle weakness. However, some people have pelvic floor muscles that are too tense. This can lead to problems with emptying your bladder and bowels, bladder irritation, and pelvic and sexual pain. It’s important for a healthy pelvic floor to be able to both contract and relax fully. Make sure you focus on letting go at the end of each contraction.
3. Just Do It!
The biggest barrier to pelvic floor exercises is remembering to do them! Research tells us that this is the MOST IMPORTANT factor for getting results. The right time to do them will be different for everybody, so you need to think about what will work for you. There are some great Apps which can help remind you do to your exercises. Two we recommend are ‘Kegel Trainer’ and ‘Squeezy’ (‘Squeezy’ has a different version for women and for men). Once pelvic floor exercises are a part of your daily routine they will become second nature, just like brushing your teeth.
4. Train Your Brain
It’s not enough to do pelvic floor exercises and then forget about your pelvic floor for the rest of the day. It’s also important to train your brain to switch on these muscles when you need them. So don’t forget to tighten the pelvic floor when you lift, cough, laugh, sneeze or urgently need to pee.
5. Take The Pressure Off
Some day-to-day activities can place strain on your pelvic floor. These include constipation and straining to empty your bowels, heavy lifting, a chronic cough, lots of high impact exercise and being overweight. Keeping your bowels regular with a diet high in fibre and fluid, getting help for a persistent cough, minimising heavy lifting, choosing appropriate exercise and maintaining a healthy weight will all help you get the best out of your pelvic floor muscles.
Looking after your pelvic floor will improve or prevent bladder and bowel control problems and prolapse, and make intimacy more enjoyable. Even if you don’t have symptoms now, a healthy pelvic floor will help guard against the normal effects of aging and its effect on your pelvic floor muscles.
Most of us know that doing pelvic floor exercises is important, however we’re all busy and time poor. Doing preventative exercises is probably the last thing you want to think about. Hopefully we’ve now changed your mind and you’ll fit these into your day. Take the time – you’ll be pleased you did!
November 2018
If you need help getting your pelvic floor back on track, call us on 03 8823 8300 to make an appointment with one of our specially trained Physiotherapists
