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Kegel exercises are meant to make the pelvic floor muscles stronger. Use this article to know more about what kegel exercises are, the importance of kegel exercises, and how Kegel exercises are done.

Kegel exercises are exercises meant for women only. Women are encouraged to do kegel exercises if they experience incontinence and sexual problems. Men can also benefit from Kegel exercises because the muscles they are meant to strengthen in women are also present in women. According to Chao (2013), Kegel exercises for men are a great way to improve the overall health and hardness of the penis, along with increasing your ability to last longer in bed. Like women, Kegels for men have one primary goal — strengthening your pubococcygeus (PC), also known as the pelvic floor muscle.”

The muscles are known as pelvic floor muscles. The muscles support the bowels and the bladder and affect sexual functioning. The kegel exercises strengthen the pelvic muscles, which helps prevent urinary and fecal incontinence in both men and women, as Komisaruk et al. (2006) stated. It may help in improving orgasms too.

What Are Kegel Exercises?

Kegel exercises, which some people also refer to as, pelvic floor exercises, are meant to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. Kegel exercises are useful because they can stop both urinary and fecal incontinence. The exercises can also prevent the accidental passing of gas and poop, and the reason they are popular is they help improve sexual function. You can do Kegel exercises to manage prostate pain and swelling.

The following are the benefits of kegel exercises;

Kegels And Incontinence in Men

Urinary and fecal incontinence are usually underlying conditions of other diseases, and the main symptom is the inability to stop urinal or fecal leakage. Among men, factors that cause incontinence include age, obesity, prostate cancer, and neurological problems. Kegel exercises may help the man in controlling incontinence. It is recommended that men practice kegel exercises as a preventive measure.

Improving Sexual Functioning

Pelvic floor muscles can help improve your sexual functioning in many ways. Your erections will be better as the blood flow to the genitals. The kegel exercises will help delay ejaculations as you can control the pelvic muscles when you should, as Raveendran & Agarwal (2021) noted. You will also be able to enjoy orgasms.

Kegels And Erectile Dysfunction

kegel exercises are among the treatments doctors recommend and other treatment alternatives for erectile dysfunction (ED), as Rosenbaum (2007) revealed. The other treatments for ED may include counseling and therapy. Kegel exercises can be useful in managing ED.

As a Form of Exercise

Kegel can be great as any other exercise. You do not need to go to the gym or have a partner or equipment. Kegel exercises can be done anywhere, no matter the environment, and the upside of Kegels is that you will soon feel the effects of doing them. They are beneficial to you.

How To Do Kegel Exercises

Some people think that Kegel means that you should hold urine when you want to urinate, but that is one of the methods that you should avoid. You may have problems emptying your bladder if you withhold your urine. However, you can hold your urine if you want to find your pelvic muscles. Holding your urine once cannot hurt, but doing so frequently will worsen things. Doing the Kegel exercises by holding urine may weaken your pelvic floor muscles over time and even cause the kidneys and bladders to weaken. Kegel exercises done correctly will be useful but done incorrectly may cause you distress. Below are some hints you need to follow when doing Kegels;

• Empty your bowels. Kegels are not supposed to be done when the bowels are full.
• Tighten the pelvic floor muscles for 3 to 5 seconds
• Relax your muscles and count up to at least three seconds but not beyond 5 seconds.
• Repeat the routine three times every day.

How To Find The Muscles You Need To Work On

You can pretend that you want to urinate and then hold the urine to find the right muscles to tighten. The muscles you feel contracting when you control the bladder are the pelvic floor muscles. You may imagine that you are passing gas. You are doing it right if you can feel the muscles contracting.

While doing the exercises is hazy, you should relax your body, and you are not supposed to tighten any other part of your body besides the kegel pelvic floor muscles. You will see some positive results after 4 or 6 weeks. The symptoms will improve as long as you continue the kegel exercises. For long-term benefits, you should do Kegel exercises daily.

When To Do Kegel Exercises

You can do kegel exercises any time as it does not need any fixed time or place. There is nothing like too much kegel exercise if done well. You can include the exercises in your daily routine, for instance;

• When you are doing a daily task like brushing your teeth
• You can do them after urinating. Remember doing it when your bladder is full can cause organ problems and even cause infections such as UTIs. You may also be unable to empty your bladder in the future.
• You can do some kegel exercises when sitting, standing, or even sleeping.

What to do if you are having trouble doing kegel exercises

Seeking professional help to do the kegel exercises is better than doing the exercises wrongly because the impact that kegel exercises can have on you can harm your general health. You may watch online tutorials to find out the mistakes you could be making.

Conclusion

Being physically healthy is very important for our well-being because it affects every other health aspect of our body. The inability of the body to perform some of its functions, such as fecal or urinal incontinence, can be frustrating for most people. Sometimes exercise can reverse incontinence, especially pelvic floor exercises because they target the muscles responsible for controlling excretion. Like any other exercise, consistency and properly doing the exercise is important in achieving the goal. Kegel exercises are not only meant for people who have incontinence issues only. Anyone can Kegel exercises as a preventive measure. When the muscles are constantly kept tight, it is unlikely that they will weaken when the person gets ill.

References

Chao, J. K., Thomas, I., & Hwang, S. (2013). Contemporary Management Of Erectile Dysfunction. Urological Science, 24(2), 35-40.

Komisaruk, B. R., Beyer-Flores, C., & Whipple, B. (2006). The Science Of Orgasm. Johns

Hopkins University Press+ ORM.

Raveendran, A. V., & Agarwal, A. (2021). Premature Ejaculation-Current Concepts In The Management: A Narrative Review. International Journal Of Reproductive Biomedicine, 19(1), 5.

Rosenbaum, T. Y. (2007). REVIEWS: Pelvic Floor Involvement In Male And Female Sexual Dysfunction And The Role Of Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation In Treatment: A Literature Review. The Journal Of Sexual Medicine, 4(1), 4-13.