Do You Know How to Kegel?

Pelvic Floor

Do you know how to kegel?  Are you sure?  Did you know that a kegel is more than just a squeeze? 

A kegel, my friends, is 50% squeeze (like you’re trying to constrict a straw) and 50% lift (upwards, towards your bellybutton).

Yes, men can do this too…

All 4 walls of your pelvic floor should move.  It’s not just a lifting of the bottom wall of the pelvic floor.  The side walls should squeeze in, the top should “nod” downward and the bottom should rise up.  Like you’re cinching a bag shut.  That’s the squeeze.  It’s more superficial and so important to maintaining continence.  It’s usually the part that’s missing from most of my incontinent patients.

The lift comes from deeper in.  It’s a literal movement of the pelvic floor.  It’s the complete opposite of bearing down, which is a widening and elongation of the pelvic floor musculature.  If you’re a woman and you have a tampon applicator inserted in your vagina and you do the lift component of your kegel, you should literally see it move upward (downward would indicate that you’re bearing down instead of lifting up).

Normal mechanics of the pelvic floor dictate that continent people squeeze first and lift second.  When we lift first (or only), we tend to have problems with continence.  For women, the vaginal component comes first (squeeze then lift) and at the end of a very strong kegel, you should feel your rectum also squeeze and lift. 

Glutes (butt muscles) and adductors (groin muscles) have no bearing on your kegel.  Those are accessory muscles that should not be used unless there are larger issues at hand. Sigh

Another post, another time.