Can I Do Kegel Exercises Daily

[Liisa Komara]

Kegelexercises strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which support the uterus, bladder, small intestine and rectum. You can do Kegel exercises, also known as pelvic floor muscle training, just about anytime.

Kegel exercises are less helpful for women who have severe urine leakage when they sneeze, cough or laugh. Also, Kegel exercises aren't helpful for women who unexpectedly leak small amounts of urine due to a full bladder (overflow incontinence).

If you're having trouble doing Kegel exercises, don't be embarrassed to ask for help. Your doctor or other health care provider can give you important feedback so that you learn to isolate and exercise the correct muscles.

In some cases, vaginal weighted cones or biofeedback might help. To use a vaginal cone, you insert it into your vagina and use pelvic muscle contractions to hold it in place during your daily activities. During a biofeedback session, your doctor or other health care provider inserts a pressure sensor into your vagina or rectum. As you relax and contract your pelvic floor muscles, a monitor will measure and display your pelvic floor activity.

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Many people have trouble finding the right muscles. Your doctor, nurse, or pelvic floor therapist can let you know if you are doing the exercises correctly. They can examine you while you do the exercises to verify you are squeezing the right muscles. They can also recommend exercise aids, such as biofeedback, electrical stimulation, or special weights.

Be careful not to tighten your stomach, thighs, or other muscles. Squeezing the wrong muscles can put more pressure on your bladder, making it easier to leak urine. Try to squeeze only your pelvic floor muscles.

Every day, try to do the exercises in three positions: lying down, sitting, and standing. Using all three positions makes the muscles strongest. Keep a daily journal or exercise log to record each time you do the exercises.

Don't give up. It's just 5 minutes, three times a day. Like any exercise routine, it can take a little time to build up muscle strength and conditioning. You may not feel your bladder control improve until after 3 to 6 weeks.

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The following information is based on the general experiences of many prostate cancer patients. Your experience may be different. If you have any questions about what prostate cancer treatment services are covered by your health insurance, please contact your health care provider or health insurance provider. This education material was made possible by a grant from the California Department of Justice, Antitrust Law Section, from litigation settlement funds to benefit Californians diagnosed with cancer or their families.

When you have prostate cancer surgery or radiation therapy the muscles that help you control your urine flow may be weakened. When this happens you may have incontinence, which is when you leak or pass urine when you do not want to. This is a very common side effect or unwanted change of prostate cancer treatment. The good news is that there is a simple exercise, called a Kegel (Key-gul) exercise, you can do to help strengthen your muscles. This exercise will help you have more control over your urine flow after your prostate cancer treatment. You will learn:

It is important for you to think about and plan how you will take care of yourself before and after your prostate cancer treatment so that you can keep doing as many of your normal activities as possible.

Kegel exercises are easy exercises you can do before and after your prostate cancer treatment to help strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. These muscles help control your urine flow. Kegel exercises are one of the most effective ways of controlling incontinence without medication or surgery.

The prostate is a gland, about the size of a walnut, located under the bladder surrounding the upper part of the urethra. The urethra is a tube that carries urine through the penis to the outside of the body. There are many muscles that surround the prostate gland. These muscles may be weakened during your prostate cancer treatment, which may cause you to have urine leakage (also known as incontinence). Building up the strength in your pelvic floor muscles can help you gain better control of your bladder and urine flow. Remember, that just as it takes time to build your biceps and strengthen any other muscle in your body, it takes time to strengthen muscles in your pelvic floor.

In order to help strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, it is important that you take time to make sure you are exercising the right muscles. It may take you several tries to find your pelvic muscles. So, take your time.

When you first start doing your Kegel exercises, you may not be able to repeat the exercise 10 to 20 times. This is ok. It is much better for you to do fewer Kegel exercises that make your pelvic floor muscles stronger, than to do more exercises that do not work the muscle in the right way. As you get better at doing your Kegel exercises, slowly increase the number of times you repeat the exercise until you reach 20. Your goal should be to do 20 Kegel exercise three to four times each day.

It can take six weeks or longer to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles so it is best to start doing your Kegel exercises before you have prostate cancer treatment. This will help you become better at doing the Kegel exercises and strengthen your pelvic floor muscles before your treatment starts. Remember, your pelvic floor muscles are like any other muscle in your body. It takes regular exercise and time to strengthen them.

Start doing your Kegel exercises according to the instructions above as soon as the catheter is taken out of your penis. After your catheter is removed you may experience some urine leakage (incontinence) when you stand up, cough, sneeze, laugh, or lift something. You will probably need to use incontinence pads for a while. However, doing Kegel exercises may help you control your urine flow sooner. If you have urine leakage when you stand up, cough, sneeze, laugh, or lift something, try doing a Kegel exercise. This may keep you from leaking urine.

Do not become discouraged if you have urine leakage. If you do your Kegel exercises on a daily basis, you can expect to see some results. You may have a great improvement, or you may help keep your urine leakage from getting worse. You will need to continue doing your Kegel exercises each day so that your pelvic floor muscles stay strong.

If you have any questions or concerns about urine leakage (incontinence), how to do Kegel exercises, or if you would like to know about other things that may help with urine leakage, please talk to your doctor or your health care team.

If you have any questions, please talk to your doctor or health care team. It is important for you to think about and plan how you will take care of yourself before and after your prostate cancer treatment. This knowledge will help you take better care of yourself and feel more in control so that you can get the most from your treatment.

There are lots of treatments to manage the pelvic floor weakness, including medication and surgeries. Kegel exercises are among the most popular therapies because people can implement them as a daily routine. Kegel exercises are usually custom-made. The number of contractions, duration of holding time, and sets vary across different participants. Currently, there is no fixed protocol for Kegel exercises, but the fundamental rules include: (1) to identify the appropriate muscles which stop or slow the urination, (2) to contract the muscles as mentioned earlier in a correct manner and (3) to repeat the cycle for several times. Many people may contract their hip adductor, abdomen, and gluteal muscles, instead of the pelvic floor muscles during the exercises. Furthermore, alternating fast and slow contractions serve as the key elements of the exercises (Figure 1).

During the fast contractions, the patients tighten and relax the pelvic muscles quickly. During the slow contractions, the patients hold the contracted muscles for a longer period and then relax. The fast contractions train the pelvic floor muscles to adapt to the increased intra-abdominal pressure during coughing and laughing. The slow contractions help with muscle strengthening. Kegel exercises can be used in combination with biofeedback and electrotherapy to improve the treatment effect. Specific devices such as perineometer, Kegelmaster, and vaginal cones are an option in conjunction with Kegel exercises for resistance training.

Several studies compared the effectiveness of supervised Kegel exercises with the unsupervised group. The group undergoing supervised Kegel exercises showed better outcomes of pelvic floor function, including improvement of quality of life, decreasing urine leakage, and higher satisfaction rate.[3][5] Moreover, some studies indicated that brief verbal instruction might not be adequate for beginners who were not familiar with Kegel exercises.[6] Performing Kegel exercises with adequate intensity and frequency is also an important factor for better outcomes. A study in 2006 showed that the treatment might be effective if the training programs last for more than three months.[7] Cavkaytar et al. recommended eight weeks as the minimum period to strengthen the pelvic muscles.[8]

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