Tone Up Your Body with Easy Pelvic Floor Exercises

For good all-round fitness you do need to make sure you are targeting all the muscle groups in your body. Too often the internal muscles are overlooked. Pelvic floor exercises can help you to tone those muscles that support your lower abdomen.

The Pelvic Muscles

The pelvic muscles work deep inside the body to support the digestive and reproductive systems. When these muscles grow weak it can significantly affect several key functions in the body.

• This can lead to problems such as low sexual function, incontinence and constipation.

• Weak pelvic muscles can also restrict the flow of blood around the pelvic region.

• This can lead to conditions such as piles and hernias as too much pressure can be put on certain areas of the intestines and blood vessels.

The great news is that you can easily start to tone weak pelvic muscles again. By doing some simple pelvic floor exercises you can strengthen these internal muscles and ensure they function properly.

Getting Started

Pelvic floor exercises are actually very easy. In fact you can do this almost anywhere as it just involves gentle internal squeezing. This means you can carry out regular pelvic floor exercises when you are sat at your desk or on the bus without anyone else knowing what you are doing.

• There is nothing fancy about pelvic floor exercises. Just a few simple squeeze and release exercises can really start to tone these muscles and get them back to fitness.

• The main problem people have with pelvic floor exercises is identifying the right muscle groups.

• There are several connecting muscles in the pelvic floor region.

• To get started simply sit down in a quiet place and concentrate on your pelvis region. Now imagine the muscles you use when you want to stop the flow when passing urine or prevent yourself from passing wind.

• Squeeze these muscles and then hold for 5 seconds. Repeat this 10 times if you can.

• This is a simple rep exercise that you can do almost anywhere. Make sure you stand, lie or sit still whilst you are doing pelvic floor exercises.

• This will help to concentrate and avoid exercising any other muscles by mistake.

Pelvic Floor Exercises and Pregnancy

Pelvic floor exercises are highly recommended for any woman planning or undergoing a pregnancy. The pelvic region will come under a lot of strain whilst you are carrying a baby. This will weaken the pelvic muscles and cause problems with incontinence and restricted blood flow.

You can safely carry out pelvic floor exercises whilst you are pregnant. This will also help you to strengthen your body in preparation for the challenges of childbirth. Studies have shown that woman that do regular pelvic floor exercises find labour easier and also recover more quickly after the birth.