How to do Pelvic Floor Exercises?

First - get a check with a pelvic health physiotherapist to properly understand how your pelvic floor is functioning, and what type of exercise is best for you. Not everyone has symptoms because the pelvic floor is ‘weak.’ Some may be experiencing problems because the muscles are overactive or ‘tight’ meaning that doing lots of strengthening exercises might just make it feel worse.

When you’re ready to go, it’s easiest to make a good connection by being in a relaxed position, try lying on your back with your knees bent. Start by practising breathing deeply! Full diaphragmatic breathing encourages the pelvic floor to release and relax, enabling you to then perform a full contraction. This is necessary to strengthen the muscles, but also the muscle must be able to do both to function well. 

As you exhale draw up from your back passage as if you are trying to stop yourself from passing wind. See if you can hold that contraction for about 10 seconds while you continue to breathe normally. It may take some training to be able to hold for that long, so if you need to start with shorter holds and work your way up. Try to repeat 10-15 times if you can.

Then try some quick squeezes, pulling up in the same way, then relaxing or releasing before you go again. Make sure you focus on letting go between each one. Aim for 10-15 repetitions.

Once you’ve got the hang of it you should aim to progress to practising in different positions, like being on all fours, sitting and eventually standing. It’s completely normal to feel that you lose some connection or power when you change position, but keep the faith that if you continue to practice this will improve. Remember that this is a reminder that the muscles need to be able to function in numerous positions, and if you’ve only ever practised your pelvic floor exercises while lying down this could be a reason why you are still experiencing some symptoms. Think about when you are having problems and aim to progress your exercises to match your dysfunction, it’s very rare I hear women complain of leaking or wetting themselves while lying down!

It’s recommended you perform these exercises 3 times a day to see a change.