Surely you’ve heard your friends talk about “doing their kegels.” Why, we’re doing ours right now! Kegel exercises strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which support the uterus, bladder, small intestine + rectum. You can do kegels whenever + wherever you want – on the subway, in the car, watching tv. No one has to know! The exercise was named for Arnold Kegel, an American gynecologist who invented the kegel workout as a non-surgical treatment for urinary stress, incontinence + genital prolapse. Because childbirth wreaks havoc on your pelvic floor muscles, you will no doubt benefit from doing kegels, especially if you’re known to leak a few drops of pee while sneezing, laughing, doing jumping jacks or just existing in general. Here’s how:
- Locate the muscle: To figure out where your pelvic floor muscles are, stop peeing midstream. Do you feel that muscle responsible for stopping your flow? Meet your kegels.
- Squeeeeeze: Pretend you’ve got a marble, jade egg, whatever up there and you need to transport it somewhere (just go with us), squeeze that muscle for three seconds and release for three seconds.
- Focus: Keep flexing + releasing that muscle (and not your abs, butt or anything else) in sets of three at 10-15 reps per set. Remember to breathe and have fun!
