Pregnancy

Kegel Exercises

Kegel Exercises are popularly known as Kegels, named after Dr. Arnold Kegel, a Obstetrician-Gynecologist who practiced in the Los Angeles area starting in the 1940s, world-renown for his famous Kegel Perineometer, a device used for measuring vaginal air pressure, but particularly by his exercises.

Kegels are pelvic floor exercises that literally squeeze the pubococcygeal muscles sometimes also called the "Kegel muscles", an idea originally suggested by Dr. Joshua Davies of New York City in 1932. Dr. Davies thought that exercising the pelvic floor muscles was the cure to urinary incontinence.

However, since ancient times, China developed sexual practices intended to strengthen and tone those muscles for sexual gratification, health, longevity, and spiritual well-being. In the 40s, Kegel adopted and adapted those ideas toward pregnancy exercising. Dr. Kegel became famous in 1947 after inventing the world's first biofeedback device.

Kegel also created the Kegel exercisers, which are medical devices, designed to be used by women in order to tonify the pelvic muscles, and similar to popular sexual toys, including also a Kegel vaginal exerciser.

Either way, Kegel exercises consist of the regular clenching and unclenching of pelvic muscles, which are beneficial for most pregnant women, causing no harm to the developing baby and facilitating labor and delivery. Kegels are aimed to restore your muscle tone strengthen the pubococcygeus muscles in order to prevent or reduce pelvic floor problems.

Conditioned muscles make birth easier, and it is more likely that your perineum will not require an episiotomy, leaving fewer tears and scars. Therefore, to start your basic routine of Kegel exercises, you simply need to localize the muscles that need workout and then simply tighten and relax such muscles over and over, for about 200 times a day.

As you can see, there is not much science involved in these famous exercises, although there are many variations of them. "Elevator Kegels" are exercises where you tighten slowly, in increments going in and out, simulating an elevator stopping continuously on several floors, holding your muscles tight for about 5 seconds,

The disadvantage of Kegel Exercises is that you cannot see the effects from the outside, like what occurs with other pregnancy exercises. The irrefutable advantage is that you will feel those benefits, starting with the urinary incontinence, often developed by pregnant women. The leakage of urine is caused by the weight of your baby on their bladder.

The function of pelvic muscles is to aid in controlling urination so if they are strengthened there is less probability that a leakage will happen. Another advantage is that you can practice Kegel Exercises wherever you go, sitting in your car, standing in line at the store, at your desk, or comfortably watching TV at home. The same as you cannot see the effects, others will never know you are doing them, and your doctor or midwife may help you identify the correct muscles.