Pelvic Floor Exercises - For Women

For Women

1. Sit comfortably with your knees slightly apart. Now imagine that you are trying to stop yourself passing wind from the bowel. To do this you must squeeze the muscles around the back passage. Try squeezing and lifting that muscle as if you really do have wind. You should be able to feel the muscle move. Your buttocks and legs should not move at all. You should be aware of the skin around the back passage tightening and being pulled up and away from your chair. Really try to feel this squeezing and lifting.
2. Now imagine you are sitting on the toilet passing urine. Picture yourself trying to stop the stream of urine. You should be using the same group of muscles that you used before, but don’t be surprised if you find this harder. (Do not try to stop the stream when you are actually passing water as this may - if repeated - cause problems with correct emptying).
3. Now try to tighten the muscles around your back passage, vagina and front passage and lift up inside as if trying to stop passing wind and urine at the same time. It is very easy to bring other incorrect muscles into play, so try to isolate your pelvic floor as much as possible by not squeezing your legs together, not tightening your buttocks and not holding your breath. The lower tummy can very gently be drawn in as if pulling away from the zip of tight trousers. In this way most of the effort should be coming from the pelvic floor muscles.

Now you can find your pelvic floor muscles, here are the exercises to do:

1. Your pelvic floor muscles need to have stamina. So sit, stand or lie with your knees slightly apart. Slowly tighten and pull up the pelvic floor muscles as hard as you can. Try lifting and squeezing them as long as you can. Rest for 4 seconds and then repeat the contraction. Build up your strength until you can do 10 slow contractions at a time, holding them for 10 seconds each with rests of 4 seconds in between.
2. Your pelvic floor muscles also need to react quickly to sudden stresses from coughing, laughing or exercise that puts pressure on the bladder. So practise some quick contractions, drawing in the pelvic floor and holding it for just one second before relaxing. Try to achieve a strong muscle tightening with up to ten quick contractions in succession.

Aim to do a set of slow contractions (exercise 1) followed by a set of quick contractions (exercise 2) 3-4 times each day.

It takes time for exercise to make muscles stronger. You are unlikely to notice any improvement for several weeks (if not longer)- so stick at it! You will need to exercise regularly for at least 3 months before the muscles gain the full strength that is possible for you.

(Bladder and Bowel Community)

Download Pelvic Floor Exercises for Women Exercise Sheet in the download list here: https://www.bladderandbowel.org/downloads/

[add pelvic floor exercises to my plan]

You may find it helpful to watch the two following videos by an Australian Physiotherapist Michelle Kenway who explains more about the pelvic floor, demonstrates how to find and activate your pelvic floor.  All activities in these films are in sitting or lying.

Pelvic floor exercises 1

[add pelvic floor exercises to my plan]

Pelvic floor exercises 2

[add pelvic floor exercises to my plan]