The kegel exercises for pregnant women are also known as the wonder exercise of pregnancy. These are exercises that all women should know how to do, pregnant or not.
Although you may be sick of people telling you to exercise during pregnancy, these are really easy exercises to do.
Some pain but a lot to gain
Just as you may have thought, the exercises have been named after the person who invented them, Arthur Kegel. He suggested the exercises to the female patients during the 1940s.
The main focuses of the exercises are the pelvic muscles and they help strengthen the bladder, urethra, rectum and uterus.
It may be good to know regarding the pregnant women’s kegel exercises that they can be practiced both by women and men, but men do not use the advantages that the exercises offer during childbirth.
Women should practice the exercises to have strong pelvic muscles that make childbirth easier.
The good thing about the kegel exercises for pregnant women is that they make pushing easier and they also decrease the risks of tearing during childbirth.
In the postpartum period it may be good to go on with the exercises to support the healing of an episiotomy.
On the other hand the pregnant women’s kegel exercises can also be done to prevent incontinence in the postpartum period and to tone the vaginal muscles that have been stretched by pregnancy. This way your sexual life could also improve considerably.
Advantages
There is a lot that the kegel exercises for pregnant women could do for you, such as preventing incontinence at later stages, making the orgasms better, reducing the chances of being affected by hemorrhoids and in case of men the exercises also help with erections, increasing the blood flow.
Mastering the exercises
You will be pleased to hear that the instructions of the pregnant women’s kegel exercises are quite simple. All you have to do is to contract the muscles as if you tried to stop the urine flow. Hold the contraction for about 3 seconds and then slowly relax the muscle.
When you start with the kegel exercises for pregnant women you should do 3-4 sets of 25 reps a few times during the day. As the muscles get stronger, try to increase the time period that you hold the contraction for until you reach the limit of 10 seconds.
It is important not to squeeze the abdominals and the buttocks when doing pregnant women’s kegel exercises because you don’t need these muscles for this exercise. As you improve your technique, you will be able to focus only on the muscles you are working with.
To make the muscles work harder during the kegel exercises for pregnant women, you could try to change the contractions. Do a few exercises fast and then have a few others slower, alternating the speed of the exercises. This way the whole thing becomes more effective.
Anywhere, anytime
It is possible that the biggest advantage of the pregnant women’s kegel exercises is that they can be done anytime and anywhere you want. It doesn’t matter if you are watching TV, driving your car or shopping at the grocery store. Make sure that you don’t forget about these muscles as soon as you give birth.
It may be a good idea regarding kegel exercises for pregnant women to make them an important part of your fitness routine and so you can enjoy the advantages all your life. You could also suggest them to your partner, so both of you will benefit from the effects that the exercise offers.
