Pelvic Floor Therapy: Worth Trying and Sticking With

Pelvic floor exercises, or pelvic floor therapy, is a form of physical therapy that strengthens and improves the functions of one’s pelvic muscles. This type of therapy is most commonly used to treat stress urinary incontinence, and uses exercise as a way to strengthen the muscles associated with leakage. Some of the exercises that are used in this form of therapy include kegels, squats, and the bridge, which all revolve around flexing and unflexing pelvic muscles to strengthen them. 

There are many reasons why someone would consider pelvic floor therapy, but urinary incontinence and bladder problems are the main reasons why people opt for it. Urinary incontinence can be caused by many different factors, including pregnancy, childbirth, pelvic organ prolapse, surgeries for issues such as prostate cancer, and more. Both men and women who are affected by these issues can take advantage of pelvic floor therapy to help control their associated symptoms.

Many individuals who have bladder problems won’t seek professional help for it, and may not know the power that pelvic floor exercises can have on symptoms. Although many people expect to see results immediately, this kind of therapy needs to be done over time to experience the best results. Consistency is key when it comes to this kind of therapy. The muscles that control urine leakage are already weak due to underlying conditions, and so they’ll need time to start gaining strength again.

To get started, it is recommended that you visit a physiotherapist and in particular a pelvic floor physiotherapist who can help build a personal pelvic floor therapy plan, catered to you and the medical issues that you’re dealing with. These professionals will ensure that you are doing the exercises correctly and monitor your pelvic strengthening progress. Alternatively, one can also start their own plan using simple exercises at home to start building the muscles back up again. As mentioned before, some of these simple exercises include kegels, squats, or the bridge. Kegels are done when one contracts and relaxes their pelvic floor muscles (like trying not to pass gas), squats are when one bends their knees and pushes their hips/buttocks back as if sitting on a chair, and the bridge is when you lay on the ground pushing your hips and legs off the ground repeatedly.