Advanced Care Program: Incontinence

Pelvic Floor Exercises

Bladder control problems are often caused by weak pelvic floor muscles. Exercises can be done to help strengthen those muscles and help you regain the ability to control your bladder.

Your pelvic floor muscles act like a hammock that supports your bladder and other internal organs. If this muscle is weakened due to surgery, childbirth, or aging, you are more likely to experience leakage of urine as the bladder loses its support structure. Rehabilitating this muscle will help prevent urine loss.

Pelvic floor exercises, also known as Kegel exercises, can help strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. These exercises need to be done several times a day for a period of 6 to 8 weeks before you will notice some improvement.

To start pelvic floor exercises you will need to find the right muscles to exercise. You can identify these muscles by:

• Try to stop the flow of urine when you are sitting on the toilet. If you can do it, you are using the right muscles.
• Squeeze the muscles you would use if you were trying to stop passing gas. You are using the right muscles if you feel a pulling feeling.

There are two types of exercises that you can do to help improve bladder control:
1. Slowly tighten, lift, and draw in the pelvic muscle and hold to the count of five.
2. Quickly tighten and lift up the pelvic floor muscle then let go.

When doing these exercises, be sure that you are not tightening your stomach, legs, or other muscles. Just squeeze the pelvic muscles. Remember, these exercises take some time to be effective. You must do them several times during the day on a regular basis. Over time you should see an improvement in your ability to control your bladder.

If you experience difficulty with these exercises, or they fail to improve your incontinence, see your healthcare professional. There are other options to treat your incontinence, including electrical stimulation of the pelvic floor muscle.

More Incontinence Topics

Types of Incontinence
Diet & Bladder Control
Treatments for Incontinence
Medications & Bladder Control
Pelvic Floor Exercises
Pelvic Floor Stimulation
Behavioral Training