Do the Kegel - the pelvic squeeze

Have fun remembering your pelvic floor exercises
with this catchy, cheeky, 'squeeze-along' song

Do the Kegel - exercise instructions for women

Regular Kegel exercises will strengthen your pelvic floor improving sexual response and orgasm quality and reducing the risk of incontinence or prolapse. Many of us have never particularly noticed our pelvic floor muscles so the first thing to do is to locate them! If you are confident that you can isolate the pelvic floor muscles correctly then we suggest that you establish your kegel-ability (or current level of pelvic fitness) and then head straight to the exercise routines.

First find your pelvic floor muscles

Before you can start exercising you need to actually find the muscles in question. The easiest way to do this by stopping your flow of urine next time you go to the toilet. The muscles you use to do this are your pelvic floor or pubococcygeus muscles. Another way to find them is to imagine that you are sitting on a marble and want to pick up the marble with your vagina. Imagine "sucking" the marble into your vagina! If this is the first time that you are exploring these muscles it may take a while to identify and isolate them. Take your time. It's worth it. Once you can identify the muscles then you are ready to to "Do the Kegel".

Kegel by squeezing "up" and "in"

"Find the muscles you'd locate
when you don't want to urinate
and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze"

Try not to squeeze your buttocks or abdomen. You are attempting to "draw in" and "lift up" the vaginal and rectal/anal sphincter muscles. Check out our video demonstration by Victoria Vulva. Some women will be very weak in this area and just doing this feel challenging. Don't worry - wherever you are is totally fine! Your capacity will only get better with practice.

Establish your current kegel-ability

Establish your current kegel-ability by squeezing the muscles as tight as you can for a couple of seconds and then relaxing. Keep going (if you can) and count how many kegels you can comfortably do in a row. This is your base level. You can use it to measure your progress if you like. If you only managed a few kegels then that is how many you should try to do each time you practice.

Now play the song and Kegel along

Once you have established your current kegel-ability, decide how many times you want to practice during the day. One is fine, three is great, more is fantastic! Each time you practice just select the song in your player and Kegel along to the chorus for as many Kegel's as you can manage. See our suggested exercise routines to use with the song. You'll soon find you are getting further. Once you can manage all the chorus you can start in on the verses.

Two types of Kegels

For optimal pelvic floor health you need to practice two types of kegel exercises. This is because there are actually two different types of muscle fibre in the pelvic floor.

Fast kegels(the ones we have been doing so far) improve how quickly your pelvic floor tightens when you cough or sneeze. They work on what's know as the Type II or fast twitch muscle fibers.

Slow kegel exercises will strengthen your muscles and improve the length of time you can consciously hold them. They build up and maintain the general level of muscle support in this area. Slow kegels help to avoid or reduce prolapse of any of the organs that the pelvic floor supports. Slow kegels are working on the Type I or slow twitch muscle fibers.

Slow Kegel exercises

To do a slow kegel, slowly and gently squeeze your pelvic floor. Hold it for a count of 5 seconds and then relax. When you can, increase the hold to 10 seconds. Don’t be tempted to squeeze too hard or you will be using the wrong muscle fibers. This exercise is about increasing endurance.

There is an opportunity for a slow kegel at the end of each chorus in the song, on the "squeeze, squeeze, squeeze". Try and hold until "and relax". You have to hold for longer on the second chorus!

More on the routines to use with the song.