Exercises aimed to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles are frequently helpful in the treatment of incontinence. They are especially useful if you suffer urinary stress incontinence or if you leak faecal material when you cough or sneeze.

What is the pelvic floor?

The pelvic floor, as its name suggests, is the structure that extends across the bottom of the pelvis that holds the pelvic organs in place. The floor is composed of several different muscles that are arranged like a hammock passing from front to back. Some of these muscles form slings around the urethra and anal canal (the lowest part of the bowel) and in women, the vagina. Contraction of the muscle slings around the urethra and bowel contributes to urinary and faecal continency.

Why pelvic floor exercises?

If the muscles of the pelvic floor become weak or are damaged through injury or disease, they sag and do not provide adequate support for the pelvic organs. When this occurs, weakness of the slings around the urethra and the anal canal may give rise to urinary and faecal incontinence respectively. A logical approach to this problem is to carry out exercises specifically designed to strengthen these muscles.

What are pelvic muscle exercises?

Muscles get stronger when they work. Think of the biceps, the muscles in the upper arm which make the arm bend at the elbow. When body builders want to build these muscles, they do so by bending the elbow whilst holding weights in the hand. In other words they make the muscles work hard. The same is true for the pelvic muscles. They can be strengthened by making them work hard, that is by intermittently contracting and relaxing them. The first step in doing pelvic muscle exercises is identifying which muscles to work on. The two sets of muscles to focus on are those around the urethra and those around the anal canal.