Kegel Exercises for Overactive Bladder
Pelvic muscle rehabilitation to improve pelvic muscle tone and prevent leakage
Kegel exercises: Regular, daily exercising of pelvic muscles can improve, and even prevent, urinary incontinence.
- This is particularly helpful for younger women.
- These exercises should be performed 30-80 times daily for at least eight weeks.
- These exercises are thought to strengthen the muscles of the pelvis and urethra, which can support the opening to the bladder to prevent incontinence.
- Their success depends on practicing the proper technique and the recommended frequency.
What are Kegel exercises for men?
Kegel or pelvic muscle exercises are discrete exercises that strengthen the perineal or pubococcygeus muscles. In the past, they have been largely promoted by physicians to their female patients in an effort to aid with stress incontinence following childbirth. However, these same exercises are now being promoted to men in an effort to improve urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and even sexual health. Unlike typical exercise routines, these exercises don’t require the participant to buy any weights or expensive machines.
What are the benefits of Kegel exercises for men?
Kegel exercises primarily aid men with urinary incontinence. Besides preventing embarrassing urine leakage, they also decrease the urge to void. Secondly, they have been shown to help male sexual health by allowing some men’s erections to last longer when affected by sexual dysfunction and premature ejaculation. These benefits all equate to a better quality of life.
These exercises are often recommended to patients with weakened pelvic floor muscles such as patients with diabetes, patients having had a prostate surgery in the past such as a radical prostatectomy
, or obese
patients. It should also be mentioned that these exercises have not been scientifically proven to increase penis size and are thus not recommended solely for this purpose.
Kegel exercises are harmless if performed correctly. Chest and abdominal pain have been reported in some, but these occurrences are the result of inappropriately performed exercises.
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 8/23/2016