Building Pelvic Muscle

A useful guide on "Building Pelvic Muscle".

The pelvic muscle is a muscular partition with a cavity above and the perineum below. In females, the weakening of these muscles leads to urinary incontinence and uterine prolapse. The pelvic floor, as it is commonly referred, is made up of levator muscles (muscles which act by raising a part), coccygeus muscle, which is situated behind the levator muscles and other tissue.

Important Functions

The pelvic floor has several functions. It supports some body organs such as the bladder and the intestines. In females, it supports the uterus and controls continence of the urinary and anal sphincters. It also facilitates birth by stopping the descent of the uterus. This results in the foetus rotating forward and through the pelvic girdle.

Some of the largest muscles in the body extend to the pelvis. These muscles are easily affected as any effect in any of them results in all of them being affected. This is because they lie close to each other. Effects on the pelvis present themselves as non-specific lower back pain, fatigue, hamstring tightness and non-specific knee pain.

The Kegel Exercise

Due to its importance, the pelvic muscles need to be strongly built to enable the pelvic to perform its functions effectively. The muscles can be built through several exercises. One of the most effective and popular exercises meant to build pelvic muscles is the pelvic muscle exercise, otherwise referred to as Kegel exercise. To effectively exercise the pelvic muscle, one needs to first identify the muscle and target it with exercises. Identifying the muscle is simple as this can be done by trying to pull in the rectum. This creates a feeling of the rectum being pulled inside which is performed by the pelvic muscle.

Kegel’s exercise basically consists of tightening and loosening of the muscles. This is done with the aim of being able to control the tightening and loosening process. The exercise is done by tightening the muscle and holding it in the tightened position for some time then loosening. Each tightening and loosening time should be increased gradually to several seconds. While other exercises require preparation and time to undertake, pelvic muscle building exercise can be undertaken at anytime and anywhere. It can be done while sitting, standing or while lying down. However, for effective building pelvic muscles, it is advisable to vary the exercise from sitting to standing and lying down.

Start – Stop

Another method which has gained popularity in strengthening the pelvic muscle is that of the stop-start workout. When urinating, it is required to stop the process, and then continue urinating and stopping again. By repeating this process a number of times while urinating, it is possible to make the pelvic muscle stronger. This may be difficult at first and is especially helpful to people with weak bladders.

To achieve fast built pelvic muscles, it is important to only focus on the muscles during the exercise. Other muscles such as thigh and abdomen muscles should not be involved at all. Breathing also has an effect on any type of exercise one undertakes; in this instance just breathe normally while performing these exercises.