"Yes yes, I know I know. I’ll do my pelvic floor exercises, I will. Tomorrow I’ll start and I’ll do them every day…" Sound familiar?
It’s great to have good intentions, but it’s really hard to manifest that into something that works in your daily life. The easiest way to make a new habit is to link it to another part of your daily routine that already exists. So maybe, brushing your teeth, perusing the fridge, boiling the kettle or just before you go to bed. Make something that reminds you to do them – it doesn’t have to be a big flashing sign saying ‘DO YOUR PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES!’, it just needs to be a little visual cue such as a sticky heart or a star.
Leaking is unfortunately very common amongst women due to hormonal fluctuations, pregnancy, birth, menopause, but it is not ‘normal’ functioning of the body. It is a muscle that can be trained just like any other muscle in the body. And remember - even if you don’t have kids, you still need to do them!
We work on the pelvic floor in all our classes - it's so important throughout each stage of our lives.
Start small, try 10 squeezes and releases at one or more time point that you’ve set. It won’t take any time at all and before you know it you’ll be doing it without grumbling about it before hand. Once you feel like it’s achievable, add in a 10 second hold (don’t forget to keep breathing).
There are so many awesome visualisations for doing your pelvic floor exercises:
- holding in wind
- picking up a blueberry
- imagining a clock face and bringing 12 (pubic bone) and 6 (tail bone) together and then lifting up 3 and 9
- elevator going up and down (you can also stop at each floor)
Got a good one? Let me know below in comments!
Need an extra reminder? Try the NHS Squeezy App on your phone. You can set times to remind you as well as squeeze along with the app.
I could literally chat about this all day. It’s rare that I meet up with any fellow women’s health teachers and the pelvic floor doesn’t come up! Go on, do a set now!
