When to start pelvic floor exercises pregnancy
Pelvic Floor Exercises For Pregnant Women
hey guys today we're gonna do a pelvic
floor exercise routine for women during
pregnancy so this is gonna help you
prepare for an easier birth as well as a
faster recovery after your birth and to
help prevent leaking after you've had
your baby if you're new here my name is
Jessica pombal I'm a pre and post natal
fitness instructor and the exercises
that we're gonna do now are exercises
that my pelvic floor physiotherapist
recommended that I incorporate into my
fitness classes and that really helped
me if you like videos like these then
consider subscribing and hitting the
notification bell to get notified every
week when I put out a new video however
I am NOT a pelvic floor physiotherapist
and they are amazing so if you're
struggling
I also recommend going and try and find
a pelvic floor video that can help you
depending on what trimester earring you
might want to go in a different position
so if you're in your first trimester
then sitting up either on a ball or a
chair it might be helpful if you're in
your second trimester it may be easier
to do them on your hands and knees and
if you're in your third trimester when
your belly is really big then laying on
your side may be a helpful position so
there are different cues that can be
helpful when doing Kegel or pelvic floor
exercise one of them that you hear most
commonly is to squeeze as if you're
stopping the flow of urine and then I
also like to think of lifting another
one is picturing a blueberry or a raisin
at the opening of your vagina and
sucking it up into your vagina and then
the third one is to picture a string
that goes from your belly button to the
opening of your vagina and then you're
looking to shorten that string so
whichever one of those cues is most
helpful for you my next video is going
to be how to do pelvic floor exercises
and then how to check that you're doing
them properly so if that video has
already come out I'm gonna link to it in
the cards above and in the description
box or you'll have to wait a couple of
days until that video comes out and if
there is a cue that helps you you can
also share that with in the comments
below and I'm sure other people would be
happy to know what is helping you as
well okay so the first one we're gonna
do is we're going to hold for up to 10
seconds so for the first one you're
gonna use whichever cue you want I'm
gonna use picking up the blueberry
because that's the one I connect with
the most and I'm gonna pick up my
blueberry and hold it and I'm going to
count how long I can hold it for so if
you can only hold till two or three or
four or five or wherever then that is
your your starting point and you're only
going to practice each of these holding
as long as you can before you get
fatigued and then you can build up to 10
seconds so we can let it go so now test
how long it is and then we're going to
do five of these exercises and take two
breaths in between just to make sure
that we're fully relaxed we want to keep
breathing relax your legs or relax your
buttocks and we're really just working
at the inner sides so if you're ready we
are going to pick up our blueberry or
whatever cue
and lift it up and we're gonna hold 10 9
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 and release fully
relaxed take a couple of breaths you can
even close your eyes and we'll do it
again I'll let you count on your own
however high you can go until you can't
hold it any more up to 10 and if you're
still holding release and close your
eyes fully relax take a couple of
breaths
and again Kegel and hold and release
take a couple of breaths and we'll do
this two more times
pick it up and hold strong hold and let
it go a couple of breaths and we'll do
our last one of that set and last one up
and hold the next exercise we're going
to work on our fast twitch or type 2
muscle fibers and this is going to help
protect against leaking when we sneeze
or laugh and so what we're gonna do is
we're gonna do as many as we can quickly
within 10 seconds so I will count out 10
seconds for you and I want you to see
how many quick kegels you can do in 10
seconds so fully relax let it go get in
a comfortable position and go
and that was ten seconds relax take a
breath and when you're ready go
and relax take a breath fully relax your
pelvic floor and get ready for your
third set and go and release
take a breath relax and get ready for
your fourth set and go
and relax and then we'll do one final
set relaxed fully and prepare and fast
as you can
go and release a great job the next one
we're going to do is a little bit harder
to feel and you may not feel a whole lot
at first but if you keep practicing then
you will get it and it's going to help
strengthen the anterior or the front of
your pelvic floor and so what you want
to visualize is actually taking the
opening of your vagina and sliding it
forward and then release sliding it
forward and fully relaxed sliding it
forward and release so you may feel it
but if you don't you may even feel more
like an energy keep practicing as you
keep practicing the other types of
kegels as well you will gain more
feeling to be able to do this forward
and release forward release we'll do a
couple more forward and release and
forward and release great job
so again if you haven't been doing
pelvic floor exercises regularly or even
if you have it can be hard to just
isolate and do a Kegel without
activating your back passage or your
anus but ideally we would get to a point
where we're only doing our Kegel and not
activating our anus and so while in the
previous ones we did you may have been
contracting it and that's okay because
you're still strengthening that muscle
we're gonna try now to do it even if
it's the smallest Kegel without
activating our back passage so it may be
again it may be the tiniest little Kegel
or it may be more of an energy but we're
gonna try and isolate it without
activating the back okay so if already
we'll do ten of the
and go
perfect and release all right we're
gonna do one more exercise that is in
preparation for labor and it is
involving the pelvic floor but it's
actually relaxing are we're gonna relax
where we're doing our Kegel but we're
going to activate our lower abdominal
dominus and you almost want to feel like
you're sucking it in at the same time as
you're relaxing your pelvic floor and
this is going to help with the pushing
phase of Labor so you can put your hands
on your lower belly and suck in your
lower belly at the same time it's fully
relaxing your pelvic floor and will hold
for five four three two one
and release take a breath relax
everything and prepare again five four
three two one and release breath and
again five four three two one release
and lower belly in five four three two
one release and we'll do one more once
you're fully relaxed and lower belly
engage the pelvic floor relaxed one two
three four five all right great job for
the full benefit ideally you do it about
three to six times per day and because
it's all internal you can just do it as
you go through our day you could be
driving can be brushing your teeth if
you tie it to an activity that you're
already doing that can help you remember
to do it and get into the habit you can
also just play it on your phone and
follow through with the audio cues if
you wanted to do this video again or in
the description box I'll also link to a
printout if you wanted to get the
printout if that you prefer that of
course I'll also link to
other free resources we have a complete
guide on how to cope and reduce pain
during birth as well as prenatal yoga
cards so I will link to those below if
you like videos like these then please
let me know by sharing it with a friend
giving it a thumbs up or leaving a
comment below to support me and get
updated every time I release a new video
you can subscribe to my channel by
clicking the round button there I'm also
gonna link up there when it comes out to
my next video which is how to to pelvic
floor exercises and how to do a
self-assessment to see that you're doing
properly and I will also link right
there to my prenatal yoga and fitness
playlist
