Strengthen your pelvic floor

Pelvic floor muscles help control urinating. Regularly doing pelvic floor exercises, can strengthen these muscles.

The pelvic floor muscles open and close the tube, known as the urethra, that carries urine from the bladder out of the body. These muscles also hold the bladder up during walking, standing, lifting and sneezing.

To strengthen pelvic floor muscles:

• Practice pelvic floor exercises, also known as Kegel exercises. Squeeze the pelvic floor muscles as though trying to stop the flow of urine for three seconds. Relax for a count of three and repeat several times. Do a set of these exercises three or four times a day. Do them lying down, sitting and standing.

  To be sure to do them right, ask your health care provider to guide you. Or ask to see a physical therapist who knows about pelvic floor exercises.

• Biofeedback. Biofeedback can help train pelvic floor muscles. Sensors placed near the muscles send information to a computer about how hard the muscles are working. The information shows on the computer screen.

  Seeing that you're using the right muscles might help you with Kegel exercises. Some biofeedback can be done at home.

• Vaginal weights. Cone-shaped weights are another option to help with Kegel exercises. You place a weight in your vagina. Then you tighten your pelvic floor muscles to keep the weight from falling out.

  Many cones come in sets of different weights. So you can build up to heavier weights as your pelvic floor muscles get stronger.