FAQs

Yes, you can. It is useful to exercise your pelvic floor muscles in a variety of positions because you use them when you stand, walk, sit or lie down.

They are often easier to do when lying down or in a sitting position so it may be best to choose these positions until you are confident with the exercises.

You can but if you do too many the muscles may get tired and may feel sore. If the muscles are tired when you do something strenuous, such as heavy lifting, they may not work so well. You may find that this makes your leakage worse for a while.

It is recommended that you do your exercises at least three times a day if you have symptoms and most women are advised to exercise at least once a day to help keep the muscles strong.

Yes, but it is best to complete each type of exercise (e.g. slow exercises, or quick exercises) in one go.

You could do all your slow squeezes, take that urgent phone call, and go back to do your quick squeezes. Squeezy will track this, and still count it as a complete session.

You can – but it is better not to if at all possible as you may find that some of your symptoms, such as leaking urine when you cough, return after a while.

If you do take a break or forget your exercises for a while, start them again as soon as possible and this will help to strengthen the muscles again.

We strongly recommend that you give your pelvic floor muscles your complete attention when you are doing the exercises.

It is important to do them correctly, and it is hard to do that if you are multi-tasking. Pelvic floor health is often neglected, and your exercises should only take a few minutes each day!

When doing your slow and quick exercises you should try to squeeze and lift your pelvic floor muscles as strongly as possible.

It’s also really important to relax muscles completely between each squeeze.

The standard programme sets the speed of the fast squeezes at one squeeze per second. The professional mode allows you, or your clinician, to change the speed to make them slightly faster or slightly slower. 

The standard speed may seem too difficult for you, and if it does then you can adjust it via “professional mode” and the speed slider. 

One of the jobs that your pelvic floor needs to do is to respond automatically and rapidly when you apply a sudden, unexpected downward pressure on the bladder. This may happen when you run, cough, laugh or slip down a step.. and the fast squeezes are useful at retraining this.

If you feel discomfort or soreness in your pelvic area it may be because you’re over-doing your exercises.

Try reducing the number of exercises you are doing for a few days and then gradually build up your programme.

When you start to train your muscles they will improve quite quickly, especially if they were very weak. After a while the rate of improvement slows down and you have to work harder to continue improving. This is quite normal.

A Women’s Health Physiotherapist will be able to give you an accurate assessment of how strong your pelvic floor muscles are and what techniques you can use to train them further.

It is always better to be as fit and active as possible. Low impact exercise, such as Pilates or yoga, may be better to start with.

Ask your physiotherapist for further advice.

Find out where your nearest specialist women’s health or continence physiotherapist is based. You can ask a specialist physiotherapist to examine the muscles and check the way that you do your exercises.

Contact your physiotherapist if you have one. If you haven’t already seen a specialist physiotherapist it might be helpful to have an assessment (see next question).

It may also be helpful to discuss your problems with your GP.

Your GP may be able to tell you where your local specialist physiotherapist is based. Some specialist physiotherapists working in the NHS and all those working independently can accept self-referrals so you may not need to see your GP first.

For further advice on how to find a specialist physiotherapist you can contact the Pelvic Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy Charity (POGP) or Chartered Physiotherapists Promoting Continence (see the ‘further information’ section). Alternatively you can search for a local private physiotherapist via PHYSIO2U at www.csp.org.uk.

The following sources provide further information and support on your pelvic floor, bladder and bowel health for ante- and post-natal care:

• https://thepogp.co.uk
• https://www.nct.org.uk (for pregnancy and baby care)

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