4 Pelvic Floor Exercises to Try at Home

Maintaining a strong and healthy pelvic floor is essential for your overall well-being, yet it’s often overlooked in self-care routines.

The pelvic floor, a group of muscles that support the bladder, bowel, and uterus, plays a crucial role in core stability, continence, and sexual health. As such, by integrating pelvic floor exercises into your daily routine, you can make a significant difference to your body and mind.

In this article, we’ll talk through four simple, yet effective, pelvic floor exercises that you can try at home to strengthen these vital muscles. 

What are pelvic floor exercises?

Also known as Kegel exercises, pelvic floor exercises are designed to help strengthen your pelvic floor, a set of muscles and ligaments that support your bladder, uterus, and bowels.

Strengthening and tightening these muscles is important, as a weak pelvic floor can cause pain and discomfort when going about your daily routine. Examples of weak pelvic floor symptoms include:

• Leaking urine when laughing, coughing, or sneezing. 

• Urinating before making it to the toilet. 

• Straining with bowel movements.

• Lower back pain. 

• Pain in the pelvic area, genitals, and rectum.

• Painful urination. 

• Painful sex. 

• Bladder pain. 

While pelvic floor exercises can help alleviate some of the symptoms above, you should still see your GP if you’re experiencing them on a regular basis. For example, if you often experience painful sex or intense lower back pain, then it’s best to talk to your GP about potential causes.

How can pelvic floor exercises benefit me?

Improving your pelvic floor isn’t just about avoiding pain and discomfort; you can actually enjoy many other benefits with regular pelvic floor exercises.

For example, for those who’ve recently given birth, pelvic floor exercises can help tighten pelvic floor muscles that stretch and contract during labour. This can help prevent the likes of stress incontinence that occur after the baby is born, due to a weaker pelvic floor.

More generally, if you suffer from bladder incontinence, then pelvic floor exercises can help manage those seemingly uncontrollable symptoms. By strengthening the pelvic floor muscles in your bladder, you can help better control the flow of urine.

In terms of when to start thinking about pelvic floor exercises, it can be really beneficial to begin in your 20s – though there’s no time like the present. That’s because your pelvic floor naturally changes and weakens as you get older, with pelvic floor exercises helping to keep those muscles in top condition.

4 ways to do pelvic floor exercises

Before you begin any pelvic floor exercises, it’s important to first understand where your pelvic floor is located.

Don’t worry, this is a really straightforward exercise. All you need to do us sit in a comfortable position and picture yourself passing urine – except you want the flow to stop. Tighten the muscles that would allow you to stop the urine flowing, and you’ve found your pelvic floor muscles.

Often people might mistake their stomach muscles for their pelvic floor muscles. A good tip to remember is that you should not feel your stomach tightening when doing pelvic floor exercises, and your body should not visibly move.

With the right muscles safely located, you can start to explore the pelvic floor exercises that work for you.

1. Kegel exercises

Kegel exercises are the most common type of pelvic floor exercise, providing an easy way to help to tighten the pelvic floor muscles. You can sit, stand, or lie down while you do these, but always make sure you are comfortable before you begin:

• Start by squeezing your pelvic floor muscles and trying to hold them as long as you can - or for up to 10 seconds. Ensure you’re breathing properly and not tightening any other muscles alongside your pelvic floor.
• Once you have reached 10 seconds, or you feel you can’t hold them any longer, relax the pelvic floor muscles for 4 seconds.
• Now you’ve completed one Kegel exercise, you can repeat this up to 10 times a session. Aim to do 40 ‘Kegels’ a day to tighten the pelvic floor muscles quickly and safely.

One benefit of Kegel exercises is that they can be done anywhere. For example, try habit stacking your Kegels every time you brush your teeth to seamlessly add them into your daily routine.

2. Heel slides

Heel slides help strengthen your pelvic floor, as well as deeper muscles within your abdomen. This pelvic floor exercise involves a bit more movement than Kegel exercises, but they are still relatively easy to do:

• First lie down on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. It can be useful to lie on a yoga mat, so your back isn’t pressed against the hard floor.
• Place your hands loosely on your hips and breathe in, filling your lungs with air, before breathing out through your nose.
• Keep breathing steadily and tighten your core and pelvis, then gradually start sliding your left heel away from you, letting it go all the way out.
• Once your heel is stretched as far as it can go, start slowly binging it back in, before resting at the starting position.
• Repeat these steps for your other leg and aim to do between 10 and 12 heel slides a day to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.

3. Happy baby pose​

Up next, the happy baby pose, which is a pelvic floor exercise that stretches your muscles and helps release tension. Like with the heel slides exercise, you may want to use a yoga mat to make lying on the floor more comfortable:

• Lie down on your back and bend your knees, with the soles of your feet flat on the floor.
• Raise both knees to your belly, and then slowly bring your legs up until your soles are pointing to the ceiling.
• Once in this position, widen your knees, and bring them towards your armpits, before taking hold of your feet.
• Hold this position and allow your body to feel the stretch for as long as is comfortable for you, before gently lowering your legs.

4. Breathing techniques

Deep breathing techniques are not only a great self-soothing stress relief technique, but they are also an easy pelvic floor exercise you can do anywhere:

• Just get comfortable - you can do this pelvic floor exercise stood, seated, or even lying down.
• Rest one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. It may also be useful to close your eyes to better concentrate on your breathing.
• Start to breathe in through your nose, slowly. Do this for at least 3 seconds, letting your stomach and abdomen rise as you inhale, while your chest remains still.
• Hold your breath for a 3 seconds, before gently exhaling for 4 seconds or until you’ve fully released the breath. And as you exhale, let your stomach and abdomen slowly draw back in, again with your chest remaining still.
• Repeat these steps between five and eight in one session, and then feel free to do this pelvic floor exercise several more times throughout the day.

How else can I strengthen my pelvic floor?

Aside from pelvic floor exercises and breathing techniques, there are a few lifestyle changes you can make to keep your pelvic muscles strong.  

• Drink enough water: Staying on top of your daily water intake is essential for overall health, but it can also help strengthen your pelvic floor By drinking water, you ensure regular and healthy bowel movements, which helps protect your pelvic floor from additional strain, keeping it strong and healthy.

• Avoid irritants: Some foods and drinks can irritate your pelvic floor muscles and steering clear of these can help avoid damage. In terms of drinks, excessive caffeine can increase muscle tension and spasms, and drinking too much alcohol can increase urine and put extra strain on your pelvic floor. Spicy foods can cause a burning feeling to your bladder in the same way it does your mouth. To avoid these pelvic floor irritants, try following a healthy and balanced diet, and trading caffeinated drinks for decaf, herbal teas, or fruit juices.

• Avoid heavy lifting: Lifting heavy items causes your pelvic muscles to strain. However, if you are lifting heavy things like shopping bags or even your child, make sure to tighten your pelvic muscles as you lift, and hold until you place the heavy item down. This can help better protect your pelvic floor muscles as you lift.

  While tightening your pelvic floor muscles can be difficult after giving birth, the NHS recommends you try to do pelvic floor exercises as soon as possible to help strengthen those muscles again. However, only do what is comfortable for you, and speak to your postnatal care team about safe pelvic floor exercises to try after giving birth.

Now you know how to strengthen your pelvic floor at home with pelvic floor exercises, you may be on the lookout for other ways to stay fit and keep the rest of your body strong. To find out more about how to look after your body through every stage of life, head over to our women’s health hub.

Worried about symptoms of bladder incontinence or a weak pelvic floor and want to speak to a health care professional while you wait to see your GP? As a member of Benenden Health you can get access to healthcare services, including our 24/7 GP Helpline to book an appointment for a telephone or video consultation with a UK-based GP.

Medically reviewed by Cheryl Lythgoe in July 2024.