How to Manually Measure Your "Squeeze"

Pelvic floor exercises are a vital part of your exercise routine. By keeping the pelvic floor strong, you can help to guarantee continence, a lesser risk of pelvic organ prolapse and greater intimacy between you and your partner.

Read on to learn how to measure the strength of your pelvic floor.

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What is a “Squeeze”?

A ‘Squeeze’, ‘Kegel’ or whatever you want to call it, is a pelvic floor contraction. You can perform this exercise by squeezing and lifting the pelvic floor muscles.

To do this, you must tighten the muscles around your anus and vagina and lift them upwards towards your navel. Have you done it? Congratulations – you now know how to ‘Squeeze and Lift’.

(Learn more about Kegel exercises here.)

But, it doesn’t stop there. Depending on how often you exercise your pelvic floor, your muscles could be in peak condition or a little worse for wear.

How Can You Measure the Strength of Your Pelvic Floor Exercise?

More often than not, a Kegel exercise is not performed correctly. Usually, this is due to the pelvic floor muscles being pushed down and strained rather than being pulled up and strengthened. So, how do you know if you’re doing them correctly?! There are a variety of ways to test the strength and effectiveness of our pelvic floor muscles, including:

• The Finger Test – For women, you can insert a couple of fingers into the vagina and squeeze the pelvic floor muscles. You should be able to feel a gentle squeeze on your fingers if you are contracting the muscles correctly. Your partner will also be able to feel this squeeze during penetrative sex!
• Kegel8 Vaginal Cones – These cones have a unique indicator tail which bobs downwards when you are correctly squeezing your pelvic floor muscles. Plus, they come in a variety of sizes to test, train and strengthen your pelvic floor.
• Kegel8 Biofeedback Trainer – To help measure your squeeze and determine whether it’s good or bad, you can use a biofeedback trainer. The digital display gives your real-time results as to whether you are squeezing the correct muscles and just how effectively you are squeezing them. It even measures the strength of your Kegel muscles with its unique Squeeze Scale – see if you can beat your score each week!

What Should You Do If You Cannot Contract Your Pelvic Floor Muscles?

If you can’t feel your pelvic floor muscles contracting, then there is a possibility that they are especially weak. 64% of GP’s, Consultants, and Healthcare Professionals recommend using an electronic pelvic toner as the first course of treatment for a weak pelvic floor.

The Kegel8 Ultra 20 Electronic Pelvic Toner uses neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) to exercise your pelvic floor muscles for you! Simply choose a physiotherapist-devised program, sit back, and relax – let Kegel8 do the hard work.

You can learn more about strengthening your pelvic floor muscles here.

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Let us know how you measure your “squeeze” on Twitter or in the comments below!

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Reviews for the Kegel8 Vaginal Cones

 

Jenny - I Would Recommend This to Other Women!

"Was recommended the Kegel8 Vaginal Cones by my Physio, and they have helped me isolate the correct muscles and made me much more aware of how my muscles work, and more importantly have stopped the leaks.

I have not worn a pad for 4 weeks now, which is amazing!”

 

Carol - Easy to Use!

"Bought the Kegel8 Vaginal Cones after seeing them on Embarrassing bodies and I knew I had to do something because pads are just not the answer. I have used them for a few days now and I have the 'knack'. It is not easy and I couldn't get the muscles to work at first, but now I have the technique I am loving it.

I am on with the middle cone so I feel I am making good progress (Im doing it twice a day) even tried the technique on Hubby - he loved it - most impressed.”

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