Many of us who went through childbirth classes way back when remember doing Kegel exercises as a way to keep the pelvic floor strong. Those same exercises can help prevent accidents if you have trouble making it to the bathroom in time.
Kegel exercises are usually not too hard to master and can be done any time, anywhere, with no one around you the wiser. As Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, of the National Women's Health Network notes, "It's a good thing to do during boring meetings." The main thing, as with any exercise, is to remember to do them regularly.
To isolate the pelvic muscles, you might begin by trying to stop the flow of urine as you're sitting on the toilet. If you're able to, then you're on the right track. Experts caution though that this is just a learning exercise. Don't routinely try to stop the flow of urine, or you may actually weaken your bladder.
Isolating just the pelvic floor muscles may seem tricky at first. In its tutorial on Kegels, the Mayo Clinic says to avoid also tightening your abdomen, thighs or buttocks muscles. It also suggests inserting "a finger inside your vagina and trying to squeeze the surrounding muscles. You should feel your vagina tighten and your pelvic floor move upward."
The National Kidney and Urologic Disease Clearinghouse has another tip: Imagine you are sitting on a marble and you try to "suck" the marble into your vagina. You can also download a log from the NKUDC site to help you remember to do the exercises.
Once you've got the hang of it, practice tightening the pelvic muscles a few seconds at a time, and gradually build up until you're able to contract the muscles for 10 seconds. Dr. Fugh-Berman suggests doing a few dozen Kegels, some quick, some slow, a few times during the day.
If you're having trouble mastering Kegels, biofeedback is an effective way to learn how to contract your pelvic muscles. With biofeedback, a probe is inserted in your vagina, and you can watch on a monitor to see when you are doing the exercise properly. Before long, you should be able to do Kegels without using biofeedback.
Small scale studies have shown that for some women, regularly doing Kegel exercises significantly improves their accidental loss of urine. One study of 50 women compared Kegels with surgery as a way to help with urinary incontinence. While surgery was superior, 42 percent of the women in the Kegel group (15 of 24) had such success that they declined to have surgery.
If you practice regularly, you should notice some improvement with urinary incontinence within a few weeks to a few months.