Vagina Olympics

FYI, this post is going to get a little spicy, so I’ll warn you beforehand.

If you get offended by the word vagina, then stop reading. Although, I feel like anyone who has a vagina shouldn’t get offended about this topic. Vagina isn’t a curse word, it’s literally just a part of the female body.

Over the past few months, I started taking prenatal yoga classes which lead me into learning about kegel exercises. During my pregnancy, I have learned so much about the female body, which prompted the need to share this topic with you!

Enjoy, braves ones…

Vagina Olympics.

THIS is what’s up today… (or down…whichever way you want to look at it) 🙂

Kegel exercises.

Kegels make your pelvic floor muscles stronger! These muscles control your urine flow and help hold your pelvic organs in place.

I have always heard about kegel exercises, but I wasn’t fully aware of their importance until recently.

Yep, your vagina can get a workout in too, and it’s a pretty damn important exercise!

Let me just go ahead and say that kegel exercises aren’t just for sex.

Actually doctors can prescribe kegel exercises for a number of reasons!

Below, WebMD will tell us the reasons why doctors may prescribes kegels:

1. Stress Incontinence. This means leaking urine when you laugh, cough, sneeze, jog, or lift something heavy.

2. Urge Incontinence. This is a need to urinate that is so strong you can’t reach the toilet in time.

3. Pelvic floor weakness due to childbirth. Childbirth can stretch and weaken pelvic floor muscles. And that can cause urine control problems. It can also allow one or more pelvic organs to sag. When the uterus sags, it’s called uterine prolapse. Women can help prevent this problem by doing daily Kegels during and after pregnancy.

See… told ya that kegels aren’t all about sex. (although who cares if they were? lol)

Pregnancy has brought up many new topics for me, one of them being the topic of this blog post.

When I started taking prenatal yoga classes, I was so happy to meet my instructor, Kris Blunt. She is so knowledgeable and talented in the art teaching prenatal yoga.

This blog post is actually a little teaser to a bigger program that’s in the works. I have a lifestyle program launching next year, and Kris is a part of the program where we take a special look into maternity wellness and yoga.

I could go on and on about how awesome she is, but today we are going to focus on the topic at hand (and a topic that she taught me all about)!

Kris taught us how to do kegel exercises in her class, and although it did make me giggle a little bit, I definitely learned their importance especially in the case of childbirth.

During pregnancy, everything downstairs starts to loosen up. Sometimes you’ll laugh and tinkle yourself, sometimes you’ll cry and tinkle yourself, sometimes you’ll just tinkle for no reason. After childbirth (although I’m not there yet, but I’ve heard) your vagina, having gone through hell and back, needs extra help to tone back up.

This is what kegel exercises do! Kegels help to tone your pelvic floor in preparation for childbirth, and they promote speedier healing after the birthing process. A toned muscle springs back into place faster than an untoned one…the same rule applies for the vagina – the vagina is a muscle!

So how do you do kegel exercises? WebMB says this:

1. Find the muscles you use to stop urinating.

2. Squeeze these muscles for 3 seconds. Then relax for 3 seconds. Your stomach and thigh muscles should not tighten when you do this.

3. Add 1 second each week until you are able to squeeze for 10 seconds each time.

4. Repeat this exercise 10 to 15 times per session. Try to do this at least 3 times a day.

5. Don’t do Kegels while you urinate. Doing them during urination can hurt your bladder.

Kegels work best when done on a regular schedule.

The cool thing is that you can do kegels anywhere at anytime without anyone ever knowing! You can have a great workout while waiting for your latte at Starbucks, while getting a mani, or have a mini workout sesh while you’re at church. Ha! Literally, no one will know!

Don’t EVER pass up a stellar opportunity to get a quick workout in!