While many people may only be interested in the sexual benefits they can attain from wearing ben wa balls, there are just as many people that only use them for the health benefits they provide.
Most prominent among these are the benefits to the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles play an important role in our body, and keeping them in the best condition possible is something everyone should strive to do!
What are Kegel Exercises?
Kegel exercises are a very simple exercise. They are often the first exercise recommended to anyone with pelvic floor problems, but doctors commonly recommend that everyone should be performing them at least three times a day!
They exercise the entire pelvic floor, by contracting the muscles and pulling them inwards. By using the muscles in this way, it works them out similar to doing exercises for other parts of your body.
Most of the time, each individual kegel will be held in a clenched position before being lowered again. This is repeated around ten times for a set.
There is also a different kind of kegel exercise called a reverse kegel. These do the exact opposite of a standard kegel. Instead of pulling upwards and inwards, you gently push down and out, and hold the muscles in that position instead.
This variant of kegel exercise can stretch the muscles in a completely different way, and can be a great help to people who suffer from an overly tight pelvic floor.
What are Pelvic Floor Muscles?
The pelvic floor muscles are a very important group of muscles found in the lower half of your torso. The make up a large chunk of your core muscles, and play a vital role in your health and wellbeing.
In the human body, the pelvic floor muscles are responsible for two main things. First, they help to hold all of the lower internal organs in place. If these muscles were to sag, your organs may actually sit lower inside your body!
Their second function is to control all bodily functions that involve going to the toilet. By squeezing or relaxing, they can open and close both your urethra, and anus, letting you go to the toilet as you need to.
How to Tell if Your Pelvic Floor Muscles are Loose or Tight
Just like any other parts of your body, throughout your life the condition of your pelvic floor muscles can degrade. Most of the time, this will be simply a fact of life caused by aging, but there are some factors which can cause the muscles to degrade faster such as:
- Pregnancy.
- Childbirth.
- Straining when having a bowel movement.
- Performing pelvic floor exercises incorrectly.
- Stress and anxiety.
- And many others.
There are two main ways that your pelvic floor can degrade over time: tightness and looseness.
Loosening of the pelvic floor is the most common disorder people will experience. When the pelvic floor is loose, it can cause many issues in your everyday life, and greatly affect your health. Some examples of conditions caused by a weak pelvic floor include:
- Passing wind while bending.
- Difficulty reaching orgasm.
- Feeling that your vagina is too loose.
- Incontinence.
- A bulge at the opening of the vagina.
- Difficulty holding in tampons.
- Lower sex drive.
- And many more.
Incontinence is the largest issue, and affects millions of people around the world. A loose pelvic floor can cause many different types of incontinence, and by strengthening it back up, you can greatly reduce your problems. Increasing the strength of these muscles can also have a beneficial effect for many other health problems!
Pelvic floor tightness is a completely different problem, and is caused by things such as:
- Working out too much.
- Holding in urine or poop for too long, or too often.
- Stress.
- IBS.
- Abdominal pain and cramping.
- And many others.
An overly tight pelvic floor can have an equally detrimental effect on your life, contributing to problems such as:
- Painful sex.
- Pelvic pain.
- Vaginismus.
- Constipation.
- Being unable to have a complete bowel movement.
- Painful urination.
- Difficulty and straining when using the toilet.
- Any many more.
How to Do Kegel Exercises
Kegel exercises are very simple to do once you know how.
The first stage is simply identifying the correct muscles and how to use them. As the pelvic floor is entirely internal, it can be difficult to even know where they are let alone how to use them!
Luckily there’s an easy way to identify your pelvic floor muscles.
The next time you use the toilet, force yourself to stop peeing halfway through. Take note of the muscles you use to do this. These are the front half of your pelvic floor muscles.
Similarly, next time you really need to poop, take note of the muscles you use to hold it in. That’s the back half of your pelvic floor muscles.
Now that you know which muscles you’re going to be exercising, you’re ready to start doing Kegel exercises!
Kegel exercises are very simple to do and there are two main stages. First, you pull the muscles upwards, deeper into your body towards your stomach. Hold this position for a few seconds. Then you simply lower them back to their original position, and allow them to rest for a few seconds.
The standard Kegel regime involves doing ten of these exercises in one set. Each individual kegel is usually held in place for ten seconds, then released. Most doctors recommend that everyone should perform three of these sets, every single day!
How Often Should You Do Kegel Exercises?
Kegel exercises aren’t just for those with pelvic floor dysfunction! It’s recommended that everyone (including men) do Kegel exercises.
The general recommendation is to do a set of ten Kegel exercises, three times a day.
Of course, if you are suffering from any pelvic dysfunction, you should consult your doctor and get some more accurate guidance about how many, and how often you should do Kegel exercises.
Using Ben Wa Balls During Kegel Exercises
While Kegel exercises can work out your pelvic floor muscles quite well, eventually you might need some resistance training to keep improving things.
You definitely can’t start lifting dumbbells with these muscles, but ben wa balls can do a good job giving you the extra resistance you need.
Many people will simply wear their ben wa balls which does exercise their pelvic floor muscles. You can make this a much more intense exercise though by performing your Kegel exercises while wearing these weights.
There are also some more advanced exercises you can do to really take your pelvic floor training to the next level! Performing your Kegels in different positions can really change the intensity and help strengthen your muscles that much more!
Sitting Kegels, Standing Kegels and Squatting Kegels
You can perform your kegel exercises in a variety of different positions, which can each change how you need to engage your muscles, and the benefits they get from the exercises.
Three of the most common variants are sitting, standing, and squatting kegels. As your body will be in a different position, you’ll need to engage various different muscles to keep your balance, at the same time as engaging the pelvic floor muscles.
This can be much more difficult than a simple, lying down kegel, so we would advise attempting these only after you’ve become experienced with standard kegel exercises.
Ben Wa Balls and Exercise
One of the great things about ben wa balls is they are small and discreet enough to be worn practically any time. A great time to experiment with them is while performing other exercises!
While performing exercise and wearing ben wa balls, you’ll need to have extra control over your body, so that the balls don’t simply fall out. This means alongside engaging the muscles your chosen exercise is using, you’ll also need to keep the pelvic floor engaged too.
Common exercises people like to do while wearing ben wa balls include:
- Squats
- Planks
- Leg raises
- Lunges
The simple fact is though, almost any exercise can be performed while wearing your ben wa balls! This transforms it from something only isolating one part of your body, to something which also exercises and strengthens your pelvic floor.
Making use of ben wa balls to improve the overall health of your body is a great idea. There are even specific types of ben wa balls designed to help with this! They can include trackers which can give feedback on how well your muscles are performing, and advice on how to improve your workouts.
All you need to do is get out there and get started! Before you know it, you’ll be feeling happier and healthier thanks to these wonderful little balls!