How Long Does it Take For Kegel Exercises to Work?

Many women perform manual kegel exercises to try to manage or prevent bladder leaks that occur as a result of weakened pelvic floor muscles.

Despite the fact that Kegel exercises can be an effective way to treat the symptoms of a weak bladder (also known as urinary incontinence) - there are some things that need to be considered in order to achieve the desired results.

Here, we'll explore:

How long it takes for Kegel exercises to work
The issues with manual Kegel exercises
What to do if you don’t see results

The amount of time it will take to notice a difference in the strength of your pelvic floor muscles after completing manual Kegel exercises will vary.

The following considerations are the predominant factors that will affect how quickly you see results:

Whether you're performing your Kegel exercises correctly
How often you are doing your exercises - this should be every day, preferably three times a day
The state of your pelvic floor muscles to begin with - if your pelvic floor is extremely weak, then it could take much longer to see results

So the general rule of thumb is - if you're experiencing bladder leaks, you should complete a set of pelvic floor exercises 3 times a day.

You should start to notice a difference at around 3 to 6 weeks, provided you are performing them correctly. Many women report that they are then fully ‘dry’ around the 12 to 16 week mark- but keep in mind that everyone’s pelvic floor is different.

It’s important to remember that even once you’ve reached a stage where you are now dry - you must continue to do your pelvic floor exercises once a day- every day, or you risk the chances of your symptoms returning.

The problem with manual Kegel exercises

According to research, many women do not perform Kegels correctly. Most of the time, this is because the woman is not engaging her pelvic floor muscles effectively, and is instead exercising the wrong muscles - which can result in disappointment.

But what does it mean to do Kegels ‘wrong’?

The most common ways that women perform Kegels incorrectly is by clutching their buttocks rather than their pelvic floor. Another common error is that many women will squeeze their inner thigh muscles or their abdominal muscles - however this is not the correct way of doing things.

In order to to perform Kegel exercises correctly, you need to:

Tighten the muscles around the anus (as if you’re trying to hold in gas)
Tighten the muscles around the vagina
Squeeze and lift these areas simultaneously - this is a pelvic floor contraction

What to do if you don’t see a difference

If you don't see a noticeable improvement in your pelvic floor, despite doing regular Kegel exercises, it could be because:

You are pushing down on your pelvic floor, instead of ‘pulling’ upwards
You pelvic floor is too weak to perform the contractions correctly
You had a pregnancy or childbirth related injury from which you haven't recovered
Your vagina has prolapsed
There is a problem with the way your bladder or bowel works in general
You have constipation, inflammation, or an infection

So what should you do if you’re not seeing a difference despite your time and dedication?

This is where INNOVO can help.

How INNOVO can help

Because nearly 50% of women cannot do a Kegel correctly, INNOVO was invented to give you that perfect Kegel, safely strengthening your pelvic floor muscles from home. There are no probes to insert and no doctor visits needed.

That means all of the guessing is gone, and you can rest assured that your pelvic floor will be exercised properly every time - plus you’re likely to see noticeable results much faster.

Using INNOVO for just 30 minutes a day, five days a week over 12 weeks has been proven to eliminate bladder leaks - with many starting to see results in as little as 4 weeks.

INNOVO is FDA cleared and is the only non-invasive pelvic floor exerciser that targets the root cause of the problem.

How Long Does it Take to Strengthen Pelvic Floor Muscles?