Having a baby is one of life’s most joyous events but that one event can wreak havoc on both your body and sometimes even your soul. From the pregnancy itself to childbirth and even the aftermath, many women are left with numerous problems that they feel cannot be taken care of, including loose pelvic muscles that can contribute to everything from urinary incontinence to lack of interest in the bedroom.

Fortunately, there are easy solutions to these problems and one of them is the use of Ben Wa balls while performing Kegel exercises, which can get you in shape “down there” a lot sooner than you think.

Kegel exercises are exercises that strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, and they use a squeeze-and-release movement that is both simple to do and painless.

Ben Wa balls are small balls made of either metal or silicone that you insert into your vagina before starting these exercises and if you do the Kegels correctly, the balls will remain inside of you.

Ben Wa balls also sometimes fall out if your muscles are very loose to begin with but with a little practice, you can soon perform these exercises without worrying about this happening. Furthermore, unless something goes awry with the pregnancy or the birth, you can begin using your Ben Wa balls immediately and they work a lot more quickly than you think.

Can Kegel Exercises Help After Childbirth?

A lot of things can happen to your body during pregnancy and childbirth and not all of them are pleasant. One of the most significant changes is in your pelvic floor muscles because they can weaken tremendously during these two events.

This can cause both fecal and urinary incontinence, an increased risk of hemorrhoids, and loss of interest in sex, which includes both less-frequent and less-intense orgasms.

Kegel exercises strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and most women see results in no more than three months so they are fast-acting as well. Going through pregnancy and childbirth can cause a lot of changes in your body, including:

• Little leaks when you cough and sneeze. Yes, your bladder and urethra go back to their pre-pregnancy size after you give birth but sometimes it takes a while for them to do so. This is because during childbirth, you use those pelvic floor muscles to push your baby into the world, causing a lot of strain on them and making them a lot looser and weaker.

• Lack of intimacy and uncomfortable sex. Childbirth puts your body through a lot, including your pelvic floor region, and weak pelvic floor muscles can decrease your sensations and therefore your interest in sex.

  It is common for many women to experience sex that is uncomfortable or a loss of interest in sex immediately after giving birth and this is for both physical and emotional reasons.

• A long healing time. During childbirth, your vagina, uterus, and cervix may have been torn or damaged and this is especially true if you received an episiotomy, which is a small cut that the doctor makes to ease the birth itself. If this has happened to you, it is important to look for effective solutions so that no long-term or permanent damage will occur.
• Your ligaments get loose. In order to accommodate the baby’s growing weight, your ligaments loosen and stretch out until after the baby is born. When you keep in mind that the average pregnancy adds 25 to 30 pounds to your body weight and that most of that weight ends up in the pelvic region, you’ll understand why this is such a problem.
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• C-sections also require some assistance. Just because you have a C-section doesn’t mean that you can avoid some of these problems. In fact, you can still suffer from bladder leaks, weakened pelvic floor muscles, and even loose ligaments. In other words, even if your child is a C-section baby, you can still benefit from doing Kegel exercises!

Doing your Kegel exercises while wearing Ben Wa balls takes care of all of these problems, easing them or eliminating them altogether in some instances. Kegel exercises strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, tightening them up so that incontinence is much less of a problem.

It also increases your interest in sex, produces greater orgasms, and tightens up surrounding muscles as well. Once you realize all of the major benefits of doing regular Kegel exercises while wearing Ben Wa balls, you’ll likely wonder why you haven’t participated in them in the past.

So why are Ben Wa balls so important when you’re performing Kegel exercises?

Think of your workout at the gym. If you’re trying to build up your biceps or triceps but choose not to use free weights while working out, the results simply will not be the same. Ben Wa balls have small weights inside of them that can double the effect of your Kegel exercises, building much stronger pelvic floor muscles much more quickly.

Of course, much the same as using weights to build up other muscles, if you use Ben Wa balls, you should always start out slowly so that you don’t overdo it. However, as long as you’re doing the exercises correctly and using the right muscles, they are both effective and very safe.

Best of all, performing Kegel exercises while using Ben Wa balls takes care of numerous physical as well as emotional problems because they can get rid of everything from incontinence to decreased satisfaction in the bedroom, all because of tight pelvic floor muscles!

Guide to Doing Kegel Exercises After Childbirth

Although Kegel exercises can be performed a few different ways, the basic Kegel exercise is the same. If you’re unsure about the exact muscle that you should be working on, picture yourself sitting on the toilet urinating, then stopping the urine in mid-stream.

This action is performed using your pelvic floor muscles; of course, you shouldn’t make a habit of this activity because it could cause your bladder to not empty completely in the future, which can even cause urinary tract infections.

To start the exercises, you can sit on the floor in a comfortable position or even sit on an exercise ball. At this point, either one or both of your Ben Wa balls should be comfortably inserted.

To perform the first repetition, use a squeeze-and-release technique, squeezing for five seconds and then resting for five seconds.

One of the most important things to remember when doing your Kegels is not to use any muscles except for the pelvic floor muscles. Never concentrate on your legs, buttocks, abdomen, or lower-back muscles. In other words, this action should only be performed using the pelvic floor muscles because anything else could be dangerous to the muscle, not to mention less effective for the Kegel exercises themselves.

Most women work up to three sets of 10 repetitions each over time and the amount of time you hold the Kegel should eventually be increased to 10 seconds as well. Although this is the basic way to perform a Kegel exercise, there are some other variations, including the following.

Make a Bridge

To do this exercise, lie on the floor with your knees bent and your feet firmly planted on the floor. With this exercise, you should concentrate on both your pelvic floor muscles and your abdomen.

Lift your hips up off the floor but do not rock them, then pause for a while before you place your hips back on the floor. Do this in one action without stopping the Kegel exercise for the best effect.

Activate Your Abdominal Muscles

As with the previous exercise, you have to lie on the floor and plant your feet firmly while also bending your knees with this one. Place your hands on your stomach, inhale through your nose, then make a “shhh” sound while exhaling. While doing this exercise, compress your abdominal muscles in a downward motion; your hands should feel this motion while your hands are on your tummy.

Use Your Leg This Time

Lie on the floor with your knees bent and your feet planted firmly on the floor. Concentrate on both the pelvic floor muscles and your abdominal muscles, then bring one knee out to a 45-degree angle. Continue to practice your Kegel as you slowly bring the leg back to its original position. Make sure that you keep the Kegel movement the entire time the exercise is being performed.

Brace Your Pelvis

For this exercise, just as with the rest of them, you lie on the floor and plant your feet firmly on the floor while once again bending your knees. Concentrate on the pelvic and lower-back regions and rock your pelvis gently until you find a pain-free place to stop before you proceed. The pelvis should be perfectly flat on top and parallel with the ceiling.

Inhale through your nose; as you exhale, you should contract the pelvic floor muscles while compressing your abdominal muscles downward. This is known as a pelvic brace and if your pelvis slopes downward during the exercises, that is acceptable as well.

For all of these exercises, you can start with five repetitions and work your way up to more, eventually performing three sets per day.

Of course, you can also do Kegel exercises while walking around the house, shopping at the mall, and even eating out. You can squat and do Kegels, jump up and down and do Kegels, and even perform Kegels as you’re standing perfectly still.

In fact, you can even make up your own exercises that incorporate your Kegels if you like because as long as you’re performing Kegel exercises regularly and correctly, they will be effective.

Which Ben Wa Balls Work Best?

The first thing that you’ll notice when you’re shopping for Ben Wa balls is the selection that is available; fortunately, there are few hard-and-fast rules for buying the perfect set, which means that your personal preference is likely going to be the deciding factor in the end.

All Ben Wa balls are high-quality because as you can imagine, they must meet very strict guidelines before being put on the market.

Ben Wa balls normally come in sets of two but they can also be purchased individually and in sets of up to four. They can be made out of a variety of materials including stainless steel, glass, silicone, or even stones such as quartz or jade.

Ben Wa balls also come in various sizes and weights and it is usually recommended that you start out with the smaller, lighter balls and work your way up to balls that are bigger and heavier.

If you’ve never used Ben Wa balls before and you’ve just given birth, the very first thing you should do is check with your doctor to make sure that it is all right for you to do so. Most women can start performing Kegel exercises immediately after giving birth but it is always much safer to check with your doctor first, especially if your experience in the delivery room was less than perfect.

Again, starting slow is highly recommended because as with other muscles, your pelvic floor muscles need to be built up slowly since you can, in fact, overdo it.

Before inserting the Ben Wa balls and starting your Kegel exercises, you should empty your bladder completely.

This not only makes the exercises more comfortable but it makes them more effective as well, in part because you will only be concentrating on doing the exercises correctly and not on how badly you need to use the restroom.

You should also get into a comfortable position. If you’re new to Kegel exercises, this usually means lying on your back on your bed.

Remember that being as relaxed as possible is important for doing Kegel exercises correctly and most people are simply more relaxed and comfortable when they’re in their own beds.

Using Ben Wa balls while doing your Kegel exercises is a great way to improve the condition of your pelvic floor muscles after childbirth and the method is much faster and much more effective than many people realize.

Remember that as long as you start off slowly and do the exercises correctly, they will be effective so starting them as soon as possible is your smartest option.