Improve Your Erections And Orgasms With Kegel Exercises
Youve probably noticed that your erections arent always consistentyou may be standing at attention one day, but flying half-mast the next. What gives?
Well, there are lots of things that affect the strength of your erection, from mental factors such as stress or anxiety to physical factors such as exercise or alcohol. And the strength of your penis is also, not surprisingly, a factor.
Well, sort of. Your penis isnt a muscle, so you cant really make it stronger. You dont need to do anything to keep your penis in working shape, says Los Angeles-based urologist Philip Werthman, director of the Center for Male Reproductive Medicine and Vasectomy Reversal. Its not a use it or lose it scenario. But there are some things you can do to improve your sexual strength, including Kegel exercises. Click to the next page to find out what they are.
Your penis may not be a muscle, but it is surrounded by muscles, which are collectively called the pelvic floor muscles. And you can strengthen these muscles with Kegel exercises .
Kegel exercises are simple contractions of the pelvic floor muscles. The easiest way to identify these muscles is to try to stop urinating halfway through your streamthe muscles you use to do this are your pelvic floor muscles. To do Kegel exercises, you will need to contract these muscles for five seconds and then release them for five seconds. Do this 10 times, three times a day.
Plank With Hip Flexion/extension
- Start in a standard high-plank position.
- Raise the right leg approximately 6 to 8 inches, hold for five seconds and then alternate legs. Start with three to four repetitions and gradually increase over time.
- To increase the level of difficulty, raise the right and then bring the right knee up to the outside of the right elbow return to the starting position. Alternate legs for three to five repetitions.
Regardless Of Which Category You Fall Under Reestablishing Tva Function Is A Must For The Beginner Tummy Vacuums Are One Of The Best Ways To Get It Functioning Again
Tummy vacuums help recondition the TVA to brace the spine during movement. Basically, your TVA is an internal weight belt that needs to engage when you attempt to move or lift anything. When youve been inactive or pregnant, your TVA might not be functioning well or even be functioning at all. If you sit for long periods of time or dont exercise, your TVA can become dormant and the body can forget how to engage it during activity.
Regardless of which category you fall under, reestablishing TVA function is a must. For the beginner, tummy vacuums are one of the best ways to get it functioning again.
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Prioritize Core Strength After 60
According to AARP, falls are one of the leading contributors to death from unintentional injuries among adults 65 and older. The problem is a decreased ability to remain balanced, which relies on the neuromuscular, proprioceptive, vestibular and visual systems, according to researchers of the 2014 Journal of Aging and Physical Activity study, who suggest that core strengthening is one of the most effective and easiest ways to improve balance and prevent falls.
In fact, core-strengthening may be more effective than total-body strengthening for improving stability, according to authors of a 2015 study in Journal of Physical Therapy Science. The researchers divided 30 older adults into two groups, one of which performed standard strengthening exercises, while the other group performed core-strengthening exercises. After eight weeks, researchers evaluated weight distribution and stability in both groups and found that only the core-strengthening group showed significant improvement.
Abdominal Pain When To See A Doctor
You should never ignore any abdominal pain that lasts for longer than 2 days or comes on suddenly and is severe. Many vital organs are located in your abdominal cavity and what you think may be a pulled ab muscle could be a painful symptom of a medical condition.
Doctors from the Mayo Clinic say that you should visit a doctor promptly for a suspected pulled abdominal muscle in the following circumstances:12
- You still have severe pain for 3 days after an injury to your abdomen.
- There is severe tenderness and/or swelling of your abdomen.
- You pass bloody stools.
- You have nausea and vomiting that doesnt go away.
If you have a suspected hernia and notice a bulge in your groin or abdomen, doctors from the National Health Service advise visiting a doctor in the following circumstances:13
- The hernia suddenly becomes very sore and painful.
- You have difficulty passing a bowel movement.
- The hernia becomes firm or tender and wont move when you try to push it back in.
- You have nausea and vomiting.
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How To Tighten Stomach Muscles After 60
Related
Strong abs are important for people of all ages, but especially for seniors. As the center of the body, the core helps stabilize the body to enhance balance, mobility and functionality. As musculature declines with age, weakened abdominal muscles can make daily tasks of living harder and can increase your risk of falling, according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. Getting active and performing abdominal-strengthening exercises a few times a week will help you look, feel and function better in your 60s and beyond.
How To Prevent Pulling Abdominal Muscles
The best way to avoid pulling an abdominal muscle is to strengthen your core. Doctors recommend keeping your abs flexible and strong to decrease the risk of injury when lifting heavy objects or engaging in strenuous physical activity.3
For example, you can try plank exercises to help strengthen your core and prevent abdominal muscle injuries. There are also many easy exercises you can do at home to improve stomach tone and strengthen your abdominal muscles.
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Safely Targeting Abdominal Muscles
Reverse and regular crunches can be used to target abdominal muscles. To prevent straining back muscles, remember to keep the back flat against the floor. It’s not necessary to have any special exercise equipment to do crunches. However, an exercise ball will help target the abdominal muscles.
Contrary to what many people think, doing large amounts of crunches all at once won’t necessarily help you.
Concentrating on proper form and doing a variety of exercises is the best way to strengthen your abs.
Why Diaphragm Exercises Might Help Reflux
The LES is the barrier between the stomach and the esophagus that prevents reflux. It acts as a valve, opening to allow food and drinks to enter the stomach and then closing to keep the acidic contents of the stomach where they belong in the stomach. In people with GERD, the LES has lost its ability to function as a barrier. Once that function is gone, its gone. The most common treatments for reflux focus on relieving symptoms with medications or recreating the function of the LES through surgery. The idea with diaphragm exercises is that strengthening the diaphragm that surrounds the lower esophagus through exercise can help support the weakened LES. Why not just exercise the LES directly? The LES is an involuntary muscle, which means you cant control it however, the diaphragm that surrounds the lower esophagus is a voluntary muscle and can be exercised.
Learn more: GERD explained: The role of the LES
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Gain Control Live Happier
Even if youve never fallen before or arent too worried about it at present, the CDC states that as adults age, their fear of falling tends to increase .
Now, this can be a huge psychological stressor, because who wants to be worried about their body failing them all the time? And it obviously can impact your quality of life.
When seniors start to fear falling, they usually start to avoid social activities, which can result in depression and feelings of isolation.
My goal in providing these exercises is to make sure you become the opposite of these statistics and go on to live a happy, strong, mobile life free from the fear of falling.
How To Treat Pulled Abdominal Muscles
There are various ways to treat abdominal muscles, and if you have pain from a pulled ab muscle, you will need to rest the muscles until they heal properly.
Cold treatment for initial injury
As soon as you can after the initial injury, you should ice the affected area. According to Dr. William Blahd on WebMD, applying a cold pack just after straining or pulling an abdominal muscle helps to control bleeding and reduce swelling.3
This is how to make your own ice pack to speed up recovery from a pulled abdominal muscle:
An ice pack, frozen gel pack, or even a bag of frozen peas can be used on the muscle strain and applied every hour or so for up to 2 days. This first-aid treatment for muscle strains helps to keep swelling down and prevent bruising. Please remember, never to apply ice directly to your skin.
Heat treatment for pulled abdominal muscles
If you still have sore abdominal muscles after 2 days and you no longer have swelling around the injury site, you can apply a heat pack to help the muscle heal quickly.
To use heat to treat a pulled abdominal muscle that is sore, you can make a moist heat pad this way:
Essential oils for pain relief
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Side Plank With Rotation
This exercise is an advanced version of the basic plank. It strengthens your arms, shoulders, and obliques by combining a side plank with arm movements.
Overall Fitness Routine For Ibd
Along with tightening up the ab muscles, it is a good idea to put some cardio exercise and weight training into a workout routine. Walking, running, swimming, and bicycling will help create an overall fitness routine and all of these could be good activities for people who have IBD.
Weight training can help strengthen muscles that are weak after inactivity or after the use of steroids . Ab exercises help firm up the muscles of the torso but doesn’t do much for reducing the body fat that is covering up the abs.
For those with extra weight in the abdominal area, an overall fitness plan and a sensible diet to lose that weight, coupled with abdominal exercise, is the best approach.
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Not Seeing A Specialist
Is your client leaking urine during activities? Is she experiencing pain in her hips, abdomen or Cesarean incision? Has her postpartum bleeding increased during or after exercise? These are just a few signs that her system isnt functioning well. If you feel out of your realm of expertise, do not hesitate to refer a client to her doctor or a physical therapist that specializes in pelvic floor or postpartum rehabilitation.
Signs Of Weak Core Muscles
- Sharp lower back pain when bending over. I wrote a specific post on how to fix this type of pain through learning how to brace your core when bending over.
- Back pain whenever you lift or after you lift heavy items off the floor, or move items around.
A lot of people start to experience chronic back pain after moving and spending hours lifting boxes and heavy items. This is a clear sign of a weak core and the inability to automatically activate and engage the core muscles to do their work.
- Pain in the lower back after standing for more than 15 minutes .
If you find that after standing for a prolonged period of time, this can also be a sign of weak core muscles.
The glutes are designed to be the strongest muscles and will help you stabilize your pelvis and lower back. Ill link to a few glutes strengthening routines at the end of this post.
- Difficulty breathing deeply when moving around or exercising.
- Not feeling your core working during exercise. Many times, people say they feel tightness in the hip flexors area rather than their abs when doing the plank exercise.
- Lower back and hamstrings pain during glutes exercises such as the bridge. You shouldnt feel any pain in the lower back or hamstrings if your core and glutes are fully engaged.
- Sitting for more than 8 hours a day.
You always want to balance hours of sitting and inactivity with core activation exercises. Otherwise, the glutes and core become extremely weak leading to chronic lower back pain.
- Exaggerated pelvic tilt
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Why Strengthen Your Core
Now, you might be wondering how doing ab exercises is going to prevent you from falling which is one of the leading causes of fatal injuries in older adults .
Stay with me, and youll discover that your core actually consists of much more than just your six-pack muscles. It basically includes almost your entire torso, from the front of your stomach and wrapping all the way around your lower back.
This includes the rectus abdominus , the internal and external obliques , the transverse abdominus , the hips, and the lower back.
As you can imagine, these core muscles do a lot more than just look good.
When you strengthen your core, you essentially strengthen your ability to do almost any type of movement.
Since the core supports and stabilizes your spine, youll find that with a strong core it becomes much easier to bend, reach, and twist. In turn, this helps you become less susceptible to balance-related falls.
Studies confirm this, showing that gaining core strength through pilates-style exercises can help increase stability and mobility, keeping you fall-free for longer .
As a bonus, you might also discover you have less low back pain, since your disks and joints will be cushioned by a nice wall of muscle, which relieves pressure from your joints.
Exercises And Stretches To Treat Symptoms Of A Hiatal Hernia
If you look online for natural ways to treat a hiatal hernia, some websites tout diet along with specific exercises that are said to strengthen your abdominal area.
Its debatable whether strengthening exercises can actually treat a hernia, or if they just minimize your symptoms. In any case, consider talking to a doctor about the following exercises.
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How To Strengthen Your Belly And Back With Just 2 Exercises
Lets be honest we all know that a strong core is good for our back health, our posture, and our performance in our activities of choice, but core workouts arent really the most fun thing to do.
Were all busy people, and we all want the most bang for our buck when we set aside the time for exercise. Am I right?
For that reason, Im going to share two powerful core exercises with you. The first is a simple variation of the crunch that will strengthen your belly and surprise you with its effectiveness. The second will focus on your back, building strength while correcting your posture at the same time.
Create A Simple Plan You Can Stick To
I either schedule my core strengthening routines earlier in the morning or before my workouts in the afternoon.
If you dont like going to the gym or find that sticking to an exercise program is hard, then wake up 15 minutes earlier to do your exercises, and get them out-of-the-way.
If you currently go to the gym, start with the core activation exercises before your workouts.
You want to activate not fatigue your core muscles. The goal to strengthening the core is not focused on building toned up . The goal is to activate and strengthen the deep core muscles
Build a strong foundation underneath the visible abs
And stabilize and support the spine.
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Clue : You Have Frequent Lower Back Pain
If you’ve ever felt a tweak, pinch, or twinge when performing a day-to-day movement like transferring the laundry, tossing a ball to the dog, or taking something out of the oven , weak core muscles could be to blame. When your core isn’t as strong as it needs to be, your lumbar spine can get all wonky, explains Wickham, which can put undue pressure on your vertebrae, discs, and the rest of the muscles that encase the spine.
The fix: Work specifically on strengthening your spine. “Strengthening the erector spinae which runs from your neck to your lower back can help reduce back pain by helping to encourage proper posture and form when performing exercises,” says Dunlop.
Clue : You Use Objects And People Around You As A Crutch
If you frequently rely on the furniture or friends around you to get you standing, it’s time to add some core bracing moves to your routine. “It surprises people how much core strength simply getting out of bed, a chair, or standing in line takes,” says Wickham.
The fix: Trying to sit down, get up, or stand without reaching for poles, pillars, tables, or your pals for help, will eventually help you strengthen the weak muscles, says Lyons. As with any other exercise, it’s get easier the more you do it.
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