®Do it along with a timer
Squeeze, hold, relax
Sit, or lie with your knees bent. Choose your hold time and number of repetitions, then press Start. When the gold circle rises, squeeze and lift; when it drops, relax completely.
Hold time for slow squeezes
Number of slow squeezes
Number of fast squeezes
Ready
Get comfortable and press Start.
Your session count is stored only on this device and is not sent anywhere.
Find the muscles
- Sit, or lie down with your knees bent.
- Imagine you are trying to stop yourself passing wind and urine at the same time.
- You can also think of lifting your genitals upwards, or drawing your tailbone towards your tummy.
- When you get it right, the area between your anus and genitals lifts up.
Common mistakes
- Clenching your buttocks, thighs or jaw.
- Holding your breath.
- Pulling your tummy muscles in.
- Not relaxing fully between squeezes.
The knack
Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles just before and during coughing, sneezing, laughing or lifting something heavy. This habit helps reduce or prevent leaks. Once you can comfortably do 10 squeezes of 10 seconds, also try the exercises standing, squatting or stepping forward into a lunge.
Frequently asked questions
Who are pelvic floor exercises for?
Women and men. They are most often recommended for leaking urine when coughing, sneezing or laughing, a frequent and sudden urge to go to the toilet, after childbirth and after prostate surgery. If you have had surgery, a birth or treatment, your team may have specific advice for you; follow that first.
Do they work?
Yes. In a Cochrane review of 31 randomised trials and 1,817 women, 56% of women with leakage on coughing and exertion who did pelvic floor exercises reported being cured, compared with 6% of those who did not exercise. For cure or marked improvement, the figures were 74% versus 11%. The review included only women, and most trials followed people up for less than a year.
When will I notice a difference?
Muscles take time to strengthen: practise regularly for at least 3 months. If at first you can only hold for a few seconds or manage a few repetitions, that’s fine; keep going and build up gradually.
How do I know I’m using the right muscles?
Place a hand on the area between your anus and genitals (the perineum): when you squeeze, it should lift up away from your hand. Don’t clench your buttocks, thighs or jaw, don’t hold your breath and don’t pull your tummy in.
For types of incontinence and their treatment, see the urinary incontinence guide; for the tummy muscles after childbirth, see the diastasis recti guide.
When to see a specialist
- If your symptoms have not changed after 8–12 weeks of regular practice
- If you cannot feel the muscles squeeze or lift
- If your symptoms get worse when you do the exercises
In these situations you can talk to your doctor and ask for an assessment by a physiotherapist who specialises in pelvic health.
Sources
- St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Physiotherapy. Pelvic floor exercises for all. PHY_PFEA_01, May 2026.
- Dumoulin C, Cacciari LP, Hay-Smith EJC. Pelvic floor muscle training versus no treatment, or inactive control treatments, for urinary incontinence in women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018;(10):CD005654. Summary: NIHR Evidence, 2 January 2019.