至尊英语阅读资料之健康与卫生专题第97集.pdfVIP

health articles 97 [2401]An Enlightened Approach to Kegel Exercises Weve all heard that a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. Isnt that what weve done for years with Kegel exercises? Countless hours of practising while wondering if wed got the right muscle, or if there was any point in doing the exercises anyway as we werent really feeling that our effort was making any difference. A little known fact about Kegel exercises which often surprises people when they first hear it is that they were never meant to be performed the way in which they are today. Indeed, they were never meant to be performed the way they have been for decades! Dr Kegel was an American surgeon, Associate Professor of Gynaecology at the University of Southern California and Health Commissioner of Chicago, who spent more than thirty-two years in the study of the female pelvis and the muscles therein. His studies document his results with thousands of women that show the incredible benefits to be gained from Kegel exercises when performed correctly. In 1950 Dr Kegel had achieved complete relief of urinary stress incontinence in 93% of a group of 300 women in this way. On the strength of these favorable results urinary stress incontinence in women is no longer routinely treated by surgical intervention at...LA County General Hospital. Dr Kegel. (A progress in Gynecology, 1950 p.786) Isnt it amazing to think that the results he was getting in the last century are even better than the generally accepted success rates for incontinence surgery carried out today? How were these results achieved? By ensuring that the exercise protocol that his patients followed consisted of two essential elements: 1) Isolating the pelvic floor muscle (using no abdominal, buttock or thigh muscles) 2) Working the pelvic floor muscle against resistance What is commonly known as a Kegel exercise today bears little relation to a