: Hemorrhoids, a disease that affects almost 75% of people at some point in their lives, can be a real nuisance for a busy adult. The itching, bleeding, and pain of hemorrhoids make them as annoying as they are unsightly, and getting rid of them may take a while or require going to a doctor’s office, which is why the best way to deal with hemorrhoids is preventing them from occurring in the first place!
Exercise may help to prevent hemorrhoids. Many people are under the impression that exercise can make hemorrhoids worse or even cause hemorrhoids, but this is only true for certain exercises such as weightlifting, typically due to bad form. Certain exercises are very good for hemorrhoid relief.
One method is kegel exercises. Kegel exercises, also known as pelvic exercises, involve contracting and relaxing the pubococcygeal, or PC, muscle in the pelvic floor in order to strengthen it. It’s the same muscle you contract and relax in order to go to the bathroom. They are commonly used to prevent urinary incontinence as well as other pelvic floor problems. Doing this exercise regularly may also reduce the chances of hemorrhoids, and can be done discreetly almost everywhere, either sitting, standing, or lying down, and requires no equipment, so it’s great to do it at work or at home!.
To perform a kegel exercise:
Squeeze the PC muscle for 3 seconds
Relax the PC muscle for 3 seconds
Perform steps 1. and 2. in succession for 10 reps
Take a 30 second break and perform the set of 10 reps two more times
3 sets of 10 reps should performed three times a day
This is by no means the only way to do kegels- feel free to modify as you see fit.
