The pubococcygeus muscles or PC muscle is a hammock-like muscle, found in both sexes, forming the floor of the cavity supporting the pelvic organs.
Many people begin doing kegel exercises, which are exercises designed to strengthen the pubococcygeus muscles (PC muscles), but squeeze the wrong muscle. It’s important to make sure you are exercising the correct muscle.
Here are two tips to finding your PC muscle:
The easiest way to find your PC muscle is to stop the flow of urine while you are peeing. As you are peeing, intentionally stop the flow of urine. Do this several times until you can clearly feel the muscle you are using to stop the flow. This muscle is your PC muscle.- You can also check you’ve got the right muscle by inserting a finger (for women in the vagina, for men in the anus) and squeezing your PC muscle. If you feel pressure around your finger, you’re using the right muscle.
The PC muscle, which stands for pubococcygeus muscles, is actually a sling of muscles that support the pelvic floor and surround the internal genitalia. These muscles are involved in urination (when you stop yourself from peeing in mid-stream, you’re using your PC muscles). Both men and women have PC muscles.
The PC muscles are also involved in orgasm, and many women find that doing regular kegel exercises to strengthen the muscles changes the way their sexual response feels. Exercises that strengthen the PC muscles are usually referred to as Kegel exercises. Like any muscles in the body, the PC muscles can become weak for a variety of reasons (for women, everything from lack of use to childbirth to radiation treatments for cancer can cause severely weakened PC muscles).
