Though I can't fully fathom what it's like to be pregnant, particularly in the latter trimester, I do know that the changes to a woman's body can be dramatic and lasting.  While other women repair rather rapid and completely.  You'll see a mother of three or more with a delicate figure, slim at the waist and no belly distention, like they're twenty-two all over again.  So pregnancy varies for each woman.  

Some women, however, will have a terrible time of it during and after pregnancy.  They need repair that drugs can't treat or even complicate.  So in lieu of drugs, people pursue diet and exercise. This post is about exercises one can do to treat residual weakness or problems from a complicated pregnancy.  Men can learn something, too, but for different reasons.  Some men are sports minded.  They get hurt.  Sometimes in the groin.  You don't always want to run off to a surgeon to have him cut, re-insert, and suture an opening when a new and unheard-of exercise comes into your field of vision.  Kegel exercises are just that: exercises.  You already know how exercise cures a myriad of conditions, including brain injuries.  So why not continue to rely on exercise to repair other tissue?

Men should heed what women can teach us about abdominal cavities.  Here is a video that covers the Kegel muscles.  The Kegel muscles are the muscles deep in the pelvic region toward the anus. Think about them.  I know this can be unpleasant, even disturbing but if you give them an ounce of thought, perhaps your awareness of them could strengthen other parts and functions of your body--yes, for men and women.  

Kegel exercises can benefit both men and women. 

FOR MEN
Benefits for men generally affect or improve the prostate muscle, its local function and distal points, like your feet, legs, and brain; yes, your brain.  Talk to anyone who has prostate cancer or prostate problems.  They will tell you that their pain or numbing radiates down the leg to the shin or the ankle, bottom or side of foot.  Could be both feet. Could be just one foot.  Or even up or down their back.  The reason for this radiating is that the different parts of our bodies are connected with systems called meridians.  

Though I hadn't planned on it, I thought I would also add this video that illustrates the urinary meridians.  

This might be worth checking out.

If I am going to mention meridians, I'll need to explain what they are.  They need explaining given the context of the different therapies that exist out there and that tend to use a language that is often at serious variance with what the patient needs to hear.  So, first, meridians.

Meridians are energy channels that transport life energy or vital energy--blood and all of its components, hormones, neuronal signals, and so forth.  It's the collective energy of your organs that have a life of their own outside of nutrition.  Your body already contains water and oxygen.  So meridians are the channels along which the vital or life energy flows.  If you hurt, say, your ankle, the ankle meridian will be blocked, meaning that the energy that normally flows through your ankle down to your toes and up your leg is blocked.  

Stomach meridian.

Acupuncture and acupressure are good for unblocking the energy stuck in or at certain, multiple meridians. It's why Stomach 36, which is an excellent point for overall pain and discomfort, relieves stomach pain and issues.  Yet Stomach 36 is located at the outside of your shin.  

So you can see the stomach meridian running along the right side of the body, starting from the right foot, up through the ankle, to an outide point at the shin, then up the thigh to the waist where it runs inside above the genitals, up through the abdominal muscles the same meridian runs parallel on the left side of the body.  In

I've done enough acupuncture to know how internists abuse English, Chinese and meridianese and acupuncture-ese when they communicate with a patient.  I've seen western doctors do this with their native tongue, English, effectively rendering what they know, their experience, their training almost obsolete.  And though I want to extend some benefit of the doubt to those doctors who hang in their for the long run, these long-run, fully committed doctors are often only long in the tooth and short on practical or beneficial knowledge.  They will often express their observations in very primitive, mystical terms, like earth, wind, and fire.  Seriously.  "You have damp wind" might come a diagnosis.  

"What?"

"You have too much dampness."

"What does that mean?"

"Too much phlegm."

"In my throat?"

"No."

And if you press, if you ask additional questions they can't answer, which accidentally threatens their authority, oh, you will have hell to pay.  They'll grow defensive, knowing full well that they're not degreed the way that western doctors are and any unanswered questions reminds them of this.  They can't measure up, particularly the interns.  They're smart.  They're good students.  Some even have medical degrees.  One intern I knew was a former engineer, so they're smart; they just have a difficult time translating the language of meridians and the language of acupuncture in English across the western versus eastern biases. 

Stomach 36 also runs up across the face and up to the head.  If you'd like a full mapping of the meridian points, please see this pdf. 

Then another doctor steps in to distract and redirect, so that the intern is spared any accurate accounting.  Now, again this is only at acupuncture clinics.  And everyone knows that we attend these clinics in the hopes of treating some chronic condition over a few weeks at a fraction of the price that you'd pay with a 
So here is a patient hurting, suffering from chronic pain, worried about their condition and how it bodes for their recovery path on their way back to work and you're greeted with some weary, but smart intern who waxes mystic using a language that remains a mystery both in English and in Chinese.