Kegel exercises might most commonly be associated with women and them gaining mastery over their pelvic floor muscles (for health and sex reasons); however, there are many reasons why as a guy you should take advantage of them too.
From strengthening and improving the longevity of your erections to bolstering your staying power, stamina and orgasms; these simple exercises can transform your sex life – for the better – as they’ll make erectile dysfunction a thing of the past.
Interested in learning how? Keep reading to discover how Kegel exercise for men works…
What Will You Learn?
- Kegel Exercises 101
- Benefits of Kegel Exercises for Men
- How to Do Kegel Exercises
- When to Do Kegel Exercises
- Kegel Exercise Weights
- Kegel Exercise Device
- What You Can Expect
Kegel Exercises 101
Before we get into the mechanics of how to do Kegel exercise – and how you can use them to train your pelvic floor muscles and make them stronger – it is important that you first understand what they are.
Shockingly, most people don’t know where their pelvic floor is or how to identify it. This means, that when asked to train it, they rarely do it right as they don’t know which muscles to exercise.
Luckily, this issue is an easy one to resolve…
The thing to remember is that your pelvic floor comprises a series of muscles and tissues that form a sling shape at the bottom of your pelvis (between your hips).
It is these muscles that help to hold your organs (in particular your reproductive ones) in place, as well as enables you to manage your bowel and bladder movements – meaning should it weaken you could experience bladder issues.
Knowing this, it is easy to see why Kegel exercises are so strongly linked to women and bladder management. Given that carrying a baby for 9 months puts a tremendous amount of pressure and strain on your pelvic muscles, post-birth it is essential for women to train these muscles up to prevent bladder issues in the future.
Yet like we mentioned earlier, learning how to perform these clench and release exercises is not just for women. As a man, you can equally benefit from these exercises as they can ensure that your dick receives the support it needs to stay erect when aroused. Plus, they can help heighten your orgasms – and who can say no to that?!
Benefits of Kegel Exercises for Men
Kegel exercises can do more than prevent urinary and fecal incontinence (yep, that is a thing) or stop you from dribbling after urination. These clever exercises can also improve your sexual function and performance.
Designed to be easily done at any time and anywhere, once you learn how to locate and perform the correct Kegel exercise, you can benefit from:
- Reductions in overactive bladder – constant bladder contractions can leave you feeling like you need to pee – all the time – even when you don’t. Kegel exercise for men can help to suppress these contractions, as contracting your pelvic floor will minimize the sensation/urge to go to the toilet.
It can also help to treat nocturia (the need to urinate in the night). In one preliminary study, they discovered that Kegel exercise alone – and in combination with an alpha-blocker – helped to improve sleep, reduce nocturia and improved their overall health.
- Decreased risk of erectile dysfunction – ED has got strong ties to urinary incontinence (after radical prostatectomy), so it stands to reason that pelvic floor muscle exercises can help to decrease ED symptoms.
During one study on men who had ED and climacturia one-year post-prostatectomy; they saw significant improvements in erectile function after doing pelvic floor muscle exercises for 15 months.
- Improved orgasms – same as above, this too has been linked to urinary incontinence. This means the more you can train and strengthen these muscles, the more your penile muscles will be able to forcibly contract (as they expel cum) and heighten the intensity of your orgasms.
- Prevent premature ejaculation – a study involving biofeedback, Kegel exercises for men and electrostimulation, was found to stop premature ejaculation in 50% of participants (who had a long history of premature ejaculation) within 2-6 months of beginning treatment.
- Assist men undergoing prostate surgery – whether you need this surgery to fight off cancer or to remove benign prostatic hyperplasia; the problem with it is that it can reduce the resistance of your bladder and make you incontinent. Establishing a routine (like the one we’re about to show you) before surgery can help to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles and minimize this risk. NOTE: these Kegel exercises should be done before and after surgery.
How to Do Kegel Exercises
Step One: Locating Your Pelvic Floor Muscles
The easiest way to identify your pelvic floor muscle is to try to stop yourself from peeing mid-flow. This same muscle contraction you perform to halt it is the same muscles you’ll need to do Kegel exercise for men. NOTE: stopping your urine flow this way should only be done for learning purposes, and should not be done continuously as it can lead to urinary tract infections. Likewise, you shouldn’t do it when your bladder is full.
Another method you can try is contracting your anus muscles – as though you’re trying to hold in gas. As you do this, you will feel a pulling/lifting sensation. This is your pelvic floor muscles.
Alternatively, you can add your penis to the mix and use it to judge when you’re contracting these muscles. Simply contract your anus muscles (as described above) and observe how your penis reacts. If your penis base rises towards your abdomen, then you have found the right muscles.
Step Two: Practice Contracting Your Muscles
Like all muscles, your pelvic floor is one that you need to practice using before you start trying to do more technical exercises i.e. doing them while you’re walking or sitting in your chair.
To get started, we suggest emptying your bladder and then lying down on your back. You should start this way until you are confident at contracting these muscles. Once you’ve mastered it and can feel it happening, you can progress to practicing while sitting up or standing.
TIP: it is important that your other muscles stay relaxed and that you don’t accidentally contract your abdominal, leg or butt muscles. Similarly, your pelvis should not lift off the floor. To stop this, place your hand gently on your stomach and use it to detect any unwanted stomach action. If you feel your abdominal muscles tensing, then stop.
NOTE: don’t hold your breath or cross your legs whilst performing these exercises. Should you feel any pain in your abdomen or back, then this is a sign that you aren’t doing them correctly.
Step Three: Contract & Relax
The best way to work these muscles is to perform the following exercise.
- Lying down – contract your pelvic floor muscles for 3-5 seconds.
- Relax for 3-5 seconds and then repeat.
- You should repeat this contract and relax cycle a total of 10 times.
- Aim to do at least 30-40 Kegel exercises a day. We suggest keeping to your sets of 10 and doing these exercises spaced out, 3-4 times a day. At a minimum, you should do one in the morning and one at night.
Step Four: Extend the Length of Your Contractions / Relaxations
With practice, you should eventually be able to hold this muscle for 10 seconds, before relaxing for 10 seconds. This won’t be instant but will take time, so don’t go jumping ahead or you risk exercising the wrong muscles.
Step Five: Get Creative With Your Location
Once you’ve mastered doing these exercises lying down, sitting up and standing; you can begin incorporating Kegels into your day to day life. For instance, you can practice whilst waiting at the traffic lights; when you’re in a lift, or when you’re waiting in a queue to pay.
Step Six: Diversify
Kegel exercises are not all about how long you can contract your muscles. You can also diversify and try to keep them short (2-3 second contractions and releases).
A good tactic is to mix these in with your long stretches. So instead of doing a set of ten 10 second contractions and releases; you can do 6 long ones and 4 short bursts – but intermittently.
Another exercise you can try is to do:
- 1/3 lying down
- 1/3 sitting up
- 1/3 standing
This exercise works great if you progress your sets from just 10 and up to 30, as you can split these into even 10s.
Step Seven: Work on Reflex Development
This step is especially useful if you’ve had surgery, as incontinence will be high risk. To perform you’ll need to practice simultaneously contracting your pelvic floor muscles whilst performing other activities such as coughing, sneezing and standing up/walking around. Whilst sneezing will be difficult to trigger, you can incorporate fake coughing into your Kegel exercise routine.
When to Do Kegel Exercises
Like women, as we get older our pelvic floor muscles can weaken, leading to issues with bladder control and maintaining an erection.
Yet, by taking steps to prevent this development – as early as you can – you can minimize this muscle loss and ensure that premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction are never a blip on your radar.
Basically, you need to treat your pelvic floor muscles like any other muscle in your body. You’ve got to train and maintain them in order to preserve muscle definition – or in this case, erection quality – that you want.
Fortunately, once you’ve got the hang of locating this muscle and completing 10-second sets of 10 contractions and 10 relaxations (whilst sitting and standing); you can start doing these exercises throughout the day and without anyone ever noticing.
For instance, you can complete a set:
- Whilst doing a routine task e.g. brushing your teeth or driving to work.
- Once you’ve been to the toilet – you can use these contractions to help you get rid of those last few drops.
- Before or after an activity that has put pressure on your abdomen e.g. sneezing, coughing, laughing or when you have lifted something heavy.
Kegel Exercise Weights
The idea might sound odd – after all, how can lifting weights help Kegel exercises? However, it is not that different than doing Kegel exercises after you’ve lifted something heavy (see our point above).
Think about it…
Any exercises that engage your core, such as lifting weights, will work out the muscles around your pelvic region. However, instead of supporting them – similar to a sneeze, cough or heavy lifting – weights can cause a temporary loss in bladder control, leading to potential accidents.
Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t lift weights.
The key is getting the right sequence. For instance, by fitting weight lifting around your Kegel routine, you can strengthen both your core and your pelvic muscles, whilst stopping these leakages from happening. In doing so, you can experience the added bonus of bolstering the longevity of your erections, as you’ll be able to support them more easily.
TIP One: try contracting and relaxing your pelvic floor for a set, before lifting weights. This will help you to regain control, whilst building up your pelvic region.
Tip Two: Combine core training, weights, and Kegel exercises to get the full package. We recommend trying:
- Russian Twist (using a dumbbell) – this one pairs up well with sitting Kegel exercises
- Single Dead-lift (with weights)
- Single-Leg Reverse Fly
Kegel Exercise Device
You might remember us saying the word ‘biofeedback’ earlier in the article. If you’re not familiar with this term, then these are a small probe that can be inserted into your rectum that can help you to identify, measure and track your pelvic floor muscle activity, as well as show you if you are effectively contracting/relaxing them when you perform Kegel exercises.
Now, we aren’t proposing that you need one of these. The reason we’ve mentioned them is that alongside using them as a stepping stone to locating these muscles; biofeedback training has also inspired the creation of Kegel exercise devices.
The idea behind this portable device is that you can sit on them, and using an app on your phone, you can use it to measure and report your muscle movement (as you perform Kegel exercises).
Not only is this great for maximizing the effectiveness of these exercises – as you’ll know if you’re doing them properly or not – you can use this Kegel exercise device to improve your sexual fitness.
How it works:
Similar to a bicycle seat, you need to sit on the device. The sensor beneath its soft central pillow will monitor contractions in your pelvic floor. This is because, when you contract, these muscles will bulge downwards and will be picked up by the device – even through your clothing.
This information is then sent through to the app, detailing the strength of your contractions, before it advises you on personalized exercises that you can try. This app will also keep track of all of your other workouts. Perfect!
Yet, these are not the only type of Kegel exercise device out there…
There are also other devices that are designed to stimulate your pelvic muscles on your behalf – through natural electrical pulses – encouraging them to contract and relax. They work by applying probes or electrode pads to your body, before sending pulses into your pelvic floor muscles.
In doing so, you can benefit from greater orgasm control, improved erections and increased sensation.
What You Can Expect
If you’re performing Kegel exercises to prevent urine issues/leakages, then you can expect to see reductions in drips/accidents within 3-6 weeks (if these exercises are done daily). In terms of erection quality and strength, you’re looking along with the same timeframe. In most cases, users have reported improvements in their sexual performance within two months.
Conclusion
Kegel exercise – even for men – may have a stronger reputation for protecting your bladder; however, there is no denying that they can enhance your sexual health too. By simply preventing the development of urinary incontinence, you can also say bye-bye to premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction, and ensure that you enter into every sexual encounter with an erection to be proud of.
In fact, by making the effort to train your pelvic floor muscles using Kegel exercise for men, you can ensure that your erectile muscles perform for the better. Even more so, if you pair these exercises with proven natural supplements such as Viasil. Combine these together and you can support your sexual health from the inside and from the out.
