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Kegel Exercises – What They Are & How To Do Them.

by | Dec 10, 2004 | Sex, Sexuality & Pregnancy

Kegel Exercises

Kegel (KAY-gul or KEY-gul) exercises are named after Dr. Kegel, who discovered them and noted their importance. They can be done to tone up and strengthen the pubococcygeus muscle, the primary “sexual” muscle that supports the urethra, bladder, vagina, penis, uterus and rectum and is involved with sexual functions like an orgasm and ejaculation in both men and women. Doing these exercises on a regular basis can also help cure or correct problems such as impotence and urinary problems. Anyone can learn to do them, at anytime, any place, and at any age, and the results are always beneficial if not astounding with enough time and effort.

How is a Kegel exercise done?

First, you have to discover where the muscle is located and what it feels like to exercise it. It’s the same muscle you flex when you try not to pee (like when you feel you really need to pee but there’s no bathroom around). Next time you’re urinating, try to stop in mid-flow without using your legs. The muscle you use to start and stop is the pubococcygeus muscle (PC muscle). This is what you’re looking for. Please remember this is only a way to find the muscle – Kegel exercises should normally not be done when urinating.

Now that you’ve found the PC muscle, you’ll want to begin exercising it. The easiest way to exercise is simply to contract the muscle, hold it for a count of 10, then relax. If you can’t hold it this long yet, don’t be discouraged, this is why you’re exercising after all. Eventually it will get much stronger. Repeat this 10 times at first and work your way up from there. You may want to do this several times during the day. As well as being simple to do, the exercises only take a few minutes each day and unlike other exercises (like jogging, swimming, strength training, etc.), you don’t even have to take a shower afterwards, and the results are very rewarding.

When exercising you should not use your stomach, leg, back or buttock muscles. Breathe slowly and deeply. Put your hand on your stomach when you squeeze your pelvic muscle. If you feel your abdominal muscles move, then you are also using these muscles. Your leg and buttocks muscles should not move. When exercising, it should not feel as if your anus is tensing too. It may be hard to tighten the PC muscle and anus separately, but when you’ve exercised for some time, you should be able to feel the difference between these muscles. If you get headaches when exercising, then you are also tensing your chest muscles and probably holding your breath. If you find the exercises tiring or if you get back pain or stomach pain after you exercise, then you are probably trying too hard and using stomach muscles. There’s also gadgets available like vaginal cones to help women locate and exercise the right muscles.

The best part is that no one can tell that you’re even exercising, so you can do the exercises anywhere, anytime. On the bus, when walking, watching TV, lying down, driving a car, sitting, during sexual intercourse (tighten your pelvic muscles to grip your partner’s penis and then relax), while brushing your teeth, at work, during a public presentation, standing in line at the ATM, waiting for an elevator, whenever a telephone operator puts you on hold, when jogging, make a habit of doing some contractions every time you take a look at a watch, every morning when you get out of bed, or something like this.

If you already have a daily exercise program for your body, you can do the Kegel exercises as a part of that program. For best results, you must exercise faithfully. The muscles won’t increase in strength overnight. Most people will notice changes after just three weeks. Women will see increased vaginal strength and control and men should see increased ejaculation strength and increased sexual stamina. Both genders will see greatly increased pleasure during intercourse and more intense, longer lasting orgasms.

Kegel Exercise Benefits for Men

The Kegel exercise regimen for men is far less complicated than for women because there isn’t a sexually complicated vagina involved. While men may greatly enhance their enjoyment of sex by doing Kegel exercises, it’s the women who can greatly increase the pleasure for both her and the man by learning to contract and hold this muscle during intercourse so that the pleasure for both partners is greatly increased. However, after several weeks you should notice a higher erection angle, increased ejaculation distance and volume, and more intense orgasms.

Kegel Exercise Benefits for Women

Some of the benefits of these exercises can be applied to males, however most of these are primarily benefits the females will enjoy:

  1. Make it easier for you to reach orgasm.
  2. Make your orgasms stronger/better as the muscles you’re exercising are the same as used during orgasm.
  3. Make your vagina more sensitive (you’ll feel more). When squeezing you’ll feel your partner much better inside. It will simply heighten your sexual satisfaction.
  4. Prevent prolapse and incontinence.
  5. Make childbirth easier and your muscles will regain more quickly after the birth.
  6. For your male partner it will be a tremendous difference. You will get tighter. You can pull and squeeze your partner’s penis.
  7. You don’t have to be nervous the first time you make love with a new partner, wondering what he will think of you as a sexual partner.
  8. You’ll have better sexual self-confidence. You’ll know that your present/future boyfriend/husband/lover won’t be disappointed.
  9. Men prefer women with a strong vagina (to many men it’s more important that his lover has a strong vagina than having a perfect body). In some cultures women exercise their vaginal strength in order to help them keep their future/present husband.
  10. You can be proud of your vaginal strength (just like one can be proud of one’s body).
  11. The woman will get more control in bed if they want it.

Kegel Exercise Techniques

These exercises are done for six seconds, and you can count one-thousand, two-thousand up to six-thousand while exercising.

  1. Slowly contract (one-thousand).
  2. Keep contracting and keep your vagina closed (two-thousand).
  3. Keep contracting (three-thousand).
  4. Keep contracting (four-thousand).
  5. Squeeze even harder, even if you think you’re contracting as hard as you can (here, you may use the muscles of your stomach while counting five-thousand).
  6. Relax (six-thousand) before you start over again. You can force the muscle to relax the same way you would push during a bowel movement.

It is recommended that you do these exercises for 20 minutes daily. When you’re exercising these muscles, it is very likely that you will feel that you are becoming sexually stimulated. Use this knowledge to your and your partner’s delight!

An even more effective way is to relax and then do three fast contractions between point 5 and 6. You can also try to relax longer after the long contraction:

  1. Slowly contract (one-thousand).
  2. Keep contracting and keep your vagina closed (two-thousand).
  3. Keep contracting (three-thousand).
  4. Keep contracting (four-thousand).
  5. Squeeze even harder, even if you think you’re contracting as hard as you can (here, you may use the muscles of your stomach while counting five-thousand).
  6. Relax for five seconds.
  7. Contract fast (a short, yet hard contraction, should take less than one second).
  8. Release (fast).
  9. Contract (fast).
  10. Release (fast).
  11. Contract (fast).
  12. Relax several seconds before starting over again at step 1.

Here’s another technique:

  1. Tighten a little – count five.
  2. Tighten a little more – count five.
  3. Tighten as hard as possible – count five.
  4. Relax in reverse steps, counting five at each step.

And another:

You can the following exercises 3 times a day, every day. They will only take a couple of minutes.

  • Exercise 1: Contract your muscles for 3 seconds. Release. Repeat 10 times.
  • Exercise 2: Squeeze and release your muscles as rapidly as possible. Repeat 25 times.
  • Exercise 3: Imagine you are trying to draw something into your vagina. Hold for 3 seconds. Release. Repeat 10 times.
  • Exercise 4: Imagine you are trying to eject something from your vagina. Hold for 3 seconds. Release. Repeat 10 times.

Conclusion

The most important thing to keep in mind as you exercise is to have fun. Adjust them to your time schedule, learn what you like, and do it often. You can even try doing them while masturbating or even with a partner to enhance your sexual enjoyment.

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