Caitlain's Corner

Why should men do Kegel exercises regularly?

Kegel exercises increase the blood flow to the genital area, and support sexual arousal mechanisms.

Kegel exercises strengthen and tone the muscles that are involved in ejaculation. Men who Kegel can gain greater control over the timing of their ejaculation., This can help prevent premature ejaculation problems, and can serve as the basis for achieving the capability of having multiple orgasms.

Kegel exercises prevent incontinence and other problems that are often associated with aging.

Why should women do Kegel exercises regularly?

Kegel exercises increase the blood flow to the genital area, and therefore support sexual arousal mechanisms.

Kegel exercises strengthen and tone the muscles of the vaginal canal. Women can improve their capacity to orgasm by means of vaginal play, in terms of both the intensity and the frequency.

Kegel exercises are essential to the treatment of sexual difficulties such as vaginismus and dyspareunia (pain on vaginal intercourse).

Kegel exercises prevent incontinence, prolapses, and many other problems of the pelvic floor that are often associated with aging.

Kegel exercises strengthen and tone the musculature of the pelvic area in a way that can make vaginal delivery during childbirth easier.

Doing Kegels and learning to use them during sex will be a tremendous confidence booster. You'll develop the ability to control your vaginal contractions and enhance the sexual experience for both you and your partner.

How do I find my PC muscles?

Go to the bathroom and sit on the toilet and start peeing (guys, it is also a good idea to sit for this). In the middle of your stream of urine, stop and start the stream a couple of times (don't overdo this, lest you run the risk of incurring a UTI). The muscles you use to do this are your PC muscles. You may also find that you are squeezing your anal muscles as you do this – the PC muscle group includes those that surround and interconnect with the anus. You can ensure that you're squeezing the PC muscles by inserting a finger into your vagina or anus – when you squeeze the muscle, you should feel it clamp down on your finger.

Avoid involving your abs, thighs, gluteus (butt) and other muscles when you're doing this. One mistake a lot of women make is squeezing every muscle they have in their pelvic region, and that's not what you want to do. You need to work on isolating the PC muscle group specifically and leaving the rest of them out. As you become more intimately familiar with the muscles that you're working, you may also try to isolate the anal muscles from the muscles controlling your urine flow (and vaginal contraction).

How do I do regular Kegel exercises?

It is important to note that the intent in doing Kegel exercises is to learn to control the muscles, not to build strength in them necessarily. Even Dr. Kegel stated outright that "strength" is not the important focus - rather he stressed the importance of "conditioning of the sexual reflex".

Now that you have located your PC muscles, you can exercise them while your bladder is completely empty. Start your Kegel workout in the morning, either at home as you check your e-mail or eat breakfast, as you drive to work or school (while you are at a stop sign, for example), or as you wait for your first class to begin.

Squeeze the Kegels rapidly and release ten times in a row. This should take about ten seconds or so.

Squeeze and hold your Kegels for five seconds then release, ten times in a row. This will take approximately one minute.

Imagine you are sitting in a puddle of water, and your vagina (or anus) is a wet-dry vacuum, and you're trying to suck up as much water as you can. To do this correctly, you'll need to tighten your buttocks and pull up in the front. Hold that position for five seconds and release, and do it ten times. This should also take about one minute.

Following this warm up, do 100 squeeze/release cycles of the Kegels, holding the squeeze for no more than one second each time.

During the remainder of the day, perform the 100 squeeze/release exercise at least twice more; once during the middle of the day, and once during the early evening.

Do these exercise cycles three or four times a week, remembering that strength is not the goal, but rather toning the muscles and learning to control them.

You might also experiment by varying the type and timing of the PC squeezing you do as you train these muscles: slow clenches, many quick flutters, and so on. This will make you more familiar with these muscles – notice also when your abdominal muscles or your anal muscles feel like they also want to join in the exercise.

Remember, you should try to separate Kegel exercises from anal squeezing. If you are in doubt, go back and re-find your PC muscle while urinating.

Once you are skilled at Kegel exercises, you should be able to do them without anyone else knowing what you are doing... boring meetings at work, tedious lectures at conferences, and other daily events all become opportunities to work quietly on improving your sexual health.

As you learn to control your Kegels, incorporate them with your masturbation or sex play with your partner. As you masturbate, insert your finger(s) into your vagina and squeeze your Kegels. You'll soon understand how this can work when you're being penetrated by a cock. As you approach an orgasm, insert your fingers and expand them to allow your Kegels to have something to counter against. As you get a better sense of your timing with the contractions of the Kegels, you'll get to the point where you can use the Kegel contractions to increase the intensity of the orgasm. This will be the point at which all of your hard work will start to pay off. Additionally, when you're being penetrated by a cock, you can use your Kegels to squeeze it as he thrusts in or withdraws. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to squeeze as he withdraws. If he pulls back far enough, the squeezing at the entrance to your vagina will stimulate the head of his penis (which is its most sensitive part) just as he gets ready to thrust back into your pussy.

They make toys that are designed specifically for working your PC muscles (one of which is called a Kegelcisor). If you can afford one of these devices, it might make a worthwhile investment if you'd like to continue to improve the tone of your PC muscles. These toys are basically weighted devices that you hold in your vagina through the use of Kegel muscles (as you stand up, for example). Ben Wa Balls are also excellent toys you can use to work the Kegels.

Summary

Kegel exercises (named after Dr. Arnold Kegel, who developed the exercises) are an excellent way to increase and maintain the capability of enhancing and enjoying your orgasms, as well as enhancing penetrative sex for your partner. They can be done at just about any point in time, without anyone knowing that you're doing them, and are perfectly safe. The key to ensuring success is to keep up the exercises across time. Just as with any other muscles, if you stop exercising them, they will return to their previous state, undoing all of the work that you've accomplished.