Kegels and Sexual Health for Men and Women

By Lauren Zerbst, LCSW

Both men and women have pubococcygeus muscles or PC muscles that help with core stability, incontinence, and sexual functioning. They surround the pubic bones, sex organs, and make up the pelvic floor. Like all other muscles in the body, exercising these muscles will increase blood flow, feel great, and allow for more pleasure during orgasm for men and women. Having control over the muscles is a common solution for premature ejaculation in men and helps manage vaginismus and healing from childbirth in women.

Sexuality is a mind-body experience and our therapists use this technique combined with mindful mediation, visualization, and breath work to aid with healing and reconnecting individuals/couples to their sexual selves. If you’d like to learn more or if you are experiencing dissatisfaction or discomfort with your sexual health, our therapists can help. Feel free to contact us!

 

Improving Your Sexual Health

Take an easy, but effective step in improving your sexual health and follow this Kegel exercise in Barbra Carrellas’ book, Urban Tantra:

Kegels are your own personal erotic energy pump. A Kegel is a little squeeze of the PC muscle. To find that muscle, imagine that you are trying to stop a stream of urine. Squeezing that muscle constitutes a Kegel – named for Dr. Arnold Kegel (pronounced kay-gull), a gynecologist who developed a program for women who were experiencing incontinence after giving birth.  In reality, these little squeezes have been known by many names as integral parts of sexual fitness and pleasure for centuries.

  • Gently squeeze the PC muscle for a couple seconds. Release.
  • Again, squeeze, and release.
  • Repeat for a total of eight Kegels
  • Do eight Kegels as fast as you can.

Remember to be gentle. If you’re doubling over with each squeeze, you’re working to hard! Don’t worry if it feels as if you are also tightening your anus when you Kegel. This isn’t a problem. But as you strengthen your PC muscle, you’ll probably notice that you can isolate it more and more from the surrounding muscles of the pelvic floor.

The PC muscle is a critically important sexual muscle. For men, the squeezing and tightening in Kegels will help achieve stronger erections. For women, toning your sexual muscle will enhance your vagina’s sensitivity and responsiveness.

Try to do one hundred Kegels a day. You can do them anywhere! Standing in line with a bank, waiting for the traffic light to change, walking down the street, or working out at the gym. And they will certainly keep you from nodding off in those boring business meetings, No one but you will know you are doing your erotic exercises.

Bonus points if you can Kegel to the beat of your favorite song.

Bonus bonus points if you can do it to every word in Bohemian Rhapsody.

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