Have you heard about Kegel exercises? If you do any sort of reading about better sex, you probably have come across the word “Kegel” at least once and probably in the context of exercise. So, what are Kegel exercises?
Kegel muscles, also known as the PC (pubococcygeus) muscles, are the muscles of your pelvic floor. In the 1950's, Dr. Arnold Kegel (the “Kegel” in the term Kegel exercises) came up with this exercise to help his female patients that were suffering from urinary incontinence.
You may be thinking, “How does this even apply to me?” Well, there are a ton of reasons why I do my Kegel exercises and why you should be doing them as well. Here are five of them.
1. Urinary incontinence. The obvious reason you should be doing Kegels is it helps alleviate and prevent urinary incontinence. That's why it was invented in the first place.
2. Stronger orgasms. I've heard, as you probably have, that Kegel exercises lead to better and stronger orgasms. But is it true? I'm going to go out on a limb and give a great big YES! How do I know? Well, for a long time I practiced my Kegels regularly. At one point, life got in the way and I simply forgot to do them for several months. My orgasms became harder to attain and extremely weak. After I started doing Kegels again, guess what happened? Yep, stronger orgasms.
3. Toys! Love your sex toys? Good news! Kegels have toy accessories, too. Erotica aside, (I'm looking at you, Fifty Shades of Grey!), there are several specific exercisers that are made to work the PC muscles. You can get weights made to fit into the vagina, balls such as Teneo Uno and Duo or Luna Beads, or even something completely different like the Magic Banana!
4. Kegels can be fun! I do love my Kegel exercisers, but my favorite way to work my muscles is during intercourse by squeezing my muscles against my husband's penis. It feels great for my husband and is beneficial for me. What's not to love about that?
5. You can start now. Don't be concerned if you don't have a fancy toy or partner to practice Kegels with. You can start them right now, wherever you are! Kegels can be done anywhere, with or without special equipment (toys, weights, and partners merely give you something to squeeze against and aren't strictly necessary). Do your Kegels standing in line, at a red light, while watching TV, or while making dinner.
So now you've decided to start Kegeling. How do you go about that? Different experts have different ideas about how often you need to do your Kegels and how many reps are necessary, but most agree on one thing: to work your Kegel muscles, all you need to do is squeeze and release fully in rhythm or for a specific count. If you can't figure out which muscles you should be squeezing, consider this: it's the same muscles that you use if you want to stop the flow when urinating.
So what are you waiting for? Go start now! You'll be so glad you did.