In this guide
- What the pelvic floor is, in plain words
- Why it matters for erections and control
- What the research actually shows
- How to do Kegel exercises properly
- The most common mistakes
- Kegels for premature ejaculation
- When Kegels are the wrong answer
- My take
Every week someone sends me a message asking for a secret. A pill, a cream, a breathing trick, anything that will make them harder and let them last longer. I always answer the same way: the boring things work better than the secrets. And one of the most boring, most ignored and most underrated things a man can do is train his pelvic floor.
I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. The facts in this article come from the NHS, Mayo Clinic and published studies on PubMed, and I cite them so you can read them yourself. The opinions are mine, from 14 years in a job where your body has to perform on schedule, with cameras, lights and a crew waiting.
What the pelvic floor is, in plain words
The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that sits like a hammock at the bottom of your pelvis, from the pubic bone at the front to the tailbone at the back. It supports your bladder and bowel, helps you control urine and wind, and, the part men rarely hear about, it plays a role in erections and ejaculation.
Two of these muscles matter most for sex. The bulbocavernosus wraps around the base of the penis and helps push blood into the erect shaft and rhythmically contracts during ejaculation. The ischiocavernosus helps keep the erection rigid by compressing the veins that would otherwise let blood drain out. When doctors talk about “pelvic floor exercises for erectile dysfunction”, these are the muscles they are trying to strengthen.
Women hear about pelvic floor training after pregnancy. Men usually only hear about it after prostate surgery, when leaking becomes a problem. That is a pity, because the same muscles are working every time you have sex.
Why it matters for erections and control
An erection is mostly a blood flow event. Arteries open, blood fills the spongy tissue of the penis, and the outflow veins get squeezed so the blood stays there. The pelvic floor muscles help with that last part. If they are weak, some men notice softer erections or erections that fade more easily, especially when standing or changing positions.
Ejaculation is also partly a pelvic floor event. The rhythmic contractions of orgasm come from these muscles. That is why some researchers have looked at pelvic floor training as a way to give men more awareness and control over the moment of no return.
None of this means a weak pelvic floor is the cause of every erection problem. The most common causes are blood vessel health, stress, anxiety, alcohol, smoking and some medicines, which I cover in erectile dysfunction in young men. But the pelvic floor is one piece you can actually train, for free, at home, without anyone knowing.
What the research actually shows
The best known study is a randomised controlled trial by Grace Dorey and colleagues, published in the British Journal of General Practice in 2004 (Dorey et al., PubMed). Fifty-five men aged over 20 with erectile dysfunction for at least six months were randomised to either pelvic floor exercises with biofeedback plus lifestyle advice, or lifestyle advice alone. After three months the control group also got the exercises.
The result after six months: 40% of the men regained normal erectile function, 34.5% improved, and 25.5% did not improve. For a free intervention with no side effects, that is a serious result. The authors concluded that pelvic floor exercises should be considered as a first-line approach for men with erectile dysfunction.
Let me be fair about the limits. It was a small study. The men were trained by a specialist physiotherapist, with biofeedback equipment that measured their contractions, which is very different from reading an internet article and squeezing at red lights. And many of them had vascular problems that might respond differently than, for example, purely psychological causes.
Mayo Clinic also describes Kegel exercises for men as a way to strengthen the pelvic floor, mainly for urinary and bowel control, and notes that they may help after prostate surgery (Mayo Clinic: Kegel exercises for men). The NHS lists pelvic floor exercises in its guidance on urinary incontinence for men and women (NHS: urinary incontinence treatment).
The pelvic floor is not a magic button. It is a muscle. And like every muscle, it gets better when you train it correctly and consistently.
How to do Kegel exercises properly
This is the method I would explain to a friend, based on what Mayo Clinic and pelvic health physiotherapists describe. If you have any pain or a medical condition, ask your doctor first.
1. Find the right muscles. Imagine you are trying to stop yourself passing wind, and at the same time stop the flow of urine. You should feel a lift and squeeze between your scrotum and your anus, and the base of your penis may move slightly. Mayo Clinic suggests that you can test this by stopping urination midstream once, but not to use that as an exercise, because doing it regularly can interfere with emptying the bladder.
2. Check you are not cheating. Your buttocks, thighs and stomach should stay relaxed. You should keep breathing normally. A good test: stand in front of a mirror naked. When you squeeze correctly, the penis should lift slightly and the scrotum should rise. If your belly pushes out or your glutes clench, you are using the wrong muscles.
3. Start with short holds. Squeeze, hold for three seconds, relax for three seconds. Repeat ten times. Relaxing fully between each squeeze is as important as the squeeze itself.
4. Build up. Over a few weeks, try to hold for up to ten seconds, with the same rest. Aim for three sets a day: lying down, sitting and standing. Standing is the hardest and the most useful, because erections happen against gravity.
5. Add quick flicks. After your long holds, do ten fast squeeze-and-release contractions. These train the fast-twitch fibres involved in the rhythmic contractions of ejaculation.
6. Be patient. In the Dorey trial, men trained for three months and the main results were measured at six months. If you quit after ten days, you have not tested anything.
The most common mistakes
I see the same mistakes in men who tell me “I tried Kegels and they did nothing”:
- Holding your breath. This raises the pressure in your abdomen and pushes down on the pelvic floor. Breathe.
- Squeezing your glutes or abs. These are big muscles and they will try to take over. Isolation is the whole point.
- Only doing it lying down. Start there, but you must progress to sitting and standing.
- Never relaxing. A muscle that is always tense is not a strong muscle, it is a tired one. Relaxation is part of the exercise.
- Doing too much. Hundreds of squeezes a day will not make you a superhero. They will make you sore.
- Stopping urine as a workout. Use it once to find the muscle. That is all.
Kegels for premature ejaculation
This is the question I get most. Can pelvic floor training help you last longer?
The evidence here is thinner than for erections, but it exists. A small Italian study of 40 men with lifelong premature ejaculation used a 12-week pelvic floor rehabilitation programme with physiotherapy, electrical stimulation and biofeedback. By the end, 33 of the 40 men (82.5%) had gained control of their ejaculatory reflex, with average time to ejaculation rising from about 40 seconds to about 146 seconds (Pastore et al., Therapeutic Advances in Urology, 2014).
That is an encouraging result, but it is one small study without a placebo group, and the programme was much more structured than home Kegels. I see pelvic floor training as one tool among several, together with the techniques and treatments I explain in how to last longer in bed.
What I can tell you from experience is this: awareness matters. Men who never think about their pelvic floor often do not notice how much tension they carry there during sex. Learning to feel that area, and learning to relax it, is just as useful as learning to squeeze it. Many men who finish too fast are tense from head to toe. Kegels done properly teach you the difference between tense and relaxed.
When Kegels are the wrong answer
Not every man needs a stronger pelvic floor. Some men have the opposite problem: an overactive or tight pelvic floor, often linked to stress, chronic pelvic pain or sitting all day. For them, squeezing more can make pain, urgency or problems with ejaculation worse. The treatment there is usually relaxation and stretching, guided by a pelvic health physiotherapist.
See a doctor, and do not just start an exercise programme, if you have:
- Pain in your pelvis, perineum, testicles or penis.
- Pain during or after ejaculation, or blood in your semen.
- A sudden change in erections, especially with other symptoms like chest pain or breathlessness when exercising.
- Leaking urine that is new or getting worse.
- Problems after prostate surgery or radiotherapy.
The NHS reminds men that erection problems can be an early sign of conditions like heart disease or diabetes, and that it is worth getting checked (NHS: erectile dysfunction). A daily Kegel routine is not a reason to skip that check.
How Kegels fit with the rest of your health
Think of the pelvic floor as one muscle in a bigger system. If your arteries are clogged by smoking, a poor diet and no movement, Kegels will not fix that. They can help a good system work better, not rescue a broken one.
The same habits come up again and again in every serious source: stop smoking, drink less, move more, sleep, manage stress. I explain the food side in the diet for erectile health, and the role of training in exercise and erectile function. Put those together with a pelvic floor routine and you are doing far more than any supplement in a shiny bottle.
My take
In my profession, people imagine everything is about size or some secret pill. The reality is much less glamorous. Men who work consistently in this industry tend to look after their bodies, manage their energy and know how their bodies respond. Physical awareness is a big part of that, and the pelvic floor is part of it, even if most people never name it.
I am not going to tell you that Kegels will turn you into a porn actor. That would be a lie, and the editing on screen hides a lot, as I explained in is porn real?. What I will tell you is that five minutes a day, done properly, for three months, is one of the cheapest experiments you can run on your own sex life. The worst that happens is better bladder control. The best is firmer erections and more control.
And if nothing changes, that is information too. It means the cause is probably somewhere else, and that is the moment to talk to a doctor instead of buying another miracle product online.
If you want to read the human side of this industry, the real stories of the actresses behind the names, my columns are on House of Maximo. To follow my work, visit maximogarciaworld.com. The 18+ side lives on fuckingpornstars.net.
Sources
- Dorey G et al. Randomised controlled trial of pelvic floor muscle exercises and manometric biofeedback for erectile dysfunction. British Journal of General Practice, 2004.
- Mayo Clinic. Kegel exercises for men: Understand the benefits.
- Pastore AL et al. Pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation for patients with lifelong premature ejaculation. Therapeutic Advances in Urology, 2014.
- NHS. Urinary incontinence: treatment.
- NHS. Erectile dysfunction (impotence).
