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Archive-title: Kegal Exercises

Maybe it sounds too good to be true, but there’s now a simple,
foolproof way for men to boost their partners’ and their own
pleasure during lovemaking. And it doesn’t rely on aphrodisiacs or
drugs. Instead, it involves doing a set of easy to learn
pelvic-muscle exercises called Kegels (after Arnold Kegel, M.D.,
the gynecologist who developed them over 40 years ago). Women have
been practicing these moves for years to intensify their orgasms
and increase their partners’ stimulation. Now, sex therapists and
researchers have discovered that both partners can benefit sexually
when men do Kegels, too.

Kegel exercises both strengthen and tone the pubococcygeal (PC)
muscle-which runs from front to back in men’s and women’s
pelvises–as well as the surrounding pelvic muscles. The PC muscle
is what helps bring a man or woman to climax, and, along with other
pelvic muscles, it also controls urination.

In his recent book, “The New Male Sexuality (Bantam Books,
1992), psychologist Bernie Zilbergeld, Ph.D., claims that many of
his male patients who practiced pelvic-muscle contractions over
time reported increased sexual sensation and more intense orgasms.
That’s not all. Over the past 20 years, William Hartman, Ph.D., and
Marilyn Fithian, Ph.D., co-directors of the Center for Marital and
Sexual Studies in Long Beach, California, have prescribed Kegel
exercises to more than 1,300 male patients who were troubled by
erection problems. Most of the men who did the exercises as
prescribed reported firmer erections than before.

What’s more, nearly 200 of Dr. Hartman and Dr. Fithian’s male
patients who practiced Kegels learned to delay ejaculation,
enabling them to prolong sex to their own and their partner’s
satisfaction. And most surprising, 10 percent of these men were
eventually able to have multiple orgasms–that is, two or more
climaxes during a single act of intercourse before ejaculating.
(Orgasm and ejaculation don’t always occur simultaneously in men.)

With so many sexual benefits, Kegels are the perfect
“sexercises” for men as well as women to master. Besides helping to
create the physical conditions that enhance lovemaking, the
exercises can spice up sex in another way as well. “Partners can
take turns tightening their pelvic muscles during intercourse,”
explains Dr. Hartman. “Each will feel the other’s muscle contrac-
tions, which adds to the excitement.”

For a man who wants to learn how to perform Kegels, the first
step is locating the PC muscle. Here’s how: Some time when he has
the urge to urinate, he should sit on the toilet with his legs
spread, start to urinate, then try to stop the flow. (The PC muscle
is the one he squeezes to do this.) After restarting the flow, he
can practice stopping and restarting the stream of urine. It may
take several attempts to actually isolate the PC muscle–the
buttocks muscles have a tendency to kick in if the legs aren’t kept
wide.
When a man has familiarized himself with the sensation of
contracting the PC muscle, he’s ready to practice holding the
contractions. He should first try holding a contraction for several
seconds three or four times a day. Over the next few weeks, as he
continues doing Kegels, he can gradually increase the time of the
contraction until he is holding it for 10 to 15 seconds. Next, he
should alternate these Kegel holds with a series of short, quick
contractions. Dr. Hartman recommends that men gradually work up to
a daily routine of 100 quick PC contractions and five holds. (Women
who want to learn how to do Kegels should follow these same steps,
but they only need to do the long holds for five seconds; men,
however, need the 10- to 15-second hold for delaying ejaculation.)

After a few months of diligent practice, a man should be ready
to try using the Kegel hold during intercourse to delay ejacula-
tion. But first he must familiarize himself with the sensation
known as ejaculatory inevitability–the point at which he can no
longer hold back an ejaculation. He will feel an uncontrollable
urge to ejaculate as his prostate gland and seminal vesicles
contract. Once a man has developed an awareness of this sensation,
he can then learn to produce a PC contraction before he reaches
that point of no return. (Another option is for a man to try
practicing this technique on his own while masturbating.)

Most men can do Kegels anywhere, since they’re seldom aroused
by the exercises; women may want to practice Kegels in private
since for them, the increased blood flow to the pelvic region is
more likely to spark arousal. Continued over a lifetime, the
exercises can help men (and women) head off urinary incontinence
later in life. That plus greater arousal, enhanced orgasms and
longer-lasting sex make these some of the simplest, most beneficial
exercises a man or woman can do.

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