Finding your pelvic floor muscles

By Kyrylo Lozovyi · August 10, 2026

Every study of pelvic floor training runs into the same problem: a large share of people cannot perform the contraction correctly from verbal instruction alone. That is why the trial with the good erectile function results used a physiotherapist and a manometric biofeedback device rather than a leaflet — the checking was the intervention as much as the exercise was.

You do not have either of those. So this page is the substitute: four ways in, and three ways to verify.

Four cues to find it

1. The urine stream — once

Mid-flow, stop the stream. Whatever you just did was the pelvic floor. This is the most unambiguous cue there is, because the feedback is instant and unmistakable.

Do it once. Practising kegels while urinating, as a habit, can leave residual urine in the bladder and irritate it. It is a way of learning the sensation, not a place to train.

2. The mirror

Stand naked in front of a mirror and try to draw the base of the penis inward and the testicles upward. A correct contraction produces a small but visible movement: the base retracts slightly, the testicles lift.

This becomes your long-term check, because you can repeat it any time without involving your bladder, and because it shows you the error as well as the action — if anything else on your body moves, you can see it.

3. The hand on the perineum

Place a couple of fingers on the perineum, the area between the scrotum and the anus, and contract. You should feel it tighten and draw upward under your fingers.

This is the most useful cue for men who cannot tell from internal sensation alone whether anything is happening — which, at the start, is a lot of men.

4. The wind cue

Imagine you are about to break wind in a crowded room and are trying to stop it. That is the back half of the same muscle group. It works for people the other cues don't reach, with one caveat: used alone it tends to recruit the anal sphincter and glutes rather than the front portion that matters for sexual function. Use it to find the area, then refine with the mirror.

The three checks that matter more

Finding it is easier than not doing something else at the same time. Every one of these is a negative check — what should not be happening:

If you can produce a contraction that passes all three while the mirror shows movement at the base of the penis, you have it. Everything else is repetition.

Where it is, anatomically

The pelvic floor is a hammock of muscle running from the pubic bone at the front to the tailbone at the back, supporting the bladder and bowel. In men it is a group rather than a single muscle, and two members of that group do the work this site is about: the ischiocavernosus and the bulbospongiosus, which sit at the base of the penis directly on the erectile tissue. When they contract, pressure inside the erectile bodies rises and venous outflow is restricted — which is the entire mechanism behind the trial evidence for erectile function.

That anatomy also explains why the wind cue alone is insufficient. It finds the back of the hammock. The part that matters here is at the front.

If you genuinely cannot find it

Two situations worth separating.

You feel nothing at all. Common at the start, and usually a mind-muscle connection that has simply never been asked for. It typically arrives within a fortnight of daily attempts. Persistent inability after that is worth an assessment.

You can contract but not release. Different problem, and more important. If letting go feels effortful or incomplete, or if you have pain, urinary hesitancy or aching after ejaculation, you may be starting from a pelvic floor that is already too tight — in which case strengthening is the wrong direction entirely. What that looks like →

In both cases, one session with a pelvic health physiotherapist replaces a lot of guessing. They can assess the muscle directly, which is the thing no app, video or article can do.

Then what

Once the contraction is clean, the programme is straightforward: three sets of eight to twelve, 3–6 second holds, released for at least as long as you held, progressing from lying to sitting to standing.

The full protocol and the four mistakes → · How long before anything changes →

Sources

• Dorey G, Speakman M, Feneley R, Swinkels A, Dunn C, Ewings P. Randomised controlled trial of pelvic floor muscle exercises and manometric biofeedback for erectile dysfunction. Br J Gen Pract 2004;54(508):819–825.
• Sahin E, Brand A, Cetindag EN, Messelink B, Yosmaoglu HB. Pelvic physical therapy for male sexual disorders: a narrative review. Int J Impot Res 2025;37:941–949.