Kegel exercises for men

By Kyrylo Lozovyi · August 10, 2026

A kegel is one repetition of a squeeze-and-release of the pelvic floor: the sling of muscle running from the pubic bone to the tailbone that supports the bladder and bowel and wraps the base of the penis. In men it is not one muscle but a group, and two of them — the ischiocavernosus and bulbospongiosus — sit directly on the erectile tissue. That anatomical fact is the entire reason anyone studies this for sexual function.

Step 1 — find the muscle

Almost everyone gets this wrong on the first attempt, usually by squeezing the buttocks instead. Two reliable ways to locate it:

1. The urine-stream test. Mid-flow, stop the stream. Whatever you just did, that was the pelvic floor. Do this once, to learn the sensation. Practising kegels on the toilet regularly is a genuinely bad idea — it can leave residual urine in the bladder and encourage irritation.
2. The mirror test. 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 visible lift. This is the better long-term check because you can repeat it any time without involving your bladder.

A third cue that works for some men: 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.

All four cues, and the three checks that confirm you have it →

Step 2 — the contraction itself

Squeeze inward and upward. Then let go completely — the release is half the exercise, not a gap between repetitions.

While you do it, nothing else should move:

• Buttocks still.
• Thighs still.
• Stomach relaxed — no bracing, no sucking in.
• Breathing normally. If you are holding your breath, you are pushing down with the diaphragm at the same time as lifting, which cancels the exercise.

The diaphragm and the pelvic floor move together on every breath: the floor descends slightly as you inhale and lifts as you exhale. Squeezing on the exhale works with that pattern rather than against it.

Step 3 — the protocol

This is the shape used in the pelvic floor trials for erectile dysfunction, and it is what the sessions in the app follow:

Two things about that table matter more than the numbers. First, the release is never shorter than the hold — a muscle that is not allowed to recover simply stops contracting properly, and you spend the last few reps of every set training nothing. Second, position is a difficulty dial. Standing kegels are meaningfully harder than lying ones, so moving from the floor to a chair to your feet is progression even if the reps stay the same.

Many programmes also add quick flicks: one-second maximal contractions with a one-second release, ten in a row. These train the fast-twitch fibres that handle sudden pressure, and they are the part most relevant to interrupting an ejaculatory reflex.

The four mistakes

1. Bracing instead of lifting. Squeezing the buttocks and stomach feels like effort, produces nothing, and is the single most common error. If you can see movement in the mirror anywhere except the base of the penis, stop and reset.
2. Never fully releasing. Men who train hard and rest little end up with a pelvic floor that sits permanently at 20% tension. That is not strength; it is a shortened muscle, and it can produce pain, urinary hesitancy and worse sexual function than before.
3. Doing them on the toilet. Fine once, as a way of finding the muscle. Bad as a habit.
4. Quitting at week three. Nothing in the literature shows change in three weeks. The trials that found benefit measured at three and six months. The full timeline →

When strengthening is the wrong answer

Not every pelvic floor problem is weakness. A subset of men have the opposite — a hypertonic, over-tight pelvic floor — and for them kegels make symptoms worse. The signs point in a different direction: pain in the perineum, penis or testicles, pain after ejaculation, difficulty starting urination, a feeling of never fully emptying, or a constant urge. If that is your picture, skip the strengthening and see a pelvic health physiotherapist, who will work on release and down-training instead.

What an over-tight pelvic floor looks like, and what helps → · Run the self-check →

What to expect, honestly

Pelvic floor training is one of the few things in this category with randomised trial evidence behind it, and it is also one of the slowest. In the best-known trial, men trained for six months; at that point 40% had regained normal erectile function, 35.5% had improved without reaching normal, and 24.5% had not improved at all. That last number is the honest part: roughly a quarter of the men who did everything asked of them got nothing out of it.

The full evidence, trial by trial →

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.
• Dorey G, Speakman MJ, Feneley RCL, Swinkels A, Dunn CDR. Pelvic floor exercises for erectile dysfunction. BJU Int 2005;96(4):595–597.
• Pastore AL, Palleschi G, Fuschi A, et al. Pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation for patients with lifelong premature ejaculation. Ther Adv Urol 2014;6(3):83–88.
• 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.