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Learning Kegel Exercises

A great way to strengthen the pubococcygeus muscle after childbirth or to enhance urinary flow control, Kegel exercises are easy to learn and do. Named after gynecologist Dr. Arnold Kegel, the goal of these exercises is the counteraction of a muscle weakness simply by contracting certain muscles and then releasing them at will.

Learning Kegel exercises is simple:

* Understand where your pubococcygeus muscle is located and what it feels like to contract and release it. Since it is synonymous with controlling urine flow, you will be able to locate it simply while urinating. Attempt to stop yourself from urinating in midstream. Even though you may not be successful - or only partially successful - the muscle groups you are squeezing together are in fact related to the pubococcygeus muscle.

* Once you have familiarized yourself with the muscle itself and the feeling of contracting and relaxing it, you are ready to begin with the exercises. Contract your pubococcygeus muscle with as much power as possible and then slowly count to seven and relax for seven seconds. This is the essence of the Kegel exercise.

* Strengthening the pubococcygeus muscle - just like any other muscle - is dependent on repetition, and the next step is to do sets of repetitive squeezing of the muscle and then releasing it followed by a repetition.

* Increase your endurance over the next week or so. The goal should be five sets of Kegel exercises with 10 repetitions each, and where the holding is accomplished for a total of 10 seconds prior to releasing the muscle squeeze. It sounds simple, but until you try it you will not believe how hard this can be!

Even as these exercises are very valuable when seeking to control urinary continence, and in some cases where medical examination has shown a weakened pubococcygeus muscle to be directly related to bouts of premature ejaculation, when done by healthy males not suffering from a weakened PC muscle and engaged in simply for the sake of enhanced sexual gratification, Kegel exercises could actually do more harm than good!

Researcher have pointed out that when healthy males are exercising their pubococcygeus muscle, they are in effect continuously stimulating the prostate which is directly related to the manufacture of hormones triggering arousal and also the speed with which ejaculation is achieved. While learning Kegel exercises is a potentially useful tool of controlling the onset of an ejaculation by someone whose PC muscle is considered weakened, doing so when this weakness is absent will set you up for failure.

You will be wise to discuss Kegel exercises with your physician prior to starting them and find out how many she or he recommends for your condition. In the same way, ensure that you are doing them correctly by keeping track of the sensations you experience while exercising and then discussing your findings with your doctor. Generally speaking, there should be no pain associated with the squeezing or releasing of the muscles and if you do experience pain, an immediate stop of the exercises is needed.