Kegel Exercises: A Simple Technique For Improving Your Orgasms

Ladies, do you want to increase your chances of orgasming? Do you want to strengthen the intensity of your orgasms? All with very little time or effort? Then let me tell you all about your Kegel muscles.

Illustration by Tara Jacoby.

What Are Kegels Anyways?

Your Kegel muscles (also known by their more formal name, Pubococcygeus or PC muscles), are located in the pelvis, draping from the pubic bone to the tail bone like a hammock. Both men and women have them. The Kegel muscles control the flow of urine and contribute to core strength. In women, they assist in childbirth. They also contract involuntarily during orgasm. Like any other muscle, your Kegel muscles can be strengthened with exercise.

The Kegel muscles can play a pretty big role in orgasm. Regular exercise can help increase the likelihood that a woman will have an orgasm. And, since the strength of the Kegel muscles is tied to the strength of your orgasm, it can also make your orgasms more intense, or even help you have an extra-awesome squirting orgasm. Some very lucky ladies can even have orgasms from Kegel exercises alone (yowza).

Squeezing your Kegel muscles can also make your vaginal canal feel tighter. If your sex life includes penetration of any sort, tightening up your muscles can lead to a pleasurable feeling of fullness. This can be particularly useful for women who have experienced changes to their bodies after pregnancy. Squeezing the muscles can also create a bit of internal clitoral stimulation, which feels nice. If there’s a penis involved in the penetration, squeezing your Kegel muscles will give your partner a little extra stimulation, too.

Finally, regular Kegel exercise also helps reduce your chances of developing incontinence. Knowing that you’re not going to inadvertently become a watersports participant can be a nice relief.

How to Exercise Your Kegel Muscles

If all that sounds awesome to you (it is), here’s the good news: exercising your Kegel muscles is simple. It’s easiest to locate your Kegel muscles when you’re urinating. Sit on the toilet and start doing your business. Before your bladder is empty, try to cut off your flow. The muscles you need to use to accomplish this task are your Kegel muscles. You have to pull up to squeeze them, and release or bear down slightly to relax them. This squeeze and release motion is the basic foundation of Kegel exercise.

There are two types of exercises you can benefit from: long holds and short pulses. First, try to tighten up on your Kegel muscles very slowly. Imagine that the muscles are a little pelvic elevator, gradually moving up floors. When you get to the point where you can’t pull up any higher, try to hold for two seconds. Release slowly, at the same speed you used when pulling up. Repeat this 10 times. Next, quickly squeeze and release your Kegel muscles in short pulses. This mimics the rhythmic contraction the muscles go through during orgasm. Repeat this 30 times. Do the whole routine two times a day. Each week, try to add one second to your hold time on the longer holds, working up to a total hold time of 10 seconds. (Keep the short pulses the same.)

You can also try doing the routine while you masturbate. Put a finger inside of your vagina, so you can see what your muscles feel like as they contract. Touch your clitoris as you pulse your Kegel muscles, and see if you can feel the internal clitoral stimulation. The long holds can create a nice wave-like sensation. The shorter pulses can increase the intensity, sometimes to the point of pushing you over the edge into your orgasm.

If you’re really serious about your Kegel training, there are several ways to upgrade your routine. If you’re prone to forgetting to do your reps or confused about how to do the exercises, there are a ton of apps that will serve as personal trainers. Kegel Trainer (Android) and Kegel Camp (iOS) are two of the highest-rated options. Both lead you through preprogrammed routines, telling you when to squeeze and when to release. They will also send you daily reminders to practice.

You can also invest in a set of Kegel weights, like these Luna Beads from LELO. Just like hand weights or dumbbells you would use at the gym, Kegel weights intensify your exercises, strengthening the muscles even more. You can do your normal squeezing and pulsing routine with the beads in place. Or you can simply insert the beads and leave them while you do about your daily activities; your muscles will naturally grip around the beads to keep them in place.

Kegel exercises don’t require hauling your arse to the gym or popping in your ancient Jane Fonda VHS. They don’t require more than five minutes of your day. Nobody will know that you’re doing them, so you can do them at work, while you’re on a date, or as you’re vegging out with Netflix. With so much potential benefit and hardly any effort, there’s no reason not to do Kegels every day.