Nothing Beats Kegels For Sexual Health!
But Are You Doing Them the Right Way?

Everyone is talking about "Kegels" or 'Kegals" and the benefits on sexual health. It is such a buzz phrase today that it is hard to seperate fact from fiction.

So let's start with the basic sexual health benefits from doing kegels.

It really is incredible how many benefits you can get from such a little exercise!

But to do so you need to be doing kegels the right way!!

So let's review the true facts on women's health and doing kegel excercises.

Here the top medically - validated - benefits:

• Make it easier for you to reach orgasm.
  
  
• Increase the intensity of your orgasms as the muscles you're exercising are the same used during orgasm.
  
  
• Make your vagina more sensitive (you'll feel more). When squeezing you'll feel your partner much better inside. It will simply heighten your sexual satisfaction.
  
  
• Size will really not matter as you will get tighter - perfect toner for after child birth
  
  
• Your confidence will soar. Never again be nervous the first time you make love with a new partner, wondering what he will think of you as a sexual partner.
  
  
• You can be proud of your vaginal control (just like one can be proud of one's body).
  
  
• Prevent prolapse and incontinence.
  
  
• Make childbirth easier and your muscles will regain more quickly after the birth.
  

Sounds good doesn't it?

Alll those benefits from one little exercise!

Yet most women only give kegal exercises only a passing thought .

And for those who do them, it is frequently reported that 1/3 of women who begin to do them do them incorrectly.

So what is a Kegel Exercise?

A kegel exercise, named after Dr Arnold Kegel, is one designed to exercise the pubococcygeal muscles, sometimes called the "Kegel muscles" in reference to the exercise.

The aim is to restore pc muscle:

• Control
  
  
• Tone
  
  
• Strength

and by doing so preventing or reducing pelvic floor muscle problems (i.e. prolapse and incontinence).

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How Do Pelvic Floor Muscles Weaken?

Life's events, especially:

• Pregnancy
  
  
• Childbirth
  
  
• Being overweight
  
  
• Inactivity and weak core strength
  
  
• Aging

can weaken pelvic muscles.

Luckily, when these muscles get weak, you can help make them strong again with a kegel exercise.

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Locating Your PC Muscles - Problems With the Urine Flow Test

In magazines and web sites, a kegel exercise is most frequently identified as something to do with "stopping and starting the flow of urine".

As a simple means to find your PC muscle this kegal exercise test is educational, but only for those who already have strong PC muscles.

It was never intended to be the "instructional tool" that it has become in women's magazines.

What happens from many women who can stop the flow of urine?

Indeed, Elizabeth Noble even warns against this practice, which often leads only to "anxiety, stress and loss of control" [1] .

Failing to interrupt the stream, many women conclude that their own muscles are already beyond self-help, and readily submit to the surgeon's confident invitation.

If this condition describes you - don't give in to surgery! Dr. Kegel's original method are documented proof:

"By 1950 Kegel was able to boast a 93% cure rate for 300 unselected patients with stress incontinence in Los Angles, and claimed that other physicians using his device were 91% successful. Beginning in 1948, "on the strength of these favorable results urinary stress incontinence in women is no longer routinely treated by surgical intervention at...LA County General Hospital." [3]

All you need is guidance from a health practitioner who practices Dr. Kegels methods - they will assist you locating your PC muscle through biofeedback.

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Muscle Strength - The Biggest Kegel Exercise Myth

One of the biggest misconceptions about kegel exercise for increased sexual pleasure is that the goal is to tense the PC muscle.

A stronger PC muscle is essential for women who have a PC muscle so weak that they can not stop urine flow.

When you strengthen a weakened muscle you put in back in balance.

But what if you have a PC muscle that is already strong?

Is there a danger that you can over strengthen the muscle?

And the answer is YES!

Dr. Howard Glazer suggests that:

"If you simply strengthen the muscles without learning how to relax them, you may make your vulvodynia worse by making the chronic pelvic tension BETTER at cutting off blood flow to the vulvar tissue."

What this means is, that if you strengthen with a kegel exercise you need to learn how to relax the PC muscle- after all it is a matter of balance - contract and relax!

So remember to relax when doing a kegel exercise!

To release a contraction push slightly as if you were trying to expel urine or a tampon.

Be mindful of how it feels to relax the PC muscles during a kegel exercise.

Remember, even Dr. Kegel stated outright that "strength" is not the important focus - rather he stressed the importance of "conditioning of the sexual reflex".

In other words, control and relax while doing your kegal exercise!

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Strong PC Muscles are Necessary But Not Enough!

Sorry to disappoint some of you!

There are no miracle cures to guarantee orgasms 100% - including kegel exercise.

Dr. Kegel believed that having good muscles was a "necessary" condition for orgasm --- but is not alone a "sufficient" condition for orgasm in those who are having trouble having an orgasm.

In other words, you need to do kegel exercise.

But there may be other physiological (physical) or psychological issues that need to be addressed. So I repeat, this warning does not reduce the need for kegel exercise!

There is a strong body of science that supports the connection between PC muscle health and pleasurable sex.

The better the muscle the better the sex! So keep doing your kegel exercise.

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Kegel Exercise - How Much Should I Do?

Most popular media report a guideline for kegel exercise of 5 minutes per session 3 times a day.

However, a review of Dr. Kegel research indicates that he prescribed a therapeutic regimen of a full hour a day of practice with his Perineometer device in the vagina [1].

This is recommendation is for treating women with urinary incontinence.

Interestingly, No where does he mention the duration of a single contraction, but he states that "twenty minutes, three times a day, or for a total of 300 contractions daily".

Sixty minutes times 60 seconds equals 3600 seconds, divided by 300 repetitions allows for 12 second cycles.

In his drawings of "pressure over time" he sketches symmetrical sine waves, and he remarks that in the final, healthy stage contractions become "prolonged" [2],

....so we can conclude by simple arithmetic that he envisioned 6-second contractions and 6-second relaxation.

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