Guide to Kegels: What You’ll Need to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor
Starting a new exercise routine can always be daunting.
But, what if I told you there was a workout that took less than 30 seconds a day, could be performed everywhere and at anytime, and helped improve your sex life?
Pretty sweet deal, huh?
Well, that is Kegel exercises for you!
Whether you’ve been experimenting with squeezing in these subtle pelvic floor strengtheners for a while now, or if kegel exercises and kegal ball sex are entirely new concepts to you, this article is going to be exactly what you need.
Today, we are talking all about kegals: the kegel exercises, the kegal balls (or Ben Wa balls) and my favourite part, kegal ball sex. Let’s get to it!
The Benefits of Kegels
The main goal behind doing regular kegel exercises is to improve your ability to voluntarily contract (squeeze in!) your pelvic floor muscles. But, what exactly does that do?
First and foremost, kegels can help with incontinence, which is a fancy word for the unpleasant experience of not being able to hold in your bathroom matters.
For a lot of women, bladder leakage comes on with age, menopause, or after child birth. It can impact you during physical activity or during a cough, sneeze, or good belly laugh (essentially anything that puts pressure on your abdomen).
While bladder leakage or incontinence is normal, you should always consult a doctor if you begin experiencing symptoms. A healthcare professional can make sure there are no underlying causes that need attention.
The good news? Kegels are an easy, effective, and non surgical exercise to help strengthen your pelvic floor.
You can also perform kegel exercises as a preventative measure to keep everything tight, just like you would by going to the gym and strengthening the other muscles in your body to stay healthy and fit.
And, the benefits do not stop there. Another great thing about kegel exercises? They can help you have great sex.
The science is simple: as you perform kegel exercises, you get better blood circulation throughout your vagina. Similar to how blood flows through a man’s penis to give him a better erection, the better the blood flow in your vagina, the more aroused and lubricated you will feel.
Women who do kegels often, particularly after child birth, find kegel exercises an effective way to tighten and tone their vagina. This in turn can lead to them feeling more pleasurable sensations during penis in vagina sex.
Fun fact: men can do kegels, too! Doing routine kegel exercises can also greatly benefit men who experience incontinence.
How to Do Kegel Exercises
There are three areas along the pelvic floor that kegel exercises focus on: the anus, the vagina, and the urethral opening (where urine exits the body).
The first aspect of performing kegel exercises effectively is finding the right position. This varies for different people: the best position for you will be whichever one allows you to feel your kegel exercises best (which can be difficult when you are first experimenting with kegel exercises).
Some women prefer sitting or kneeling on all fours, while others prefer lying down, either on their stomach or back.
Once you are in a comfortable position, practice squeezing your anus as if you are stopping yourself from passing gas.
This is one effective kegel exercise. Make sure that you are engaging your anus, and not simply squeezing your glute muscles. Next, try tightening the opening where you urinate from. You might also feel tightening in your anus and vagina when you do this, and that is okay. If you are having trouble isolating this muscle, you can feel it while you pee: try stopping and starting the flow of your urine when you are on the toilet.
Finally, give the vaginal kegel a try. Practice tightening and then relaxing your vaginal opening: to help you do this, try imagining that you are pulling your vagina closed and inwards.
For total beginners, perform each kegel exercise twice, holding for 3 seconds at a time. Repeat this 3 times a day.
Once you’ve mastered that, increase the number of kegels you perform each time and the length of time you hold the kegel contractions for. Don’t forget to rest between each kegel exercise, just like you would rest when you are doing strength training exercises at the gym.
When performing kegel exercises, it is important to remember to listen to your body. If you even feel pain or discomfort, stop what you are doing and consult a medical professional.
Guide to Kegel Balls for Exercise
Once you’ve mastered the art of kegel exercises, you are ready for the next level of pelvic floor strengthening: kegel balls (also known as Ben Wa balls).
Kegel balls come in a variety of sizes and weights to help you add resistance to your pelvic floor training. To use kegel balls, you can wear them during your regular kegel exercise routine to tone and strengthen your vagina. Pro-tip: use lube to make the process of inserting and removing your kegel balls more comfortable!
My recommendation is to start low and slow. Just like any muscle, the pelvic floor is susceptible to overextension, strains, and even tears. Pick a light weighted kegel ball and reduce the amount of repetitions you do of your kegel exercises until your strength builds up.
If you have any concerns about your body and kegel balls, consult a doctor. They will know what is best for your individual needs.
Kegel Balls and Solo Play
As well, there is a more arousing side to using kegel balls…
Along with strengthening and tightening your vaginal muscles, kegel balls can enhance your sexual pleasure.
For a lot of women, including myself, the simple sensation of having kegel balls inside your vagina is enough to increase arousal.
Unlike a dildo, there is no need to move kegel balls in and out to feel pleasure. While inside you, kegel balls provide a unique massaging sensation against all the super sensitive nerve endings of your vaginal wall (think g-spot and o-spot), that other toys just can’t stimulate in the same way.
I like to hold my kegels balls inside of me and squeeze while I massage my clit with my favourite vibrating toy. The added sensation of feeling “full” from the kegel balls makes me feel that much more aroused, and gets me wet fast.
Kegel Ball Sex
Better yet ladies, kegel balls can make sex with your partner that much more arousing: let’s talk kegel ball sex.
Just like you would use them for solo play, you can experiment with kegel ball sex by holding in your kegel balls during foreplay with your partner.
While you pleasure each other with oral sex or have a hot make out session, you can enjoy the sensation of squeezing your kegel balls, stimulating and lubricating your vagina in preperation for sex with your partner.
Some women like to take kegel ball sex up a notch by wearing their kegel balls out on a date. Find a comfortably sized and weighted kegel ball that you can move and walk around with while it is inside of you, and allow that pleasuring sensation to get you all worked up while you sit next to your partner during an intimate dinner date.
In my experience, kegel ball sex (read: using kegel balls as foreplay before sex) can make you more sensitive to the pleasure you experience with your partner, increase your natural lubrication, and make orgasms that much more intense.
One important thing to keep in mind with kegel ball sex though: you can’t actually have penis in vagina sex while you are using kegel balls. Take them out before you engage in any kind of vaginal penetration, and enjoy the heightened level of sensitivity your kegel balls have enhanced.
Final Thoughts
An exercise that strengthens your downstairs muscles and improves your sexual pleasure? It does not get better than this, folks.
Give kegel exercises, kegel balls, and kegel ball sex a try if you are curious about strengthening your pelvic floor, all while experiencing new levels of pleasure in the bedroom; its a win-win!