7 Kegel Exercises for Men: A Complete Routine

Most men who try kegels do one exercise: squeeze, hold, release. Repeat until bored. Then they quit after two weeks because nothing changed.

The problem is not the effort. It is that a single contraction style trains a single quality. Your pelvic floor has to do several different jobs — hold steady under load, snap shut fast, brace during a lift, and fully let go afterwards — and each one needs its own drill. Here are seven exercises that cover all of them, in the order you should learn them.

Why Variety Matters Here

The pelvic floor is a sheet of skeletal muscle slung across the base of your pelvis, and it contains both slow-twitch fibres built for endurance and fast-twitch fibres built for speed. Continence during a long day depends on the slow fibres. Stopping a leak when you sneeze depends on the fast ones. Erection rigidity depends on the ischiocavernosus and bulbocavernosus muscles compressing the veins at the base of the penis to keep blood in.

Train one and you improve one. That is why structured programmes beat casual squeezing.

The clinical evidence backs the structured version. In a randomised controlled trial published in the British Journal of General Practice in 2004, Dorey and colleagues put men with erectile dysfunction on a supervised pelvic floor training programme. After six months, 40 percent had regained normal erectile function and a further 35.5 percent had improved significantly. No drugs, no devices — just correctly programmed muscle training.

First: Find the Right Muscle

Before any exercise, you need to be certain you are contracting the pelvic floor and not your glutes, thighs, or abs.

Stand in front of a mirror and try to lift the base of your penis and draw your testicles upward without moving anything else. You should see a small upward shift. Cleveland Clinic describes the same cue as tightening the muscles you would use to stop yourself passing wind while also lifting from the front.

Two checks that you are doing it right:

• Your stomach, buttocks, and inner thighs stay still
• You can keep breathing normally throughout

If you are holding your breath or clenching your cheeks, you are recruiting the wrong muscles. Detailed anatomy is in our guide to the male pelvic floor muscles, and if you are unsure whether yours is weak or overly tight, start with this diagnostic instead.

The 7 Exercises

1. Slow Holds (Endurance)

The foundation. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat.

1. Contract the pelvic floor, lifting up and in
2. Hold for 5 seconds while breathing normally
3. Release fully for 5 seconds — the release matters as much as the hold
4. Repeat 8 to 10 times

Progress by adding a second to the hold each week, up to 10 seconds. If the contraction fades before the time is up, shorten the hold rather than pushing through a collapsed rep.

2. Quick Flicks (Power)

Trains the fast-twitch fibres responsible for sudden closure — the ones that stop a leak when you cough or lift.

1. Contract as hard and as fast as you can
2. Release immediately and completely
3. Repeat 10 times, one contraction per second

The mistake here is going soft to go fast. Each flick should be a sharp, full-power snap.

3. The Elevator (Control)

Graded contraction, which builds the fine motor control that translates directly into ejaculatory timing.

1. Contract to about 25 percent — floor one — and hold 2 seconds
2. Increase to 50 percent — floor two — hold 2 seconds
3. Increase to 75 percent, then maximum — floor four — hold 2 seconds
4. Descend one floor at a time, pausing at each

Do 3 to 5 full trips. Most men find the descent much harder than the ascent, which tells you exactly how much control you are missing.

4. Standing Kegels (Load Progression)

Once lying-down holds feel easy, gravity becomes your added resistance.

1. Stand with feet hip-width apart
2. Perform 10 slow holds of 5 to 10 seconds
3. Follow with 10 quick flicks

This is the version that transfers to real life, because standing is where continence and erections actually have to work.

5. Kegels with Diaphragmatic Breathing (Coordination)

Your pelvic floor and diaphragm work as a pressure system. Training them together prevents the bracing habit that makes men bear down instead of lifting.

1. Lie down, one hand on your chest, one on your belly
2. Inhale into your belly — let the pelvic floor soften and drop
3. Exhale slowly and contract the pelvic floor as the air leaves
4. Repeat for 10 breaths

If you can only contract while holding your breath, this drill is the one you need most.

6. Bridge with Kegel (Integration)

Adds the glutes and deep core, teaching the pelvic floor to fire as part of a functional pattern.

1. Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat
2. Contract the pelvic floor first
3. Lift your hips into a bridge, holding the contraction
4. Hold 5 seconds at the top, lower, release
5. Repeat 8 to 10 times

7. Reverse Kegels (Release)

The most-skipped and arguably most important. A muscle that cannot fully lengthen cannot generate full force from a shortened, tense position.

1. Lie down and inhale slowly into your belly
2. Consciously let the pelvic floor drop and widen — the sensation of gently allowing rather than pushing
3. Hold the released position for 5 seconds
4. Repeat 8 to 10 times

Do not strain or bear down hard. Think of releasing a fist, not forcing it open. If you have pelvic pain or painful ejaculation, spend a few weeks on this exercise alone before adding the strengthening drills — our guide to relaxing the pelvic floor covers that path.

How to Put It Together

You do not need all seven every day. A workable week:

• Daily (3 short sessions): Slow holds + quick flicks. Roughly 30 slow and 30 fast contractions across the day, which matches standard NHS pelvic floor guidance for men.
• Three times a week: Add the elevator and standing kegels.
• Twice a week: Add the bridge and the breathing drill.
• Daily, 2 minutes: Reverse kegels, ideally at the end of a session.

Total time is under 10 minutes a day. The hard part is not the workload — it is remembering to do it three times a day for three months straight, which is where almost everyone fails.

Common Mistakes

Stopping your urine mid-stream as a workout. It is a one-off way to identify the muscle, nothing more. NIDDK and NHS guidance both warn against using it as a regular exercise, because repeatedly interrupting flow can interfere with normal bladder emptying.

Skipping the release. Half of every rep is letting go completely. Men who only contract end up with a tight, fatigued floor that performs worse than when they started.

Holding your breath. If you cannot talk during a contraction, you are bracing your abdomen instead of lifting your pelvic floor.

Going too hard, too early. This is muscle tissue. Twenty maximal contractions on day one produces soreness and a floor too fatigued to train tomorrow. Build volume gradually.

Quitting at week three. Harvard Health and NHS trust guidance both put real strength gains at three to six months. Four weeks is where men quit; six weeks is where most start noticing.

Common Questions

Which exercise helps most with premature ejaculation? The elevator, because graded control is exactly the skill involved. Being able to hold a partial contraction and modulate it is more useful than raw squeeze strength. Our guide on stopping premature ejaculation puts it in a full routine.

Can I do these every single day? Yes. The pelvic floor recovers quickly and standard protocols are daily. If you are genuinely sore, take a day off — soreness means you overreached, not that you progressed faster.

Do I need weights or a trainer device? No. Bodyweight contractions with progressive hold times work, and the clinical trials that produced the strongest results used exercise and biofeedback, not resistance devices.

Is it too late to start in my sixties? No. Pelvic floor muscle responds to training at any age, which is why post-prostatectomy rehab programmes are built around it. Progress may be slower, but it happens.

The Bottom Line

Seven exercises, four qualities: endurance, speed, control, and release. Slow holds and quick flicks are the daily core. Elevators build the control that matters for ejaculatory timing. Standing versions add load. Breathing and bridges make the whole thing functional. Reverse kegels keep the muscle able to do its job.

Start with exercises one, two, and seven this week. Add the rest once those feel automatic. Then keep going for three months — that is the part that actually decides whether this works.