Benefits of Kegels for Men: What Research Shows

Kegels have an image problem with men. The exercise was popularised for women after childbirth, most men have never been taught to do one, and there is no visible muscle to check in the mirror.

The evidence, though, is unusually good for something free. Randomised controlled trials have found meaningful improvement in erectile function, ejaculatory control, and post-surgical continence — three of the outcomes men care about most. Here is what the research actually reports, with the real numbers.

The Research

Three trials do most of the heavy lifting.

Erections. Dorey and colleagues ran a randomised controlled trial published in the British Journal of General Practice (2004), enrolling men with erectile dysfunction and assigning them either pelvic floor exercises with biofeedback plus lifestyle advice, or lifestyle advice alone. Three months of twice-daily training beat advice alone by a significant margin. Reporting on the trial found normal erectile function restored in about 40% of men and improved in a further 35%.

Ejaculatory control. Pastore and colleagues (Therapeutic Advances in Urology, 2014) took 40 men with lifelong premature ejaculation and a baseline latency under a minute through 12 weeks of pelvic floor rehabilitation. 33 of them — 82.5% — regained control of the reflex, with mean latency rising from around 40 seconds to 146.2 seconds.

Continence. Van Kampen, De Weerdt and Van Poppel published a randomised controlled trial in The Lancet (2000) on pelvic-floor re-education after radical prostatectomy, and it remains one of the most cited papers in the field. A review of pelvic rehabilitation for post-prostatectomy incontinence describes the protocol — weekly supervised sessions with biofeedback plus 90 home contractions daily — and a continence rate of 95% at one year.

Three different outcomes, three different research groups, same intervention.

Benefit 1 — Firmer, Longer-Lasting Erections

The mechanism is mechanical, and it is the part most men have never had explained.

An erection is a pressure system. Arteries dilate and flood the two spongy chambers of the penis with blood — that is the inflow side, driven by nitric oxide. But holding that pressure requires sealing the veins that drain it. Two pelvic floor muscles do that work: the ischiocavernosus and the bulbospongiosus, which wrap the base of the penis and compress its outflow.

Weak muscles mean blood leaks back out faster than it should. The result is an erection that starts fine and softens partway through, or one that never quite reaches full firmness even though arousal is high. Urologists call this veno-occlusive dysfunction, and it is not something medication addresses — PDE5 inhibitors amplify the inflow signal and do nothing for retention.

That is why the Dorey results matter. Training the retention side targets a failure point nothing else in the standard toolkit covers. Our guide on how to increase blood flow to the penis naturally covers how the two halves work together.

Benefit 2 — Real Ejaculatory Control

Ejaculation is driven substantially by rhythmic contraction of the bulbospongiosus and the surrounding pelvic floor. Strengthen those muscles and you gain genuine influence over the timing of a reflex that otherwise feels automatic.

This is a different kind of improvement from behavioural techniques like the stop-start or squeeze methods. Those interrupt arousal in the moment — useful, but they only work while you are actively deploying them. Pelvic floor training changes the underlying capacity, which is why the Pastore participants held onto most of their gains six months after the program ended.

The numbers are worth restating plainly: a roughly threefold increase in latency, in men with lifelong premature ejaculation, the group generally considered hardest to help. Our broader guide on how to stop premature ejaculation puts this alongside the other options.

Benefit 3 — Bladder Control, Prostate Recovery, and Orgasm

The pelvic floor also forms the support structure for the urethral sphincter, which is why the benefits extend well past sex.

• Urinary control. Cleveland Clinic's guidance on kegel exercises for men notes that strengthening these muscles helps prevent or improve urinary and faecal incontinence. If you leak when you cough, sneeze, or lift, this is the direct fix — see our guide to urge incontinence for the different patterns.
• Post-prostatectomy recovery. This is the strongest evidence base of the lot. Pelvic floor training measurably speeds the return of continence after prostate surgery, and a systematic review of exercise and continence after robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy concluded that pelvic floor muscle training improves continence outcomes. Starting before surgery appears to help.
• Post-urination dribble. The bulbospongiosus is what clears the urethra after you finish. Weak, and the last of it arrives in your underwear a minute later. This is one of the fastest benefits to appear.
• Orgasm intensity. Less formally studied, but consistently reported: since orgasm involves the same muscles contracting, stronger muscles tend to mean a stronger sensation.

How Long Until Results

The trials give a clear benchmark, and it is not two weeks.

• Weeks 1-2 — skill, not strength. You are learning to isolate the contraction. If your abs, glutes, or thighs tighten, you are training the wrong thing. Nothing changes yet, and this is where most men quit.
• Weeks 4-6 — first signals. Less post-urination dribble, noticeably firmer erections, a bit more room before the point of no return.
• Weeks 8-12 — the trial window. Dorey measured at three months. Pastore measured at twelve weeks. This is the honest point to judge whether it is working for you.
• Month 6+ — durability. The Pastore follow-up suggests gains largely hold, particularly if you keep a maintenance routine rather than stopping outright.

Getting Started

1. Find the muscle. It is the one you would use to stop urine mid-stream, or to lift your testicles slightly without moving anything else. Use the stop-stream test once to identify it, then never again as an exercise — doing it habitually can irritate the bladder.
2. Do both contraction types. Short one-second pulses for the fast-twitch response that matters during sex, and 5 to 10 second holds for endurance. Most men only ever do one.
3. Train twice daily. That is the frequency the erection trial used.
4. Progress the load. Add hold time, add reps, or train standing rather than lying down. Same volume for two months means no further adaptation.
5. Check you are the right candidate. If you have pelvic pain or urinary urgency, your floor may be too tight rather than too weak — our guide on telling if your pelvic floor is tight or weak covers the distinction, and it matters.

Our step-by-step walkthrough of kegels for men covers form in detail, and male kegel exercises has the routine variations.

Common Questions

Can I do kegels sitting at my desk? Yes, and that is part of the appeal — nobody can tell. Lying down is easiest when learning because gravity is not working against you; standing is hardest and therefore the best progression.

Do I need a device or weights? No. Devices exist and some men like the feedback, but every trial cited here used unweighted contractions, some with biofeedback. Consistency matters far more than equipment.

What if I cannot feel the contraction at all? That is common and usually means the muscles are genuinely weak or the coordination is poor. It typically resolves within a couple of weeks of practice. If it does not, a men's pelvic floor physiotherapist can assess it directly — see our overview of pelvic floor muscles for the anatomy first.

Will kegels make my penis bigger? No. They change firmness and control, not size. Anyone claiming otherwise is selling something.

The Bottom Line

The benefits of kegels for men are not marketing — they show up in randomised trials across three separate outcomes: roughly 40% of men in Dorey's ED trial regaining normal erectile function, 82.5% of men in Pastore's PE study regaining ejaculatory control, and a 95% one-year continence rate in the post-prostatectomy protocol. The catch is that all of them required twelve weeks of consistent, structured training. That is the actual barrier, and it is the only one.