Correct Kegel Exercises for Better Erections — A Beginner's Guide

Quick question before we start.

If someone showed you an image of a man clenching his glutes and thighs and asked whether that was a Kegel exercise, what would you say?

If you said yes, you are not alone. And you are also, unfortunately, wrong.

That is a glute exercise. It works your buttocks, not your pelvic floor.

And research suggests the overwhelming majority of men doing pelvic floor exercises are activating the wrong muscles entirely, which means years of effort with little to nothing to show for it.

Here is what correctly done pelvic floor training has actually been shown to do.

In a randomized controlled trial published in BJU International, men who performed properly guided pelvic floor exercises for three months saw significantly better erectile function than men who only received lifestyle advice.

The same research group found something else worth knowing. Men doing this correctly also saw meaningful improvement in post-micturition dribble, that frustrating dribble of urine after you think you're finished at the urinal, which is itself a pelvic floor issue almost nobody connects to the same muscle group.

And for men dealing with premature ejaculation, a separate study found that structured pelvic floor therapy increased average time to ejaculation from roughly 40 seconds to nearly two and a half minutes.

Stronger erections. Better ejaculatory control. The end of an embarrassing dribble you've been quietly dealing with for years. All from a muscle group most men have never been taught to activate correctly.

The problem is not that this doesn't work. The problem is that almost nobody is shown the correct technique, so they either give up or keep doing the wrong exercise entirely.

I've also linked a video demonstration further down for anyone who wants to see this done visually rather than just read about it.

Let's fix that, properly, starting now.

Your pelvic floor muscles sit between your legs in a diamond or kite shape, stretching from your pubic bone to your tailbone.

Some of these muscles wrap directly around the base of your penis. Others wrap around your anus. Together, they are directly responsible for erectile function, ejaculatory control, and bladder and bowel control.

This is why targeting them correctly matters so much for erectile dysfunction specifically. You are not doing a generic core exercise. You are training the exact muscle group involved in maintaining blood flow and rigidity during an erection.

When you are first learning this exercise, position matters because it affects how easily you can feel the right muscles working.

Good starting options include:

Sitting tends to be the easiest position for beginners to actually feel the contraction, so that is where we will start.

Sit tall, move slightly away from the back of your chair, and lift your chest. Good posture here is not incidental. It actually helps you isolate the correct muscles rather than compensating with your back or abdominal muscles.

This is where most men get it wrong, so go through this slowly the first few times.

Step one: The withdrawal

Think about trying to shorten or withdraw your penis inward, toward your body. This is a very small, subtle movement. Your penis is not actually going to get shorter. This is simply the mental cue that activates the right muscle.

If you place your fingers around the base of your penis while you do this, you may be able to feel the muscle wrapping around it contract as your penis moves slightly inward.

Step two: Stopping the flow

Now imagine you are trying to stop or slow the flow of urine. Contract around the base of your penis, then relax.

Step three: Combine steps one and two

Shorten the penis inward, and simultaneously try to stop the flow of urine. Then relax.

Step four: The back of the pelvic floor

Tighten your anus, as if you are stopping yourself from passing gas. This activates the back portion of your pelvic floor.

You should feel your anus tighten while your buttocks stay completely relaxed. If your glutes are doing the work, you have drifted back into the wrong exercise entirely.

Step five: Combine everything

Sit up tall, lengthen your spine, and keep the natural inward curve in your lower back. Breathe normally throughout.

Now think through all three actions together, at the same time:

Hold that combined contraction for a couple of seconds while keeping your belly relaxed and your breathing normal. Then let your pelvic floor muscles fully release back to their resting position.

A few practical checks:

Your penis should move slightly inward toward your abdomen during the contraction. If you stand side-on to a mirror, you should also see your scrotum lift slightly upward toward your body.

You can also test using the stop-the-urine-flow method, but only ever as an occasional test, not as your actual exercise routine. Doing this regularly during urination can actually interfere with healthy bladder function. Once a week at most, purely as a check.

Here's the progression that works.

Weeks one and two: Focus purely on technique. Do gentle contractions and prioritize getting the movement correct over doing it with maximum strength.

As your technique improves: This is the critical part most men skip. You need to progressively contract your pelvic floor muscles as strongly as you can, while maintaining correct technique. This takes time to build up to, and that is completely normal.

Starting volume: Begin with whatever you can actually manage correctly. If you can hold a proper contraction for three seconds and do two repetitions in a row, that is your starting point. Repeat that small routine three times per day, most days of the week.

The goal to build toward: Eventually you want to be able to hold each contraction for a full 10 seconds, performing 8 to 12 repetitions, on most days of the week.

That is a significant jump from where most men start, so build toward it gradually rather than trying to force it immediately.

1. Find the right muscles

2. The correct technique

3. The progression

4. Realistic timeline

If you'd like to see these movements demonstrated visually, my colleague Dr. Eric is a physiotherapist who specializes in this area. It can be genuinely useful to watch someone show and explain this from a man's perspective.

You can check out his channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D2KLel-jp8

This varies significantly between individuals.

Some men notice genuine improvement within a month of starting a consistent routine. For others, particularly those starting from a genuinely weak pelvic floor, it can take five to six months of consistent practice to see the full strengthening effect.

Consistency matters more than intensity here, especially in the early weeks. A properly done, subtle contraction performed regularly will outperform an incorrectly done, forceful one every time.

Love Emma