Questions about kegels

September 16, 2012 11:41 AM

Should kegels be done every day or every other day for maximum effect? Is there a website equivalent to 100 Push-Ups for them (i.e., gives you a routine for doing them, including how much to increase as one's muscles grow stronger)?

Also, this makes it sound like doing kegels is a bad idea and you should do squats instead, but I (male, not sure if that makes any difference) would really like to do kegels for the promised sexual benefits, which I assume doing squats will not provide. If I do both kegels and squats, would that be OK?

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (3 answers total)

I'll tell you what my ob/gyn told me: Do 'em at red lights. Alternate between quick ones at one light and holding them for up to a count of 10 at the next. (Most people can't hold long right at first.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 12:31 PM on September 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I looked around a little to see whether there was some substance behind the promised sexual benefits for men.
This article at Mayo says it has some under-researched possibility of helping with erectile disfunction. It doesn't even give a nod to the sorts of mens magazine-ey ways one might imagine it improving one's sex life. The citation in wikipedia is pretty damn weak-sauce for the mens sexual claims. I found a site that claimed benefits and also sold penile enlargement paraphernalia. Seems like this is the grown up equivalent of x-ray glasses in the back of a comic book. They're for urinary incontinence. Skip them for maximum effect.
posted by spbmp at 3:41 PM on September 16, 2012

As long as you do them correctly, squats are good for you, and kegels are at least not bad for you.

Unlike traditional weight training, there's no way to increase resistance with kegels, so you have to increase reps and holding reps. The thing squats can't do for you is train you to develop focus on individual muscles in your perineum and abdomen— it's a whole body exercise, and that's not what it's intended for. Kegels will allow you to pay attention to and control individual muscle tension in that region. YMMV but that does have sexual benefits for many people.

There are apps for iOS and Android to remind you and track your exercise, btw.

I'm not your doctor. But I do red-light kegels when I'm not playing air guitar.
posted by a halcyon day at 4:44 PM on September 16, 2012