Andrew Siegel, M.D.
Myth: Kegels are just for the ladies.
Truth: Au contraire…men have essentially the same pelvic floor muscles as do women and can derive similar benefits to sexual, urinary, and bowel health.
Myth: The best way to do Kegels is to stop the flow of urine.
Truth: If you can stop your stream, it is indeed proof that you are contracting the proper set of muscles. However, this is just a means of feedback to reinforce that you are employing the right muscles, but the bathroom should not be your Kegel muscle gymnasium.
Myth: You should do Kegel exercises as often as possible.
Truth: Pelvic floor muscle exercises strengthen and tone the pelvic floor muscles and like other muscle-strengthening routines, should not be performed every day. Pelvic exercises should be done in accordance with an intelligently designed plan of progressively more difficult and challenging exercises that require rest periods in order for optimal muscle growth and response.
Myth: You can and should do Kegels anywhere (while stopped in your car at a red light, waiting in line at the check out, while watching television, etc.)
Truth: Exercises of the pelvic floor muscles, like any other form of exercise, demand gravitas, focus, and isolation of the muscle group at hand. Until you are able to master the exercise regimen, it is best that the exercises be performed in an appropriate venue, free of distraction, which allows single-minded focus and concentration. This is not to say that once you achieve mastery of the exercises and a fit pelvic floor that you cannot integrate the exercises into the activities of daily living.
Myth: Holding the pelvic floor muscles tight all the time is desirable.
Truth: Not a good idea…the pelvic floor muscles have natural tone to them and when you are not actively engaging and exercising them, they should be left to their own natural state. There exists a condition—tension myalgia of the pelvic floor muscles—in which there is spasticity, tightness and pain due to excessive tension of these muscles. Pelvic floor training in this circumstance must be done with caution in order to avoid aggravating the pain, but maximal muscle contraction can induce maximal muscle relaxation, a meditative state between muscle contractions.
Myth: Focusing on your core is enough to ensure pelvic floor muscle fitness.
Truth: The pelvic floor muscles do form the floor of the “core” group of muscles and get some workout whenever the core muscles are exercised. However, for maximum benefit, specific focus needs to be made on the pelvic floor muscles. In Pilates and yoga, there is an emphasis on the core group of muscles and a collateral benefit to the pelvic floor muscles, but this is not enough to achieve the full potential fitness of a regimen that focuses exclusively on the pelvic muscles.
Myth: Kegel exercises do not help.
Truth: Au contraire…pelvic floor muscles have proven to help a variety of pelvic maladies in each gender. In females, pelvic floor muscle training can help urinary and bowel incontinence, pelvic relaxation, and sexual dysfunction. In males, pelvic floor muscle training can help incontinence (stress incontinence that follows prostate surgery, overactive bladder, and post void dribbling), erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and other forms of ejaculatory dysfunction as well as help bowel incontinence and tension myalgia of the pelvic floor.
Myth: Kegels are only helpful after a problem surfaces.
Truth: No, no, no. As in any exercise regimen, the best option is to be proactive and not reactive in order to maintain muscle mass and strength in order to prevent problems from arising before they have an opportunity to do so. Pelvic floor muscle training done during pregnancy can help prevent pelvic issues from arising in females and pelvic muscle training in males can likewise help prevent the onset of a variety of sexual and urinary maladies. There is no better time than the present to start pelvic exercises to delay or prevent symptoms.
Myth: You can stop doing Kegels once your muscles strengthen.
Truth: No, “use it or lose it” applies here as it does in any muscle-training regimen. Muscles adapt positively to the stresses and resistances placed upon them and so they adapt negatively to a lack of stresses and resistances. “Disuse atrophy” is a possibility with all muscles, including the pelvic floor muscles.
Myth: It is easy to learn how to isolate and exercise the pelvic floor muscles.
Truth: No, not the case at all. Studies have shown that over 70% of women who think they are doing pelvic floor muscle exercises properly are actually contracting other muscles, typically the rectus, the gluteal muscles, and the adductor muscles of the thigh. One of the greatest challenges is that there have been no well-designed, easy-to-follow pelvic muscle training programs…UNTIL NOW! The Private Gym Company was established after recognizing that there was an unmet need for a means by which a pelvic floor muscle-training program could be made accessible and available in the home setting. This comprehensive, interactive, follow-along exercise program is available on DVD…PrivateGym.com.
Myth: Kegels can adversely affect your sex life.
Truth: Absolutely not… In both genders, pelvic floor muscle training has been found to improve sexual function. The pelvic floor muscles play a critical role in both female and male sexuality, supporting clitoral and penile erections as well as ejaculation in males and orgasm in both genders.
Wishing you the best of health,
A new blog is posted every week. To receive the blogs in the in box of your email go to the following link and click on “email subscription”: www.HealthDoc13.WordPress.com
Author of Male Pelvic Fitness: Optimizing Sexual and Urinary Health: http://www.MalePelvicFitness.com
Private Gym: http://www.PrivateGym.com – now available on Amazon
Tags: Andrew Siegel MD, Arnold Kegel MD, bowel health, bowel incontinence, core strength, ejaculatory dysfunction, erectile dysfunction, Female Pelvic Fitness, female sexual dysfunction, Kegel exercises, Kegel myths, male pelvic fitness, orgasm, overactive bladder, pelvic floor exercises, pelvic floor training, pelvic relaxation, post-void dribbling, premature ejaculation, Private Gym, sexual health, stress incontinence, tension myalgia, urinary health', use it or lose it
Our Greatest Wealth Is Health 
November 15, 2014 at 8:34 AM |
Can you provide any statistical data? Otherwise it looks like another ‘miracle’ supplement over the counter. The Kegel exercise did not help me after the prostatectomy. It caused only pain. I tried to resume it few times within the next two and a half years with the same unpleasant feeling in the pubic area. I do not know from my other contacts with men after prostatectomy that Kegel exercise helped them. The statistic is needed with particulars.
December 12, 2014 at 6:41 AM |
Please go to http://www.MalePelvicFitness.com and on front page bottom right click on my review article that was published in the July 2014 Gold Journal of Urology. There are many excellent references to support data.