Andrew Siegel MD 2/14/15
(Thank you Pixabay for above image)
“It is like a firstborn son—you spend your life working for him, sacrificing everything for him, and at the moment of truth he does just as he pleases.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(from Love In The Time of Cholera)
“The penis does not obey the order of its master, who tries to erect or
shrink it at will. Instead, the penis erects freely while its master is asleep.
The penis must be said to have its own mind, by any stretch of the imagination.”
Leonardo da Vinci
PADD
In the vast range between flawless erectile functioning and defeated phallus syndrome, there are a variety of forms, dimensions and magnitudes of impairments in the working order of the penis. You may be able to achieve a fabulous erection—a proud soldier standing tall at attention, saluting, noble, confident, majestic, and readily capable of penetration, but then, much to you and your partner’s bewilderment and dismay, it decides to display its short “attention” span and deflate before business is fully conducted. I like to refer to this as penile attention deficit disorder (PADD).
Erection Hydraulics
Our circulatory system consists of arteries that supply oxygenated blood to our organs and tissues and veins that return blood back to the heart. Since erections are all about blood filling the penis, being able to achieve proud soldier status infers that your inflow of blood is excellent and uncompromised, with blood surging into the penis through arterial vessels unclogged by the ravages of time and poor lifestyle. The attention deficit occurs when the blood that is stored in the erection chambers leaks, similar to air hissing out from a flat tire and slowly deflating. This often implies a venous leak, in which the veins are unable to close off effectively
Erections are a matter of simple hydraulics—maximizing inflow of blood while minimizing outflow. There are two stages of erectile hydraulics: tumescence and rigidity. In the tumescence stage the penis becomes plump and full; in the rigidity stage, the penis becomes rock hard. The penis consists of 3 erection chambers that fill with blood. The erection chambers are composed of sinuses—virtually identical to our nasal sinuses—and when the sinuses become congested with blood, an erection results. When you are in a sexually stimulating situation, blood surges into your erection chambers by virtue of smooth muscle relaxation in both the penile arteries and in the sinuses, permitting inflow. It is this ability for smooth muscle relaxation that is critical for the initial penile erection hydraulics. As the sinuses fill up with blood, they compress the penile veins to block the outflow of blood, resulting in a tumescent penis, plump and full, but not yet rigid.
Fact: To get a good quality erection, relaxation is key, as it is in so many other physical activities.
Role Of Pelvic Floor Muscle…From Tumescence To Rigidity
The pelvic floor muscles are critical in the transformation of your tumescent penis to a rigid penis. By compressing the deep, inner part of your penis (the root of the penis), the pelvic floor muscles foster rigidity by aiding closure of veins and by elevating the blood pressure within your penis to levels well above systolic blood pressure (an erect penis being a hypertensive penis…the only hypertension you desire!), causing bone-like rigidity. You can think of the role of the pelvic floor muscles in trapping blood within the penis like that of a tourniquet placed around your arm by a phlebotomist in order to block venous return to make your arm veins full and easy to draw blood from.
Effect Of Aging On Muscle
With aging, the smooth muscle of our arteries tends to become stiffer (less able to relax and permit inflow of blood), resulting in high blood pressure for many of us. Your penis is not spared, as the smooth muscle of your penile arteries and sinuses stiffens and becomes less able to relax. This muscle stiffness does NOT result in penile stiffness. No, unfortunately the consequence of stiff smooth muscle in the penis and the sinuses is less arterial inflow and poor venous trapping. Additionally, your pelvic floor muscles tend to weaken with age. With the smooth muscle stiffening and the weakened pelvic floor muscles, you have the perfect storm for your proud soldier to falter, causing weakened erections and not uncommonly PADD.
Fact: With aging, your arteries get stiffer and your penis gets less stiff.
So, What To Do?
How do you maintain proud soldier status? What can you do to keep the proud soldier from becoming a wounded warrior?
You must keep that soldier in tip-top shape, well fed, well exercised, and well utilized for the role for which he was intended. And don’t forget that for a soldier to stand tall and proud at attention, he needs to engage in training exercises and drills.
To reiterate, the pelvic floor muscles play a critical role during erections, activating and engaging to help maintain penile rigidity and a skyward angling erection. There is good reason that the 1909 Gray’s Anatomy labeled one of the key pelvic floor muscles the “erector penis.” Numerous studies have shown the benefits of pelvic floor muscle exercises in the management of erectile dysfunction, with particular benefit to those with venous leakage. So, the first line of defense against the onset of PADD and other forms of erectile dysfunction is keeping your pelvic floor muscles fit. Enhancing pelvic floor muscle strength, tone, durability and responsiveness results in stronger pelvic floor muscles and consequently more rigid and durable erections .
Fact: Exercising the pelvic floor muscles can help prevent or improve PADD and other forms of ED.
Wishing you the best of health and a wonderful, romantic and sexy Valentine’s Day,
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Author of Male Pelvic Fitness: Optimizing Sexual and Urinary Health: available in e-book (Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo) and paperback: http://www.MalePelvicFitness.com
Private Gym: http://www.PrivateGym.com -available on Amazon as well as Private Gym website
The Private Gym is a comprehensive, interactive, follow-along exercise program that provides the resources to properly strengthen the pelvic floor muscles that are vital to sexual and urinary health. The program builds upon the foundational work of Dr. Arnold Kegel, who popularized exercises for women to increase pelvic strength and tone. This FDA registered program is effective, safe and easy-to-use. The “Basic Training” program strengthens the pelvic floor muscles with a series of progressive “Kegel” exercises and the “Complete Program” provides maximum opportunity for gains through its patented resistance equipment.
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