Pelvic Floor Exercises for Men: Benefits, Technique & Tips

Pelvic Floor Exercises for Men are simple and effective exercises designed to strengthen the muscles that support the bladder, bowel, and pelvic organs. These muscles play an important role in urinary control and sexual function. Regular pelvic floor training may help improve muscle strength, bladder control, and overall pelvic health. These exercises are easy to perform while sitting, standing, or lying down and require no special equipment.

Doing the exercises costs you nothing. Car, office chair, bed, it doesn’t matter where. Nobody can tell. All you’ve got to do is squeeze the right muscles (not your bum, not your belly) and then let them go fully loose before the next one.

What Are the Pelvic Floor Muscles?

Picture them stretched across the bottom of your pelvis from front to back. The front end is fixed to your pubic bone, just above the penis. The back end is fixed to your tailbone.

For men, they:

• Hold up the bladder and bowel
• Decide when pee and poo get let out
• Keep wind in (most of the time, anyway)
• Clamp down when you cough, sneeze or lift
• Help with erections and sex
• Keep the pelvis steady

A lot of leaking comes down to these muscles being weak. And what makes them weak is mostly ordinary life stuff. Prostate surgery. A cough that’s lasted months. Being bunged up, and all that pushing on the toilet. A big belly. Sitting in a chair from 9 till 6, then on the sofa till bedtime.

Benefits of Pelvic Floor Exercises for Men

1. Better Bladder Control

Think about coughing, sneezing, going for a jog, or hauling one of those big 20-litre water bottles onto the dispenser. Each of those squashes your bladder for a second. If your pelvic muscles are strong, they squeeze back, and you’re far less likely to leak. That’s the number one reason men start.

2. Support After Prostate Surgery

Loads of urologists give men a Kegel sheet before prostate surgery and another one after. The men who actually keep doing them often get their bladder control back quicker. Still, what your own surgeon or physio tells you comes first. Nobody’s recovery is exactly the same.

3. Support for Sexual Function

In bed, these muscles help hold blood in the penis so it stays firmer, and they give you a bit more control. But if erectile dysfunction has been bothering you for months, weak muscles are hardly ever the full story. A doctor needs to have a look.

Are they good for male sexual health? Sure. Will they fix every erection or ejaculation problem? No chance. If someone’s selling them like that, be careful.

4. Improved Pelvic Muscle Strength

Nothing fancy going on here. Use the muscle the right way and use it often, and it gets stronger. Three short goes a day will do you way more good than one long go on a Friday.

How to Find Your Pelvic Floor Muscles

First time trying this, it feels a little awkward. That’s fine, everyone feels the same.

Pretend you’re in a packed lift and you badly need to hold in some wind. Keep holding it. Now on top of that, pretend you’re trying to slow your pee down halfway. What you want to feel is a pull, inward and up, a squeeze and lift. If you’re bearing down instead, like you’re pushing on the toilet, you’ve got it backwards.

When you get it right, the base of the penis twitches in a little bit and the scrotum lifts slightly.

Important: Don’t keep stopping your pee as your exercise. If you do it a lot, your bladder might not empty properly. Once or twice just to find the muscles is okay. Not every day though.

How to Perform Pelvic Floor Exercises

Here’s a starter routine:

Exercise	Technique	Starting Goal
Slow contraction	Tighten and lift the pelvic floor	Hold for 3–5 seconds
Relaxation	Let the muscles go fully	Rest for 5–10 seconds
Fast contraction	Squeeze and release quickly	Up to 8–10 times
Regular practice	Repeat the routine every day	About 3 sessions daily

For the first week or two, lie down or sit. You’ll feel it better. Breathe normally. Belly, thighs and bum should stay soft. If your bum’s tight, you’re cheating, even if you don’t mean to.

Later, give it a go standing up. Most men find that after a month or so they’re doing a set at every red light without even thinking.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Keep an eye out for these:

• Forgetting to breathe
• Your bum clenching
• Thighs going tight
• Pushing down when you should be lifting
• Trying to do 50 in one go
• No rest between squeezes
• Using every toilet trip as practice

Do them properly, not lots of them. Squeeze slowly, hold it, then let go all the way. Only then do the next.

Pelvic Floor Exercises vs Penis Pumps

They’re different things for different jobs. Pelvic floor exercises mean your own muscles are doing the work. A penis pump is a gadget that uses suction to pull blood in.

So don’t think of one as swapping for the other. And if you’re buying a device for erection trouble, read properly how it works and stick to the safety rules.

A Hydromax 7 pump is one example of a device like that. Pelvic floor exercises don’t need anything except you.

How Long Does It Take to See Results?

A little more control after a few weeks. Proper strength after a few months.

Doing them every day matters more than doing them hard. Stick them onto something you’d never skip, like brushing your teeth, your first coffee, or switching the light off at night. That’s how it becomes a habit.

Tips for Better Results

• Start with a number that feels easy.
• Every single time, think “squeeze and lift.”
• Don’t stop breathing.
• After each squeeze, let go completely.
• Every week or so, hold for one second longer.
• Do them daily. Weekends count too.
• No pushing hard on the toilet.
• Walk more, sit less.
• Get your sleep, and don’t let stress build up.

How you live affects your sex life too, and that includes low libido. Half-decent food, a bit of exercise, enough sleep and less stress all help your pelvic floor routine along.

We’ve written more about that in our guide on natural ways to boost libido and stamina.

When Should Men Seek Professional Advice?

Most of the time these exercises are safe and simple. But it’s not always weak muscles causing the trouble.

Go see a doctor, urologist or pelvic health physio if you’ve got:

• Leaking that won’t stop
• Trouble emptying your bladder
• Pain in the pelvis that hangs around
• Erection problems
• Problems controlling your bowels
• Pain while you’re doing the exercises
• No improvement after weeks of doing them properly

Some men actually have a pelvic floor that’s too tight, not too weak. More squeezing just makes that worse. A physio can work out which one you’ve got and tell you what to do.

Final Thoughts

No kit, no gym, just a few minutes a day. Do them right and keep going, and your bladder and bowel control will usually get better, and sometimes your sex life too.

Just remember: correct technique, controlled contractions, complete relaxation, and consistency. Not sure? Not seeing any change? Have a chat with a doctor or physio. They’ve heard it all before, honestly.