Pelvic floor muscles run from your tailbone to pubic bone and support your bladder and bowels. They’re often recommended for people assigned female at birth but can also benefit people assigned male at birth.
Kegel exercises are ones designed to tighten up your pelvic floor muscles. These muscles help you control your bladder and bowels. It also helps you with your erections.
The pelvic floor muscles, along with other tissues, stretch from your tailbone in the back to your pubic bone in the front. The muscles support your bladder and your bowel. The urethra, which takes urine (pee) out of your body, and your rectum, which allows feces (poop) to move out of your body, pass through the muscles and tissues of the pelvic floor.
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People assigned male at birth (AMAB) with certain health and sexual health issues can benefit from doing Kegel exercises. These exercises may help you:
To do Kegel exercises, you have to find the muscles that you need to exercise. There are three muscles you need to find and flex to complete a correct Kegel exercise.
The BC muscle is the main one involved in doing Kegel exercises, with the other two muscles doing less of the work. You can find this muscle by stopping your urine stream while you’re peeing.
You can try feeling your PC muscle by attempting to draw your penis in toward your body, making it shorter. You may feel like your scrotum is being pulled upward.
You can find your IC muscle by making the motion you would use to try to hold in diarrhea or stop yourself from passing gas.
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Like any exercise program, you should start with small steps.
It’s also important to learn how to relax your pelvic floor muscles to avoid pain and to help with proper muscle functioning.
Kegel exercises can help improve your bladder and bowel health, and possibly your sexual performance. These exercises can be helpful for people who are preparing for prostate cancer surgery, too.
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Kegel exercises shouldn’t cause damage if you learn to relax the muscles, as well as strengthen them. You shouldn’t do Kegel exercises to excess. You also shouldn’t spend too much time trying to stop your urine flow.
Don’t do Kegel exercises if you have a urinary catheter in place.
It may take as long as six weeks to notice improvements from Kegel exercises. You need to make them a permanent part of your routine to continue getting the benefits.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Muscles need exercise to stay strong, something that’s also true for the muscles in your pelvic floor. You can speak with your healthcare provider about the correct way to do Kegel exercises for your pelvic floor muscles. These exercises can help you stop leaking urine or feces and may improve your sexual performance and enjoyment. It may seem embarrassing to talk about, but these situations can be improved. It’s worth the effort to make your life more enjoyable.
Last reviewed on 11/22/2021.
Learn more about the Health Library and our editorial process.
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Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy