Pelvic Floor Exercises for Men: How to Do Them

Pelvic floor exercises strengthen the muscles that support your bladder and bowel and that work during erection and ejaculation. Men use them for bladder leaks, after prostate surgery, and for erection and timing problems. They take a few minutes a day and about three months to show results.

Finding the muscles

• Tighten the ring of muscle around your back passage, as if stopping wind.
• At the same time, draw the muscles at the front up and in, as if stopping the flow of urine or lifting your testicles.
• You should feel a lift inside. Your buttocks, thighs and stomach stay relaxed, and you keep breathing.

Stopping your urine mid-flow is a way to check you’ve found the right muscles. Don’t use it as the exercise, because it can stop your bladder emptying properly.

A basic routine

1. Slow holds. Squeeze and lift, hold for up to 8 to 10 seconds, then let go completely for the same time. Repeat 8 to 12 times.
2. Quick squeezes. Then do 5 to 10 short, strong squeezes, relaxing fully between each.
3. Do the set three times a day. Lying down is easiest to start. Move on to sitting and standing as it gets easier.

If you can only hold for two or three seconds at first, that’s normal. Build up.

What the evidence says

• Bladder control. Well established, including after prostate surgery.
• Erections. In a randomised trial, men with erection problems who did pelvic floor exercises improved more than men given lifestyle advice alone.
• Premature ejaculation. Smaller studies show better control after about 12 weeks of training.

Common mistakes

• Holding your breath or bearing down.
• Squeezing your buttocks or stomach instead.
• Not relaxing fully between squeezes. The let-go matters as much as the squeeze.
• Stopping after two weeks. Muscles take months.

When to get help

If you can’t find the muscles, the exercises cause pain, or nothing has changed after three months, a men’s health physiotherapist can check your technique. See a GP for leaking urine, erection problems or pelvic pain, because they have other causes worth checking.

References

• Continence Foundation of Australia: Pelvic floor muscles in men
• Dorey G, et al. Pelvic floor exercises for erectile dysfunction. BJU International. 2005.
• Pastore AL, et al. Pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation for patients with lifelong premature ejaculation. Therapeutic Advances in Urology. 2014.