As we age, many people expect their sex drive to drop, natural lubrication to decrease or orgasm intensity to just taper off. We’re here to tell you: it does NOT have to be that way!
These are symptoms of your pelvic floor muscles weakening over time. The vagina is a wonderfully resilient and accommodating organ. But life’s hurdles and experiences take their toll if the muscles aren’t strengthened and well maintained.
Fortunately, kegels are scientifically proven to treat laxity, dryness and anorgasmia that cause a lack of sexual sensation and pleasure. They help women restore sensation and satisfaction during intercourse. But how exactly do kegels make sex better? By strengthening the pelvic floor muscles, which increases blood flow, it restores natural lubrication, which lends itself to better and more frequent sex!
And this is no old wives’ tale. The sexual benefits of kegels are well documented, so read on learn more.
How Your Pelvic Floor Influences Vaginal Health
The pelvic floor muscles are a group of muscles that support all of our reproductive and digestive organs and processes. Just like any other muscle in the body, unless we strengthen them, they’re going to become weak and not work as well as they used to. For many women, a weak pelvic floor causes bladder leakage, pelvic organ prolapse or sexual dysfunction.
The Effects of a Weak Pelvic Floor
The reality is that over time our pelvic floor muscles weaken. For 43% of women, that results in sexual dysfunction, which can include:
- Laxity or looseness of the vaginal opening and canal. This is something that impacts many individual's self-confidence, especially after having a baby.
- Vaginal dryness and lack of self-lubrication (even when you’re in the mood). When your muscles weaken, they lose the ability to self-lubricate.
- Orgasm dysfunction. This can present itself in a variety of forms. Decreased climax intensity, increased difficulty in achieving climax, and limited situations resulting in climax or inability to achieve climax are all examples.
Fortunately, these symptoms of sexual dysfunction are all treatable through effective pelvic floor strengthening. Forget expensive surgeries or just having to live with it. Kegels are proven to not only make you feel stronger and more confident but bring your sex drive roaring back.
How Women Can Use Kegels for Better Sex
Many women might think kegels are for old ladies and question whether implementing kegels for better sex will bring about results. The reality is that kegels bring about benefits for women of all ages, including improved sexual function.
A kegel is an isometric contraction followed by a relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles that helps build strength in the muscles to support all of the organs and functions better.
It’s not dissimilar to any other isometric workout you might do. By strengthening the pelvic floor muscles through kegels, blood flow increases to the muscles, which increases natural lubrication.
How to Perform a Kegel Exercise
1. Measure your pelvic floor strength. Evaluate your pelvic floor muscle strength at the beginning of your kegel routine so you can measure progress. The self-assessment is done by inserting a finger and then making a contraction around it, and then noting the squeeze strength on a scale of 0-5 scale.
2. Measure pelvic floor endurance. Determine the endurance of the muscles by holding a kegel exercise as long as possible. If you can hold for 5 seconds, then this is your starting contraction time. If you can hold for 8 seconds then begin with holding for 8 seconds. Record endurance time and date.
3. Create your workout routine and then record endurance time and repetitions. Complete the following two sets of exercises two or three times a day:
- 20-50 kegels holding each for the established endurance period with 10-second rests
- 20-50 kegels holding for 1-second flickers of contraction with 1-second rests
4. Identify appropriate exercise positions. If you’re just starting on your pelvic floor journey, it probably makes sense to lay down during your exercises. As you get stronger, you can progress to standing or even using a Bosu ball or other tool to increase the challenge.
5. Be kind to yourself! It can take up to 12 weeks to build new muscle fibers and strengthen pelvic floor muscles. Depending on the strength of your muscles, it may take up to five months to see significant improvements.
If you’d like more information about how to properly do kegels for better sex, download our Kegel Guide here.
While kegels are great and can be done anywhere, the fact that there isn’t any weight resistance means that there’s a limit on how much muscle you can build. Not only that, if muscles are too weak, it can be challenging to engage the right muscles when you’re starting out.