HealthInfo Waitaha Canterbury
Pelvic floor exercises for men
Whakangungu pae papatoiake mā ngā tāne
People often talk about the importance of pelvic floor exercises for women. But a strong pelvic floor is equally as important for men, particularly for those with urinary problems.
Pelvic floor exercises aim to improve your muscle tone. A health professional may have recommended that you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles (PFMs). Or you might feel that you have or are at risk of pelvic floor problems.
Exercising your PFMs can help to:
- improve or maintain bladder and bowel control
- reduce the risk of a prolapse (when your internal organs aren't supported)
- improve your recovery after prostate surgery
- improve your confidence and quality of life.
Find your pelvic floor muscles
The first step is to correctly identify the muscles:
- Sit or lie down on a comfortable surface like your bed.
- Relax your thighs, buttocks, and tummy muscles. Breathe normally, do not hold your breath or change your breathing pattern.
- To get the correct contraction, imagine trying to hold a fart in by squeezing your back passage closed. Hold this for five seconds then relax your muscles. Alternatively imagine bringing your "nuts to guts" or shortening your penis.
- If you aren't sure if you've found the correct muscles, stand in front of a mirror naked. Do the contraction and watch what happens to your penis and testicles – you should see a small dip above your penis and your testicles should lift up a little bit. You can also place two fingers just under your scrotum on the flat skin and feel for a tightening under your fingers when you do the contraction. If you see the lift or feel the tightening, you are doing the contraction correctly.
Exercises
Do the contraction exercise described above daily for the best improvement possible. Long contractions of the muscle (up to 10 seconds) combined with short fast contractions (10 times for one second) work the best to get your pelvic floor strong with great control. At first you may need to perform these exercises while sitting or lying down. As your muscles strengthen, you can move on to exercising standing up.
As with any muscle training activity, start with what you can achieve and progress from there. Over time, increase both how long you hold the contraction for as well as how many times you repeat the exercise in a row.
If you're having trouble identifying the correct muscles or you aren't sure if you're doing the exercises correctly, seek professional advice from a continence advisor or pelvic floor physiotherapist.
HealthInfo recommends the following videos
- Continence Foundation of Australia – Male pelvic floor muscle exercises
Video describing how to do pelvic floor exercises.
HealthInfo recommends the following pages
- Continence Foundation of Australia – Pelvic floor muscles in men
Detailed information about the male pelvic floor and how to do exercises.
- Continence New Zealand – Pelvic floor training for men
Information about the pelvic floor and how to train the pelvic floor muscles.
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed April 2023.
SourcesReview key: HIURS-53047
