Pelvic floor exercises strengthen the sling of muscles that supports your bladder, bowel, and reproductive organs. The most well-known version is the Kegel, but several other movements, including squats, bridges, and pelvic tilts, also engage these muscles. A consistent routine can reduce urinary leakage, improve bowel control, and enhance sexual function for both women and men.
Finding Your Pelvic Floor Muscles
Before you start any pelvic floor exercise, you need to know which muscles you’re targeting. The simplest way: squeeze the muscles you’d use to stop yourself from passing gas or to pause urination midstream. You should feel a subtle lift and tightening deep inside your pelvis, not in your stomach, thighs, or buttocks.
Women can confirm by inserting a finger into the vagina and squeezing. If you feel tightness around your finger, you’ve found the right muscles. Men can do the same check by inserting a finger into the rectum. That feeling of the muscles drawing up and inward is what you’re after. Once you can reliably isolate these muscles, you’re ready to train them.
Kegels: The Foundation Exercise
Kegels are the core pelvic floor exercise, and they require no equipment, no gym, and no special clothing. The basic movement is a contract-and-release cycle of the pelvic floor muscles, done while breathing normally.
Here’s how to do them:
- Start with an empty bladder. This reduces discomfort and helps you focus on the correct muscles.
- Tighten your pelvic floor muscles and hold for 3 seconds. If you’re a beginner, 3 seconds is enough. Over the course of a few weeks, work up to holding for 10 seconds.
- Relax for the same amount of time you held. If you held for 3 seconds, rest for 3. If you held for 10, rest for 10. The rest period matters as much as the contraction.
- Repeat 10 times per set. Aim for 3 to 5 sets spread throughout the day.
Breathe freely the entire time. Holding your breath creates downward pressure that works against what you’re trying to accomplish. You can do Kegels lying down, sitting at your desk, or standing in line at the grocery store. Nobody will know.
Squats
Squats engage the pelvic floor alongside the glutes and thighs, making them a functional way to build pelvic strength during a movement you already do dozens of times a day (sitting down, picking things up). Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, lower your hips back and down as if sitting into a chair, keep your weight in your heels, and stand back up. Aim for 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions, increasing intensity gradually as your strength improves.
The key with squats for pelvic floor health is awareness. As you lower into the squat, your pelvic floor naturally lengthens. As you rise, consciously engage those muscles. This trains the pelvic floor to activate during real-world movements, not just in isolation.
Pelvic Tilts
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Gently flatten your lower back against the floor by tilting your pelvis upward. You’ll feel your lower abdominals and pelvic floor engage together. Hold briefly, then release. Repeat 10 to 15 times, adding repetitions as you get stronger.
Pelvic tilts are especially useful for people who struggle to isolate their pelvic floor muscles during Kegels. The movement provides a physical cue (pressing your back into the floor) that makes it easier to feel the right muscles working.
Bridges
Start in the same position as a pelvic tilt: on your back, knees bent, feet flat. This time, lift your hips off the floor until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees. Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles at the top, hold for a few seconds, then slowly lower back down. Repeat 10 to 15 times.
Bridges add more load than a pelvic tilt by incorporating your glutes and hamstrings. They’re a natural progression once basic Kegels and pelvic tilts feel easy.
Weighted Vaginal Cones
For women looking for progressive resistance, vaginal cones offer one option. These are small, weighted devices inserted into the vagina. You then use your pelvic floor muscles to hold the cone in place while standing or walking. Cones typically come in graduated weights, so you can increase the challenge over time. They aren’t necessary for everyone, but some women find that the tactile feedback helps them engage the correct muscles more effectively than Kegels alone.
Common Mistakes That Undermine Results
The most frequent error is squeezing the wrong muscles entirely. Many people clench their buttocks, tighten their inner thighs, or bear down with their upper abdominals during Kegels. None of these actions train the pelvic floor. Your buttocks should stay completely relaxed. A slight engagement of the deep lower abdominal wall is normal, but if your “six-pack” muscles are visibly contracting, you’re using the wrong muscles. Your thighs should stay loose too. If you catch yourself squeezing them, it often means your pelvic floor muscles are too weak to activate on their own, and you may benefit from starting with gentler cues like pelvic tilts.
Another common mistake is holding your breath, which increases intra-abdominal pressure and pushes down on the pelvic floor rather than lifting it. Breathe normally throughout every exercise.
How Long Before You See Results
Pelvic floor training is not a quick fix. Most people notice initial changes in bladder control within a few weeks, but meaningful improvement takes months of consistency. In a large clinical trial of women with urinary incontinence who followed a pelvic floor muscle training program, about 63% reported improvement at 24 months. Around 8% achieved complete resolution of their symptoms. Those numbers reflect what’s realistic: most people get significantly better, but the gains are gradual and require ongoing practice.
One useful strategy after the first couple of weeks is to practice a single, quick pelvic floor contraction right before moments when you tend to leak, like standing up from a chair, coughing, or sneezing. This trains your muscles to fire reflexively when you need them most.
Making Exercises Harder Over Time
Progression matters. If you only ever do 3-second Kegels lying down, your pelvic floor will plateau. There are a few simple ways to increase the challenge:
- Extend your hold time. Work from 3 seconds up to 10 seconds per contraction over several weeks.
- Change your position. Kegels are easiest lying down because gravity isn’t working against you. Move to seated, then standing, as you get stronger.
- Add functional movements. Incorporate pelvic floor engagement into squats, bridges, and daily activities like lifting or climbing stairs.
- Use resistance tools. Vaginal cones with increasing weights provide progressive overload similar to adding weight at the gym.
Pelvic Floor Exercises After Childbirth
After an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, it’s generally safe to begin gentle pelvic floor exercises within a few days, or as soon as you feel ready. Starting early can help restore muscle tone that was stretched during pregnancy and delivery. After a cesarean section, extensive vaginal repair, or a complicated birth, you’ll need clearance from your provider before starting any exercise program. In both cases, begin with short, gentle contractions and build gradually. Postpartum pelvic floor muscles are often weaker and more fatigued than you expect, so patience matters more than intensity in the early weeks.
Exercises for Men
Pelvic floor exercises aren’t just for women. Men benefit from the same training, particularly after prostate surgery, for urinary or fecal incontinence, or to improve sexual function. The technique is identical: tighten the muscles you’d use to stop urinating or hold in gas, hold, then release. The same guidelines apply for sets, reps, and progression. Focus on keeping your abdominals, thighs, and buttocks relaxed, isolating only the pelvic floor. Men often find it helpful to practice in front of a mirror initially to confirm they aren’t visibly tensing surrounding muscles.