September Kegel/Squat Challenge

Well, summer is nearly over. Here in Canada, this is our last long weekend until Thanksgiving in October, so our family is going camping and while we’re there, my wife is running a Spartan Beast – 21 km (13 mile) obstacle course (her new hobby/obsession). After that, it’s back to homeschooling and getting ready for our long Canadian winter.

So, I thought I’d host a Kegel/Squat Challenge in September.

Well, summer is nearly over. Here in Canada, this is our last long weekend until Thanksgiving in October, so our family is going camping and while we’re there, my wife is running a Spartan Beast – 21 km (13 mile) obstacle course (her new hobby/obsession). After that, it’s back to homeschooling and getting ready for our long Canadian winter.

So, I thought I’d host a Kegel/Squat Challenge in September.

Why Kegels?

Firstly, because I want to help people improve their sex lives and an abundance of research shows that Kegel exercises help improve sex for most people (back to that in a second).

They make it easier to orgasm for women. In fact, one study that was researching kegels for urinary incontinence for women added a side-note in their research that all of the women reported improved orgasms. They seemed a bit worried about this note as there was a 100% correlation in their study between kegels and improved orgasms. They almost didn’t publish it because the data was too perfect. These women wither they went from being anorgasmic to being able to orgasm, or they went from mild orgasms to great, or they went from single to multiple. Point is, wherever they were, their orgasms got better.

For men, kegels can help with both premature ejaculation and delayed ejaculation. And some men report they can learn to have multiple orgasms as well.

Now, there are some times when you shouldn’t do Kegel exercises, as a reader on Facebook pointed out. If you have pain during sex, or when doing Kegels, then something else is going on, and you should see a pelvic floor specialist to figure that out. Likewise if you find you are “too tight” during sex, then you probably already have too much tension in those muscles, so putting them under more tension is probably not a good idea. Again, see a pelvic floor therapist.

Really, if you have a doctor that you’re already talking to about anything in the pelvis, I’d suggest checking with them first.

Lastly, if you don’t know how to do a Kegel exercise properly, then you shouldn’t be doing Kegel exercises. A lot of people just think “oh, I just squeeze ‘down there'”, but there is actually a specific muscle group you want to use.

The general advice to find the right muscle is to go to the bathroom, and then try to stop peeing mid-stream. Now, a word of caution – you don’t want to be doing this too often as doing this repeatedly can cause UTIs in some people. At the same time, make sure you aren’t flexing your thigh, abdominal muscles or buttocks.

Another method I’ve read somewhere is that you should imagine you’re sitting on a marble, and then trying to pick up the marble with your PC muscles. That’s a little harder for the guys to visualize I think, but that might help for the women.

Why Squats?

So, because Kegel exercises aren’t appropriate for everyone, I wanted to have an alternative. So, I figured why not do a squat challenge as well.

Truth is doing squats provide a lot of the same benefits. They can work your pelvic floor muscles, but because they’re not directed at only that muscle, it takes longer to see the same improvement, but there’s also less risk of injury if there’s a preexisting condition. But, they also get blood moving in the genital region, which is good for arousal and orgasms too. As well, it’s a good workout, so will increase endorphin production, which makes you feel good.

And lastly, it works out your leg and butt muscles, which your spouse will appreciate, and it might help your self-confidence when getting naked.

Of course, squats aren’t appropriate for everyone either. If you have knee or back problems, you might want to go easy, or skip them all together. And, as with the Kegel exercises, if you do them improperly, you can do more harm than good.

If you don’t know how to do a squat, the idea is pretty simple. You squat down, like you’re going to sit in a chair. There are a ton of videos on YouTube to show you how it’s done, like this one:

And that’s basically it.

How to join the 30 day challenge!

So, you can choose to do the Kegels, squats, both or neither. It’s entirely up to you depending on your personal preferences, health, and any professional recommendations you might have gotten.

In the past, we’ve run these challenges through Facebook, but this year we’re going to use our private supporters forum where you can join anonymously at no cost for the challenge. I’ve managed to section off a piece of it so anyone can register and be a part of it.

There we’ll be sending out daily instructions, encouragement, fielding questions, holding you accountable, and you can enjoy being part of a sex-positive community.

So, if you’re interested, just head over to https://discourse.uncoveringintimacy.com and hit the Sign-Up button.