Archive for November, 2008

Fun with Kegel Exercises

Friday, November 7th, 2008 by Shannon Bertha, ACS, PhD

Kegel exercises are used to tone and workout your pubococcygeus (P.C.) muscles. In order to locate these muscles pretend that you are urinating and stop midstream. Those muscles you contract to stop urination are your P.C. muscles. Women and men should do repetitions and try to get up to 50-100 contractions at a time. Remind yourself to do them by setting a special time, every time you get into the car, or train, or online at the grocery store or bank. The greatest thing about these exercises is that no one knows you are doing them!

Health benefits to kegel exercises include keeping the vagina tighter, an overall general strengthening of the muscles for better control of urine while coughing or sneezing. Women are often told to do this before and after pregnancy in order to keep the vaginal walls and muscles healthy, tight and strong. For men, this can facilitate good penile health and help with greater control over ejaculation. Men and women should try doing kegels during intercourse. The tightening of the vagina over the head and the shaft of the penis is a different sensation and may be very pleasurable for both partners.

"Use it or lose it"

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 by Bat Sheva Marcus LMSW MPH PhD

The phrase “use it or lose it,” is often used for the vagina. “Is that true?,” I’m asked all the time. Well, in a word… YES!!! Well you won’t LOSE it, in the sense of misplacing it in Virginia, say, but If you don’t put something inside your vagina (say a penis or some facsimile thereof) the muscles in the vagina may very well tighten up and it will hurt later when you do try to put something in. (So you’ll be losing it in that sense.) If you don’t masturbate, have an orgasm, or do something else that stimulates blood flow into the area, you are more likely to be atrophied, have dryer skin and less elastic mucosa, and… you guessed it… it will hurt later when you try to put something inside. So try to make sure that at least once a week, (and twice would be even better) you are “using” your vagina. Then you don’t have to worry about “losing” it.