Valentine’s day is billed as the most romantic day of the year.
And many people are looking for ways to spice things up in the bedroom.
Though it may seem simple, working out the pelvic floor muscles could be the best way to bring some extra spark into anyone’s sex life.
Speaking to Daily Mail Online, experts explain why pelvic floor muscles are essential for great sex, and ways people can exercise them.
Pelvic floor exercises can make sex more satisfying and make orgasms stronger
How do pelvic muscles impact sex?
The pelvic floor muscles act as a ‘trampoline,’ stretching from the tailbone to the pubic bone, and spanning the width between the sitting bones.
‘They’re the inner most important part of the body,’ said personal trainer Michelle Weber of Integrated Fitness & Lifestyle Design from the Inside Out. ‘Without that foundation we literally become undone, organs literally start to fall.’
In addition to acting like a ‘floor’ to the pelvis and supporting its organs — bladder, bowel and uterus in women, and bladder and bowel in men — they also play a huge role in penetrative sex.
The sex organs lie right below or outside the pelvic floor muscles, while the other organs lie above it.
In women, the vaginal walls are layered with pelvic floor muscles, according to physiotherapist Amanda Savage, of South Cambridge Physiotherapy.
Working out these muscles will not only tone and strengthen them, it will also improve blood supply and nerve activity, thus resulting in greater pleasure during sex.
In men, the perineum — a part of the pelvic floor located between the anus and the scrotum or vulva — surrounds the penis and contains nerve endings that can produce sensations when stimulated.
‘This can also impact how erect a penis is and it’s blood flow — whether it’s a pumping sensation or a static sensation,’ Weber said.
When people work of these muscles, they get stronger and bulkier, which, in turn, can make sex much more satisfying.
‘If you go to the gym for six months you’ll see a difference, your shoulders and hamstrings might get more muscular – it’s the same with your pelvic floor,’ physiotherapist and PhD student Kate Lough told Daily Mail Online in a previous interview.
‘You will get a bulkier pelvic floor that is going to take up more room and it will mean that the space available for a penis or whatever you’re using will be smaller and you may be more aware of what’s going in and out,’ she added.
Fortunately, there a number a ways people can improve their pelvic floor health.
Your guide to pelvic exercises
Pelvic floor health can be weakened by a number of things, including not keeping them active or overworking them, being overweight or obese, constipation or straining, and a chronic coughing or sneezing.
However, not enough men and women are doing enough to improve their pelvic health.
Intimate health brand Intimina found that only 35 percent of women say they do Kegel exercises only sometimes and a further 19 percent revealed they performed them almost never.
Fortunately, there are different ways people can exercise to strengthen their pelvic floor — and boost their sex lives in the process.
1) Pelvic floor elevator
The elevator is a kegel exercise that strengthens the pelvic floor muscles by tensing and releasing them.
This exercise, which also involves breathing, can be done at home sitting cross-legged on a yoga floor or mat.
To do this exercise:
- Inhale while contracting pelvic muscles
- Hold for a few seconds
- Then relax and exhale
- Repeat
‘It’s an internal exercise,’ Hannah Adam, a London-based pilates teacher, told Daily Mail Online.
‘It’s like an elevator,’ she said. ‘When people breathe in they lift [their pelvic muscles up] and when they exhale their pelvic muscles go down.’
2) Toe taps
This is another great exercise for maintaining pelvic floor and abdominal strength, Adam said.
To do this exercise:
- Lie on flat on your back
- Put legs up and bend the knees so that the shins are parallel to the floor
- Bring one leg down, while still bent, until the toe touches the mat,
- Bring it back up and lower the other leg.
- Repeat
Adam said this exercise contracts and strengthen the pelvic floor.
3) Dead bug
The dead bug is similar to toe taps, but a little more difficult, Adam said.
To do this exercise:
- Lie on flat on your back
- Put legs up and bend the knees so that the shins are parallel to the floor
- Extend both arms so that they’re perpendicular to the ground
- Bring down the right arm over the head while straightening the left leg
- Then come back to starting position
- Bring down left arm while straightening the right leg
- Repeat
4) Hypoppressive technique
Weber said she uses this breathing technique because ‘kegel exercises aren’t always the answer.’
‘People with respiratory dysfunction also have poor pelvic floor health,’ Weber said, also adding that people with poor posture are also likely to have a poor pelvic floor muscles too.
To do this technique:
- Breathe in while opening your ribs
- Exhale
- Once there’s no air left, don’t breathe in again
- After a few seconds, open your ribs and pretend to catch a breath, without actually breathing in
- Hold this position for four seconds
- Breathe in
- Rest
- Repeat
Weber said this technique improves respiratory function, as well as reprograms and reeducates the pelvic floor, postural muscles and the nervous system.
‘Kegels only focus on one aspect of pelvic floor health, she said. ‘[The hypoppressive technique] focuses on the whole body.’
Weber said it’s important to incorporate the whole body since the pelvic floor is ‘intrinsically connected’ to the spine.