Pelvic floor relaxation exercises for men: a 5-minute routine

Relaxation is the let-go half of pelvic-floor training. If you have pain, read our guide to a tight pelvic floor first, because a doctor comes before any routine. New to all this? Find your pelvic floor first, so you know which muscle you're letting go.

What pelvic floor relaxation is

Your pelvic floor holds some tension even at rest, a bit like shoulders you didn't know were raised. Relaxing it means letting that background tension go.

It isn't pushing. Bearing down, as if on the toilet, is effort. Relaxation is the absence of effort: you stop holding, and the area between your scrotum and anus goes soft and heavy.

Letting go is a skill of its own. One review describes an overactive pelvic floor as muscles that "do not relax, or may even contract, when relaxation is needed".¹ A routine can't tell you whether that's you. A doctor or a pelvic-floor physio can.

Before you start

Pelvic-floor strengthening isn't right for everyone. If you have pain in your pelvis, genitals, perineum or bottom, pain when you ejaculate or pee, or trouble starting to pee, your pelvic floor may be too tense rather than too weak, or something else may be going on. Guidelines advise against Kegel-style strengthening for pelvic pain with a tender pelvic floor. Stop, see a doctor, and ask about a pelvic-floor physiotherapist.^1,2,3

This routine has no squeezing in it. It still isn't a substitute for that check.

You need a mat, a rug or a bed, loose clothes and a clock you can see. A cushion helps for child's pose if your knees complain.

The 5-minute routine

Lie on your back with your knees bent to start. Breathe through your nose if you can, and never hold your breath.

Soft Breath

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent. Rest one hand on your belly.
2. Breathe in slowly through your nose for about 4 seconds. Let your belly widen and your pelvic floor soften and drop.
3. Breathe out for about 6 seconds. Stay soft. Don't squeeze, push or bear down.
4. Keep the neighbours loose. Jaw, shoulders, belly and buttocks.

Release

1. Breathe in for about 4 seconds. Let the area between your scrotum and anus go soft and heavy.
2. Breathe out for about 4 seconds and keep it soft. Nothing lifts.

Release is a reverse Kegel. Our guide to reverse Kegels for men has more on what it should and shouldn't feel like.

Happy baby

1. Lie on your back and bring your knees up toward your armpits.
2. Hold the outsides of your feet, shins pointing up. Holding behind your knees, or your shins, is fine too.
3. Let your knees widen and your lower back rest on the floor. Rock gently side to side if it feels good.
4. Breathe slowly into your belly and let the pelvic floor soften.

Keep your head and shoulders down on the floor.

Child's pose

1. Kneel with your big toes together and your knees apart.
2. Sit your hips back toward your heels and walk your hands forward until your forehead rests down.
3. Breathe into your back and belly. Let the pelvic floor soften with each breath in.
4. Walk your hands back to come up.

A cushion between your hips and heels helps if your knees complain.

Pelvic floor breathing

Pelvic floor breathing usually means slow belly breathing with the pelvic floor kept soft, which is the Soft Breath above. Slow breathing, under 10 breaths a minute, is linked to feeling more relaxed and less anxious.⁴ At in for 4 and out for 6, you're at about 6 breaths a minute.

That finding comes from a review of small studies in healthy adults, none of them about the pelvic floor. So it's a good reason to practise slow breathing, not proof that breathing relaxes the muscle itself. Our guide to breathing and your pelvic floor has a 3-minute breathing drill and the common slips. If you want a voice to pace it, the free pelvic floor relaxation session runs at 6 breaths a minute.

Pelvic floor stretches for men

The stretches here come from GoBeast's move library. The cue is the same in each: breathe low, and let the pelvic floor soften as you breathe in.

We haven't found a trial that tested stretches for the pelvic floor in men, so we don't claim they relax it. They're comfortable, low-effort positions to practise the soft breath in, and that's how we use them.

Go to a mild stretch, not your limit. A stretch you have to fight is the opposite of what you're practising.

A seated version for work

No floor? This one takes about 4 minutes in a chair.

1. Soft Breath, 1 minute. Sit tall, feet flat, one hand on your belly.
2. Release, 40 seconds. Five slow breaths, staying soft.
3. Figure-four, 30 seconds each side.
4. Seated forward fold, 40 seconds. Come up slowly if you feel light-headed.
5. Release, 40 seconds, to finish.

Our guide to Kegels at your desk has a seated routine that ends the same way.

Common mistakes

• Pushing or bearing down. If you feel pressure pushing outward, start again with less effort.
• Holding your breath, especially in a stretch. Keep it slow and smooth.
• Breathing high into your chest. The hand on your belly should move more than your chest.
• Forcing a stretch. Ease off to mild.
• Using it to push through pain. Relaxation isn't a way to make pain go away. If something hurts, stop.

How often to do it

There's no research-backed number, and no study has tested this routine. In GoBeast, Release ends every session, so the let-go gets practised whenever you train. You can also do this routine on its own, on days you don't train.

Every session on our free Kegel timer ends with a Release set too.

When to stop

How GoBeast helps with this

• Release ends every session, so the let-go gets practised every time you train.
• Paced breathing and body-scan practices to help you relax.
• Child's pose, happy baby and other mobility moves, demonstrated by the tiger trainer, with swaps if you have no floor space or sore knees.
• Pain switches you to a relax-first path, and a Pain button stops any session.

Comparing apps first? See how the main Kegel apps for men compare, or read about the GoBeast app.

Questions