Sexual Wellness Workouts Every Man Should Be Doing
- Scott Schwertly
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Most men train their bodies for performance in every domain except the one they think about most.
We periodize training for races. We track lifts. We optimize nutrition and sleep for athletic output. And then the pelvic floor — the muscular system most directly responsible for erectile quality, ejaculatory control, and orgasmic intensity — goes entirely untrained for an entire adult life.
This post is a practical guide to the physical training that actually improves sexual function. Not vague wellness advice. Specific exercises, with the mechanisms explained, that produce measurable results when practiced consistently.
1. Kegels (Pelvic Floor Strengthening)
The foundation. The pelvic floor muscles — specifically the pubococcygeus (PC) and bulbocavernosus muscles — are directly involved in erectile rigidity, ejaculatory control, and the intensity of orgasmic contractions.
The research is solid: a study published in BJU International found that pelvic floor muscle training produced significant improvements in erectile function, with 40% of participants regaining normal erectile function and another 35% showing marked improvement after six months of consistent practice. Separate research found that pelvic floor exercises increased time to ejaculation from an average of 31 seconds to over two minutes in men with premature ejaculation.
The exercise: Identify the muscles by stopping urine flow midstream (do this once to locate them, not as a regular practice). Contract those muscles, hold for 3-5 seconds, release completely. Repeat 10-15 times. Three sets daily.
The critical detail most men miss: The release is as important as the contraction. Chronically tight pelvic floor muscles are as problematic as weak ones — they can contribute to pain, erectile difficulty, and premature ejaculation. The goal is strength plus coordination plus the ability to fully relax, not just maximum tension.
2. Reverse Kegels (Pelvic Floor Relaxation)
The underused counterpart, and one of the most valuable practices for men who have discovered pelvic floor training and gone too far in the strengthening direction.
A reverse kegel is the deliberate lengthening and relaxation of the pelvic floor — the opposite of the contraction. It's the same sensation as gently bearing down, though without straining.
The exercise: Take a full diaphragmatic breath into the belly. As you inhale, deliberately soften and lengthen the pelvic floor — imagine it dropping and expanding downward. Hold the relaxed state for 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times.
Why it matters: Ejaculatory control requires the ability to relax the pelvic floor at will, not just to contract it. Men who can only tighten but not release lack half the muscular vocabulary. The combination of kegels and reverse kegels produces the coordination that actually translates to control.
3. Diaphragmatic Breathing
The most underrated sexual wellness practice available.
Breath directly regulates the autonomic nervous system, which governs the arousal-to-ejaculation timeline. Shallow chest breathing keeps the body in sympathetic activation — the state associated with rapid escalation and performance anxiety. Deep diaphragmatic breathing shifts toward parasympathetic dominance — the state associated with sustained arousal, erectile quality, and genuine presence.
The exercise: Lie on your back. One hand on chest, one on belly. Inhale slowly through the nose for 4 counts, letting the belly rise while the chest stays relatively still. Hold for 2 counts. Exhale slowly through the mouth for 6 counts. Repeat for 5-10 minutes daily.
The application: Practice it outside intimate contexts until it's automatic, then use it during intimacy. Slowing and deepening your breath during arousal is one of the most effective real-time tools for extending the arousal plateau available to any man.
4. Hip Mobility Work
The pelvic region doesn't operate in isolation. Tight hip flexors, restricted hip rotation, and general pelvic immobility all limit both the physical range available during sex and the quality of blood flow to the pelvic region.
The exercises: Deep squat holds (30-60 seconds daily). Hip flexor stretches — half-kneeling lunge position, 45 seconds per side. Pigeon pose or seated figure-four stretch for external rotation. Cat-cow spinal movement to develop pelvic tilt awareness.
Why it matters: Beyond the obvious range-of-motion benefits, hip mobility work develops proprioceptive awareness of the pelvis — the felt sense of where your pelvis is and how it moves. Men with poor pelvic awareness thrust from the legs and lower back rather than from an articulated pelvis, which limits both their own sensation and their partner's experience.
5. Cardiovascular Training
The least glamorous and possibly the most important item on this list.
Erection is fundamentally a vascular event. The health of your cardiovascular system directly determines erectile capacity — which is why erectile dysfunction is increasingly recognized as an early warning indicator for cardiovascular disease rather than an isolated sexual health issue.
As I wrote in the nitric oxide post, aerobic exercise is one of the most potent natural stimulators of nitric oxide production — the signaling molecule that enables the vasodilation erection requires. Regular cardiovascular training directly improves the endothelial function that erectile capacity depends on.
The prescription: 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity weekly, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, is the general health baseline. For sexual function specifically, consistency matters more than intensity — regular moderate cardio produces more sustained vascular benefit than occasional intense sessions.
As a 2x Ironman and 10x marathon runner, I'll say this: the cardiovascular base I've built has been directly relevant to sexual function in ways I understood theoretically long before I understood them mechanistically.
6. Core and Glute Strength
Thrusting is a compound movement driven primarily by the glutes and core, not the legs. Men with weak glutes and poor core stability compensate with the lower back — which produces fatigue, reduces stamina, and limits the range of positions accessible without discomfort.
The exercises: Glute bridges (3 sets of 15). Planks (3 sets, 45-60 seconds). Bird dogs for core stability and coordination. Hip thrusts with progressive load if you have access to weights.
Why it matters: Stamina during intercourse is often limited by muscular endurance rather than by arousal management. Men who can't sustain positions comfortably are managing physical fatigue during encounters that would otherwise be about presence and connection.
Building the Practice
The full protocol takes about 15 minutes daily, plus your existing cardiovascular training:
Kegels: 3 sets of 10-15, morning
Reverse kegels: 10 repetitions, integrated with breathwork
Diaphragmatic breathing: 5-10 minutes
Hip mobility: 5 minutes
Core/glute work: 3x weekly, integrated with existing training
The results aren't immediate. Pelvic floor training, like any muscular development, produces meaningful change over weeks and months rather than days. The research on kegels and erectile function used six-month protocols before measuring significant improvement.
That timeline is worth naming because most men abandon these practices before they've reached the point where results appear. The men who stick with it — daily, unglamorous, for months — are the ones who report the changes that make it worth doing.
Train for this the way you'd train for anything else you care about performing well.
Ready to go deeper?
If this resonates, there are two ways to take the next step with Coelle.
Download the Coelle app — Guided audio intimacy sessions designed for couples who are ready to stop performing and start arriving. The breathwork and presence practices in Coelle sessions complement the physical training described here. Download Coelle here.
Work with me directly — I offer one-on-one sex and intimacy coaching for individuals and couples, drawing on my background in sport psychology and years of personal somatic work. Physical and somatic training for sexual wellness is a core part of what I work on with male clients. Learn more about coaching here.
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