Can going to the gym help you stop premature ejaculation?
If you’re reading this with your fingers crossed, we have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that adding an extra workout to your routine probably won’t do much for your early-firing long gun. The good news is that there are exercises you can do before sex, during sex, and at any other time.
Best of all, you don’t need a gym to do them. In fact, you might get arrested if you did some of them in a gym.
Early ejaculation exercises won’t have your member lifting weights, but there are some physical tricks that have been used for a long time to help stop PE. Some of them can even help you in the long run.
About Premature Ejaculation
Along with erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation is one of the most common sexual problems men have. It is thought that as many as 39% of men have it to some degree.
Early ejaculation is not a one-time problem, though. In fact, PE can only be diagnosed if it meets a number of criteria.
The World Health Organization defines PE as “persistent or recurrent ejaculation with minimal stimulation before, during, or shortly after penetration and before the person wants it, over which the sufferer has little or no voluntary control and which causes the sufferer and/or his partner bother or distress.” which tells us some important things:
- With little stimulation, ejaculation
- The person has little or no control over what they do
- Upsets the person who has it and/or their partner
- Keeps happening over and over
If you have all of these signs, it means you have a bigger problem than just a few bad nights in a row.
There are treatments for premature ejaculation, which is good news. Some of these treatments are exercises that are meant to help you regain control in the bedroom and also build up your stamina so that you can control yourself even when you’re not in the bedroom.
The Start and Stop Method
We’ll be honest: the first trick we’ll talk about won’t blow your mind with cool tricks. The start-stop technique is really just stopping and then starting again.
The trick is to stop right before you’re about to have an orgasm and then start again when you no longer feel like ejaculating.
See? Not that interesting. And if you’ve tried to delay ejaculation in general or have already been dealing with early ejaculation, you may have used a version of this without even knowing it.
The purpose of this technique is best served when you do it on purpose. According to experts, you’re supposed to do this several times during a session “so the man can learn to recognize the phase of sexual arousal that happens before orgasm.”
There have been some studies on start-stop, but they were not very in-depth. Start-stop has mostly been looked at in conjunction with other treatments.
For example, one small study found that start-stop made it take several minutes longer to ejaculate. However, that study looked at start-stop along with other therapies, which makes it hard to know what was really going on.
Still, this method has some validity, especially when used with other types of therapy.
Exercises for the Pelvic Floor
The pelvic floor exercises are by far the most helpful “technique” from a scientific point of view. They don’t focus on the problems that come up during sex but rather on building stamina through training outside of sex.
Pelvic floor exercises, also called kegels (yes, men can do them too), are an exercise you can do at your desk instead of squeezing one of those silly gorilla grip machines.
Urine flows through your urethra because of the muscles in your pelvic floor. The goal of this exercise is to learn how to contract only those muscles at will.
Over time and with age, these muscles get weaker, and while kegels are usually linked to issues with incontinence, a lot of research shows that they also play a role in premature ejaculation.
In 2019, the journal Physiotherapy published a systematic review of 10 studies on erectile dysfunction. The studies focused on men over the age of 18 who had “no history of neurological injury or major urological surgery.”
They found that most trials “showed comparable improvement rates,” so they came to the conclusion that “pelvic floor muscle training seems to be effective for treating PE.”
The only thing? The review pointed out that it had some limitations and said that no “optimal training protocol has been found.” In other words, we don’t know the best way to work your pelvic floor or how often you should do it.
The review also said that success rates varied widely, which is another reason to think that pelvic floor exercises might not help everyone.
The Squeeze Technique
Not all of the choices are pleasant, and we can say with confidence that the “squeeze” method is one of the least pleasant ones.
Right before you have an orgasm, you’re supposed to pull out the tip of your penis and squeeze it (not too hard) between your pointer finger and thumb. This lowers your level of arousal. You do this for about 30 seconds, and you may have to do it a few times before you can move on.
Believe it or not, this was pretty much the way things were done until the 1990s or so.
This technique has quite a few limitations. From what we can remember, you need to have the self-control to stop, pull out, and squeeze.
But more importantly, this rule means you have to stop having sex with a partner and make them wait while you do some light BDSM alone.
In the best case, a partner will be understanding and maybe even find it exciting, but most guys will feel a little bad about having to put things on hold for this.
There are other ways to treat premature ejaculation.
There are other things you can do (ideally in addition to or instead of exercises) to stop ejaculating too early.
There are many gels, creams, and other topical solutions on the market that are meant to make your penis less sensitive (and therefore slow your ejaculatory response to sex).
An anesthetic like lidocaine, which is often used in dental and skin care treatments, is often found in these. In our guide, you can learn more about other ways to treat PE.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are prescription antidepressants that a doctor may also suggest.
In a 2007 study, men with PE were given either paroxetine, fluoxetine, or escitalopram, which are all SSRIs. After only four weeks, all of the men who took part in the test had fewer PE symptoms, and none of the drugs worked better than the others.
How to Take Care of PE
If you have PE and want to get it under control, you should talk to a medical professional for advice.
Like many other health problems, premature ejaculation could be a sign of something else, like a weakening pelvic floor or anxiety.
If you can’t fully enjoy your sex life, it could be because of a deeper problem that a health professional can help you solve.