How To Tighten Your Vagina: The Exercises & Avoid These Myths

You’re going to learn the exact exercises you can use to tighten your vagina so that you can make your man cum in seconds (not minutes) and both of you can have more powerful orgasms. You read that right: I said both of you. But first, we need to dispel a few myths about having a tight or loose vagina!

Busting Myths About Loose Vaginas

Many people talk about a woman having a vagina that’s either “tight” or “loose.” Urban legends blame a loose vagina on having too many partners, and some women worry whether they will be loose after childbirth. While labor tests the vagina and your pelvic floor muscles to their limit, many of the negative connotations about a “loose” vagina are based on the partner’s enjoyment.

There are times when muscles can lose definition and exercises or other procedures may help, but there are a lot of misunderstandings about vaginal looseness to sift through first.

So let’s tackle the two ideas:

• Having too many partners makes a tight vagina loose.
• Having a baby makes your tight vagina loose.

Too many partners = A loose vagina? The first myth suggests that experiencing penetration from many partners gives a woman a loose vagina but ignores a woman who might have sex with the same partner hundreds or thousands of times. Somehow, it’s the different penises. Yet, there’s no actual science to back this up! The vagina is incredibly elastic is returns to its normal size and shape after sex or even birthing a baby [1 p 23].

These ideas are rooted in the practice of slut-shaming, where women are judged for sexual desire and activities in situations where they are not in love [2]. Slut-shaming can vary based on different factors and often includes criticism when a woman has too many partners or even engages in certain types of sex. It goes hand in hand with the type of sexism and control that women face on a daily basis.

Plus, vaginas vary in tightness from woman to woman and even during your own life.  If you’re properly aroused, your body will create lubrication. And your vagina should expand in a process known as vaginal tenting, which creates room for comfortable penetration [3].

Childbirth = A loose vagina? However, research has found that after childbirth, which stretches the vagina much more than sex, a woman can experience weakened pelvis floor muscles. These are the muscles that lie across and support your uterus, bowel, and bladder [4, 5]. Dr. Arnold Kegel a gynecologist, discovered this in the 1940s when he realized that some of his patients suffered from stress incontinence [6 p 82].

That is, they would leak a little when coughing or sneezing. His notes also mentioned “ill-defined complaints” relating to the genital tract, which some people took to mean painful sex or difficulty having an orgasm.

Related: 7 Causes Of Painful Sex & How To Make It Pleasurable

Dr. Kegel thought that exercise could help strengthen these muscles the way it does other muscles, so he developed pelvic floor muscle exercises to create a tight vagina. He also created a device to measure their strength known as a perineometer [6  p 83]. This device consists of a bulb that women inserted into their vaginas and squeezed.

These same exercises are the ones you’ll learn a bit later if you want help making your vagina tighter. The doctor’s original method remains much the same as modern scanning has found it to be effective.

Who Needs to Tighten Vaginal Muscles

But first, who really needs to tighten their vagina? You’re absolutely not alone if you’ve wondered, “Is my vagina loose?” But most women don’t actually have a loose vagina! In fact, if you can tighten your vagina during sex, that should be good enough!

Death grip – Sometimes guys think a vagina feels loose or want their partners to get a tight vagina because they are so used to masturbating with an iron grip on his penis aka death grip.

The answer in these situations isn’t for you to make your vagina tight again. Instead, he needs to ease up during masturbation or even stop jerking off for a while to enjoy sex. It’s not that masturbating is bad. He just might not realize what a tight vagina feels like if he’s used to his hand.

If you use your muscles to tighten your vagina during sex and he eases up on death grip masturbation, it might solve your entire problem.

After Childbirth – There are times when you can benefit from learning how to tighten a loose vagina, however. We’ve already mentioned that childbirth can impact these muscles, leading to a looser vagina. But not every person who has given birth vaginally needs to tighten their vagina afterward.

Vaginal tightening is something to consider if you struggle with the incontinence mentioned above or have to pee frequently. Similar rectal incontinence can happen, which involves leaking of fecal matter. And weak or difficult orgasms might be a good reason to try strengthening exercises, which are often referred to as Kegel exercises.

Find out how to have better orgasms.

Prolapse – Finally, women experiencing a pelvic organ prolapse can benefit from these exercises. When the pelvic floor muscles are weak enough, it can create the conditions for a prolapsed uterus where organs such as the bladder and uterus can droop into and through the vagina [7, 8]. The vagina itself can also be affected and a prolapsed uterus may be what people mean when they describe a “floppy vagina.”

Not every woman who gives birth will experience symptoms like these, and those who do may only experience minor symptoms temporarily. Furthermore, there has been an increase in women trying to keep it tight down there despite a lack of any issues at all!

Other Issues That Weaken Your Pelvic Floor – On the other hand, even if you’ve never given birth, you might have weak pelvic floor muscles. Constant constipation, frequent heavy lifting, high-impact exercise, being obese, smoking, and even menopause can contribute to weak pelvic floor muscles. These muscles can weaken over time, from injury or even due to surgery.

Find out more information on sex after menopause.

If you want to know if your pelvic floor muscles are weak, talk to a medical professional such as a doctor, nurse practitioner, or pelvic floor physical therapist who can perform a manual exam by inserting a finger as you squeeze [6 p 84]. Modern devices can also measure the strength of your muscles more precisely but are often not necessary.

A physical therapist can also ensure that you’re doing the exercises correctly, which is important given that one study found 70% of women are unable to perform the exercises without guidance according to one survey [9], and ensure that issues such as tissue or nerve damage aren’t causing your exercises to be less effective.

For some women, additional physical therapy is necessary for muscle rehabilitation. Organizations such as the French College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians do not recommend these exercises for women who do not experience urinary incontinence. [6 p 50]. It’s best to talk to your doctor to determine whether you need Kegels, physical therapy, both, or neither.

Side Note: There are multiple different kinds of normal vaginas.

When Should You Do Exercises To Make Your Vagina Tighter?

Again, you should talk to your doctor as your specific needs may differ. While some recommend that (circumstances allowing) you can start pelvic floor muscle exercises immediately after the birth [10], gynecologist Jen Gunter advises that physical therapy should wait until two months after delivery [6 p 53].

Can A Tight Vagina Be Too Much?

A visit to the doctor before you do any Kegels is also smart because you can actually overwork pelvic floor muscles and go beyond making your vagina tighter to making it too tense/tight (hypertonic), leading to some of the same symptoms as loose pelvic floor muscles, including urinary leaking, frequently needing to pee [11], and pain [12].

Overly tight pelvic floor muscle is not a rare occurrence: 16% of women may have hypertonic pelvic floor muscles [13]. That’s just over 1 in 6 women!

A vagina that is too tight may be a result of performing Kegels when you don’t need to or overdoing it, or if you do not fully relax when doing the exercises. It can also happen if you’re naturally tense and may be a side effect of conditions such as endometriosis, a condition where the uterine lining grows in other parts of the body and leads to inflammation [11]. Conditions such as interstitial cystitis, pudendal neuralgia, and vulvodynia are also associated with tense pelvic floor muscles [11].

Physical therapy [14] and tools known as vaginal dilators that stretch the muscles may be useful if you have tight pelvis floor muscles that grip his penis too tightly or cause sex to be painful for you [15].

How to Get a Tight Vagina With Pelvic Floor (Kegel) Exercises

Begin by locating them – If you’re a good candidate for these exercises, you’ll need to first locate your pelvic floor muscles. If you’ve talked to a physical therapist, you’re well on your way. Otherwise, you can identify these muscles by stopping your stream of urine when on the toilet. You don’t want to cut off the stream more than once to locate the muscles, however.

You can even find these muscles by squeezing his penis during sex!

It’s common for women to contract other muscles including those in the anus or thighs when first trying Kegels, but only your pelvic floor muscles should contract. Once you locate the muscles, you can do basic Kegel exercises.

You don’t need equipment – You don’t need any expensive equipment. One of the benefits of Kegel exercises, aside from being able to tighten your vagina, is that you can do them whenever and wherever you like with no one the wiser. Exercises to make your vagina tighter can be done in your office chair, on the sofa at home, while making dinner, folding laundry, or even when standing in line at the Post Office!

The Kegel Exercise – Basic PC muscle exercises require you to squeeze (contract) before relaxing. Specifics vary, but you can try squeezing your vagina for three seconds and releasing for another three seconds. This completes a single rep. Dr. Gunter recommends squeezing for five seconds and relaxing for twice as long [6 p 87]. The relaxing is just as important as contracting.

You can do these in reps of 10, three times per day. If you struggle to complete that many reps, you complete as many reps as possible for each workout. Add a rep per day until you’re up to 10 reps.

Rather than prolonged contractions, you can also try quick flicks. Squeeze and release your muscles quickly. Repeat this for a cycle of five quick flicks. Rest 10 seconds in between before repeating the cycle four more times to achieve a set. Repeat sets up to three times per day to keep your vagina tight.

Ready to move beyond the basics? Check out these 4 Kegel exercises to help you get a tight vagina.

Can Sex Toys give you a Tight Vagina?

For some women, having feedback helps complete Kegel exercises. Feedback can come in the form of simply having something in your vaginal canal that you squeeze with your vaginal muscles. In this case, any dildo will do. However, you can also buy weighted dildo-like exercisers specifically for this purpose.

Weighted cones & balls – Weighted cones have been used medically; although, the results don’t indicate that the weighted cones worked any better than pelvic floor exercises on their own or electrostimulation [16]. And one study found that the exercises alone worked better than weighted cones [17]. Furthermore, research into the weighted balls that there devised in the 1980s doesn’t show an advantage over exercising alone, especially if you do not use proper technique [6 p 88].

Beads & Ben Wa balls – However, the devices that you can purchase to help with your exercises are not like vaginal cones and may be beneficial by simply making the activities more interesting or even pleasurable. Consider a common type of sex toy intended to help tighten your vagina and strengthen the pelvic floor: vaginal beads or balls.

These include Ben Wa balls, which are separate metal balls. However, larger connected beads with a removal cord, including the Luna Beads by Lelo and JeJoue’s Ami exercise system, offer more variety and increased ease of use. There are even vibrating balls.

You can simply pop these beads in and proceed with your normal PC exercises. Some manufacturers claim that you don’t need to perform exercises at all because the inner balls of their toys cause the PC muscles to reflexively respond. However, it never hurts to keep up your reps!

Apps – If you want to get high-tech, there are now several vaginal trainers you can pair with your phone via Bluetooth. These devices can read the strength of your squeezes, and the connected apps for each device track that data and even offer games and activities to help you with your exercises. The following is a shortlist of smart devices you can try:

• Elvie
• Pericoah
• Minna kGoal
• Perifit
• G-Vibe Gballs 2
• OhMiBod Lovelife Krush

Keep in mind that these are such high-tech devices, their price tags often exceed $100 and their efficacy has not been widely studied. If you want a more affordable option, you can try an app such. A study of such apps rated Kegel Trainer and Kegel Trainer Pro, both of which are highly reviewed, to be the best free and paid apps in the genre, respectively.  However, of the dozens of apps scored, the quality of the apps is markedly variable in both the paid and unpaid applications. Paid apps tended to have improved tech support and privacy and reference research literature. [18].

How Long Does It Take to Tighten Your Vagina?

Remember that Kegel exercises is still exercise. Your muscles will become toned over time, but you won’t notice immediate results. Most people see a difference after four to six weeks, but it may take as long as three months to notice a change in your muscles [19].

Other Ways to Tighten Your Vagina

It’s possible that exercises other than pelvic floor exercises can strengthen your pelvic floor and give you a tight vagina. Because your pelvic floor is part of the core muscles that are thought to contribute to the stability of the spine [20], you might consider exercises that work your core. Common exercises in this category include planking, squatting, and lunging [21]. Pilates or yoga, both of which strengthen the core, may also help. You can even try Kegels while doing these workouts.

Bonus: increasing your core strength may also help with endurance during sex, especially when you’re on top!

Related: How To Ride Your Man With Confidence –  4 Simple Tips

Keep in mind that overly repetitive activities, including squatting, can make the problem worse, however [22].

Medical Procedures – Several procedures can make you tighter or, at the very least, feel tighter to a partner. A perineoplasty is surgery of the perineum (the skin between the vagina and anus) that can reattach muscles. It can be performed if tearing occurs during childbirth or if a woman experiences prolapse [6 p 209]. It may also be done after a surgical cut of the same area known as an episiotomy [23].

Husband Stitch – A particular method of perineoplasty has almost become an urban legend! You may have heard of the “husband stitch,” which is an extra stitch at the vaginal entrance after childbirth to make things feel tighter. Supposedly, husbands have asked doctors to do this to their wives, and some doctors may have done it without consulting either partner! However, it doesn’t seem to be a common practice like you might suspect given its notoriety [6 p 53].

Lasers! – Laser treatments have also been explored for helping with both vaginal elasticity and tightness by stimulating blood flow and tissue growth [6 p 209].

However, there is a lack of consistent evidence that laser treatments are beneficial in general [24] even if some studies suggest that laser treatment may help with tightness and reduce the time it takes to orgasm [25]. There is also the possibility that these procedures can also damage vaginal tissues and cause scarring without offering any improvements [26].

Electrostimulation – Electrostimulation treatments have been used to cause contractions in the pelvic floor muscles to help with urinary incontinence [27]. This is actually like doing Kegel exercises, but the stimulation creates automatic contractions, making it an option if you struggle to do the exercises correctly.

Pills & Creams to Tighten Your Vagina?

Aside from medical intervention and exercise, there are several products marketed for vaginal tightening. These include creams and pills, among other products. It’s a booming market because women are taught to feel shame about their bodies, and everyone wants to see quick results. But the products that claim to tighten your vagina overnight are not backed up by science.

Gynecologist Dr. Jen Gunter warns of using creams for a tight vagina in her book The Vagina Bible, stating that:

tightening products have a high risk of killing healthy vaginal bacteria and damaging the mucus layer, as well as irritating the vaginal tissue, [and] causing microtrauma.

Gunter goes on to explain that ancient remedies are as unhealthy as products sold in modern drug stores [6 p 106]. Dr. Gunter mentions Japanese tightening sticks specifically, which are a type of astringent [6 p 390]. The very reason the vagina feels tighter temporarily when using these products is the irritation that they cause when damaging your vaginal mucus!

You may recall that micro-tears and damage to your sensitive tissues can make you more likely to contract an infection such as bacterial vaginosis (find out more about BV) or an STI.

Some products can also lead to a dry or itchy feeling later even if they give you a tight vagina first [28].

What about pills? – You can find more than a few options with a quick Google search. Despite many of many of them appearing to be “highly rated” our advice is to beware.

Many of them claim to contain ingredients derived from natural substances, and you may appreciate their promise to tighten your vagina naturally. Some may even go as far as claiming to do this by increasing estrogen, while others make claims about toning the vaginal walls and even muscles.

But doctors agree there is no reason other than the placebo effect why these pills should work, and they contain no estrogen. In fact, even when estrogen is given to menopausal women, the intent is to improve vaginal elasticity and lubrication [29], both of which should reduce friction!

Boric acid suppositories? – Some social media users have claimed that boric acid suppositories can make your vagina tighter. However, we could not find any studies verifying these claims.

However, boric acid does have positive effects, like aiding in curing yeast infections.

The Bottom Line to Getting a Tight Vagina

We’re left with pelvic floor exercises, physical therapy, and, in some cases, surgery as the safest and most effective ways to tighten your vagina. Learn how to do Kegel exercises.

Don’t Go Overboard for a Tight Vagina

It might seem like overkill to mention this again, but that’s exactly what you want to avoid when doing pelvic floor exercises. Overdoing it leads to muscle tightness, also known as hypertonicity, that can have serious consequences ranging from painful sex to constipation [11].

So make sure you’re fully relaxing your muscles. And stick to the number of reps and sets recommended. Remember, you can always get a professional medical opinion to ensure that Kegel exercises are right for you and that you’re doing them right. This is the same reason why you might see a physical therapist or trainer for any other form of exercise!

There are many products and procedures advertised to help make your vagina tighter, but like the myths about vaginal looseness, many are false. Now that you understand more about how the pelvic floor muscles work, you can make your vagina smaller and enjoy the other benefits of pelvic floor exercises!

Resources

Allure talks to experts such as Dr. Hilda Hutcherson about different vaginal tightening methods, including pills.

To learn more about your pelvic floor muscles, check out the book The Pelvic Floor Bible by Jane Simpson.

Emma Pattee examines why Kegel exercises are so frequently recommended over other ways to tighten your vagina in this article for The Cut.