Kegel balls are small, weighted devices you insert vaginally to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. They work by giving your muscles something to grip and hold against gravity, turning a basic kegel squeeze into a resistance exercise. Using them correctly comes down to choosing the right size and weight, building up gradually, and keeping your sessions short enough to avoid overworking the muscles.
How Kegel Balls Work
Your pelvic floor is a hammock of muscle that supports your bladder, uterus, and rectum. When you insert a weighted ball and stand up, gravity pulls it downward. Your pelvic floor muscles reflexively contract to keep it in place. This creates a form of resistance training similar to holding a dumbbell during a bicep curl.
Some people do passive training, simply wearing the balls while going about their day, while others do active training by performing deliberate squeeze-and-release repetitions with the balls inserted. A clinical trial registered on ClinicalTrials.gov combined both approaches: participants wore kegel balls during light daily activities like walking and household chores, starting at 30 minutes per day for the first three weeks and increasing to one hour per day for the final three weeks.
Choosing a Safe Product
Material matters more than brand. Medical-grade silicone is the standard because it’s non-porous, meaning bacteria can’t penetrate its surface. It doesn’t contain solvents, organic plasticizers, phthalates, or latex additives, and it meets international biocompatibility standards (ISO 10993). It’s also easy to sterilize, soft, and flexible.
Avoid products made from porous materials like jelly rubber, certain plastics, or unfinished stone. These can harbor bacteria in microscopic surface gaps no amount of washing will reach. If a product doesn’t clearly state “medical-grade silicone,” “ABS plastic,” or “stainless steel,” skip it.
Kegel balls come in different sizes and weights. If you’re starting out, choose a larger, lighter ball. A bigger diameter is actually easier to hold because your muscles don’t need to contract as tightly. As your strength improves over weeks, you move to smaller or heavier options.
Step-by-Step: Inserting and Using Them
Wash the ball with warm water and mild soap before every use. Because medical-grade silicone is non-porous, this simple cleaning is enough to sanitize the surface. Apply a small amount of water-based lubricant to the ball and to yourself. Oil-based or silicone-based lubricants can degrade silicone devices over time.
Find a comfortable position. Lying on your back with your knees bent works well for beginners. Gently insert the ball the same way you would a tampon, pushing it in until the ball sits comfortably past the vaginal opening. If your kegel ball has a retrieval string or loop, leave that outside your body.
Once the ball is in place, slowly stand up. You should feel your pelvic floor engage to keep the ball from slipping. If it slides out immediately, that’s normal for beginners. Lie back down and practice squeezing around the ball in that position first. Over a few sessions, your muscles will develop enough grip to hold it while standing.
Passive Wear
Once you can comfortably hold the ball while standing, try walking around your home, doing light housework, or other gentle movement. Start with 15 to 30 minutes per session. The ball shifts slightly with each step, prompting your pelvic floor to make continuous micro-adjustments. This builds endurance in the muscles without you having to think about squeezing.
Active Exercises
For more targeted strengthening, keep the ball inserted and perform deliberate contractions. Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles, hold for 5 seconds, then fully relax for 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times. That’s one set. Work up to three sets per session. The weight of the ball adds resistance to each squeeze, making the exercise more effective than doing kegels without one.
A good way to confirm you’re engaging the right muscles: imagine you’re trying to stop the flow of urine midstream. That contraction is your pelvic floor. Avoid tightening your abs, thighs, or glutes at the same time. If you notice you’re holding your breath, you’re likely recruiting the wrong muscle groups.
How Long and How Often
More is not better with pelvic floor training. Overdoing it can lead to a hypertonic pelvic floor, a condition where the muscles spasm, tighten, or stay in a contracted state instead of relaxing. Symptoms include pain during penetration (including pelvic exams and sex), a frequent or urgent need to urinate, painful urination, and difficulty with bowel movements.
A reasonable starting schedule is 15 to 30 minutes of wear, three to four times per week. After three weeks, you can increase to 30 to 60 minutes per session if you’re not experiencing any discomfort. Always remove the ball if you feel pain, cramping, or a heavy aching sensation. These are signs your muscles are fatigued or overworked.
To remove the ball, relax your pelvic floor completely, get into a comfortable squat or seated position, and gently pull the retrieval cord. If there’s no cord, bear down slightly (as if having a bowel movement) while relaxing, and the ball will slide out on its own. Wash it again with warm water and mild soap, let it air dry, and store it in a clean pouch or container.
When to Expect Results
Most people notice subtle changes in four to six weeks of consistent practice. You might find it easier to hold the ball for longer periods, or you might notice fewer leaks when you sneeze or laugh. Meaningful improvement in symptoms like stress urinary incontinence typically takes eight to twelve weeks. Like any strength training, the gains are gradual and depend on consistency.
Who Should Be Cautious
If you’re pregnant or recently postpartum, talk to your provider before using kegel balls. Inserting a device during pregnancy or nursing carries a risk of bacterial infection, and your pelvic floor may need time to heal after delivery before it’s ready for resistance work.
Kegel balls are also not appropriate if you have an active vaginal infection, an IUD that was recently placed (check with your provider on timing), or if you already have a hypertonic pelvic floor. If your symptoms include pelvic pain, pain during sex, or difficulty relaxing after a contraction, strengthening exercises can make things worse. In those cases, the pelvic floor needs to learn to release rather than tighten, and a pelvic floor physical therapist can help guide that process.
Progression Over Time
Once your lightest ball feels easy to hold for 30 to 60 minutes, it’s time to progress. You can move to a heavier ball, switch to a smaller diameter (which requires a tighter contraction to hold), or try using two balls at once if your set includes them. Some kegel ball systems come as graduated sets with increasing weights specifically designed for this kind of step-up approach.
You can also increase the difficulty of your active exercises by holding contractions longer (up to 10 seconds), adding more repetitions, or performing exercises while standing on one leg or doing gentle squats. The goal is progressive overload, the same principle behind any strength-training program. When the current challenge becomes easy, add a small amount more.