It's a toy review for you today. Well, technically not a toy, but I don't know what else to call it. It's the Natural Contours Energie Kegel Exerciser. Just about every woman (and most men) should know by now that the human body has pelvic floor muscles, which age and childbirth can cause to lessen in strength, leading to urinary incontinence and a loss of sensation during sex. I have to confess here - I didn't buy this one. It turned up as a freebie in our XXXmas present from our friend, The Prof.
In the early 1940's, Dr Arnold Kegel discovered that strengthening these muscles also led to increased pleasure during penetrative sex. Yay him! Ever since, women have been told to do pelvic floor exercises during and after pregnancy and as they age. They're easy to do, but boring and tend to be forgotten about. Oh, and guys, you can do them too as it can help prevent farting when you don't want to. And while farts are (in general) funny, there are times when they are definitely not appropriate. As the afore-mentioned exercises can be boring and get forgotten about, there are numerous devices on the market to help women tone these muscles. Some work, others don't. Some are at the lower end of the market and others, like this one, are at the higher end of the market. I've tried many, most recently the Fun Factory Smartballs (which do work). You can even use the njoy Pure Wand as an exerciser. Still, as this turned up, I thought I'd better give it a go.
This barbell, despite its small size (16.5 cm long) is a fairly weighty device - 400 grams in all. That's a lot of metal to be shoving up one's pussy! It's mint green in colour and doesn't look threatening. Nor (if it isn't in the packaging) is it obvious what it's for, if it, say, as a completely hypothetical example, accidentally gets found by your mother-in-law.
One end is larger than the other (30mm versus 25mm) and as I'm used to things like this, I went straight for the larger end. The instructions (quite detailed, by the way) that come with this are different to any other exerciser that I've used before. Basically 10 minutes per day of squeezing and releasing around the Energie for two weeks, then every other day for 5 minutes to keep toned. It's easy enough to use, but it needs to be done lying down. I found that doing it while watching TV just before bedtime worked best for me. You certainly couldn't insert it and go and hang out the washing, as I've done with the Smartballs.
The instructions state that it is a "...pleasurable way to maintain your Kegel muscle tone...". It didn't hurt or anything, but I didn't feel it as particularly pleasurable either. If I wanted to have pleasure with something, I'd probably go for the Pure Wand that worked on my g-spot as well. With that you could do your 10 minutes of exercise then have a nice wank right after. I did try wanking with this but the shape just wasn't quite right for that.
So what's the verdict? Well, I have to be honest, I didn't notice any distinct improvement in either my pelvic floor strength, nor my pleasure during sex, but I've worked on these muscles for years, and I think they are pretty much toned already (just ask Dave). I know there are medical devices that measure the strength - I'd love to have a go. Would I recommend it? Maybe. If you don't already have something like this and need some toning down there, it's certainly easy to use. But it is a fairly pricey piece of kit ($95 from the Natural Contours Australian site). Whether it is worth $95, I'm not convinced. If you know what you are doing, I think that probably the Smartballs are a better bet. Or if you want to spend large amounts of money, go for the Pure Wand instead and get something dual purpose.
