If you’ve ever researched pompoir, chances are you thought that it was just a fancy way to say kegels.

Kinda like when podcast bros say macros and it sounds like a marketing term for calories, but it helps them sell more of their personal branded creatine.

Here’s the thing though: podcast bro, tracking his sleep score and his Vo2 Max with his smart watch… is actually right. I know – the horror.

Macros are not the same as calories.

And pompoir is definitely not the same as kegels.

Kegels and pompoir are related in the same way that handstands are related to gymnastics (can you tell I’ve been on a health kick lately?). One is a singular exercise. The other is a skill-based practice that uses that exercise as a starting point to perform dozens of other, more complex skills.

So let’s clear this up properly.

In this article, I’ll answer the most common (and most misunderstood) questions women ask about kegels, pompoir, pelvic floor training, and sexual control.

Are Pompoir and Kegels the Same Thing?

No.

Kegels are one exercise within the pompoir (or vaginal gymnastics) training system.

A kegel is a basic pelvic floor contraction that, through its many variations, helps students of vaginal gymnastics develop the foundational strength and awareness needed to progress into more complex skills.

Kegels were developed by Dr. Arnold Kegel, an American gynecologist who discovered that practicing voluntary contractions and relaxations of the pubococcygeus muscle (often called the PC muscle) could help prevent and reverse urinary incontinence and organ prolapse in adult women.

From that point on, kegels have been prescribed primarily for women with weak pelvic floors — especially postpartum and during menopause.

More recent research, however, shows that pelvic floor training, including kegel exercises, can also improve sexual function in women at any life stage. These benefits include increases in intravaginal sensation, arousal, orgasm quality, and libido.

Pompoir is an ancient practice believed to have originated in India and later spread throughout Asia, where women learned to not only contract their pelvic floor as one would during a kegel, but to perform other skills such as milking, squeezing, and locking.

Vaginal gymnastics is the term Gohddess coined after expanding on the pompoir principle to create a step-by-step, scientifically centered training program. This system teaches dozens of techniques — including whipping, shimmying, twisting, and wringing — with the primary goal of increasing female pleasure, orgasm, and libido through intentional pelvic floor control.

The primary goal of kegels is pelvic floor strengthening for health and continence.

The primary goal of pompoir or vaginal gymnastics is pelvic control, intravaginal sensitivity, and intentional use of the pelvic floor for pleasure.

Kegels are included in pompoir — but pompoir is not limited to kegels.

So Is Pompoir Just “Advanced Kegels”?

This is where most explanations go wrong.

Pompoir isn’t “harder kegels.” It’s a different category of movement altogether.

Kegels train one thing: a global contraction of the pelvic floor. You lift, you hold, and you release.

Pompoir (or vaginal gymnastics) trains coordination, isolation, and control, including:

• Regional isolation: front wall, back wall, left wall, and right wall of the vaginal canal
  
  
• Depth control: learning to engage only the entrance, the middle, or the deepest portion of the vagina
  
  
• Movement variety: concentric, eccentric, isometric, and squeezing or flexing contractions
  
  
• Neuromuscular timing: rhythm, sequencing, and responsiveness
  
  
• Control during relaxation: not just clenching, but releasing intentionally
  
  

If kegels are learning how to play the C note on a piano, pompoir is learning how to play entire songs — while reading sheet music and improvising.

What Are Kegels Actually Good For?

Kegels are excellent at what they were designed to do.

They help:

• Build baseline pelvic floor strength
  
  
• Restore awareness after pregnancy or injury
  
  
• Improve bladder control and pelvic organ support
  

For many women, kegels alone are enough to resolve medical issues — and that matters.

But kegels are not designed to:

• Develop advanced intravaginal sensitivity
  
  
• Create precise muscular control during sex
  
  
• Train rhythm, timing, or responsiveness
  
  
• Develop erotic skill
  
  

That’s not a failure of kegels. It’s simply not their purpose.

What Is Pompoir (or Vaginal Gymnastics) Designed to Do?

Pompoir trains the pelvic floor the same way dancers train their legs or singers train their voices.

The goal isn’t just strength. The goal is control.

Through pompoir training, women learn how to:

• Contract and relax on command at different depths
  
  
• Isolate specific regions of the vaginal canal
  
  
• Develop full intravaginal awareness and sensitivity
  
  
• Coordinate movement instead of clenching reflexively
  
  
• Use their pelvic floor intentionally for pleasure
  

Pompoir turns the pelvic floor into a skillful, responsive system — not just a muscle group.

Do You Need to “Master Kegels” Before Pompoir?

In any good pompoir program, contraction exercises (a.k.a. kegels) are the first skills you learn to develop strength and awareness.

But it’s important to understand that different contraction variations train different qualities:

• Basic contractions: build power and awareness
  
  
• Isometric holds: increase endurance and time under tension
  
  
• Eccentric contractions: improve strength and controlled relaxation
  
  
• Full range-of-motion contractions (milking): improve mobility, awareness, and sensitivity throughout the entire vaginal canal
  
  

Training these variations creates the foundation needed to progress into more complex vaginal gymnastics skills such as squeezing, whipping, locking, twisting, and wringing.

How to Get Started with Vaginal Gymnastics

The Ohlympus Program is designed for women who want to move beyond basic kegels and actually learn how to use their pelvic floor.

With one-time payment, you receive lifetime access to:

• Pompoir Foundations, with animated tutorials for every core vaginal gymnastics exercise
  
  
• Pompoir Advanced, where you refine depth control and complex techniques
  
  
• A digital copy of The Gohddess Method, explaining the science behind vaginal gymnastics
  
  
• A private community of women training pelvic control and pleasure together
  
  

If you’re ready to stop squeezing blindly and start training intentionally, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.

Until the next one, goddess.

— Bel