I am glad you started early and I appreciate your posting
1. I too was confused and misguided for a while about Kegels
2. I did some research- staying away from commercial sites ( e.g. the incontinence center. Fix incontinence .com and even some urology clinics I went for PubMed articles ( NIH sanctioned articles There really is only one mega analysis state of the art article (cited below) on post-prostratectomy urinary incontinence
3 among other things it cites that even the key researchers in the field do not agree on the number of kegels a day to recommend In fact one of the recommendations of this report is that there is a need for research in this area. (what does that tell us about what we are doing now? 🙂 )
4 another big discrepancy is the reporting of those that have incontinence problems following prostrate removal. Some sites report as few as ten percent while others report closer to 80 ( the Cancer Research UK reports 70%)
Bottom line some additional research in both areas could e helpful
my take aways
1. I love going to my pelvic floor specialist she has years of experience just doing this and I trust her
2. From my own experience I know that sometimes I need to rest my pelvic floor muscles. I have less incontinence in the mornings after sleeping and giving my bladder a rest (gravity helps as well) this tells me I need both strengthening and training and resting. I am 10-12 weeks out ( Jan 15 for surgery and Jan 39 for catheter removal) and i still occasionally pass blood this tells me things are still healing
3 I know I was doing them too long, too hard and too often at the beginning. I am glad I slowed down. I want to get better badly but slowing down is part of my getting better.
4 the biofeedback helps. Unfortunately it does not seem that males can get a biofeedback device in the United States ( you can in England, Canada and Australia but they will not ship to the United States) the best is one with an internal sensor/probe (rectal)and all it does is provide feedback. The benefit of this is making sure you are really relaxing your pelvic floor muscles. I have gone for hours not relaxing these muscles.
5 Men can buy biofeedback devices however they really are pelvic floor exercisers/simulators and my therapist warned me to stay away. She had a few patients that these caused significant complications. Learning this< i will not go near one.
6 drinking a lot of water helps.
Incontinence sucks I hope your experience is positive