Every man, I would presume, wonders if he can enlarge his penis at some point in his life.  Many men think about it much more than others.  I myself am curious by nature, so I always wondered how this magnificent organ between my leg works.  It wasn't long before I too wondered if the penis could enlarge.  Several years ago, I learned that the answer was no.  "Penis enlargement is impossible," I was informed by a famous internet doctor.  He also claimed that the penis in no way resembles a muscle, and therefore penis enlargement through penile exercising is out of the question. Like so many other confused men, I took the doctor's opinion and accepted it as fact.

The Truth 

Eventually, I learned the truth: the doctor was full of more shit (and perhaps confusion) than all the stables in Georgia. The fact is: penis enlargement is very real.

Yes, penile exercising works.  However, no one knows exactly how penis enlargement works.  Does it work by stretching the tissue? Does it create more cells in the penis or enlarge the cells already there?  Does it work by creating scar tissue (which is clearly improbable, but still a question that many men ask)? Moreover, how do the exercises really work?

Theoretically, you apply stress to a tissue and it gradually gets bigger overtime.  Many men and women have done this to their earlobes, for example.  But the penis is much more complex than earlobes.

The Penis Is Complex

The penis has a deep, important function.  It has to go from flaccid to erect; it has to urine; it has to give you pleasure; and most importantly, it has to discharge semen so you can pass on your genes (although, many men will argue that the former is the more important).  Regardless, your penis is much more complex than your earlobes.  The earlobes have no biological function and are largely just made of fat tissue.  The penis, on the other hand, is made of several different tissues that are essential to the proper functioning of the penis.  If you damage these tissues then the penis won't work--period. 

Penile Exercising is Healthy

With that in mind, how do penile exercises enlarge the penis without doing any damage to it?  Stretching your earlobe clearly damages it, so why is the penis different? We know that penile exercising doesn't damage the penis because thousands of men report that it makes their erections stronger and harder--a clear indication that penile exercising is healthy.  In fact, I did a penis enlargement survey of nearly 1000 penile exercisers in the summer of 2005, and the majority of men reported stronger and harder erections due to penis enlargement exercises.  Less than 1 percent of men reported weaker erections (and these few men were overtraining, I would presume).

All of this evidence brings about more questions.  How is this possible? How does stretching and squeezing the penis not only cause it to enlarge, but also makes the penis healthier?  For over a year, these questions racked my brain like the fact that Britney Spears married K-Fed (really, what was she thinking?).  In any event, there was only one type of tissue that I knew of that could enlarge, harden, and become healthier with exercise--and that's muscle.  

Science truly is mysterious. Even scientific facts aren't always fact. But like many scientists, I follow the evidence, at least to the best of my abilities, to wherever it takes me. . . And I was awestruck when I found my answer. . . .

The Penis: Half Muscle

I was rather dumbfounded when I learned that the penis truly is a muscle -- not completely muscle, and not a normal muscle -- but approximately 50 percent smooth muscle. In February in 2004, the Journal of Urology reported the amount of penile smooth muscle in the article, Sildenafil preserves intracorporeal smooth muscle after radical retropubic prostatectomy. Here is a segment of the authors' findings:

The article above confirms that the penis is in fact part muscle.  For more confirmation, see the references located at the end of this article.  

But what exactly is smooth muscle? And more importantly, what's its role in the penis?  Well, there are three types of muscle: skeletal muscle, which is the muscles you exercise when you go to the gym; cardiac muscle, which is your heart; and smooth muscle, which is found in organs and blood vessels.  All muscle contains actin and myosin, which are important for muscle relaxation and growth. The penis largely consists of smooth muscle (as a side note, the base of the penis also consists of skeletal muscles known as your pelvic floor muscles). 

Healthy Smooth Muscle is Essential for Healthy Erections

Smooth muscle is extremely important for vital erections. As noted in the Journal of Urology article above, "Normal smooth muscle content and function are necessary for the initiation and maintenance of erection." To that end, the health of your penis muscle literally defines the health of your erections! This is well documented in another article by Dr. George J. Christ, which was published in The Urologic Clinics of North America: The penis as a vascular organ: The importance of corporal smooth muscle tone in the control of erection.  Here is what Dr. Christ had to say about the penis's smooth muscle:

In his article, Christ went over (in detail, down to the chemistry) the smooth muscle's role in the penis. The bottom line: smooth muscle is very, very important for proper erections. The smooth muscle causes an erection (which is set off through chemical reactions) by completely relaxing. An erection cannot take place if the smooth muscle cannot completely relax. . . . Accordingly, the smooth muscle is not only important for an erection; it is the erection!

Penis Smooth Muscle and Penile Exercising

How does smooth muscle tie into penile exercising? Well, considering the fact that penile exercising makes erections stronger, harder, and longer-lasting, it would make sense that penile exercising either creates more smooth muscle cells or causes the smooth muscles cells to grow.  Furthermore, for the penis to enlarge, the smooth muscle must enlarge too.

Also, because the penis is compromised of 50 percent smooth muscle, and smooth muscle has a lot of the basic properties of skeletal muscle, we can presume that smooth muscle might react to stress the same way normal muscle does. Which is a no brainer! What are we doing here? Exercising!  Moreover, nearly every single guideline we have is based off body-building/exercising/weightlifting concepts in one way or another. Think about it: Bib, presumably one of the biggest gainers of penile exercising, used a weightlifting concept known as "progressive overload." Peter Dick, another big gainer uses a common weightlifting program known as "muscle confusion" (in which he keeps his penis guessing, so it doesn't adapt). And more recently, we are realizing that cyclic training using deconditioning breaks helps us keep the penis in a responsive state. And cyclic training is a popular weightlifting principle (if not the biggest).

There is a difference between gym exercising and penile exercising, though.  When gym exercising, the gains are temporary.  Meaning, if you quit gym exercising, then the gains go away.  Penile exercising gains, on the other hand, are often permanent. And the permanency of penile exercising might be due to the smooth muscle. Think about it like this: the smooth muscle in the penis is exercised when we Jelq, stretch, and incorporate other exercises. These exercises take the penis (and the smooth muscle) beyond it's normal threshold. But what is the normal threshold? An erection. Masturbation, sex, and anything that involves an erection is exercise too. It's typically just not enough to cause growth. But it many instances, it's enough exercise to keep the gains permanent once they've already been cemented.

Either way, the penis is an extraordinary organ and penile exercising is an extraordinary process. No one is for certain how penis enlargement works, but it is probably much more simple than we think. By taking conventional wisdom (we know that muscle grows due to exercise) and comparing it to scientific facts (the penis is 50 percent smooth muscle and smooth muscle also grows due to stress) we can presume that the smooth muscle of the penis plays a key role in penis enlargement.

References and Further Reading

• Aaron Kemmer. "Exercising the Penis: How to Make Your Most Prized Organ Bigger, Harder & Healthier (Penis Enlargement)." San Fransisco: Semprove Learning, 2008.
• Andersson, K. E., and G. Wagner. Physiology of Penile Erection.  Physiolgocal Reviews. Vol. 75 (1995), pp 191-236.
• Berk, Bradford C. “Vascular Smooth Muscle Growth: Autocrine Growth Mechanisms.” Physiological Reviews. Vol. 81 (2001), No. 3, pp. 999-1030.
• Christ, George J. “The Penis as a Vascular Organ.” Urologic Clinics of North America. Vol. 22 (1995), No. 4, pp. 727-745.
• DiSanto, Michael, et al. "Expression of Myosin Isoforms in Smooth Muscle Cells in the Corpus Cavernosum." American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology. Vol. 275 (1998), No. 4, pp. 976-987.
• Dorey, Grace.  Pelvic Floor Exercises for Erectile Dysfunction. London: Whurr, 2004.
• Griffin, Gary.  Penis Enlargement Methods—Fact & Phallusy. Palm Springs: Added Dimensions, 1996.
• Hays, Scott.  Built For Sex.  New York: Rodale, 2005.
• Kiviat, M. D., et al. “Smooth Muscle Regeneration in the Ureter. Electron microscopic and autoradiographic observations.” American Journal of Pathology.  Vol. 72 (1973), No. 3, pp. 403-416.
• Lamm, Steven.  The Hardness Factor.  New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
• Scwartz, E. J., et al. “Sildenafil Preserves Intracorporeal Smooth Muscle After Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy.” Clinical Urology. Volume 171(2), February 2004, pp. 771-774.

About The Author

Aaron "remek" Kemmer is the author of Exercising The Penis: How to Make Your Most Prized Organ Bigger, Harder & Healthier. He founded THE PENIS ENLARGEMENT GYM in 2005. Find out more about him here.

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