Glossary

Pompoir comes with a lot of internal-movement language, and most of it describes things you've never had words for before. That's normal. This page is your translator — look things up as they come up, and don't worry about memorizing any of it.

If a term here still isn't clicking, every exercise has its own guide page that slows the movement down.

The core actions

Contraction — the fundamental move: clenching your vaginal canal as if stopping your pee mid-stream, so it shortens and lifts inward and upward. Everything else in the program is a variation on this.

Pull — the same action as a contraction, described from the inside: the sensation of drawing the canal inward and up. "Contract" is what you do; "pull" is what it feels like.

Squeeze — closing the walls of the canal together — usually the left and right walls, sometimes the front and back. Where a contraction pulls up, a squeeze closes in.

Pulse — a small, quick squeeze-and-soften, usually layered on top of a contraction or squeeze you're already holding. Pulses are how you close a level or a side gradually, a little closer each time.

Hold — keeping a contraction or squeeze active instead of releasing it. The skill isn't gripping harder; it's keeping the lift present while you breathe.

Release — letting the working muscles fully soften. A release is not a collapse and not a push — it's a deliberate letting-go. Half the training happens here; a muscle you can't release isn't under your control.

Push / push-out — a gentle downward motion from the abdominal muscles, used at the end of milking. Controlled, never strained. At first it will recruit nearby muscles (including your anus) along for the ride — normal, and it refines with practice.

Tempo words

Short contraction (squeeze-and-hold) — contract firmly, hold three seconds, release completely. The first tempo everyone learns.

Fast contraction (flutter) — the same pull with no hold at all: contract, release immediately, repeat. Each rep should stay distinct — if they blur into one shudder, slow down.

Long contraction (long hold) — a contraction held for time: 10 seconds, building over weeks to 20, then 30. Use a timer — everyone overestimates their hold.

The wave — the informal name for the milking motion: a contraction that travels the canal one level at a time instead of clenching everything at once.

The body map

Pelvic floor — the sling of muscles at the base of your pelvis that wraps around the vaginal canal. This is what every exercise on the site trains.

Vaginal canal — the passage from the vaginal opening to the cervix. In pompoir you learn to move it in sections rather than as one unit.

Levels — the coaching landmarks for those sections. Level 1 is the entrance, level 2 is the middle (the "heart" of the canal), level 3 is the highest section, near the cervix. They're training cues, not precise anatomy — if you can't feel three distinct levels yet, that's common, and the cue still works.

Entrance — level 1: the opening of the canal. Usually the easiest place to feel movement.

Heart of the canal — level 2: the middle section.

Highest level / near the cervix — level 3: the deepest section the exercises ask you to reach.

Side walls (lateral walls) — the left and right walls of the canal. Squeezes, pulses, and side isolation all work these.

Front and back walls — the remaining two walls of the canal, worked specifically in the Lock.

Cervix — the lower end of the uterus, at the top of the canal. In this program it's just a landmark: "the highest level" means "up by your cervix."

The exercises

Short and fast contractions — the two foundation tempos, practiced back to back. First exercise on Mondays. Guide →

Long contractions — timed holds at 10, 20, and 30 seconds. Second exercise on Mondays, first on Thursdays. Guide →

Squeeze & pull — close the side walls with pulses, then add a contraction on top without letting the squeeze go. Narrow first, lift second. First exercise on Tuesdays. Guide →

Full squeeze — closing the whole canal level by level (entrance, heart, highest level), holding each level as you add the next, then releasing the whole sequence. Second exercise on Tuesdays. Guide →

Side isolation — contracting one side wall alone: squeeze the right side toward the center, release, then the left. One side will be stronger — everyone's is. First exercise on Wednesdays. Guide →

Alternating isolation — the faster follow-up to side isolation: one firm squeeze on the right, then one on the left, back and forth.

Sucking & pulsing — two moves performed while holding a contraction: pulsing the side walls, and "sucking" — pulling the contraction deeper, as if drawing something further in. Both should feel genuinely tiring by the end of a set. Second exercise on Wednesdays. Guide →

Milking — the wave, done two ways: slow milking travels up the canal level by level, holds, releases back down, and finishes with a push-out; fast milking is the same journey with no stops. Second exercise on Thursdays. Guide →

The Lock — a finger-feedback exercise: with one or two fingers inside, close the canal around them level by level — side walls and front-and-back walls — as tight as you can. First exercise on Fridays. Guide →

The Whip — the full squeeze at sprint speed: close levels one, two, and three in one swift ripple, release, repeat. The hardest move in the program, and the first sessions will feel wrong. Second exercise on Fridays. Guide →

Practice words

Rep — one complete movement: contract and release, squeeze and pull, a single wave.

Set — a group of reps. "3 × 10" means three sets of ten reps, with a breath between sets.

Block — one exercise's full assignment for the day. Most training days have two blocks.

Session — one day's practice, start to finish, including the stretch at the end.

Position — the four stances every exercise cycles through: standing, sitting, lying down, and on all fours. Not busywork — the same move feels surprisingly different in each, and lying down is the easiest place to learn.

Volume — the total amount of work in a session: reps × sets × positions. The numbers on the Weekly Practice Map are the destination, not the entry fee.

Scaling down — making a session smaller without breaking its structure: fewer reps, fewer positions, same order. Always allowed.

Rest day — a day with no training, on purpose. Muscles adapt between sessions, not during them. Take them seriously.

Stretch — the gentle finish to every session: a few slow breaths and an easy stretch for the hips and pelvic floor. Treat it as the last set of the day.

Cue images you'll meet

"Stop your pee mid-stream" — the classic contraction cue. (An image, not a practice method — don't actually train while peeing.)

"A tilted accordion squeezing shut" — what a contraction does to the canal: it shortens and lifts.

"Unzipping from the top down" — how releasing a full squeeze should feel: each level letting go in turn.

"Palms together in small pulses" — a hands-on model for squeeze & pull: hold your palms hip-width apart and pulse them closer. That's the shape your walls are making.

"Directing a marble to one side" — the cue for side isolation: imagine guiding a marble from the entrance to just one side of the canal.

"Sucking on a pacifier" — the rhythm of the sucking motion: quick, repeated inward pulls.

"Squeezing a stress ball consumed by anxiety" — the energy of sucking & pulsing: fast, intense, and relentless.

A word you might know from elsewhere

Kegels — the pelvic-floor squeezes most people have heard of. A Kegel is roughly this program's basic contraction. Pompoir starts there, then goes much further: sides, levels, waves, speed, and control that a simple clench never trains.