How to Masturbate: A Hands-On Guide

What is Masturbation?

To put it simply, masturbation is touching yourself for the purposes of sexual pleasure. Masturbation can be something you do by yourself with the door shut or it could be something you do in front of your partner as part of foreplay.

Male masturbation commonly involves penis stroking, but it can also include playing with balls or even teasing a sensitive erogenous zone such as the prostate.

Female masturbation is a little more complicated. It might be as simple as rubbing the clit and nipples. It might involve inserting a finger (or two or three) inside the vagina. Or it could be a combo of all those actions plus more!

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What are the Benefits of Masturbation?

Men and women masturbate mostly because it just feels good, and orgasms feel even better. Aside from the pleasure that comes from masturbating, there are a few other noteworthy benefits.

• Masturbation enhances your self-esteem by helping you become more in tune with your body and improving your body image.
• Masturbation relieves stress by flooding your body with mood-enhancing endorphins for a natural high.
• Masturbation improves your health and well-being. Male masturbation can help prevent prostate cancer, while female masturbation can alleviate some menstrual pain by helping with cramps.
• Masturbation makes it easier for both men and women to fall asleep and lead to a more restful night.

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Are There Any Side Effects to Masturbation?

When done in moderate amounts, masturbation does not have harmful side effects. There’s absolutely 0% chance of you going blind or growing hairy palms after masturbating. The most common side effect of masturbation is a deep sense of relaxation and rejuvenation, which is something we can all use!

It’s a different story if you masturbate excessively, i.e. multiple times a day for an extended period of time. Frequent masturbation can make you feel tired. But you’d feel tired if you were having sex multiple times a day too!

Chronic male masturbation can reduce your sensitivity, making it more difficult for you to have an orgasm with a partner – especially if you use the same technique over and over again. Female masturbation, on the other hand, is completely side-effect free.

It is possible for both men and women to become addicted to masturbation. However, that’s caused primarily by psychological factors – the same ones that lead to other addictions like gambling or drug abuse – and not due to masturbation itself.

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How to Masturbate for Men

Male masturbation is pretty straightforward. But there are several easy tips & tricks you can try to make it even more enjoyable. Here's my masturbation advice to help you get started:

1. Once you're aroused (typically by looking at something visually stimulating), apply a generous amount of lube to your penis and hands until they're slippery. This slickness makes stroking smoother and more enjoyable than going dry.
2. Wrap your hand snugly around the shaft. It should be tight enough for you to feel but not so tight as to actually squeeze your shaft.
3. Stroke your hand up and down your shaft in a pumping motion. Start slowly at first before picking up the pace as you become more and more aroused.
4. Vary your stroking pace and grip to enhance your pleasure. Switching from long and slow strokes to short and fast ones makes masturbation feel more like sex. Likewise, changing your grip from snug to tight or even loose makes your hand feel like you're having sex with another person.
5. Continue stroking until you feel your balls clinching, which is a sign you're about to ejaculate. Grab a tissue and ejaculate into it.
6. Wipe yourself clean before washing up with warm, soapy water. Then urinate to "flush the pipes."

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How to Masturbate for Women

There are multiple ways for women to masturbate. Some like to grind and rub on something like a soft pillow or even their hand. Other women like to focus entirely on clit stimulation. Some prefer to use sex toys, like rabbit and G-Spot vibrators. There's no right or wrong answer, but I do have some masturbation tips and advice to help you out.

1. Start by getting in the mood. This varies from person to person depending on what turns you on. That could be anything from a steamy romance movie to an erotic novel.
2. Explore your whole body by teasing your breasts and nipples, rubbing your inner thighs, and stimulating other sensitive erogenous zones other than your clit and vagina.
3. Wet the tip of your finger with either saliva or lube.
4. Draw little circles around your clit without directly touching it.
5. As you become more aroused, gently insert the fingertip inside your vagina. Wait a few seconds and then moving it in a small stirring-like motion.
6. Use your other hand to start playing with your clit using the same circular motion.
7. Meanwhile, you can start thrusting your finger in and out of your vagina. If that feels good, you could try speeding up the pace or even adding another finger or two. You might even want to curl the tip of your finger to point to your belly button to tickle your G-Spot. Stimulating multiple erogenous zones makes it much easier to have an orgasm.
8. One of the best pieces of masturbation advice I can give you is if it feels good then keep doing it. It might take you some time and experimentation before having an orgasm, but you can get there.
9. If you feel like you need a little extra power, then add a sex toy like a dildo or vibrator.
10. If you do climax, then great! But don't feel like you have to orgasm every time you masturbate. Sometimes the simple act of sexual pleasure is enough to satisfy.

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Answers To Common Masturbation Questions

Your friends at Adam & Eve get dozens of questions every day about sex. Here are the answers to some of your most popular masturbation questions.

1. Is masturbation healthy?

Masturbation is perfectly healthy. We can explore our erogenous zones, experiment with our human sexual response (such as how our desire, arousal, and orgasm work), and explore the playground of our imagination and fantasies. Men and women have been masturbating before they learned how to make fire. If it was dangerous, we would have figured it out by now. Masturbation might not be something you talk about around the family dinner table, but it’s still a perfectly healthy part of life.

2. Is masturbation normal?

Masturbation is a perfectly normal activity. Even animals masturbate. And not just monkeys either. Elephants, bats and other species do it too! Odds are that everyone you meet during the day masturbates. According to sex surveys, 84% of Americans have tried masturbating... and odds are pretty good that the remaining 16% are fibbing. It's essential to masturbate. If we don't know about our own pleasure spots, how are we going to be able to tell a partner where to find them!

3. Does masturbation cause acne?

No. Acne is caused entirely by clogged pores due to an excess of sebum, an oily substance used to protect your skin. This old wives’ tale was just a poor attempt to discourage masturbation.

4. Are there any benefits of not masturbating?

The main benefit of not masturbating is that you'll have a lot more time on your hands. And if you use battery-powered toys for masturbation, you'll potentially save some money as well. The next time you have an orgasm, it will feel more powerful simply because you haven't had one in a while. And depending on how long you go without masturbating, you'll also build up a lot of tension, stress, frustration and anger along the way. Any supposed benefits such as becoming more social or more attractive is total BS.

5. Is masturbation good for you?

Yes, masturbation is good for you. Your body parts are made to be used, and bad things happen if they're not used. Masturbation is even good for your sex life since it teaches you about your body and what you like during sex.

6. How much masturbation is too much?

There’s no hard and fast answer. If you find yourself cutting back on time with friends, so you can masturbate, you’re doing it too much. If you call in sick at work or make excuses so you can spend more time masturbating, you’re doing it too much. You know it's too much when you recognize your behaviors are out of control.

7. How many calories does masturbation burn?

It depends on how active and how long you masturbate. On average, it’s about 60-90 calories per session. You can burn a lot more calories by jogging or running, which is why gyms use treadmills instead of vibrators.

8. How often should you masturbate?

Based on surveys from Adam & Eve and other sex toy companies, men masturbate multiple times a week while women masturbate slightly less than once a week. But those are just averages. How often you masturbate depends on your current relationship status and your sex drive. Younger people might masturbate multiple times a day, while others might be content with a few times a week or even a month. You might also masturbate more often if you're not having sex with your partner as much as you'd like. Just don't let masturbation start dictating or controlling your life.

9. Can masturbation cause cancer?

Masturbation does not cause cancer. Cancer is caused by random cell mutations. Unless your masturbator or vibrator spent a few weeks in the core of a nuclear reactor, you don’t have to worry about getting cancer by masturbating.

10. Does masturbation make you weak?

A good orgasm might make you weak in the knees for a few seconds, but it doesn’t have a permanent impact on your overall strength. In fact, if you masturbate regularly, you might even build up some extra arm strength.

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