1. Aching or tiredness low down after a session
A dull, tired feeling deep in the pelvis an hour or two after training is common early on. You have asked a muscle group that has been coasting for decades to work on purpose. It answers the way any muscle does.
It should fade within a day, and it should fade faster as the weeks go on. If it is mild and settles, carry on, but trim the session slightly. Fewer reps done properly beats more reps done through an ache.
What is not normal: sharp pain, burning when you pass water, or an ache that keeps building day after day. That belongs with your doctor, not with a change to your reps.
2. A bit more leaking on the day you started
Some men notice slightly more dampness in the first few days. It is unsettling, because you started training to go the other way. Usually it is fatigue. A tired muscle holds less well in the hours after you have worked it.
The fix is timing, not stopping. Move your session to a time when you are not about to walk the dog or drive somewhere. Many men settle on evening, when the rest of the day is already behind them.
If the increase keeps up past a week or two, scale the session back for a few days and build again more slowly. Going back a step is not losing ground.
3. Finding the muscle one day and losing it the next
Early on, the connection is patchy. Monday you feel a clear lift. Tuesday you squeeze and nothing obvious happens. That is normal, and it is not a sign you have broken something.
Position changes a lot in the first weeks. Lying down is easiest, sitting is harder, standing is hardest. If you lose the feeling standing up, drop back to lying down for that session and work your way up again.
Fatigue, a bad night's sleep, a heavy meal, a few drinks — all of them blunt the signal. The muscle is still there. The line to it is just noisy.
4. Needing the toilet more often for a few days
Some men become very aware of their bladder once they start paying attention to that part of the body. You notice sensations you used to ignore, and you read them as urgency.
Resist going "just in case" every time you notice something. Topping up the habit of emptying early teaches the bladder to signal sooner. Wait a few minutes when you can, and let the feeling pass or build properly.
If the frequency comes with stinging, cloudy urine, fever or blood, stop guessing and speak to your doctor the same day. That pattern is not training.
5. Clenching your jaw, your buttocks or your stomach
Almost everyone recruits the wrong muscles at first. You hold your breath, grip your backside, pull your belly in hard, and call the whole thing a rep. The pelvic floor may barely have joined in.
Check with a hand. One on your stomach, one on a buttock. If either one grips when you squeeze, ease off until only the deep lift remains. The correct contraction is quieter than you expect.
Keep breathing out through the squeeze for the first few weeks. Breath-holding is the habit that takes longest to shake, and it hides a lot of poor reps.
Also worth reading: The 8 Points Where Men Quit: A Drop-Off Timeline, Week 1 to Month 4 · Am I Squeezing the Right Muscle? 4 Checks You Can Do at Home
6. Wondering whether anything is happening at all
Weeks two and three are flat ground. The novelty has gone, the pads have not changed much, and there is no obvious marker to tell you the work is landing. This is the point where most men drift away.
Give yourself something countable that is not pad weight. How long can you hold a contraction before it fades? Can you do ten in a row with the same quality as the first? Those move before leaking does.
Write the number down once a week. Not daily — daily noise will only discourage you. A month of weekly notes shows a direction that day-to-day feeling cannot.
7. Soreness that spreads to your lower back or hips
If your back or hips start complaining, you are probably bracing your whole trunk to make the squeeze happen. That is effort in the wrong place, and it tires you out for no return.
Sit or lie down to train for a while. Unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders, let your stomach be soft. Then make the smallest lift you can actually feel, and hold it for a count of three.
Small and clean beats big and messy every time at this stage. The strength comes later, once the pattern is right.
8. Doubting it works for someone your age or your surgery
This thought usually arrives around week three, often after a bad day. It is worth answering honestly rather than ignoring. Training helps many men, at many ages, including well after surgery. It is not quick, and it does not work the same way for everyone.
What you can control in the first weeks is quality and consistency. You cannot control how fast your tissues recover or how much nerve function has come back. Judging yourself against the things you cannot control is a reliable way to quit.
If after a couple of months of honest training nothing has shifted at all, that is a reasonable thing to take to a specialist. Not as a failure — as information they can act on. In the meantime, keep the sessions short, keep them regular, and let the weeks do their work.