Welcome to the

Bathmate Anal

Academy!

Introducing our complete guide to anal sex and pleasure, a free resource for first-time anal experimenters and those interested in even better sex. Take a look below to discover everything from first steps to advanced techniques and toys, safety tips and more!

Getting Started With Anal Pleasure

When you're starting out with anal sex, it really helps to know what's going on and how to stay in control. Find out how to start with anal in a powerful and completely safe way with the Anal Academy - a free masterclass from Bathmate!

Understanding Anal Essentials

While anal sex is more popular than ever, with an estimated 40% plus Americans having tried it out, many people don’t really know how to get the best out of anal. If you go about it wrong, the experience often ends up being unpleasurable and painful, particularly for the receiver.

If you’re doing it properly, anal sex can be an incredibly fun new experience for everyone involved - it just takes a little bit of knowledge. In this masterclass, we’re taking a look at how to have unforgettably pleasurable anal sex, what makes anal unique, and what to avoid, all in the 8 quick lessons below.

Introducing Anal Anatomy

A lot of people don’t really like to think about anatomy, even when they’re interested in anal sex. However, knowing how your body works means understanding how pleasure works, making sex more rewarding for you and your partner.

First of all, there’s the anus. There’s two rings of muscle that make up this part of your body - an external sphincter which can be flexed, and an automatic internal one. Relaxation helps a lot when it comes to getting past these, along with the use of a good lubricant. You don’t have to get in deep for anal pleasure - most of the nerves are found in the first couple of inches of the anus.

Past the anus, there’s the rectum. If you’re having anal sex, you’ll probably feel a lot of stimulation here - a lot of people say this makes them feel ‘filled up’. Despite the general assumption, the rectum isn’t particularly dirty - while there’ll be trace faecal particles, there’s a lot less risk of contamination than you might think, particularly when you follow the safety tips below. For some, there’s an extra level of pleasure to be found here by stimulating the prostate - read on to find out more!

Choosing the Right Lube

Don’t believe the porn - anal sex really requires lube. There’s no natural lubrication for the anus, so going in dry means a painful, dangerous experience for everyone. Using any kind of body-safe lube makes a real difference for your anal experience, preventing injuries, making it easier to go in, and hugely enhancing pleasure.

There’s a reason that some people prefer lube specially designed for anal sex, though. Because there’s no natural lubrication, anal lubes tend to be a lot thicker, providing smooth, totally frictionless sex. For our money, water-based anal lubes are a great choice - body safe and sex toy-friendly, water-based lubes are simple to use, easy to clean up, and don’t have any of the side effects sometimes seen with other options.

Starting Out Small

One of the biggest problems beginners encounter with anal sex is starting out with full-on penetration. Without proper preparation, being anally penetrated by a penis or dildo can be painful and may lead to injuries, particularly if you’re using anal numbing products to remove sensation.

You really should start off small when it comes to anal sex, building up to larger sizes. Probably the most comfortable way to do this is using a set of Training Plugs. Easily inserted, these plugs are designed to get you more used to anal penetration, letting you slowly increase the size of the plug. If you're interested in finding out more about training plugs, you're in the right place! We've recently launched a brand-new product that's perfect for anal beginners, while including some advanced features you can build up to - our Bathmate Anal Training Plug kit!

What Makes Anal Fun?

There’s a lot of nerve endings in and around the anus - it’s actually got one of the highest concentrations of nerves in the body. Put simply, this means that there’s a lot of very unique sensations going on when it comes to anal. Stimulating the nerves in the first couple of inches of the anus can be incredibly pleasurable, while going further into the rectum makes for a kind of ‘filled-up’ sensation. As the anus is particularly tight, there’s also often a lot of new sensations for the giver, making anal sex a uniquely powerful experience for a lot of couples.

Of course, anal sex really isn’t for everyone - some people don’t find it pleasurable at all, even when it’s done right. Different people have very different sensations from anal, but by making sure that you and your partner are comfortable and relaxed, you can experience anal at its best.

Advanced Anal Pleasure

The pleasure from anal sex isn’t just about penetration - there’s a lot of things that can add a completely new level of pleasure. Just touching the genitals isn’t enough, with total pleasure requiring extended stimulation - and it’s exactly the same when it comes to anal. For maximum pleasure, vibrating anal sex toys are a perfect choice, whether it’s our new VIBE Training Plugs or a different choice.

For the lucky ones, anal sex opens up a different kind of pleasure. Located near the anus, the prostate is a small gland that controls the makeup of semen. Using a finger or sex toy to gently massage the prostate creates real waves of pleasure, an incredible sensation. To really maximise the sensation with prostate massage, it’s best to gently stroke the prostate through the rectum.

Staying Safe with Anal

If you’re doing it properly with complete protection, anal sex should be safe for everyone. There’s a few things it’s important to get right, though. As we’ve said, having enough lube and slowly building up tolerance for anal penetration is majorly important, while using numbing sprays can result in injuries, with receivers unable to tell when they’re going too far with penetration.

There’s a few other important points to consider. It’s very important to use a condom when it comes to anal sex. Penetration can result in damage to the protective rectal lining, and this damage can lead to a higher risk of STIs if you’re not using a condom. Along with this, it’s important to stay hygienic when it comes to anal sex - read on for more info.

Effective Anal Hygiene

While it’s a lot less dirty than some people think, anal sex and anally-used toys do require quite a bit of care when it comes to hygiene. For maximum hygiene, a lot of people douche before anal sex, using warm water to wash out any faecal traces. It’s not an essential, but it does help cut down on unpleasant accidents. As we’ve said, using condoms and lubrication is a must, and these help make anal a whole lot more hygienic.

When it comes to anally-used sex toys, cleanliness really is key. We recently launched the world’s first Anal Toy Cleaner, a specialty product made to completely remove any contamination, with a formulation specifically designed for anal toys. While our cleaner is specially for anal toys, most sex toy cleaners can help you keep your toys hygienic - just make sure they’re antibacterial!

What to Avoid with Anal

There’s a lot of myths and faulty thinking about anal sex - here’s some important facts:

  • Anal sex can be completely safe - just make sure to use lubrication and a condom.
  • Anyone can enjoy anal sex - though not everyone does.
  • If you’re going from anal to any other type of sex, make sure to use a different condom.
  • Lubrication is absolutely essential when it comes to anal sex.
  • Anal is a lot cleaner than you might think, but hygiene is still vital.
  • Don’t start off anal with a large toy - start off small and build up to avoid injury.
  • Like any kind of sex, anal won’t always feel the same way - stop if you’re uncomfortable.
  • Anal sex can include a lot of completely unique sensations for you and your partner.

Anal Training Plugs

A perfect fit for anal beginners.

Interested in trying out anal? It’s important to build up to it - starting off with an overly-large partner or toy can cause serious damage. This set of body-safe, solid silicone Anal Training Plugs is the perfect starting point, with a simple, fun design giving you real safety and value for money. The three included plugs have diameters of 1, 1.25 and 1.5 inches respectively, giving you a perfect journey from anal beginner to fully experienced expert.

A powerful starting point from our Anal Collection, these Anal Training Plugs are easy to use, a perfect choice no matter how experienced you are with anal. As with any other kind of anal action, you will need to use lube to avoid pain or potential injury - why not check out our popular Bathmate Pleasure Lube, a totally body-safe, sex toy-friendly option?

With a finger ring at the base of each plug and a thin, completely flexible shaft, they’re totally safe for use during a play session or for long-term wear. We’ve included a slim textured shaft to provide total stimulation to the nerve endings at the entrance of the anus, so get ready for an unmatched experience!

If you’re looking for even more pleasure, just add our best-selling, ultra-powerful Bathmate VIBE Bullet vibrator to the experience. Fitting perfectly into the finger ring on your favourite training plug, the Bullet VIBE has 10 totally different vibration patterns, giving you a completely customisable experience. If you don’t own a VIBE Bullet, you can save by buying our VIBE Training Plug kit, which includes all three training plugs and the Bullet VIBE itself.

ANAL TOY CLEANER

If you use sex toys of any kind, hygiene is just about the most important thing, particularly when it comes to toys for anal play. Despite this, there haven’t been any products on the market specifically designed to clean anal toys - until now, that is, with the launch of Bathmate’s powerful Anal Toy Cleaner.

Using a powerful antibacterial formula (free from alcohol and parabens), Bathmate Anal Toy Cleaner keeps your toys completely clean, removing any trace faecal matter or any other contamination. When you’re done with play, just give your toy a quick wash in warm water, spray the Anal Toy Cleaner on and rub in, then wipe with a damp cloth.

This cleaner is completely skin safe - just make sure to keep it out of your eyes, as it can cause irritation there. Along with a wide range of other ingredients, Bathmate Anal Toy Cleaner does contain <5% non-ionic surfactants - anionic surfactants: Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone.

While Bathmate Anal Toy Cleaner is specially formulated for use with anal toys, it can be used on any kind of sex toy (or even our Bathmate penis pumps), adding an extra level of cleanliness for you.

Though we don’t offer a huge range of anal-specific toys at the moment, watch this space for more announcements - or head over to our Better Sex collection to take a look at our fun and totally body-safe Bathmate sex toys.

ANAL TOY WIPES

If you’re interested in anal play, you’ll know that sexual hygiene really matters, whether you’re with a partner or using a toy by yourself. To make it a bit more convenient for you to keep your anal toys clean before or after a session, we’ve created Bathmate Anal Toy Wipes, the first kind of cleaning wipe specially formulated to take care of anal toys.

These wipes combine the effective Bathmate Anal Toy Cleaner with easy-to-use material, cutting out a couple of steps in keeping your anal toys totally hygienic. Just give the toy a wipe over and rinse for total hygiene!

The antibacterial cleaner we’ve formulated is totally skin-safe, paraben and alcohol-free, and removes any trace of dirt from your toys. Make sure to keep the wipes away from your eyes, as this can cause irritation. The cleaner contains <5% non-ionic surfactants - anionic surfactants: Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone.

Each packet of Bathmate Anal Toy Wipes includes 6 sachets, each of which is sized to clean practically any size of toy (though we’d recommend using our cleaner if you’re introducing particularly huge toys).

Designed for compatibility with anal toys, our Anal Toy Wipes can also be used with other sex toys or intimate products, with a non-reactive design ensuring maximum safety. If you’re looking for a new kind of experience when it comes to sex toys, why not check out the Bathmate Better Sex collection?