Longer than most people expect. Getting comfortable with a new size usually takes weeks rather than days, and working up to a goal can take months. That isn’t a warning. It’s the single most useful thing to know before you start, because most people who give up do so for the same reason: they expected it to be quick, took a step that was too big, and it hurt.
Why it takes weeks, not days
Two rings of muscle surround the anus, and their everyday job is to stay closed. One of them you can relax on purpose; the other relaxes only when it’s given slow, steady pressure and time. Training is the process of teaching both to let go around a size they don’t yet know, and that learning happens over repeated short sessions, not in one long one.
So progress comes in two layers. Within a session, a few minutes of breathing and resting lets the muscles settle around the plug. Between sessions, your body gets used to the sensation, so the same plug feels easier next time. It’s the second layer that takes weeks, and there’s no way to hurry it.
What a realistic timeline looks like
Everyone is different, so treat this as a shape rather than a schedule.
- The first sessions are about plug 1 and nothing else: getting it in comfortably, resting in the Valley, learning what the stretch over the Peak feels like, and finding out how your body responds. For some people this is one evening; for many it’s a week or two.
- Each new size usually takes a few weeks of regular sessions before its Peak feels as easy as its Valley. The first move up often comes sooner than the later ones, because the later ones are a bigger ask of your body even though the steps themselves are smaller.
- Reaching a goal several sizes away is a matter of months. If you’re working towards a partner’s size, the goal finder in our size guide will tell you which plug that is, and how many steps lie between you and it.
A routine of two or three short sessions a week, ten to twenty minutes each, is enough. Rest between them matters as much as the sessions do, and if you feel sore, a few days off is the right call.
Why people give up
Almost always because a step was too big. Many kits come as three sizes with large gaps between them, and the jump from one to the next asks your body for more than it has learned to give. When the next step is too large, it hurts, and one bad experience is often enough to make someone stop before their body was ready, and to believe that this just isn’t for them.
That was the problem Slo.Mo was designed to solve. Seven plugs instead of three, with increases that reduce from 13% at the first step to 5% at the last, because a millimetre is felt more the larger you go. Each new plug’s Valley is narrower than the Peak you’ve just mastered, so every move up begins at a size you already know; only the Peak is new, and only by two to three and a half millimetres. Small steps keep every move achievable, and achievable is what keeps people going.
Slo.Mo by Pace
Small steps, for exactly this reason
Seven solid silicone plugs, each a measured step up from the last, with increases that reduce from 13% to 5% as the sizes grow. A Peak to train on and a Valley to rest in, a number engraved in every base, and silicone independently tested by SGS. A$230, with complimentary express shipping in plain packaging.
How to tell when you’re ready to move up
When easing over the Peak feels as easy as resting in the Valley. Not tolerable, not “I can manage it”: easy. If you’re unsure, you’re not there yet, and another week on the current plug costs nothing.
Two things that are completely normal:
- Plateaus. A size can feel easy for a fortnight and then the next one still feels like too much. Stay where you are a little longer; your body is catching up.
- Going back a size. After a break, or on a tense day, the plug you’d mastered can feel new again. Step back, settle, and come forward when it’s easy. Nothing is lost.
What slows you down
- Rushing a session instead of giving the muscles minutes to settle.
- Not enough lube. Water-based, and more than you think.
- Stress, cold, or a day when your body isn’t in the mood. Skip it; tomorrow is fine.
- Long gaps. A fortnight away usually means a step back.
- Pushing on through soreness. Soreness means rest.
What helps, without hurrying
- Consistency: short sessions, a few times a week.
- A warm, private, unhurried setting, and slow breathing out as you ease past the Peak.
- Training on the Peak once you’re settled: a few slow repetitions over the widest point and back are what teach your body the stretch.
- Keeping a goal in mind but not a date. The date is the thing that makes people take a step too far.
A word on goals
The goal is whatever you want it to be. Many people are perfectly happy at plug 3 or 4, which covers most partners and most toys. Some want the full range. Some discover along the way that the training itself is the part they enjoy. None of those is the wrong answer, and none of them has a deadline.
If you’re starting out, read the beginner’s step-by-step guide. If you want to understand why the steps shrink, how Slo.Mo works explains it. And whenever you’re ready, we’re here.
