If you need a little extra blood prior to a jelq, it is fine to kegel once or twice just prior to getting your grip. After getting your grip though you don't need to hold the kegel. The purpose of it was simply to get extra blood into your shaft. Holding kegels will probably wear you out if you did them throughout your routine. While you aren't ready for squeezes yet, I do a couple of strong kegels prior to each squeeze to maximize the squeeze using as much blood I can get into my unit.