Is sex not another type of workout? No wonder some people do a better job of it than others.
Sex requires movement and concentration. The more you focus and practice, the better your stamina and confidence. And vice versa.
The same applies to exercise. Moving your body outside of the bedroom helps you move it better inside the bedroom.
So, if you’re wondering if you should exercise for better sex, you’re absolutely correct. Combine it with adult toys and lubes, and your sex life will soon be miles better than the people in your circle.
How Exercise Can Improve Your Sex Life
Exercising for 20 minutes can boost sexual arousal by 169% in women. An intense workout makes hormones, autonomic nervous system, and chemical functions in the body go haywire. The short window after exercising is when they end up experiencing high libido.
Chronic exercise has a more indirect effect on women’s sexual health. By affecting heart health and mood, it makes women more receptive to sex overall. Heavy workout also raises enzyme levels, which leads to more blood flow to the genitals, and natural arousal.
Similarly, working out even 90 minutes per week can reduce the chance of erectile dysfunction by 20%.
In fact, the lack of exercise might lead to sexual dysfunction for men.
A possible cause of erectile dysfunction is a lack of blood flow to the penis. Regular workout gets blood pumping throughout your body, including the penis. Men get better erections and more rewarding orgasms.
But it’s not only about an uptick in libido.
Routine cardio exercises increase your body’s ability to hold your breath. With your stamina up, you’ll last longer in the bedroom. You can replace a cardio workout with yoga, which has a similar effect on your cardio health and makes you more flexible.
Meanwhile, weightlifting results in a surge of testosterone. The muscles in your arms, legs, and stomach tone down to be able to share better performance during sexual activities.
Dr. Gonzaga Waiswa points out exercise allows better blood flow to the brain too. More blood flow to the brain means an increase in the ability to concentrate and coordinate better.
Of course, fitness has a huge effect on your confidence. If you feel good, you will find yourself seeking out more sexual adventures. You don’t feel self-conscious, so you take the time to explore what you like.
Top Exercises for a Steamier Sex Life
While almost any kind of intentional movement will lead to better health and sexual confidence, some exercises lead to more pointed results in your sex life.
1. Cardio for Stamina
According to Dr. Debby Herbenick, your heart and blood health have a direct impact on your sexual abilities. And it’s not only because sex can sometimes be rough and require controlled breathing.
If you have a good blood circulatory system, you can be assured it’s keeping two systems related to sex in the human body healthy. Blood flow helps with erections and vaginal lubrication.
In a meta-analysis of five studies done on 400 men, there was strong evidence aerobic training can be a way to treat erectile dysfunction.
Cardio exercises are also probably the most accessible ones. Start with walking or jogging daily. Get the blood flowing.
Once you feel fitter, you can do more intense sessions like running on a treadmill at the gym or cycling and swimming. Any activity where your heart rate picks up for a while should do nicely.
But, remember to check your health level and what kind of workout is allowed with cardio training. If your heart rate is too fast or the blood rush is intense, it’s not unusual to faint or experience something worse.
2. Strength Training for Endurance
Weightlifting exercises engage every muscle in your body. It improves the ability of your muscles to hold on for a long period of time. It’s certainly advantageous when you’re having sex and want to last longer.
Not to mention the rush of testosterone leads to a rise in sexual desire overall.
The biggest test of your endurance is done when you do core exercises. By core, we mean the muscles in your stomach and the overall midsection of your body.
The muscles most used during sex are in your core. If your core is strong, you feel more solid and present in your body.
For core muscle training, try pushups, abdominal crunches, and planks.
The exercise requires you to place most of your strength on your hand, as you raise your entire body with your toes touching the ground. While it looks easy to the eye, it’s hard for people to hold the plank position for even 10 seconds.
Start small. If you can do 5 seconds, do so. Eventually, build it up to 60 seconds.
3. Flexibility for Fun
Exercising isn’t only about gaining muscles and improving endurance. It doesn’t have to be all intense, high-speed workouts.
It serves to improve your flexibility for a better sex life. Imagine the kind of position you could get into if it didn’t hurt your back every time you moved.
Not to mention with the current lifestyle, most people spend hours sitting 9 to 5. It ends up making your hip muscles tighter, so it hurts your back and pelvic muscles.
Some people can barely hold one position as a result.
It’s a good idea to make sure your hip muscles are flexible. Because if they’re, your lower body moves as you wish.
Go for poses like cat-cow, happy baby pose, 90/90 stretch, etc. Basically, the poses should bring your knees close to your chest.
If holding one pose for long doesn’t suit your style, you can also do squats, glute bridges, and leg presses.
4. Pelvic Floor Exercise
Your pelvic floor health might be the biggest difference between enjoyable sexual encounters and painful ones. Both men and women can benefit from a healthier pelvic floor.
10 to 20% of women in particular might feel less pain while having sex. All because of the strings of muscles at the base of the pelvis.
Both weak or tight pelvic muscles can prevent you from experiencing a satisfying orgasm. Tight pelvic muscles, in particular, can make any kind of penetration excruciatingly painful.
Weak pelvic muscles don’t contract well. If your pelvic muscles are healthy, you should be able to contract and release them at will.
Doctors usually recommend kegel exercises for making the pelvic floor muscles stronger. The exercise copies the effort it takes to hold in urine or gas.
A common exercise is to tighten the pelvic muscles for 3 seconds before releasing them for another 3. Men should do about 3 sets with 10 repetitions every day. Your muscle has to fully relax at the end, something many people fail at.
While it’s not exactly proven, there are hypotheses that by strengthening pelvic floor muscles, women might self-lubricate better, get more aroused, and achieve more intense orgasms.
There are kegel balls and other tools which can help with the exercises and maintaining pelvic health in general. It’s also supposed vibrators and other similar adult toys can act like kegel balls and help strengthen pelvic floor muscles.
How Sex Toys and Lubes Can Elevate the Experience
Once you start doing exercises for better sex, maybe it’s time to look into other ways you can improve your sex life.
Especially since sex toys actually do the job of exercising in some ways. Adult toys have been linked to an increase in libido, better blood flow to the genitals, more powerful orgasms, and so on.
Adult toys even have general health benefits like immunity boosts, better sleep, and improved mental health.
But selecting sex toys and buying lubes as complete beginners can be tough. It also depends on whether you are buying adult toys for yourself or have a partner in mind.
If there’s a partner involved, make sure to have a proper conversation about whether they’re comfortable with sex toys and get consent beforehand.
As for the kind of toy you should start with, it might be a good idea to pull up an online website and look through the variety.
Note your reaction to the toys. Is there something you particularly like? A type of sensation you want to experience?
If you have difficulty with orgasm, you might want to try out a clitoral vibrator like the Je Joue Mimi.
If you want to know what a G-spot orgasm feels like or want to enjoy a particularly intense orgasm, you can go for a G-spot vibrator or a rabbit vibrator. Lovense Lush 3 and Lelo Ina Wave are particularly liked in this category.
If you’re dealing with erectile dysfunction or feel your masturbation sessions are not intense enough, you might want to try a Tenga Egg or a vibrating cock ring like the Lelo Tor 2.
As a beginner, you want to avoid the BDSM section overall. But don't rule out handcuffs and blindfolds entirely.
Some online adult stores like XOXTOYS have a mystery box option. You get 3 to 5 items in a box with no idea what the package has. The items are a good mix of products for beginners and experienced users.
Often, they have lube. And if you are planning on having fun with adult toys, you aren’t allowed to forget about buying lubes.
Adult toys are dry by nature. You want to lubricate them to make every glide smooth.
If you have a silicone toy, go for water-based or oil-based lube, but never silicone lube. For latex-based toys, make sure to avoid oil-based lube. You shouldn’t use oil-based lube if you are using condoms either.
Basically, avoid mixing similar chemical components together.
For adult toys, you should also go for body-safe material. Silicone, wood, glass, and metal are all materials where fluids don’t seep through, so they’re easier to clean and require less caution.
Latex, leather, and certain plastic toys can be hard to clean. Make sure to wrap a condom around them to maintain safety and use toy cleaners to sanitize them.
Final Thoughts
Let’s say sex isn’t a priority in your life. It’s fine. Forget about sex for a while. But you should be exercising, no matter what your age, if you want to stay in good health.
And if you do exercise and it leads to an improved sex drive and sexual experiences, why fight it? Especially when with a bit of online browsing and discreet packaging, you could be gearing up for some amazing nights.
