Unsure of exactly where sex features in amongst it all, we do know that it seems to get pushed further down that list the busier we get.<\/p>\n
A common theme I see is the amount of pressure we, as women, put ourselves under to be better and to do more. Exercise more. Eat more vegetables. Drink more water. Write more lists. The mental load we bear is often all consuming.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So it comes as no surprise that when I bring up this article\u2019s theme about exercise improving our sex lives, the topic brings about derision and laughter among clients and friends.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In our younger days, perhaps exercise was something we did to make ourselves more attractive to a prospective partner. But now exercise has taken on an altogether different purpose.<\/p>\n It\u2019s our time out. A way to make ourselves feel better physically and mentally. Something that\u2019s simply for our own personal benefit for a change. So the relationship between exercise and sex isn\u2019t exactly aligned these days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When I posed the question about what does get us in the mood, I\u2019m met with jokes about a tidy house or partners taking the kids off our hands for a day. If anything, it seems that sex is more aligned with relaxation than activity. So I set about doing a bit of research; is exercise something that actually helps or hinders our libido?<\/p>\n It\u2019s an interesting question, and there are various findings which at first seem somewhat contradicting and confusing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Libido \u2013 Our desire to have sex.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Pelvic floor \u2013 The hammock of muscles that form the pubic bone to the coccyx.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Kegel exercises \u2013 Designed to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Testosterone \u2013 A male sex hormone that\u2019s also found in women\u2019s ovaries in small amounts.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Firstly, let\u2019s start off with the definition of what a libido exactly means. In layman\u2019s terms, it\u2019s our desire to have sex, and this can vary from woman to woman.<\/p>\n One woman\u2019s low libido (e.g. having sex once a week) could seem high to another who has sex with her partner once in a blue moon. It\u2019s all relative. Plus, various factors can impact our libido.<\/p>\n \u201cYour libido is influenced by a combination of psychological, physiological, and emotional factors,\u201d says holistic health expert Ana Gonzalez Herrera, founder and CEO of Hormone University, an educational platform about hormones.<\/p>\n \u201cThat includes things like your stress levels, mental well-being, hormone levels, medications, and overall health (and health changes).\u201d<\/p>\n A study undertaken by the University\u00a0of North Carolina, which took 1,077 men and looked at their long-term exercise habits and self-reported libido levels, saw that there was a trend that emerged between exercise and sex.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re male and train for a large number of hours or it\u2019s at a high intensity, your libido will decrease,\u201d revealed study author Anthony Hackney, professor of exercise physiology and nutrition.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd while there\u2019s no solid research as yet, there\u2019s no reason to suspect that women would be any different.\u201d<\/p>\n According to physical therapist Grayson Wickham, founder of digital movement platform Movement Vault, when it comes to exercise, more actually isn\u2019t better since you can send your body into a state of overtraining<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOvertraining syndrome is caused by a combination of too much exercise and not enough recovery,\u201d he explains. And it can lead to a number of unsavoury side effects such as prolonged fatigue, moodiness, feelings of stress and agitation, loss of appetite, poor sleep quality, and lingering injury and soreness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So has there been any \u2018solid research\u2019 on the link between sex and exercise for women in particular? The studies into female libidos seem to have focused more acutely, i.e. on the immediate arousal from a single workout.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the most basic level, genital arousal is dependent on blood flow to that area,\u201d says sex researcher Dr Tierney Lorenz. \u201cSo it stands to reason that anything that promotes blood flow \u2013 exercise included \u2013 will help boost sexual feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Lorenz reproduced findings from an experiment taken in 1966 in 2012, to observe the response in \u2018vaginal pulse amplitude\u2019, swapping bikes in the first study for treadmills<\/strong><\/a> in the more recent one.<\/p>\n \u201cModerate levels of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity prime a woman\u2019s body to experience higher genital arousal than if she is at a very low or very high SNS activity,\u201d she says. \u201cSo you\u2019ll experience a difference from when you\u2019re totally at rest or in a state of high physical stress.\u201d<\/p>\n 5 ways to boost your libido<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Get to your nearest pool or lido<\/strong><\/p>\n When you swim, you build muscle (with pelvic floor muscles typically getting an extra workout), increase endurance and get the blood pumping, all without harm to your joints that can come from other high-impact workouts. Harvard researchers found that male and female swimmers in their 60s had sex lives similar to people 20 years younger.<\/p>\n 2. Try a workout date with your partner<\/strong><\/p>\n Studies show that challenging physical activities can ignite a spark in couples. Coordinate so you\u2019re running at the same pace or working out to the same intensity and it can further strengthen your emotional connection. A small study from the Univerity of Quebec found that sex burns about 4.2 calories per minute for men, and 3.1 calories per minute for women.<\/p>\n 3. Train first thing in the morning<\/strong><\/p>\n This way you\u2019ll have more time to recover from the workout and give you more energy for other such activities!<\/p>\n 4. Include yoga and meditation at least once a week<\/strong><\/p>\n The headspace will help to keep stress at bay while the strengthening poses will help improve your flexibility and overall body image.<\/p>\n 5. Balance your diet<\/strong><\/p>\n Healthy eating will ensure your body is operating at its best, dips in energy will be fewer and less extreme, and it will reduce the chances of obesity and diabetes, which can lead to low libido and conditions such as erectile dysfunction in men.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> So exercise will increase your sex drive, thanks to that SNS boost, but train beyond a certain point and your libido is likely to take a nose-dive. But there\u2019s another zinger for us ladies; women tend to react more sensitively to over-exercising than men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen women exercise to an extreme or endurance level, hypopituitarism (an under-function of the pituitary gland) can develop, leading to low levels of testosterone and oestrogen,\u201d explains Peter S\u00f6nksen, visiting professor of endocrinology at the University of Southampton and member of the Society for Endocrinology.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if over-exercising leads to low body fat, your body essentially shuts down its capacity to become pregnant. It would make sense for this to extend to the desire for sex, too.\u201d<\/p>\n So, if you do a crazily-intense workout your body will go into a panic and hit the recovery mode. It will cause an anti-inflammatory response to repair your muscle tissue meaning that any post-workout energy and blood flow is going to that tissue instead of your sex organs.<\/p>\n Put simply, too much training and we\u2019ll be too knackered for sex. Makes sense.<\/p>\n To add to our woes, research has also found that our pelvic floor also plays a part. I deal in most part with ladies who have a slackened pelvic floor (the hammock of muscles that form the pubic bone to the coccyx) from childbirth, but exercise too much and you can experience an overactive or over-toned pelvic floor which can make intercourse more challenging or painful.<\/p>\n The good news, though, is that pelvic squeezes or kegel exercises, which help to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles (but not too much, as highlighted above!), may have a positive impact on libido in both men and women.<\/p>\n Kegels help to tone vaginal muscles in women, which can lead to more powerful orgasms and for men, kegels can help to delay ejaculation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One study out of Iran also found that even after childbirth, an eight-week pelvic muscle exercise routine could increase strength and sexual self-efficacy \u2013 or the woman\u2019s \u2018belief in her ability to perform sexual acts and sexual emotional reactions successfully\u2019 \u2013 after delivery.<\/p>\n So finally, some positive news in the female libido department. And there\u2019s more:<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many factors that influence someone\u2019s libido, and exercise is one of those factors,\u201d says sexologist Rebecca Alvarez, founder of Bloomi, a marketplace for sexual wellness products. \u201cModerate exercise has also been shown to boost testosterone levels in both men\u00a0and women.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A paper published by a team from the University of Texas entitled \u2018The Roles of Testosterone and Alpha-Amylase in Exercise-Induced Sexual Arousal in Women\u2019 also found that working out increases body awareness, which could increase bodily sensations.<\/p>\n Okay, so exercise is good right? You can see where one can get confused here. It\u2019s a bit of a Goldilocks scenario \u2013 go too far one way and the exercise-to-libido pendulum can easily sway in the wrong direction when what we really want is \u2018just right\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So what is the \u2018sweet spot\u2019 when it comes to the optimum amount of exercise to keep your sex drive whirring and not stalling? And what type of exercise should we be doing?<\/p>\n The advice from one particular research is to limit high-intensity exercise to 40-45mins, two to three times a week in order to keep your libido in check.<\/p>\n Both resistance training<\/strong> <\/a>and endurance training have also been shown to have a positive effect on sex drive, although strength training has been found to be better at relieving stress than cardio.<\/p>\n We know that exercise releases endorphins, those kick-ass feel-good hormones that improve your mood, reduce symptoms of depression, and alleviate stress. So in short, any exercise that improves your strength and body image, and helps you blow off steam and reduce stress, will improve your libido.<\/p>\n Just keep an eye out for signs of overtraining, otherwise sex will quickly return to the bottom of the \u2018to-do\u2019 pile.<\/p>\n To put those feel-good endorphins into action and libido into gear, try some of these exercises. Do 2-3 sets of 30-40secs with 10secs rest intervals for a 20-30min workout.<\/p>\n On the floor with your elbows or wrists placed directly under your shoulders, hands flat on the floor and core engaged. Keeping your body in a straight line from your knees to your head. Hold the position and engage in deep inhalations and exhalations. Swap for ab contractions if you have diastasis recti (on all fours draw navel to spine as you slowly exhale).<\/p>\n Back placed on the floor, knees bent, feet and knees positioned hip width apart, rock the pelvis forward to tilt, then slowly raise your bottom and hips off the ground, gently lowering back down to the ground. Include some pulses at the top and pelvic squeezes on every 10th rep.<\/p>\n Pull in your back and front passage at the same time whilst lifting the pelvic floor internally, think holding wee\/fart!<\/p>\n In four-point kneeling position, rock your hips and pelvis slowly into a forward and back motion. Inhale, then exhale, round your back like a cat and hold for a few seconds then reverse the motion by inhaling and drawing and lifting your chest forward and up whilst you retract your shoulder blades back and again hold for a few seconds.<\/p>\n On all fours to begin with, stretch out fingers wide. Tuck your toes under and push your body up and off the floor or mat. Press into the hands and move your chest gently towards your thighs whilst pushing heels gently towards the floor. Relax head and shoulders and breathe deeply.<\/p>\n Bringing your right knee forward, let it rest behind your right hand. Bring your right foot up and to the left and your right ankle near the left hip. Straighten your left leg and slide it back behind you keeping your foot flat to the ground.<\/p>\n Walk the hands forward and lower down as much as possible letting your torso fall towards your right thigh. Your pelvis should be pointed to the ground but don\u2019t overextend or force it. Swap sides.<\/p>\n In side-lying position, inhale keeping feet together as you slowly rotate your leg to open hip as the top knee opens, engaging the pelvic floor on the lift. Only open the hip as far as feels comfortable. Exhale and slowly release the pelvic floor as you bring the knee back in line with the other knee. Swap sides.<\/p>\n Feet placed slightly wider than hip width apart and slowly sink into position sticking out your bum and sinking your hips back and down, and then return to stand. Increase intensity by coming up onto toes or off the ground into a squat jump for a cardio blast.<\/p>\nDoes exercise help or hinder libido?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Jargon buster<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What is libido?<\/b><\/h2>\n
How much is too much?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Too knackered to try<\/b><\/h2>\n
Squeeze that pelvic floor<\/b><\/h2>\n
Finding the sweet spot<\/b><\/h2>\n
What are the best exercises to kickstart your libido?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Plank<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Pelvic tilts and lifts\/glute bridge<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nPelvic squeezes\/kegels<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Cat to cow<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nDownward dog<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nPigeon pose<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nClam opens<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nSquats<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nWide or sumo squat<\/strong><\/h3>\n