Do You Want to Have a Healthy Sex Life? Stay Active!
By: Emma London
Tags: Fitness, Sexuality, Health, Sex, Advice

I used to be an active person. Daily, I went for long walks with my dog, and I had pole dance classes. I’m not strong, but I’m flexible, my energy levels are good, and I’m fit. Or I was…

In February this year, a severe back pain hit me. In weeks, it escalated to the worst pain I’ve ever felt. My diagnosis was a trapped nerve in my spine and a few other bad bits on my back.

Meanwhile, my dog also got a problem on his leg, so he can’t walk longer than 20 minutes a time. Since March, my physical activity it’s down to short daily walks.

Now that the shit hit the fan, I started to workout at home, with Youtuber videos; hopefully, I’ll get my fitness back soon.

With my almost-fainting, I realised that your physical condition affects sex not only in your ability to “last longer”, but it also impacts it in different ways.

5 ways being physically active affects your sex life

1. Exercise improves strength and flexibility

Physical exercise will improve your flexibility and increase your strength.

Some activities will enhance it more than others, but as long as you exercise your muscles, you’re working on your flexibility and empowering your strength.

Being flexible and strong are good traits when talking about sex. I’m not referring to being acrobatic (although I would not say no to that), but having toned and strong muscles make things very different.

By being more flexible and strong, you’re able to hold certain sexual moves or positions for longer.

You can hold the weight of your partner, which is always sexy (hello, fucking against the wall, with my legs around my partner’s waist!).

2. Enhances your sexual performance

Several scientific studies showed that engaging in regular physical exercise will enhance your sex performance, like this one conducted with men, that concluded, “significantly greater sexuality enhancements in the exercise group (…) Moreover, the degree of sexuality enhancement (…) was correlated with the degree of their individual improvement in fitness.”

This study, conducted with women, had similar conclusions: “significant increase in physiological sexual arousal with exercise”.

If you had doubts, now you know: regular physical exercise improves your sexual performance.

3. Exercising boosts self-esteem

Physical exercise will make you feel better about yourself, not only mentally and psychologically — because of the release of endorphins and dopamine, both chemicals that have a positive impact in your mood — , but it also has a boosts your self-esteem.

When you exercise, you improve the perception of yourself; you become more self-confident — this being a very attractive (if not the most) trait to have in bed.

4. Physical activity is a powerful anti-stress

As said above, when you exercise, your body releases chemicals that impact positively your state of mind.

Physical exercise reduces adrenaline and cortisol — the stress hormones. Besides that, working out stimulates the production of endorphins, natural chemicals that act in our body as painkillers and mood elevators (source).

Feeling good about yourself and towards life will benefit your relationships and your sex life.

Physical exercise will reduce stress and depressive symptoms, both with negative impact your sex life.

Working out is a great investment, it will generate a healthy sex drive.

5. Improves blood circulation

Aerobic exercise, like a vigorous walking, swimming or biking, boosts your blood circulation.

Having good blood flow is a very important factor in your general health, including your sexual one; namely the fact that, for men, it decreases the risk of suffering from erectile dysfunction.

Having good blood circulation is fundamental, it ensures a healthy oxygen flow throughout the body (allowing the organs and muscles to function efficiently), enriches your immune system, and it helps to detox your body Source.

As you need your organs to work properly during sex (heart, lungs, muscles…), undoubtedly that having good blood circulation affects positively your sexual performance. Including the recovery from orgasm, as good blood circulation also helps you recover your breath after orgasms — which I didn’t have the ability to do, and that’s why I almost fainted after sex.