It’s the little secret of many women who regularly exercise, but now orgasms produced while exercising are coming into the spotlight.
It’s the little secret of some regularly exercising women.
Sometimes at the gym or while exercising, the stars will align, the right muscles will be in place, and boom – you’ll have an orgasm. Now scientists are finally becoming interested in this little quirk in the female biological system – and using it to learn more about how we have orgasms and what influences them. Exercise-induced orgasms, as they’re called, are hardly old news. Professor Kinsey, the ground-breaking sexuality researcher (you may recall Liam Neeson stalking around playing him in Kinsey), talked about them back in 1953.
And they’re certainly not news to anybody who’s experienced them, though it’s not the habit of gym employees or personal trainers to discuss them.
However, researchers are uncovering that exercise-induced orgasms, while being just as powerful and pleasurable as ones which happen in the bedroom, aren’t really connected to arousal at all. It’s all about the way you’re using your body.
Scientists at Indiana University put out a survey of 124 women who’d had exercise-induced orgasms, and discovered that, generally weren’t doing anything particularly sexually related, like dancing.
Instead, many said they were doing exercises which worked their ‘core’, that segment of muscles your trainer’s always going on about. The abominals are the foundation of balance and strength, and it looks like they might also be the key to a mind-blowing orgasm.
Most women who responded said that the orgasms were entirely unexpected – that they weren’t even thinking about sexuality, anybody they were attracted to, or anything which would normally trigger arousal. It was simply a bodily reaction. Interesting!
So what’s the most orgasm-causing exercise? Abdominal exercise is the number one, with biking number two (it stimulates the clitoral area, so that’s no surprise), and weight-lifting and yoga coming in third and fourth. However, orgasms have been reported across the board, from aerobics to swimming. Now we know why Olympic athletes are so keen to get in the pool in the morning.
Joking aside, the study has good insight into just what makes a good orgasm – and why women can come even with partners they’re not fantastically attracted to, provided the conditions are right.
Repeated workings and shudderings of the abdominal muscles and an up-tick in heart-rate and muscle movement may ‘trick’ your body into thinking you’re having sex and that an orgasm is expected.
However, it’s not all guaranteed. Women who have orgasms while exercising tend to have had them all their lives, so if you’ve never had a mind-shattering experience while running around the block, it may not be built into your system.
Scientists also noted that, with the inability to reach orgasm in the bedroom being one of women’s main concerns (only one in four ladies gets there regularly, according to most reports), the tie to exercise might hold the key to more regular, more reliable orgasm. Sounds good to us.
However, there’s still a lot to be done before anybody makes any concrete physical links between a type of exercise and a stronger orgasm – but when they do, Rescu. will be right there to report it.
Lady Friday xx
Taking the pillow talk out of the bedroom, every Friday…
