Enhanced Sexual Performance Through Yoga: Exploring Its Impact
Heyy there! So you wanna know if all that yoga you've been doing is actually improving your bedroom antics? Let's dive into it!
The world wide web is filled with blogs claiming that yoga can lead to a hotter sex life - but is there any science backing this up? Let's find out!
Now, we all know that yoga's been proven to help with a bunch of health issues like depression, stress, anxiety, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and thyroid problems. But recently, researchers have been looking into the more complex mechanisms behind these benefits.
Turns out, yoga has a way of calming your body, lowering inflammation, counteracting stress, reducing cortisol, and boosting a protein that helps your brain stay young and healthy! And let's not forget, it just feels freaking fantastic!
But can yoga's flexibility-inducing poses translate into better bedroom performance? Let's take a gander at the research.
Yoga gets women in the mood
One study, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, looked at the impact of 12 weeks of yoga on sexual function in 40 women over 45. After the yoga sessions, the women's sexual function improved across the board on the Female Sexual Function Index (desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain). An impressive 75% of the women reported an improvement in their sex lives after yoga training!
The women were taught 22 poses, like the triangle pose, snake pose, and half spinal twist, which are said to improve core strength, digestion, and pelvic floor muscles. Want to give these poses a shot? Find 'em here!
Yoga gets the boys going, too!
Guys, don't feel left out! Another study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav, a neurologist at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, India, found that a 12-week yoga program led to significant improvements in male sexual satisfaction.
The researchers evaluated improvements in desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm.
And get this, a separate study found that yoga can be an effective alternative to Fluoxetine (Prozac) for treating premature ejaculation! The study included 15 yoga poses, including Kapalbhati and the bow pose, ranging from simpler to complex.
Yoga gets you in the zone
But how does yoga improve your sex life, exactly? A review of existing literature led by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, helps us understand some of the sex-enhancing mechanisms.
The review, led by Dr. Lori Brotto, explains that yoga regulates attention and breathing, lowers anxiety and stress, and activates the part of the nervous system that triggers relaxation. These effects are associated with improvements in sexual response.
There are also psychological mechanisms at play. Female yoga practitioners are shown to be less likely to objectify their bodies and more aware of their physical selves, which may increase sexual responsibility and assertiveness.
Moola bandha: Your secret weapon
Now, you might have heard some stories about unleashing your inner energy and moving 'kundalini energy' to induce orgasm-like experiences. While those tales might lack solid scientific evidence, there's another yogic concept that could sway the skeptics: Moola bandha.
"Moola bandha is a perineal contraction that stimulates the pelvic region and enforces relaxation," write the reviewers. It is said to directly affect the gonads and pelvic floor muscles. Some studies suggest that practicing moola bandha may relieve period pain, childbirth pain, and sexual difficulties in women, as well as treat premature ejaculation and control testosterone secretion in men.
Moola bandha is similar to the medically recommended Kegel exercises, which are thought to help prevent urinary incontinence and improve sexual longevity. In fact, many sex therapy centers recommend this yoga practice to help women become more aware of their genital sensations, improving desire and sexual satisfaction.
So, while stories about energy blocks and 'yogasms' might not be backed by solid research, other yogic concepts could make more sense to the skeptics among us.
The evidence is pretty reliable (sort of)
Now, it's easy to get excited about the potential sexual benefits of yoga, but it's worth keeping in mind that the amount of empirical (experimental) evidence out there is relatively small compared to the sea of anecdotal evidence. Nevertheless, more recent studies focusing on women with medical conditions like metabolic syndrome have yielded stronger evidence.
For example, a study focusing on women with metabolic syndrome found significant improvements in arousal and lubrication after a 12-week yoga program. And a study on women with multiple sclerosis found that yoga techniques may improve their physical ability and sexual satisfaction.
In the end, while we need more research to confirm the benefits of yoga for our sex lives, the evidence suggests that incorporating yoga into our routines could prove quite beneficial, and our pelvic muscles will definitely thank us for it!
- The Journal of Sexual Medicine study found that 12 weeks of yoga improved sexual function in 40 women over 45, with 75% reporting an improvement in their sex lives.
- A study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav discovered that a 12-week yoga program led to significant improvements in male sexual satisfaction, affecting desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm.
- Dr. Lori Brotto's review at the University of British Columbia explained that yoga regulates attention and breathing, lowers anxiety and stress, and activates the part of the nervous system that triggers relaxation, which are associated with improvements in sexual response.
