Enhanced Sexual Performance through Yoga Practice: Insights into Yoga's Positive Impacts on Sexual Health
Rewritten Article:
The internet is brimming with wellness blogs suggesting yoga as a solution for a better sex life, alongside personal accounts claiming its effectiveness. But does the research back these claims? Let's dive in.
In the contemporary scene, yoga's health benefits are being delved into by researchers, revealing its potential positive impacts on various aspects of health, including depression, stress, anxiety, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and thyroid problems.
Recent investigations have also uncovered the intricate mechanisms behind such benefits. It's been discovered that yoga helps lower the body's inflammatory response, counteracts genetic predispositions toward stress, lowers cortisol, and boosts a protein that promotes brain growth and health.
Moreover, it just feels fabulous—and if you believe the buzz around coregasms (yoga-induced orgasms), it can feel incredibly amazing. Connecting with our bodies can be replenishing, restorative, and plain physically pleasurable. But can yoga's delicious poses enhance our sex lives? Let's explore the evidence.
Yoga Enhances Sexual Function in Women
A frequently cited study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine pointed toward a positive correlation between yoga and sexual function, particularly in women over the age of 45.
Over a period of 12 weeks, this study examined the impact of yoga on 40 women who reported on their sexual function before and after sessions. Post the training period, the women's sexual function had significantly improved across all sections of the Female Sexual Function Index: "desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain."
An impressive 75 percent of the women reported enhanced sexual experiences after yoga training. As part of the study, all the participants were trained on 22 poses, including trikonasana (triangle pose), bhujangasana (snake pose), and ardha matsyendra mudra (half spinal twist). The complete list of asanas can be accessed here.
Yoga for Men's Sexual Satisfaction
Men aren't left out. A similar study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav, a neurologist at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, India, explored the effects of a 12-week yoga program on male sexual satisfaction.
At the conclusion of the study period, the participants reported significant improvement in their sexual function, evaluated using the standard Male Sexual Quotient.
Researchers found improvements in all aspects of male sexual satisfaction: "desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, [and] orgasm."
In a trial carried out by the same team, yoga was found to be a viable, non-pharmacological alternative to Prozac for treating premature ejaculation. This study included 15 yoga poses, ranging from easier ones like Kapalbhati to more complex ones like dhanurasana (bow pose).
Yoga's Mechanisms for Enhanced Sexual Health
So, how does yoga improve our sex lives? A review of existing literature led by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) offers some insights.
Dr. Lori Brotto, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at UBC, is the first author of the review. Dr. Brotto and her colleagues explain that yoga regulates attention and breathing, lowers anxiety and stress, and regulates the portion of the nervous system that promotes relaxation.
"All of these effects are associated with improvements in sexual response," write the reviewers, "so it is reasonable to assume that yoga might also be associated with improvements in sexual health."
There are also psychological mechanisms at work. "Female yoga practitioners have been found to be less likely to objectify their bodies," explain Dr. Brotto and her colleagues, "and to be more aware of their physical selves."
"This tendency, in turn, may be associated with increased sexual responsibility and assertiveness, and perhaps sexual desires."
Moola Bandha: A Key Yogic Concept
While tales of releasing blocked energy in root chakras and initiating kundalini energy ascensions culminating in ejaculation-free male orgasms lack robust scientific evidence, other yogic concepts might seem more plausible to the skeptics among us.
Moola bandha is one such concept. "Moola bandha is a perineal contraction that stimulates the sensory-motor and autonomic nervous system in the pelvic region," write Dr. Brotto and her colleagues in their review. "Specifically, moola bandha is thought to directly innervate the gonads and perineal body/cervix."
Practicing moola bandha has been suggested to alleviate period pain, childbirth pain, and sexual difficulties in women, as well as treating premature ejaculation and controlling testosterone secretion in men.
Moola bandha bears resemblance to the modern, medically recommended Kegel exercises, which are thought to prevent urinary incontinence and help both women and men enjoy sex for longer.
In fact, many sex therapy centers recommend this yoga practice to help women become more aware of their sensations of arousal in the genital area, thus improving desire and sexual experience.
Another yoga pose that strengthens the pelvic floor muscles is bhekasana, or the "frog pose." As well as improving the sexual experience, this pose may help ease symptoms of vestibulodynia, vaginal pain, and vaginismus, an involuntary contraction of vaginal muscles that prevents women from enjoying penetrative sex.
The Reliability of the Evidence
While it's easy to get, ahem, excited by the potential sexual benefits of yoga, it's important to remember the substantial divide between the amount of so-called empirical, or experimental, evidence and that of anecdotal evidence available online.
The Internet is flooded with anecdotal stories, but the studies that have trialed the benefits of yoga for sexual function remain relatively scarce.
Moreover, most of the studies mentioned above—which found improvements in sexual satisfaction and function for both men and women—have quite a small sample size and lack a control group.
However, more recent studies—which focused on women who have sexual dysfunction in addition to other conditions—have yielded stronger evidence.
For example, a randomized controlled trial examined the effects of yoga in women with metabolic syndrome, a population with a higher risk of sexual dysfunction overall.
For these women, a 12-week yoga program led to "significant improvement" in arousal and lubrication, whereas such improvements were not seen in the women who did not practice yoga.
Improvements were also found in blood pressure, prompting the researchers to conclude that "yoga may be an effective treatment for sexual dysfunction in women with metabolic syndrome as well as for metabolic risk factors."
Another randomized controlled trial looked at the sexual benefits of yoga for women living with multiple sclerosis (MS). The participants undertook 3 months of yoga training consisting of eight weekly sessions.
Crucially, women in the yoga group "showed improvement in physical ability" and sexual function, "while women in the control group manifested exacerbated symptoms."
"Yoga techniques may improve physical activities and sexual satisfaction function of women with MS," the study paper concluded.
While there's a lot of buzz about "yogasms" and their supposed feasibility, more concrete scientific evidence is needed to establish their reality. Until future research clarifies the situation, we think there's enough reason to incorporate yoga into our daily routines.
Giving it a try could be incredibly rewarding—and our pelvic muscles will definitely thank us for it.
- Yoga, as suggested by numerous wellness blogs, has been observed to potentially enhance sexual function, particularly in women over the age of 45, according to a study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
- The study on women found significant improvement in their sexual function across all sections of the Female Sexual Function Index, with 75 percent reporting enhanced sexual experiences after yoga training.
- Men aren't left out either, as a study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav found improvements in all aspects of male sexual satisfaction after a 12-week yoga program.
- Researchers at the University of British Columbia explain that yoga regulates attention and breathing, lowers anxiety and stress, and regulates the nervous system that promotes relaxation, which are all associated with improvements in sexual response.
- Moola bandha, a yogic concept focusing on a perineal contraction, has been suggested to alleviate period pain, childbirth pain, sexual difficulties in women, and control testosterone secretion in men, bearing resemblance to medically recommended Kegel exercises.
- For women with metabolic syndrome, a 12-week yoga program led to significant improvement in arousal and lubrication, while such improvements were not seen in the control group.
- Another study found that yoga techniques may improve physical activities and sexual satisfaction function of women living with multiple sclerosis, shown through improvements in both physical ability and sexual function.
