Enhanced Sexual Performance through Yoga: Insights on its Impact
Yo, let's dive into the wild, wild web and its claims that yoga can turbValues up your ladder life. From personal accounts to wellness blogs, everybody seems to be yakking about the old-school practice boosting their bedroom experiences - sometimes to unbelievable levels. But does the science support these sexy tales? Let's explore.
Nowadays, science is delving deep into the hidden treasures of ancient yoga. From battling stress, anxiety, and depression, to management of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and thyroid issues, the benefits of yoga are stacking up.
Researchers are unpacking the intricate inner workings of yoga, and it's impressive stuff. It turns out that yoga can damp down the body's inflammatory response, quell our genetic predisposition towards stress, slash cortisol, and elevate a protein that helps keep your brain young and fresh. And hey, it just feels straight-up awesome, sometimes even leading to rumors of the legendary coregasm.
Connection with the body can feel refreshing, recharging, and physiologically pleasurable. But can yoga's yummy poses enhance our interactions on the mattress? Let's find out.
Yoga, Turn Up the Heat for Her
A study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine is often cited for its findings on how yoga can supercharge sexual function, particularly in women over the age of 45.
The researchers put 40 women through 12 weeks of yoga, testing their sexual function before and after the sessions. The results? Drumroll please... After the 12-week period, the ladies reported a significant improvement across all sectors of the Female Sexual Function Index: "desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain." Hell yeah!
As many as 75 percent of the women reported an improvement in their sex life post-yoga training. To break it down, the women were trained on 22 poses designed to refine their core abdominal muscles, improve digestion, fortify the pelvic floor, and elevate their mood. Poses such as the triangle pose, the snake, and the half spinal twist made the cut. Click here for the full list.
Yoga, Show Him Who's Boss
Guess what? Yoga isn't just for the ladies. Dr. Vikas Dhikav, a neurologist at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, India, led a study examining the effects of a 12-week yoga program on the sexual satisfaction of men.
By the end of the 12-week journey, the participants reported a notable improvement in their sexual function, as measured by the standard Male Sexual Quotient. The researchers found improvements in all aspects of male sexual satisfaction: "desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, [and] orgasm."
In a side-by-side trial led by the same team, yoga was found to be an effective, drug-free solution for treating premature ejaculation, proving it to be a nonpharmacological alternative to Prozac. The routine consisted of 15 poses, ranging from simple Kapalbhati, to more complex poses like the bow pose.
The Science Behind Better Sex
So, how does yoga transform our sex lives, you ask? Researchers at the University of British Columbia set out to decipher some of the sexy mechanisms behind yoga.
Cue Dr. Lori Brotto, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at UBC. Dr. Brotto and her team explain that yoga regulates attention, manages breathing, and reduces anxiety and stress, all of which are linked to enhanced sexual response.
There are also psychological aspects at play. "Female yoga practitioners have been found to be less likely to objectify their bodies," explain Dr. Brotto and her colleagues, "and more aware of their physical selves." This heightened self-awareness may be associated with increased sexual assertion and responsibility.
The Power of the Moola Bandha
Many may scoff at tales of releasing blocked energy in root chakras or moving kundalini energy up and down the spine to produce non-ejaculatory male orgasms. However, other yogic concepts could grab the cynics' attention. 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, "enforcing parasympathetic activity in the body." Specifically, moola bandha is believed to directly target the gonads and perineal body/cervix.
Research quotes by the doctors suggest that practicing moola bandha relieves period pain, childbirth pain, and sexual difficulties in women, and treats premature ejaculation and controls testosterone secretion in men. [Insert video here incorporating the movement into a pelvic floor muscles practice].
The Reliability of the Evidence
While the potential sexual benefits of yoga may stir excitement, it's crucial to consider the gap between the amount of empirical, or experimental, evidence, and anecdotal evidence. The internet teems with the latter, but the studies investigating yoga's effects on sexual function are scarce. Most studies have small sample sizes and lack a control group. However, more recent studies focusing on women with sexual dysfunction and other conditions offer stronger evidence.
For example, a randomized controlled trial examined the influence of yoga on women with metabolic syndrome, a population with a higher risk of sexual dysfunction. The study found "significant improvement" in arousal and lubrication for the yoga practitioners, as opposed to women who did not practice yoga. Improvement was also noted in blood pressure, leading 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 with multiple sclerosis. The participants followed a 3-month yoga training program, consisting of weekly sessions. Importantly, women in the yoga group showed improvement in their physical ability and sexual function, while women in the control group worsened.
"Yoga techniques may improve physical activities and sexual satisfaction of women with MS," the study concluded.
Even though more scientific evidence is needed to confirm yoga's sexual benefits, the foundation is there. Whether "yogasms" are real or not is still up for debate, but there's enoughReason to give yoga a try in our daily routines. And hey, our pelvic muscles will surely thank us for it.
- Moreover, studies suggest that certain yoga poses, like the triangle pose, the snake, and the half spinal twist, can improve sexual function in women, particularly women over the age of 45.
- Contrary to common belief, yoga benefits men as well. A 12-week study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav showed that a yoga program can improve male sexual satisfaction, with improvements in desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm.
- The science behind the sexual benefits of yoga is rooted in regulating attention, managing breathing, and reducing anxiety and stress, all of which are linked to enhanced sexual response. In addition, practices like Moola Bandha, which stimulate the pelvic region, may directly target the gonads and help with sexual difficulties.
- While more empirical evidence is needed to fully confirm yoga's sexual benefits, recent studies with larger sample sizes and control groups have shown promising results, such as significant improvement in arousal and lubrication for women with metabolic syndrome and improvement in physical ability and sexual function for women with multiple sclerosis.
