Physical Practice of Yoga for Enhanced Sexual Performance: Insights Revealed
The web is buzzing with health blogs swearing by yoga for a better bodacious love life, and personal tales of the ancient practice enhancing their bedroom experiences - rather impressively. But does science back this up? Let's get to the bottom of it.
Modern research is slowly uncovering the myriad health benefits hidden within yoga's ancestral roots. Stress relief, reduced anxiety, improved metabolic health, combating depression, and even thyroid issues - yoga seems to have it all covered.
Recent studies have drilled down into the nuts and bolts of these benefits. It turns out that yoga reduces inflammation, counters genetic anomalies predisposing people to stress, lowers cortisol, and gives a boost to the brain-friendly protein, BDNF.
But what about the bedroom benefits? Can yoga's tantalizing poses truly transform your sex life? Let's take a look.
Yoga: A sex life savior for women
A study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that yoga can indeed boost a woman's sexual function, particularly those over 45. The experiment involved 40 participants who practiced 22 poses for 12 weeks, self-reporting their sexual function before and after the sessions.
Following the 12-week stretch, the participants saw significant improvements in their sexual function across the board, according to the Female Sexual Function Index: "desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain." An astounding 75% reported an improvement in their bedroom escapades post-yoga!
Men, don't feel left out
Men, too, can reap the benefits. A similar study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav, a neurologist at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, India, gauged the sexual satisfaction of men after a 12-week yoga program.
After the study period ended, the participants reported significant improvements in their sexual function, as measured by the standard Male Sexual Function Index. Improvements were seen across all aspects: "desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm."
The researchers behind another trial discovered that yoga is an effective, pharmacological-free alternative to Prozac for treating premature ejaculation. This trial included 15 yoga poses, ranging from simple (Kapalbhati) to complex (dhanurasana, or the "bow pose").
How does yoga stoke the bedroom fire?
But why, exactly, does yoga heat up your love life? A review of existing literature, led by researchers at the University of British Columbia, sheds some light on this secret sauce.
Researchers at UBC explain that yoga regulates attention, breathing, lowers anxiety and stress, and controls your body's "rest and digest" responses. These effects, in turn, improve sexual function.
There are also psychological factors at play. Female yogis have been found to be less likely to objectify their bodies and more in tune with their physical selves. This heightened body awareness can, in turn, lead to increased sexual responsibility, assertiveness, and desires.
Embrace the moola bandha 💃
While tales of unblocking energy in root chakras and moving "kundalini energy" up and down the spine may lack scientific backing, other yogic concepts make more sense. Moola bandha, for instance.
Moola bandha is a pelvic contraction that tinkers with the nervous system in the pelvic region and stimulates relaxation. This relaxation, in turn, can ease 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 modern, medically recommended Kegel exercises, thought to prevent urinary incontinence and extend your playtime in the bedroom. Many sex therapy centers even recommend this yoga practice to help women connect with their sensations of arousal, boosting desire and sexual satisfaction.
Another yoga pose worth mentioning is the bhekasana, or "frog pose." Beyond spicing up your love life, this pose may ease symptoms of vestibulodynia (vaginal pain) and vaginismus (involuntary contraction of the vaginal muscles), enabling more comfortable and enjoyable sex.
So, just how reliable is the evidence?
While the prospect of "yogasms" has us all ahem excited, it's essential to keep in mind the chasm between piles of anecdotal evidence and empirical, or experimental, evidence. The web is overflowing with anecdotes, but studies examining the effects of yoga on sexual function remain scarce, often with small sample sizes and no control group.
However, more recent studies focusing on women with conditions tied to sexual dysfunction have produced more solid evidence. For example, a randomized controlled trial for women with metabolic syndrome showed "significant improvement" in arousal and lubrication for yogis, but none for the non-yoga group.
Another randomized controlled trial looked at the sexual benefits of yoga for women with multiple sclerosis. The results? Women in the yoga group showed improvements in physical ability and sexual function, while those in the control group worsened.
"Yoga techniques may improve physical activities and sexual satisfaction for women with MS," concluded the study.
So, while we await more robust scientific evidence, the seeds are definitely there. Until future research determines whether "yogasms" are a real, achievable thing, we suggest giving yoga a spin - and our pelvic muscles will undoubtedly thank us for it!
- The web is abuzz with health blogs championing yoga for a more satisfying love life, citing personal testimonies of enhanced bedroom experiences.
- Modern research sheds light on the numerous health benefits embedded in yoga's ancestral practices, including stress relief, lowered anxiety, improved metabolic health, depression management, and even thyroid issue resolution.
- Studies have discovered that yoga reduces inflammation, averts genetic predispositions to stress, and lowers cortisol, while increasing brain-friendly protein BDNF.
- A study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine revealed that yoga enhances sexual function for women over 45, particularly in desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain.
- Men, too, can benefit as a study showed improved sexual function after a 12-week yoga program, with gains in desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm.
- Another trial demonstrated that yoga serves as a pharmacological-free treatment for premature ejaculation, with benefits seen from simple poses like Kapalbhati to complex ones like dhanurasana.
- Yoga improves sexual health by regulating attention, breathing, lowering anxiety and stress, and modifying the body's "rest and digest" responses.
- Yoga poses like Moola bandha, which stimulates relaxation in the pelvic region, and the frog pose (bhekasana), which may ease vaginal pain and involuntary vaginal muscle contractions, can contribute to a more comfortable and enjoyable sexual experience.
