I'm delighted to introduce, Lisa Redding's guest blog on how yoga can improve your sex life...
There
are many reasons to practise yoga, and many short and long-term
benefits. They include better general fitness, improved mental focus,
increased energy levels and decreased stress along with a myriad of
other mental, physical and social benefits. Did you know that yoga can
also improve your sex life?
It
is not a common reason to begin practising yoga, but many people find
it is a welcome, if surprising, extra benefit. Many people find that
practising yoga leads to an increase in their sex drive and in better
sex. People can find that they have better orgasms and more emotional
closeness during sex. Couples who have been having problems with their
sex life can find that yoga helps them rekindle their old desires. There
is even evidence that yoga can help men who have been having problems
with premature ejaculation.
Connections
There
are some fairly obvious superficial parallels between yoga and sex.
Both are activities that involve physical, mental and sometimes
spiritual effort together. Yoga’s ability to help improve the mind and
body in various ways should, by reason, also help improve someone’s sex
life. There is, however, more to it than that. Studies have found some
very specific connections between practising yoga and improving one’s
sex life.
Physical Effects
Yoga
improves general health, and so it is likely to improve general sexual
function. Benefits of yoga can include improvements in the
cardiovascular system and better muscle tone, which tend to just make
our bodies work better in general. Better blood flow through the body
can lead to more intense orgasms and can help men maintain better
erections. Being more flexible can mean being able to try out more
sexual positions. Being stronger can mean you can cope better with the
physical demands of sex, and have sex for longer. Practising yoga
regularly can often mean you have more energy in general, and of course,
that can be useful during sex.
Certain
yoga poses can have quite specific physical effects, especially the
Mula Bandha, or root lock. This acts in a similar way to pelvic floor
exercises to strengthen the muscles around the pelvis and genitals,
making them stronger. In women in particular, that can help lead to
explosive orgasms.
Mental and Emotional Effects
Yoga’s
physical effects, such as having improved orgasms, are also linked to
the mental and emotional effects – as you would expect, given that the
connection between mind and body is so fundamental to yoga practice. On a
quite basic level, yoga tends to led to increased body confidence,
which can lead to increased sexual confidence. Practising yoga also
helps people focus on intimacy when they are having sex. This is where
yoga links to tantra,
although that does not mean that practising yoga means you will have
tantric sex (although it could be a good place to start). However,
practising yoga means that you tend to be better able to clear the mind
of chatter and negative thoughts, and focus better on the connection
between you. When the mind and the body are fully relaxed, sex tends to
be more intense and emotional.
Yoga has also been shown to help men with premature ejaculation. One study compared
the effectiveness of yoga with the drug fluoxetine (Prozac -
anti-depressants are often prescribed for premature ejaculation) on men
who suffered from premature ejaculation, and found it to be more
effective. The men in the study practised a number of yoga poses for
three months, and were found to have general improvements in their sex
lives as well as being able to delay orgasm. It seems that yoga can help
people have a healthy sex life in
both general, and quite specific, ways. Some people might find that
their sex life improves as a side-effect of yoga, but yoga can sometimes
be used as a treatment for sexual problems.
While
you should see plenty of benefits to your sex life from practising yoga
separately, practising yoga together could become, like sex, part of
your life together as a couple. Some yoga poses need two people to work
together to help each other, and doing that together can help build
trust in each other. Yoga should not be seen just as a tool for having
better sex, but as part of a holistic approach to improving your lives,
both individually and together. Though naturally, better sex can be a
very enjoyable part of that!
