Aerobic exercise is meant to work best for weight loss. Many would say that running is best for the purpose, and this opinion is well-grounded. However, we need to admit: there may be another way to get fit, equally as effective and joyful. It’s called sex.
Sex can increase running stamina and effectively improve your running routine, if not make you happier and healthier on daily basis. We gathered the proof that sex is the “night shifter” of running, and for your good, you need to know how to make the two work for your benefit.
Your body during running and sex
If you listen carefully to your movements, you will learn that running and sex engage similar body parts. They both make your breath deeply, move fast and steady and push your body’s capability to the limit. You could get the same traumas from both activities, and active training in both bring satisfaction of a kind.
Anatomically, some similarities stand out.
The obvious conclusion is that you can see the similar positive influence of both onto your body. Curiously enough, doing any (or better both) activities you will become more endurant and slim, and here’s why.
The battle for weight loss
Alas, it is not a yes or no question. It is scientifically proven that calories burned per hour running shall depend on your speed, intensity, terrain, height, and weight. Same is true for sex.
Any continuous form of exercise burns on an average 5 calories for every liter of oxygen consumed. This extensive Harvard study shows the approximate number of 298 calories per 30 min of running 5mph if you weigh 150 pounds. The more you weigh or the more you run the more calories you burn.
Sexwise, it is even more complicated. As long as you are standing or sitting up and moving actively, gravity is taken into account. The more muscles you have, the more energy you need to get them movin’. Foreplay adds to the calories burn, too.
Ah, and the magical part: orgasms. On average, the process of attaining an orgasm can burn off between 60 to 100 calories, according to one source. Another claims just 3 calories are used.
45-minute missionary marathon equals running for about 7.7 kilometers (4.8 miles) at a moderate pace, states this scientific review.
Some studies have been carried out, like one in Montreal, with couples ages 25 and under, who spent 25 minutes having sex, o average. Men burnt about 101 calories, or 4.1 a minute and women burnt approx 69 calories, or 3.1 a minute.
We did an extensive study and scraped together the sexual positions that are meant to be calorie-killers for both partners and a decent form of aerobic exercise. These will work extensively with the same muscle groups as your jogging routines. Sweet, right?
Count them!
Confusing as it is, you can account for approximate calories burned with sex and running calculators. Accept the challenge: experiment with the combinations and try to match your latest run with a sex marathon.
Step 1. Count the calories burnt during your latest run with a running calculator.
Step 2. Figure out the calorie-burn during your usual sexual routine with a sex calculator.
Step 3. Experiment! Compare your sexual marathons to the ones on the running track and try living up to your standards.
Hormone study
Surprise-surprise: there is more to weight loss than burning fat.
Our organism is like a symphony played according to the hormonal notes. So when you find that something in your body “sounds out of key”, it probably means that your hormones went askew. Likewise, you can tune your body in to become happier or healthier hitting the proper hormonal chords.
Running and sex both have a rich gamma of hormones, and you can engage in a pleasant jam session to boost the right ones. Take a look at what’s on your body’s sheet music.
Social sex or running social: which is better for your private life?
I bet you have a question: can running increase sex drive? Wakefield research suggests that couples that run together have more sex. The survey proved that as the same brain chemicals triggered by love and arousal, the aforementioned activities get associated with each other.
Even more, an American research suggests that running boosts your confidence about the sexuality of your body. Consequently, the quality of sexual life for both partners increases.
If you haven’t got a sexual partner, and Tinder is just not your cup of tea, start with finding a running pal. You can get almost the same cocktail of hormones by running alongside a plausible person.
Important note! Check these rules before you commit to a running pal-ship:
- Mind your expectations. Do you both want to jog once in a while, or get ready for an ultramarathon? You won’t be disappointed if you draw the baseline early.
- Evaluate your fitness level soberly. Neither of you two will want to tie the other down or get very bored running a few extra miles.
- Match your schedules. Early birds may find it hard to make a circle around the evening park with a late owl. Narrow your search circle to people with the same bioclock.
Now when you know who you got to find, you can dig into searching for a partner.
Start with running clubs in social media
By far, the easiest way to find a suitable running pal, if you are not lucky enough to just stumble upon a matching runner on an actual running course.
Browse specific run-pal websites
Of course, you are not the only person who would gladly run alongside a decent person! Here is a selection of resources:
There’s an app for it, too
We live in a charming age of mobility, so don’t hesitate to get an app, that gets you a running pal on the go: DashR - running “Tinder”.
Sign up for the running/road race
You don’t need to be a stunning professional to try out a road race. At the same time, you are almost guaranteed to finish with a person who at least shares your interests, and if you are lucky, your running schedule.
Sex up your running schedule
Why account for sex in my running schedule?
- Sex is the enemy if you are an endurance athlete. Rocking your partner’s world in bed should wait till you celebrate your victory in that long competition: sex lowers testosterone levels when you need it sky-high.
- Technically, you could improve sports performance and physical strength by avoiding sex altogether. Abstaining for several weeks might be just the thing you craved.
- Funny enough, often it's not an intercourse itself that hinders athlete’s performance - it’s the night of looking to get lucky.
- Do not get carried away with the tendency, though. Having sex on the night before a big workout is okay as long as it is not the marathon you have been preparing for the year before.
By the by, marathon runners and triathletes tolerate active sexual life much better than boxers and other people involved in aggressive sports. Hormones are responsible for this way of things: endurance athletes are used to getting their testosterone level combated by cortisol and estrogen that get released during the long-distance runs.
So what?
It’s pretty clear that sex can burn as many calories as running but for that, you would need to have inhuman endurance. It’s bad news for the lazy rabbits. But for us runners it’s not a secret that the hard, exhausting training frequently yields a runner's high. Bind your running with the social life, and science promises: your sex experiences will improve.
Double the joy. Combine your casual runs with sex-marathons for the best result. Although, if you are going to an actual competition asking for all the stamina, save your next fantasy till couple days after.
