Want a Greater Sex? Get in the gym! Why? There are so many reasons why it will help. Don’t believe it? In that case, read this for 10 great reasons to get in the gym.

Studies have linked the way people feel about their own body image to their sexual satisfaction. Think of how you view yourself.

How do you feel about your body image, naked or clothed?

Do you like your weight?

Do you pick yourself apart?

Are you physically and mentally healthy?

If you’re fit, chances are greater that you already have a great sex life. I may not need to explain to you any further why fit people have better sex, but I bet you’re curious. However, if you resolve to get fit in the near future, let me give you 10 more reasons to plow down the door of the gym each day with a smile on your face.

#1 Fit Bodies Attract Mates

Let’s be honest: If you already work out, you probably have a gym crush on that ripped guy or fit chick you see killing it day in and day out at the gym. They’re the reason you think up extra stuff to do in the weight room. You just want to stay longer and once in a while glare using the handy mirrored walls. I bet your gym crush probably has a really fit bod!

Joseph Drumm, D.O., Psychiatrist and Medical Director (2016) states, “Many people will feel more attracted to a partner who is of fit appearance and persona. This is likely related to an intrinsic desire to seek out a mate who is more likely to provide healthy, robust and strong progeny. Like most passions, this drive is unconsciously ascribed to us, and also incredibly powerful.”

If you have been looking for love, start by bettering your physique through exercise. You never know, you may be the fit person that someone is staying longer at the gym to see, and your chances of landing dates and scoring in the bedroom will skyrocket!

#2 Physical Activity Releases Sex Hormones

That good feeling is a product of chemical reactions that are occurring in your body caused by dopamine, the feel-good chemical. Your body releases dopamine to tell it when it likes something. This could range from certain foods to sex or anything in between.

Regular exercise boosts your dopamine levels. The dopamine benefits your body in many ways. One way is by suppressing your appetite. This keeps your body image healthy and it’s linked to orgasms. Superior orgasms keep both parties sexually interested and active.

#3 You Love Your Body. You’re Confident

If you’ve ever made a successful fitness journey, whether it’s going from scrawny to brawny or from chunky to slim, you likely noticed that people treated and responded to you differently. It’s almost maddening. At the same time, you feel empowered, and you love your body when you are at the pinnacle of your fitness journey. What happens next is that confidence bleeds from your pores.

Guess what?

That’s attractive.

Drumm (2016) states, “Persons who are physically fit generally have higher self-esteem and improved body image–both enhancing a person’s confidence about engaging in sex and elevating how he/she feels about ‘self’ in the process.”

When you feel comfortable enough to flip the lights on in the bedroom before sex, you can bet that the whole experience is about to be enhanced.

Get fit.

Get naked.

And, feel comfortable in your own skin!

#4 Exercise Gives You More Energy (For Later)

“Skinny, slim women got the camel toe within them. You can hump them, lift them, bend them, give them something to remember. Yell out timber when you fall through the chop shop.” I didn’t write the lyrics.

OutKast did!

That’s a short piece from their song, “The Way You Move.”

The lyrics make a point, though. If you are fit, your cardiovascular health, energy levels, and flexibility are going to be on point. That brings benefits in the bedroom. The described male seems to have moves that require strength and stamina. If you happen to be the skinny, bendable girl, well you get something to remember since you can be easily manipulated (and now I’m turning beet red).

On the other hand, according to a piece on WebMD by Deb Levine, “people who are out of shape are often less motivated to have sex. They tend to tire more easily, and have a lower sex drive and less stamina than folks who work out.”

Strength and energy are both musts for exceptional sex, especially if you want to have similar sexual experiences as OutKast describes.

Become a regular gym-goer!

#5 Your Body Won’t Give Out When Things Get Heavy

Body failures can truly ruin the moment. Imagine being in the heat of the moment. Things are getting good. Then, a muscle spasm (instead of an orgasm) occurs.

Moment killer!

For everyone!

Let’s face it: Moves like a senior and moves like Jagger are not in the same category.

What’s the solution?

You guessed it: Exercise.

Exercise is good for your overall health. It keeps your muscles conditioned and your joint’s health intact. If you can perform pushing and pulling exercises, abs exercises, squats, and deadlifts that require real work from your body, sex shouldn’t be an issue. Think of your hour-long gym training as an insurance policy for performance in the bedroom.

#6 Improve Sensitivity And Responsiveness

Drumm (2016) states, “The benefits of engaging in regular exercise, with regard to quality of sex and sense of well-being, are numerous. Routine moderate to intensive exercise improves sensitivity and responsiveness of the autonomic nervous system, which is directly involved in sexual arousal, performance and also plays a significant role in regulating mood and anxiety.”

Ladies, you can’t lose here. Exercise puts you in a better mood by releasing endorphins. You’re in a good mood. You leave the gym feeling good about your body. The exercise primed your body for sexual activity, and you go home to your fit man. Because your man is fit, exercise improves his sexual functioning and gives him better orgasms. I don’t even need to say what happens next, but this fit couple is happy.

Exercise provides additional sensitivity and responsiveness, sexually speaking, for those who routinely work out. The moral of the story is that fit couples work and play well together, and because of the improved sensitivity and responsiveness, both parties enjoy sex tenfold.

#7 Both Sexes Experience An Increase In Testosterone

Men and women who experience low testosterone have lower sex drive. This also leads to less pleasurable sex. Thankfully, exercise can be the best testosterone booster and thus be part of the cure.

After exercise of any type, testosterone levels rise in both men and women, and testosterone fuels your sex drive. The only catch is that you have to be consistent in the gym. You can’t go once per week for a boost on the day you need it.

What type of training is best?

Metcalf (2015) interviewed Todd Schroeder, PhD, who studies exercise and hormones at the University of Southern California. Schroeder states, “Lifting weights or doing other strength-training workouts has a bigger effect on your testosterone.” Schroeder also suggests these tips while training:

• Use more muscles.
• How?
• Do full-body workouts.
• Why?
• They affect testosterone more than doing stuff like biceps curls.
• Lift heavier weights rather than doing high reps of lighter weights.
• Keep rest periods short during your workout.

#8 Avoid Developing Sexual Dysfunction, Both Men And Women

Men, have you ever heard the phrase, “Use it or lose it?” Well, it’s true where sex is concerned. According to David Freeman (WebMD, 2010), men who have sexual intercourse less than once per week were more likely to develop erectile dysfunction. If you’re not using it, you may be losing it – or at least your ability to use it.

When you feel better about yourself, you’re more likely to be willing and able to partake in sex, which is a healthy practice. That means you have to be fit enough. Making the gym a normal routine can help sex to become a normal routine.

It should be no anomaly why many women lose interest in their sex lives and become sexually dysfunctional. A woman’s prime is in her late teens to early 20s. She has children, gains weight, loses body confidence, find excuses to not exercise and doesn’t want to partake in sex due to all of these combined factors. Then, just like men, when they stop becoming stimulated, the body assumes it no longer needs sex and shuts off the hormones. Sex life destroyed.

There’s a fix. According to Lorenz et al in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, “Exercise increases genital arousal in healthy women, likely due to increasing sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity.” The SNS is one part of the autonomic nervous system that regulates body function including heart rate and arousal.

Exercise and arousal function together because any type of exercise that gets your heart rate up helps improve blood flow to all areas of the body. This includes all the right parts of your body for sexual stimulation.

As you can see, getting fit can fix all of these problems. Fitness restores the body in the gym by renewing body image and confidence. It also renews sex drive in the bedroom.

As well, it could be a relationship saver because you’re back to working the sex muscle!

#9 Your Heart Must Be Healthy For Sexual Activity

When it comes to the horizontal mambo, spending 20 to 30 minutes per day, four or five days per week on cardiovascular exercise may make all the difference in the world.

Heart health is pertinent for sexual activity. Those who don’t have a healthy heart usually suffer from decreased sexual activity and function.

How do we keep our hearts healthy?

Cardio! “Cardiac rehabilitation and regular exercise can be useful to reduce the risk of cardiovascular complications with sexual activity for patients with CVD,” or cardiovascular disease according to Levine et al. in Circulation, 2012.

If you’re thinking, “I’m young. I don’t need to worry about CVD,” I’m here to tell you that taking care of your body through exercise now could help prevent problems in the future. Those who exercise regularly keep their bodies strong and functioning well on all levels.

If you want to have a great sex life today and far into the future, meaning in your 50s, 60s and even 70s, the time to take care of your body is now. Your exercise habits now will be reflected in your future health or lack thereof.

#10 No Stress

A woman’s libido can be controlled by the stressors in her life more than a man’s, but her lack of libido directly impacts you. If you want your woman to put out, she needs to be stress-free. Otherwise, she is going to be thinking about all the to-dos for the next day of work or her essay for her class or the kids or the sick family member, and the list goes on. Women are natural worriers.

The best, proven stress reducer or eliminator is gym time. Endorphins come back into play, except this time, the feel-good chemical tells you to relax and that all the things you’ve been stressing about can be handled – no problem!

When stress goes away, a woman can refocus on sex. It becomes a priority once again instead of being pushed to the end of the to-do list, and it’s all because she was able to hit the gym.

Men, when your woman looks stressed, tell her you’ll handle things while she gets some gym time. Both kind suggestions will land you some alone time later.

Conclusion

At any age, we all want to have a thrilling sex life. Working out provides our bodies with the strength, stamina and flexibility to enable those wants. It also keeps your body looking and feeling young and attractive. That provides more chances to get in the game. All of these factors lead to a better sex life. So, if you’re not in the gym daily, it’s time to become a regular.

Your sex life depends on it!

By Sarah Chadwell, CPT