Sex and exercise

[David Gould]

Does exercise prior to sex enhance your experience of it?
Does sex prior to exercise make it the exercise tougher?

I had sex immediately after exercise today and it was really great. I have also heard that coaches of professional sporting teams tell their charges not to have sex prior to a game. Is there any basis for doing this?

[Dingfod]

1. Hadn't noticed. Depends on how hard of a workout.
2. Yes, but only if it immediately preceded the exercise.

Is there any basis for not having sex the night before a game? It would only matter if it interfered with sleep, an all night orgy prior to a game probably wouldn't be a real good idea. And in my experience sex 15 minutes before hitting the field might not be a real good idea either.

[livius drusus]

As far as I know, the no sex before games rule is a leftover of the discredited Victorian notion of "spermatic economy". It's not about a fine performance in the bedroom leading to a paltry one on the field. Athletes aren't supposed to cum before an event no matter what the means, because orgasms will drain a man of vital fluids and leave him listless.

From The Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol357/iss9257/artid/15405) (free registration required):

Nature, so it went, has endowed each male with a limited amount of the precious fluid, some of which is lost with each ejaculation. Regular (but not too frequent) evacuations are compatible with health, and many doctors, especially ardent Protestants, thought that the ideal of enforced celibacy was a Roman Catholic perversion. But too many ejaculations, and especially those of the wrong sort, could set up a vicious cycle, whereby the vital fluid was lost involuntarily, both through nocturnal emissions (a sure sign something bad was up) and a troublesome dribbling away of sperm during waking hours. The nocturnal emissions might begin with the usual erotic sensations, but as the condition took hold, these were often lost, along with restful sleep.

Local irritation of the penis, urethra, or prostate could cause spermatorrhoea, but the main culprit was masturbation, an object of concern from the 18th century for a whole range of authority figures whom the late Alex Comfort once dubbed the anxiety makers. If the 18th century medicalised masturbation, 19th-century doctors had a field day. William Acton's Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs in Youth, Adult Age and Advanced Life (1857) made spermatorrhoea a central feature of disordered male sexual life. Doctors saw it everywhere, especially in their listless, nervous, and pimply patients, rendered perhaps even more anxious by the prospect of its diagnosis via the passage of a bougie in the days before rubber catheters, or its treatment by straight-jackets, genital cauterisation, perinea blisters, or constricting male chastity belts.

Needless to say, the actual disease model of spermatorrhoea has been abandoned in mainstream medicine (although it's still around in various alternative therapies), but the idea that ejaculation results in energy loss lingers on in the wide world of sports.

[seebs]

I have an interesting data point. I was once trying to clear a really tough puzzle in a video game called Landstalker, and I was totally unable to. I had sex, and then cleared it easily.

Landstalker was a combination of about three genres, but this puzzle was in the "carefully timed button presses and jumping puzzles" category. Being more relaxed made me more precise.

[Dingfod]

And in my experience sex 15 minutes before hitting the field might not be a real good idea either.Let me clarify this one. Sex makes me lethargic and sleepy afterward, sex just prior to an athletic endeavor would probably not get my finest performance.

[Shake]

Umm ... what if you're using sex as exercise?!? :wink:

[Dragar]

I've been told sex is a good aid in, for instance, revision. I don't know why, and I don't know if it's true.

As a further note, it probably isn't the best line to hit on someone.

[livius drusus]

What's revision? You mean studying for a test kind of revision or is there some freaky British sport involving double-wide bats and mutant badgers I don't know about?

[ceptimus]

As an experienced revisionist, I think the practise of using widened bats (the correct term is ladal, not bat) spoils the game, and I never heard of badgers being used.

We usually play the standard Cholmonderley rules, though we shorten each passet by 10 minutes to make the play less demanding for beginners. When there is a strong crosswind, we allow the use of the Nugent manoeuvre.

[livius drusus]

Are you trying to turn me on?

[Dragar]

What's revision? You mean studying for a test kind of revision or is there some freaky British sport involving double-wide bats and mutant badgers I don't know about?

The 'studying for a test kind'. No, I'd never heard of it until I started university, but apparently it's quite popular.

Then again, after reading ceptimus' post, perhaps I have been preparing for my exams all wrong...

[Sweetie]

Does exercise prior to sex enhance your experience of it?
Does sex prior to exercise make it the exercise tougher?

If you want clinical data I have none, but from my experience sex before exercise well, I probably wouldn't get around to exercising. I don't know, maybe after-glow, maybe some hormone that makes one relax and then there's well, what if indeed you did get enough exercise during. :P

Now exercise before, that's different. I'm in shape right now so exercise doesn't generally tire me out, not unless it's excessive so after exercising I feel good. Feel charged, energetic, blood pumping, powerful, etc. There's probably some adrenaline in your system already when you start then so that might enhance the experience or maybe it's just the energy that you would bring to the table :D that could enhance it, make it all the more, shall we say, worthwhile? :suave:

[Brimshack]

If you people don't stop talking about actually having sex I am going to explode in a fit of jealousy.

:glare:

Assholes!

[livius drusus]

If you ... don't stop ... having sex I am going to explode in a ... Asshole...!

Kinky.

[Brimshack]

Lotta good it does me.

[Blake]

I have an interesting data point. I was once trying to clear a really tough puzzle in a video game called Landstalker, and I was totally unable to. I had sex, and then cleared it easily.

Landstalker was a combination of about three genres, but this puzzle was in the "carefully timed button presses and jumping puzzles" category. Being more relaxed made me more precise.
That just reminded me of a time in college when I went to an audition right after having sex. Aced it, got the part.