Enhancing Sexual Health Through Yoga: Insights into Its Advantages
The web is teeming with wellness blogs suggesting yoga as the secret to an enjoyable sex life. Personal experiences frequently report improved sexual encounters - and sometimes, even mind-blowing ones. But does the science back these claims? Let's dive in and find out.
Modern research is gradually uncovering the myriad benefits of the ancient practice of yoga. Its reported benefits range from helping with depression, stress, anxiety, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and thyroid problems, to name a few.
Recent studies have delved deeper into the intricate mechanisms behind these benefits. It turns out that yoga helps lower the body's inflammatory response, counters stress-predisposing genetic expression, lowers cortisol, and boosts a protein that keeps the brain young and healthy.On top of all that brain boosting, it feels dang good - some even claim to experience the mythical coregasm during yoga (yup, it's just as amazing as it sounds).
Touching base with our bodies can feel refreshing, rejuvenating, and physically pleasurable. But can yoga's yummy poses actually make us better in the bedroom? We investigate.
Yoga enhances sexual function in women
A prominent study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that yes, yoga can indeed improve sexual function - particularly in women over 45. The study looked at the effects of 12 weeks of yoga on 40 women who rated their sexual function before and after the sessions.
After the 12-week period, the women's sexual function significantly improved across all sections of the Female Sexual Function Index: "desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain." In fact, as many as 75% of the women reported an improvement in their sex life after yoga training. The women were taught 22 positions, or yogasanas, believed to improve core abdominal strength, improve digestion, strengthen the pelvic floor, and boost mood. Some poses included trikonasana (a.k.a. the triangle pose), bhujangasana (the snake), and ardha matsyendra mudra (half spinal twist). You can find the full list of asanas right here.
Yoga empowers sexual function in men
Men don't miss out either. An analogous study led by Dr. Vikas Dhikav, a neurologist at the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, India, examined the effects of a 12-week yoga program on the sexual satisfaction of men. At the end of the study period, the participants reported a significant improvement in their sexual function, as evaluated by the standard Male Sexual Quotient. The researchers found improvements across all aspects of male sexual satisfaction: "desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, [and] orgasm."
Interestingly, a comparative trial carried out by the same team of researchers found that yoga is a viable and nonpharmacological alternative to fluoxetine (brand name Prozac) for treating premature ejaculation. The trial included 15 yoga poses, ranging from easier ones (like Kapalbhati, which involves sitting with your back straight in a crossed-legged position, with the chest open, eyes closed, hands on knees, and abdominal muscles contracted) to more complex ones (like dhanurasana, or the "bow pose").
The yoga secrets to better sex
So, how does yoga improve our sex life exactly? A review of existing literature led by researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, sheds some light on these sex-enhancing mechanisms. Dr. Lori Brotto, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at UBC, is the first author of the review.
Dr. Brotto and colleagues explain that yoga regulates attention and breathing, lowers anxiety and stress, and regulates - that is, it activates the part of the nervous system that tells your body to pause, loosen up, rest, digest, lower the heart rate, and triggers any other metabolic processes that induce relaxation. "All of these effects are associated with improvements in sexual response," write the reviewers, so it is "reasonable that yoga might also be associated with improvements in sexual health."
There are also psychological mechanisms at play. "Female practitioners of yoga have been found to be less likely to objectify their bodies," explain Dr. Brotto and her colleagues, "and to be more aware of their physical selves." "This tendency, in turn, may be associated with increased sexual responsibility and assertiveness, and perhaps sexual desires."
One concept that might make sense to the skeptics among us is Moola Bandha. "Moola Bandha is a perineal contraction that stimulates the sensory-motor and the autonomic nervous system in the pelvic region, and therefore enforces parasympathetic activity in the body," write Dr. Brotto and her colleagues in their review. "Specifically, moola bandha is thought to directly innervate the gonads and perineal body/cervix." The video below incorporates the movement into a practice for pelvic floor muscles.
Some studies quoted by the researchers have suggested that practicing moola bandha alleviates period pain, childbirth pain, and sexual difficulties in women, as well as treating premature ejaculation and controlling testosterone secretion in men.
Moola Bandha is similar to the modern, medically recommended pelvic floor exercises (Kegels), which are thought to prevent urinary incontinence and help women (and men) enjoy sex for longer. In fact, many sex therapy centers recommend this yoga practice to help women become more aware of their sensations of arousal in the genital area, thus improving desire and sexual experience.
Another yoga pose that strengthens the pelvic floor muscles is bhekasana, or the "frog pose." This pose may help ease symptoms of vestibulodynia, or pain in the vestibule of the vagina, as well as vaginismus, which is the involuntary contraction of vaginal muscles that prevents women from enjoying penetrative sex.
How reliable is the evidence?
While it's easy to get carried away by the potential sexual benefits of yoga, it's worth keeping in mind the large discrepancy between the amount of empirical, or experimental, evidence, and that of non-empirical, or anecdotal, evidence. The Internet hosts a tsunami of the latter, but the studies that have actually trialed the benefits of yoga for sexual function remain scarce.
Most of the studies mentioned above - which found improvements in sexual satisfaction and function for both men and women - have a relatively small sample size and didn't benefit from a control group. However, more recent studies - which focused on women who have sexual dysfunction in addition to other conditions - have yielded stronger evidence.
For example, a randomized controlled trial examined the effects of yoga in women with metabolic syndrome, a population with a higher risk of sexual dysfunction overall. For these women, a 12-week yoga program led to "significant improvement" in arousal and lubrication, whereas such improvements were not seen in the women who did not practice yoga. Additionally, improvements were also found in blood pressure, prompting the researchers to conclude that "yoga may be an effective treatment for sexual dysfunction in women with metabolic syndrome as well as for metabolic risk factors."
Another randomized controlled trial looked at the sexual benefits of yoga for women living with multiple sclerosis (MS). The participants undertook 3 months of yoga training, consisting of eight weekly sessions. Importantly, women in the yoga group "showed improvement in physical ability" and sexual function, "while women in the control group manifested exacerbated symptoms." "Yoga techniques may improve physical activities and sexual satisfaction function of women with MS," the study paper concluded.
So, while we need more scientific evidence to support yoga's benefits for our love lives, the seeds are definitely there. Until future research can ascertain whether "yogasms" are a real, achievable thing, we think that there's enough reason to give yoga a shot. And our pelvic muscles will definitely thank us for it.
- Yoga's impact on sexual health is not limited to women over 45; recent studies indicate that it can also enhance sexual function in men, with significant improvements observed in their sexual satisfaction.
- A review of existing literature points to several mechanisms by which yoga improves sexual health. These include regulating attention and breathing, lowering anxiety and stress, and activating the part of the nervous system that triggers relaxation, all of which are associated with improvements in sexual response.
- Moola Bandha, a yogic practice that involves a perineal contraction, is particularly significant in this context. It is thought to directly innervate the gonads and perineal body/cervix, potentially alleviating period pain, childbirth pain, sexual difficulties, and premature ejaculation.
