Guest post by RunRepeat
Want to spice up your sex life? Add running to the recipe.
Yes, you heard that right.
You don’t always need a pill or psychiatrist to solve your sexual woes. Sometimes, a healthy habit like running is all you need. Running is normally considered a means to achieve weight loss goals but it can be equally effective for people looking for more excitement and satisfaction in bed.
Let’s see exactly how this works:
It Gets You In the Mood
Depression and negativity can mess up with many things and your sex drive is one of that. You can hardly be in the mood when you are persistently down and don’t feel like doing anything.
Can running help? You bet it can!
Running can have an antidepressant effect on your mood. It produces endocannabinoids and stimulates the pleasure receptors in your brain.
It is good for your energy levels too. Research has shown that running helps people who are constantly feeling tired for no reasons. You will feel much better for it, and the newfound energy will surely help in bed.
It Boosts Your Confidence & Creates a Positive Body Image
Poor body image or lack of confidence can ruin your sex life.
Body image is how you think and feel about your physical appearance. If you are not happy with the looks, it will show in your interaction. You will keep getting distracted and disengaged during social and sexual encounters because you are not feeling confident.
Luckily, a simple exercise like running can improve your body image and boost confidence. Other than improving your mental state during sexual activities, this will help you get the partner of your dream.
Another thing that shatters the confidence is the sexual performance anxiety in men. This is when you worry too much about your performance in bed. Running can help you with this anxiety because it relaxes the activity in frontal cortex cognition function and you, in turn, will feel more relaxed.
It Fights Against Sexual Dysfunction
Sexual dysfunction tends to be caused by some health conditions like diabetes or cardiovascular disease. When your body is not 100% fit, sex is usually the last thing on your mind.
Running has a number of benefits for your mental and physical health and that will contribute towards your sexual health as well.
High cholesterol level and lack of physical activity is the leading cause of cardiovascular diseases. This is why American heart association recommends at least 150 minutes of physical activity in a week. It will keep your blood pressure in check. Plus, a regular running routine will control your cholesterol level.
Coming to diabetes, running can help you reduce haemoglobin A1C values. You can get even better results by combining running with weight training. Even for diabetic patients, running can help regulate blood sugar level so you will not develop complications related to diabetes, which includes sexual dysfunction.
Sexual Benefits For Men
Running can help you become more masculine. The testosterone level plays a huge role in the development of masculine characteristics like height, muscles, bones, deep voice, facial and body hair.
The normal testosterone level is also responsible for sex drive, healthy sperm, and fertility in men. In simple words, your testosterone level decides how masculine you are. The level starts to drop in the early 30s but running can boost free testosterone levels and also improve the sperm count and fertility in men.
Another benefit of running is that it improves your sleeping habit, which will improve your testosterone quality because inadequate sleep can hamper testosterone production.
Another factor that contributes to poor testosterone level is obesity. Needless to say, running can keep obesity at bay.
Running can also protect you against erectile problems. This study indicates that exercise improves erectile function in people affected by vascular ED.
It is worth mentioning that too much cardio can actually result in the decline of testosterone levels. So you need to mix the running habit with some weight lifting exercises.
Sexual Benefits For Women
You might think that running is all about building muscles and stamina but it’s not just that. Research shows that running or exercise can lead to sexual arousal in women.
There’s a study by researchers in the University of Texas that found sexual benefits for women in exercise, including sexual arousal, positive mood, and body image. The study monitored sexual arousal in women after 20 minutes on cycle and found that peak arousal was between 15 to 30 minutes after exercise.
Not to forget that running can actually improve your looks. You will lose excess fat, get in shape, improve your posture, and complexion due to better blood flow.
Better blood flow also means increased sensitivity and lubrication in the genitals!
Couples Who Run Together, Have More Fun Together
Brooks running conducted a survey and 66% participants said that couples who run together actually have sex more often. This is not surprising when we know that running can improve testosterone levels in men and sexual arousal in women. Here’s more evidence running together will improve the sex drive and sexual performance in partners.
It can also improve emotional bonding and help both partners achieve their fitness goals.
So, these are just some ways running can improve your sex life. Remember that pushing yourself too hard, running very long distances, or too much cardio can be counterproductive. Moderation is the key and you must do some weight training as well to get the best of both worlds.
