Various studies have been carried out to assess the influence of yoga on sexual activity. These are unanimous: yoga improves it, both in women and in men.
The benefits of yoga have been known for a long time. Studies have shown that yoga, a thousand-year-old discipline, has both physical and mental benefits. Its practice would relieve stress and anxiety in a lasting way, limit the symptoms of asthma or even reduce the appearance of cognitive disorders in the elderly.
A study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine has shown that yoga significantly improves sexual practice in women. Forty women reported on their sex lives before and after yoga sessions for twelve weeks. Result: three in four women, including all women over 45, noted an improvement in their sexual activity after workouts.
Yoga is beneficial for the sex life of both women and men
Concerning men, a study conducted by Dr. Vikas Dhikav, neurologist at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi (India), revealed that yoga has so many benefits. After twelve weeks of exercise, researchers found improvements in all aspects of men’s sexual satisfaction: “desire, sexual satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculation control and orgasm.” Additionally, researchers have realized that yoga is an alternative for treating premature ejaculation.
Now that we know that yoga actually improves sexual activity, how? Researcher Dr Brotto and her colleagues at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department at the University of British Columbia (Canada) studied existing research on the subject. It appears that yoga regulates attention, breathing and parasympathetic nervous activity, that is, it activates the part of the nervous system that controls heart rate. Its practice also helps reduce anxiety and stress. “All of these effects are associated with improvements in sexual response,” she explains.
Favor positions that stimulate the pelvic region
Dr Brotto was also interested in Moola bandha, a practice of playing on the muscles of the perineum through different exercises. “Moola bandha is a perineal contraction that stimulates the sensory nervous system and the autonomic nervous system in the pelvic region and, therefore, enhances parasympathetic activity in the body,” writes the researcher.
Concretely, this means that the Moola bandha of yoga makes it possible to decrease the pain during the periods of menstruation, the pain during the childbirth and the sexual difficulties in women, as well as the treatment of the premature ejaculation and the control of the secretion. of testosterone in men.
Listening to your body
Another position, that of bhekasana, the “frog” position, also activates the pelvic region and strengthens the muscles. In addition to improving the sexual experience, this pose can help relieve symptoms of vestibulodynia, or pain in the vestibule of the vagina, as well as vaginismus, which is the involuntary contraction of the vaginal muscles that prevents women from having penetrative sex.
As a result of these exercises, notes Dr. Brotto, “women tend to listen more to their bodies, which tends to increase assertiveness, and possibly sexual desire.”
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