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14.07.2020
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You've probably heard about how professional athletes completely give up sex when preparing for important competitions. But can having sex really negatively affect the effectiveness of your workouts? And is it really impossible to have sex before or after physical activity, even if you really want to?
You've probably heard about how professional athletes completely give up sex when preparing for important competitions. But can having sex really negatively affect the effectiveness of your workouts? And is it really impossible to have sex before or after physical activity, even if you really want to?
Let's figure out what happens to the body during sex and whether it is necessary to refuse it before or after sports.
Dependence of zinc content in the body on sex
A whole host of different substances are involved in the growth of muscle mass, from vitamins to many elements, zinc is no exception. During the process of orgasm, in addition to the release of sperm, there is also a “release” of zinc from the body, which is something like a part of the building material both for sperm and for the development of new muscles. Thus, sex in “frequent doses” can lead to zinc deficiency.
A decrease in zinc levels in the body can lead to the development of infertility. In addition, it has a serious effect on the level of testosterone in the body.
To replenish lost reserves, it is necessary to include foods rich in zinc in your diet. These include:
- liver;
- nuts: pine, cashew, pecan;
- shellfish and oysters;
- some cereals, in particular wheat grains.
Poses and exercises: points of intersection
Sport has a beneficial effect on sexual activity. There are studies that suggest that exercise for:
- pelvis in women improves sexual function, relieves pain during sexual intercourse;
- male perineum help improve ejaculation when diagnosed
What is impotence in men and how to treat it? erectile disfunction.
Urologist at the medical ]"ON Clinic Nikolaev"[/anchor] Andrey Lisov notes:
“Training male intimate muscles (imbuilding) can help reduce congestion in the pelvic organs, as well as strengthen sexual potency and enhance erection. However, such training should be done only after a urological examination and on the recommendation of a doctor.”
During sex, all muscle groups of the shoulders, back, arms and legs are used. With the help of sex, you can improve the tone of any muscle. For example, to pump up your biceps, use poses where the emphasis is on your arms, and your abs - lying on your back. However, certain muscle groups can only be pumped up in the gym with the help of strength exercises (training with a fitball, dumbbells or barbell).
Gynecologist at the medical ]"ON Clinic Kharkov"[/anchor] Elena Ermolina says:
“There is no list of safe, universal positions that can suit everyone and train specific parts of the body during sexual activity. Sex, like sports, is individual for each person. What suits one person may not suit the other sexual partner. It is better not to use sex as a sports exercise, so as not to injure yourself and your partner. In this case, you are unlikely to have an instructor standing behind you.”
Sex should be comfortable and convenient for both partners. As for me, the process is already healing and pumping muscles. It makes no sense to focus on specific poses, and studying the Kama Sutra in pursuit of a sporting effect can lead to injuries to the genitals, upper and lower extremities.
The relationship between testosterone levels and sex
Having replenished your zinc level, you should turn your attention to the testosterone content in the body. An increase in its level is most often associated with the frequency of sex; accordingly, the more often, the higher the level. High testosterone levels have a great effect on muscle growth.
Thus, while enjoying a successful personal life, you also help your muscles “gain mass” faster.
Myth 3. Sex improves immunity and cures insomnia
Is it true . The benefits of regular sex life have long been proven: during sex, a person not only gets rid of stress and tension, but also gains a good mood, strengthens the immune system and trains the cardiovascular and nervous systems. The idea of preventative sex has captivated Western doctors so much that in Britain, in one of the administrative districts, the local branch of the Ministry of Health distributed official leaflets calling for sex more often and for longer.
But here we should not confuse soft with wet. Regular sex life means contact with a regular partner. Indiscriminate “prevention” with the first people you meet carries much more risks than benefits.
How much energy do you spend on sex?
No matter how much of a Casanova you fancy yourself to be, human energy is a limited supply. Immediately after sex, a hormone called oxytocin is released in the body, which makes you feel “that” feeling of relaxation and slight fatigue. The effect of the hormone, naturally, is short-lived, however, during the period of its effect, visiting gyms is a highly recommended activity.
You will have to wait about 3-4 hours until the hormone levels in the body are restored, and only after that go to the gym with your “former prowess”. Otherwise, throughout the entire session you will feel extra fatigue, which will have a strong effect on the quality of your workout.
Remove obsession
Mental masturbation is also a type of sexual activity. Our brain is biological. For him, fantasies about sex are a stimulus for the production of dopamine in huge quantities. Yes, instead of a gram of dopamine (relatively speaking), you get 0.5 grams. But against the background of these values, the gym, work and other activities will become uninteresting from the point of view of dopamine. Correct abstinence is de-eroticization of the psyche. This is a reduction in sexual tension and distribution of the resulting energy to less important, from a biological point of view, but more important from the point of view of logic and common sense, matters.
Physics is physics, but the soul needs to calm down: concentration and sex
A factor that many people neglect is concentration, in other words, composure. Excessive involvement in your sex life takes up too much of your attention, distracting you from your workout. You should remember the good old phrase: “war is war, but lunch is on schedule.” This saying means that when visiting the gym, your thoughts should be focused strictly on the correct and high-quality execution of the exercise, and not on dreams of the sweet life.
An excellent motivator for this is one of the reasons why you decided to increase muscle mass: to become more beautiful, slimmer, and, accordingly, have great success with the opposite sex.
Testosterone or dopamine?
According to scientific research, testosterone levels drop immediately after a “discharge” and are restored on days 2–3 of abstinence. On the 7th day of abstinence, the level of the main male hormone reaches 145% of the presexual level. After 7 days, testosterone gradually returns to its original level and after 14 days reaches the initial value. At this level the indicators stabilize. That is, from the point of view of testosterone, limiting sexual contacts is useful. But only within 5-10 days, when the lack of sexual activity boosts the level of the main male hormone.
If we consider abstinence only as a way to increase testosterone, we will never understand the phenomenon of legendary boxers, fighters, scientists and other outstanding personalities who practiced and promoted sexual abstinence. The scientific world is “undermining” abstinence from the side of testosterone, while not only the test turns a boy into a strong-willed man with impressive muscle mass. The point is the so-called hormones of happiness, one of which is dopamine (or dopamine - correctly, both). Dopamine is a hormone that stimulates you to perform actions that are beneficial to our species. Since reproduction is the main biological goal of a person, we get the most “happiness hormones” from sex. The higher the sexual activity of a man or woman, the more fulfilled he considers himself. On the one hand, this is good and comfortable, but on the other hand, it is very bad. If you are realized in everything, what is the point of striving for something else?
It is in the creation of internal dissatisfaction, the release of energy by limiting sexual activity, that lies the phenomenon of all the great people who practiced or are practicing abstinence. A person stops receiving huge doses of dopamine from sex, which provokes a feeling of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. Energy that was previously spent on sex is released. There are two options here:
1. Find dopamine in sex. If you are an avid virgin jerker, stop masturbating and after 2-3 weeks your personality will change. Your biological essence will defeat the jerker and begin to seek dopamine (sex) from the opposite sex. Can't talk to a girl? “Turn off” sexuality for 1–4 weeks. After this period, things in your personal life will improve noticeably.
2. Find dopamine in other things. Even if you begin to abstain in order to change your right hand to a girl, internal dissatisfaction will push you towards physical and spiritual self-development.
Since we're talking about muscle growth and muscle building here, let's talk about the practical effects of abstinence on muscle gain:
1. Muscle tone improves. The muscles become firmer and fuller. Venousness increases. The amount of fat decreases due to a decrease in prolactin levels.
2. The “I’m rushing” effect appears during training. Laziness turns off. Instincts say, “You’re screwed, you haven’t realized your potential. Fuck it or you’ll die without achieving anything.” Let's say you received 1 gram (relatively speaking!) of dopamine from sex. From training in the gym - 0.1 grams. After 2-3 weeks of abstinence, the body will partially compensate for the loss of the main source of the happiness hormone by increasing the production of dopamine in response to training and increasing the sensitivity of dopamine receptors. From training you get not 0.1 grams of “substance”, but 0.3. Moreover, these 0.3 grams feel like 0.5. The workout is 5 times better than before abstinence! 3. A sharp leap in masculinity. “Oh, my muscle is clogged, a burning sensation has appeared, I need to finish the approach, otherwise the creatine-protein bond of the 7 fibers of the triceps will not withstand” - the reaction of a typical jerk to muscle pain during training. “Why the hell are you hurting? I do 3 more reps and “don’t care” – after 2-3 weeks of abstinence. The athlete learns to overcome pain. Learns to overcome your weaknesses and perform the last repetitions, which, according to the same Schwarzenegger, are decisive in muscle growth. Your masculine qualities are growing before your eyes. And this is reflected in success in the gym.
4. Recovery is faster, supercompensation is greater. The body does not spend energy on the main biological goal (prolongation of the family), due to which the realization in other areas of life is rapidly growing.
The sensations from abstinence training can be compared to training on a course of anabolic steroids. Sexual activity varies
And the harm from different types of “sex” also varies. The hormonal response to different forms of sexual activity varies greatly. Let's take a closer look.
Athlete Performance
Much less research has been done on the issue of tone and mental concentration, which is one of the most important factors for success in strength sports. This aspect was studied through long-term research, the results of which were published in the Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, Volume 4, January 12, 2001. During testing, the performance of several runners was assessed. The basis was data on their sexual activity two days before the training. Tests showed that the frequency of sexual intercourse did not affect the performance of athletes.
Emmanuele A. Jannini, a famous Italian scientist, stated in his article that the opinion about the influence of sexual activity on recovery and athletic performance is erroneous. Based on the research, the scientist concluded that sex, on the contrary, can even improve the performance of athletes.
Doctors' recommendations
After analyzing the sports behavior of many athletes, doctors came to the following conclusions:
- If the next day after sex the athlete does not feel tired or decrease in training productivity, then you can have sex as much as you want. But otherwise, the frequency of sexual intercourse should be reduced to 2 times a week.
- The duration of sleep after sex should be at least 8-10 hours.
- It is not recommended to have sex immediately before exercise, as in some cases this causes a temporary increase in prolactin levels in the blood.
- It is not recommended to have sex before competitions, for athletes under 30 years old for 3 days, for athletes over 30 years old for seven days, since testosterone levels reach their maximum during this period. After 3 days for athletes under 30 and 7 days for athletes over 30, testosterone levels decrease noticeably.
- After training, you can have sex without restrictions.
Conclusion
There is no clear answer to whether it is worth abstaining before the fight: there are adequate arguments both “For” and “Against”. And the opinions of professional athletes also vary.
Therefore, it is best to focus on your feelings in this matter and not go to extremes. It’s hardly worth limiting yourself for several weeks, but before a fight you shouldn’t organize a “marathon” for the whole night either. And during daily long-term training, you can also try to reduce the frequency of contacts (for example, to once every 1-7 days), and see if this gives results.
