Monthly Topic #20: Sexercise!

The more in shape you are. the better sex will feel. So, if you can't get no satisfaction, it's time to get going on some sexercises. Learn to bend and stretch and you may even see stars!

~Image Source: The Canadian Daily~

Passionate sex is an athletic act, and for prolonged bouts of it, you need a well-maintained lurve machine. Strong, toned muscles, flexibility and good circulation mean heightened sexual performance and pleasure. So get to work at working out - it's worth it!

All-round fitness raises your self-esteem, making you feel sexier, and increasing your stamina - in bed and out of it. Studies show more people who exercise "are easily aroused and feel younger". Exercise can banish stress, depression and anxiety, which all conspire to defeat sexual enjoyment.

Aerobic exercise improves circulation, and so more blood flows to your extremities, increasing sexual responsiveness. The greater efficiency of respiratory and cardio-vascular systems meant more staying power in bed.

Take your pick: swimming, dancing, aerobics, walking, netball. Any activity that makes you sweat increases your lung capacity and cardiovascular response - and it works thigh, butt, back and abdominal muscles, all of which comes in handy in the sack!

Weight training gives you the strength to enjoy the more demanding sexual positions. A toned body also leads to greater confidence and less physical inhibition in the bedroom. Don't shirk those squats, leg raises and crunches. Opt for machines and classes that work your lower half. If not weights, try stair climbing, rowing machines or horse riding. Stretching and yoga increase flexibility, allowing more gymnastic sex positions. Plus, yoga teaches breath control, which can be used to heighten sexual pleasure.

6 Sexercises for sure-fire success

There are exercises that boost sexual readiness, stamina and response. Some, such as Kegel exercises, are well known and widely practised, while others are more obscure. Here are 6 of the best:

1. Kegel Exercise Strengthening the small muscle on your pelvic floor known as the pubococcygeal (PC) muscle brings many sexual rewards. Kegel exercises, developed about 60 years ago as an aid to bladder control, were found to lead to more - and more intense - orgasms in some of Dr Kegel's female patients.

Subsequent research has suggested that girls with stronger PC muscles may find it easier to achieve G-spot orgasms. One study found that by contracting the PC at 15-minute intervals while fantasizing, women got more aroused - even if they were new at the exercise.

Kegel exercises involve tightening, holding and relaxing the PC muscle. Locate this muscle by interrupting your urine flow. Test its strength by inserting a finger or vibrator into your vagina and gripping it: if your grip's strong, so is your PC muscle. Once you've found it, developing it is relatively easy - it just takes practice.

Start with five repetitions, tightening your PC muscle (gripping a finger may help). Hold for three seconds each time, relaxing the PC muscle fully between repetition. Repeat this sequence, working youy way up to 10 sets of five per day. In a few months, you'll be able to flex your PC muscles during sex to intensify arousal and orgasms for both you and your husbands.

2. Butt Clenches Almost as effective as PC-muscle contractions are isometric exercises. Do-anywhere butt clenches are simple: just contract your gluteal (bum) muscles strongly, hold for three to five seconds, then relax. Repeat six to 12 times throughout the day.

This exercise tones your buttocks and "lits" your butt. Having strong butt muscles makes more strenuous sex positions possible, and some gals attest that if you clench and relax your globes rhythmically during sex, it leads to bigger and better Os.

3. Chinese Exercises In China, sexual exercise is nothing new. The Taoist concept of getting yin from yang, familiar in ancient Oriental sex manuals, involves women "retaining their own sexual energy while gaining healing energy from their partner". At the heart of the technique is orgasm control, which is supposedly why Taoist queen and sex goddess Xi Wang Mu was reputed to look younger as she grew older.

Li Exercise 1: The Li-starting position is standing upright, with your legs about 30cm apart and knees slightly bent. You must try to contract your anal and vaginal muscles simultaneously, hold for five seconds, and then release. Now repeat this 10 times.

Li Exercise 2 & 3: From the starting position, tighten your abdominal muscles, buttocks and the front of your thighs, then while these muscles are contracted, rotate your hips in a clockwise direction. Repeat 10 times, then relax the muscles. Before you repeat the sequence, this time rotating hips anti-clockwise, do five repetitions of Li Exercise 1.

Li Exercise 4 & 5: From the starting position, bend your right leg, slowly raising your knee to your chest, and then lower it again equally slowly. Repeat 10 times. As in the execise above, before you repeat the sequence using the opposite leg, do five repetitions of Li Exercise 1.

Li Exercise 6 & 7: From the starting position, raise your left leg slowly, sideways from the hip to a 90-degree angle, and then lower it slowly to the floor again. Repeat 10 times. Before you repeat the sequence on the opposite leg, yes, you know it: do five repetitions of Li Exercise 1.

Tang Exercise: Lie on your back, arms at your sides, knees bent and feet flat on the floor - about 30cm apart. Use your thighs, hamstrings and buttocks to lift your hips slowly off the ground, raising them as far as you can. Hold for five seconds, then lower your hips to the starting position. Repeat 20 - 50 times depending on your fitness level.

4. Inner-Thigh Exercise Sometimes sex feels better when your legs are wide apart, or stretching over your head - but you need to be flexible to enjoy these positions. Inner-thigh exercise helps by loosening up the hip joints and stretching the inner thighs.

Lie on your back, knees drawn up, and keeping the soles of your feet together on the floor, let the knees fall outward. Stay in this position, relaxing and breathing in a slow, even fashion, for one to three minutes.

For a seated variation, sit upright with the soles of your feet pressed together, knees falling outward. Gently use your elbows to push knees further towards the floor. For maximum sensual benefits, do some hip adductor and abductor exercises at the gym, and add lateral leg raises to tone and strengthen the thighs.

5. Double leg raises Strictly for girls with great abs, double leg raises are worth working up to even if it takes a year or two. You have to master 100-plus ab crunches (or equivalent a day) to make this rapid-arousal exercise possible. If you're already that fit, here's a way to get very horny, very fast.

Lie back on your elbows and keeping your legs straight, slowly raise them till they're about 30cm off the floor. Then lower slowly till they almost touch the ground before raising them slowly again.

(A note of caution: stop the exercise midway and relax if your abdominals feel strained or sore - you don't want to pull a muscle or give yourself a hernia.)

As you continue, you will start to feel aroused as blood flows into the pelvic region. Some girls report being brought to the brink of orgasm after a minute or so of this exercise - with no other stimulation. Want a quick thrill? Just perform a few double raises and you'll be halfway there before you know it.

6. Tantric breathing Tantric and yoga practitioners, along with Eastern sex gurus, believe breath creates a sexual-to-spiritual connection and intensifies arousal. Here's a simple Tantric breathing exercise to encourage a sense of oneness with your man.

Start by matching your breathing pattern to your partner's as you lie side-by-side, curled into one another. More formalised synchronised breathing is a great prelude to sex. It's a tad New Agey but simple and surprisingly effective.

Look into each other's eyes and place a hand on each other's chest, over the heart, then breathe in and out, slowly and rhythmically, concentrating on doing it in unison. A minute or so of this and you've established a "breath connection", and set the tone for intimate, sensuous, soulful sex.