Orgasm is typically considered to be a sexual experience. However orgasms occurring during physical exercise have been occasionally documented.
According to researchers Debby Herbenick, and J. Dennis Fortenberry, M.D. both from Indiana University, Some women reach orgasm during exercise especially those that involve the core abdominal muscles they wrote in the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy.
Debby Herbenick, and J. Dennis Fortenberry added that Exercises most likely to be associated with female orgasms are abdominal exercises, weight lifting, spinning/biking, and climbing poles or ropes.
Herbenick, and Fortenberry carried out online surveys which included 124 adult females who said they had had an orgasm while exercising known as EIO (exercise-induced orgasm) and another 246 who reported having experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure (EISP).
They were aged form 18 to 63 years and majority of them were either married or in a relationship. Approximately 69% of them said they were heterosexual.
The authors also noted that nobody is sure what mechanisms are involved during exercise to induce an orgasm or sexual pleasure and that Future studies are need on the subject.
The highlights of the research show that:
- Approximately 40% of those who had experienced an orgasm or sexual pleasure during exercise had done so at least ten times
- Those who reached orgasm while exercising said they felt self-conscious when exercising in public places.
- About 20% of those who experienced orgasm while they exercised said they were not able to control their experience
- The majority of those who reached orgasm during exercise said they were not having any sexual fantasy or thinking about an attractive person during their experience
- In the EIO group, 51.4% said they reached orgasm in connection with abdominal exercises they had done during the previous ninety days
- 26.5% of those in the EIO group linked their experience to weight lifting
- 20% of the EIO women associated their experience to yoga
- 15.8% of the EIO females linked their experience to bicycling
- 13.2% of the EIO women connected their experience to hiking/running
- The most likely abdominal exercise to produce a female orgasm was the “captain’s chair”. The exerciser rests her elbows on padded arm rests with her back against a support, her legs hang free and she raises her knees upwards towards her chest several times.
- Finally most women in each group reported feeling happy about their experience often or almost every time it occurred.
Herbenick, and Fortenberry said and I quote,
“This study has several strengths. Our survey was anonymous and Internet-based,
Which may have allowed for greater ease in reporting on sensitive topics. Additionally,
The survey was relatively brief, taking approximately 5–10 minutes to complete. The survey topic was also unique and provided an opportunity for women to share information about an experience that they had perhaps never or only rarely talked about with others”.
“We believe our data challenges existing approaches to orgasm as the outcome of an inherently sexual production and that findings from this study may provide insights or opportunities for women to better understand their experiences with exercise as well as orgasm.”
Reference: Debby Herbenick & J. Dennis Fortenberry (2011): Exercise-induced orgasm and Pleasure among women, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 26:4, 373-388
