The gym and the bedroom have more in common than you might think.
If you’ve ever felt a tad lusty at the gym—despite the poor lighting and funky smells, of course—you’re not alone. Studies suggest that a man’s testosterone levels often shoot up during a workout, causing them to be more attracted to those around them. So, with each squat or bicep curl, men are producing more of the hormone that revs up their libido.
[post_ads]In a 2012 study of women, researchers found a direct correlation between exercise and the female orgasm. “The most common moves associated with exercise-induced orgasm were abdominal exercises, climbing poles or ropes, biking/spinning and weight lifting,” Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, told Top News. In Herbenick’s study, published in a special issue of the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy, some 40 percent of women had experienced exercise-induced orgasm (without any sexual fantasizing) or exercise-induced sexual pleasure, on more than 10 occasions.
Running and other high-intensity exercises may rev your libido by sending signals to your brain that release beta-endorphins, those mood-elevating brain chemicals, causing increased blood flow throughout your body—including to your private parts.
A boost in sexual appetite may also come from some of our most obvious senses: sight: Watching a man or woman pumping iron and breaking into a sexy, glistening sweat–check! Sound: Hearing a fellow gym-goer working hard, emitting sounds similar to what they would in the bedroom–check! Smell: Research shows that raw body odors elicit romantic feelings or other feelings of attraction–check!
