Couples Who Work Out Together Have WAY Better Sex

You know you should exercise — there are myriad health benefits that should encourage you to workout regularly. But perhaps the one that will finally convince you to get off the couch and get your butt in gear is the benefit to S-E-X.

Improving your cardiovascular health and lowering your cholesterol with regular exercise improves blood flow to your genitals — which is exactly what happens when you get turned on. So, more blood flow means getting in the mood faster, heightened sensitivity and possibly even stronger erections for him.

But those aren’t the only reasons to hit the gym.

For one thing, more stamina means more energy for hot and heavy marathon sessions — wheezing after a minute on top isn’t exactly sexy. For another, many people find that when they’re in better shape, their orgasms are stronger and easier to attain. And over the long-term, exercise boosts your sex hormone levels.

Plus, working out just makes you feel more confident about your body, which tends to translate to hotter sex — as opposed to employing the same old position every time because it doesn’t make you jiggle.

Then there’s the more immediate impact of exercise: If you jump each other’s bones right after a bike ride or a run, you’ll have a jump-start on the foreplay, since the increased blood flow, increased heart rate and change in breathing from a work-out mimic the increased blood flow and heart rate and change in breathing due to sex. Plus, you probably associate each other’s sweaty bodies with really intense sex anyway — so let those associations flow!

A revved-up body just gets aroused more easily — and often lubricates more, too. Also, testosterone levels rise in the half hour after a workout, which also boosts your sex drive. (All of which might explain the tales we’ve heard of partners who like to do naked push-ups or jumping jacks in front of each other to get in the mood, or of women who get turned on dancing around their bedrooms.)

So either get fit together, or — if you don’t want to be one of those cutesy couples “spotting” each other in the weights room — just warn your other half to be ready and willing when you get home from the gym.

If you’ve worked out together, you can segue into sex play with some contact stretching: Press the soles of your feet against each other’s, then hold each other’s hands and slowly rock back and forth. Next, one of you lies back while the other uses their body to slowly press against the back of their partner’s legs, gently pressing each leg closer to their torso. Finally, help each other do side stretches, like a naughty personal trainer.

In addition to acting as foreplay, all this stretching will make you more limber, so you don’t pull anything in bed — especially important if you’re attempting any of the “fancy” positions like The Wheelbarrow.

On a final note, while there are many, many reasons to hit the gym (or the bike, or the yoga mat…) on a regular basis, we would be remiss in our duties as sex advisors if we didn’t tell you about how to occasionally short-cut your way to all this revved-up good loving.

It turns out that anything that triggers your fight-or-flight mechanism will cause your body to mimic a sexual response and turn up the heat in the bedroom immediately afterward: a pillow fight, riding a roller coaster, even watching an intense action flick.

So don’t ever complain that good sex is all work and no play.