Sex before exercise can boost a male athlete's performance.
Sex before exercise is beneficial for men
In the study from the University of Valladolid, 21 high-level male athletes aged 18 to 25 — competing in sports including basketball, long-distance running and judo — were tested on two separate occasions.
Thirty minutes before one session, the athletes were asked to pleasure themselves. Before the other, they abstained from all sexual activity for seven days.
The results? The men performed better after sexual activity.
Following self-pleasure, athletes were able to exercise 3.2 per cent longer on a stationary bike endurance test and recorded slightly stronger grip strength using a dynamometer.
Researchers also measured testosterone and cortisol levels — hormones linked to performance — and noted small, short-lived spikes after sexual activity.
The team explained: "Masturbation 30 min before exercise elicited mild sympathetic and hormonal activation without detrimental effects on performance or muscle damage.
"These findings suggest that pre–exercise sexual activity does not impair athletic capacity in trained men, challenging the long–standing myth of mandatory abstinence before competition."
The scientists believe sex may act as a kind of "natural warm–up" for the nervous system.
They added in the journal Physiology and Behavior: "Taken together, these findings suggest that a single post–orgasmic episode does not compromise subsequent exercise performance, nor does it increase physiological stress.
"Rather, the data indicate a short–lived shift in neuroendocrine tone and autonomic balance consistent with sympathetic arousal followed by partial parasympathetic rebound."