No need to feel guilty watching Wimbledon, your exercise can come later. “20 minutes of moderate sex burns about 93 calories – about as much as a couple of sets of doubles tennis.”
Illustration by Tahra Morton
Does sexual activity count towards the Governmental recommendations of 30-50 minutes of exercise 3 to 5 times a week?
I’ve been asked many questions on the topic of health and fitness over my 15 years in the profession and occasionally one or two stray into the realms of “very personal physical fitness”.
Like any exercise, sex can increase respiratory rates, strengthen muscles, boost cardiovascular activity and improve cholesterol levels. It is also known as a mood enhancing and significant distressing activity. In fact, sex can be an excellent all round healthy physical activity. It’s no London marathon (hopefully there aren’t finishing lines and water stations involved – but if there are then who am I to judge?!), but sex may be more of a physical workout than we once thought.
Dr. Jay Lee, a Calgary-based urologist, following research into sexual medicine for men, women and couples, says: “We now say that for men, the energy expended during sex equates to a game of golf — carrying your own clubs of course.” A woman’s energy expenditure during sex is, apparently, more variable and the workout potential can range anywhere from of a round of crazy-golf, to a challenging 18-hole course with hills, to that of sitting at the 19th hole with a glass of iced tea. Some calorie-expenditure charts say that for the average 145-pound Canadian woman (apologies if you know any and are visualising them now!), 20 minutes of moderate sex burns about 93 calories — more than a 20-minute stroll or leisurely cycle and about as much as a couple of sets of doubles tennis.
Of course, sex differs from most body-contact sports in that the use of special clothing and equipment is purely optional.
Daily Mail report by Feb 2009 Anna Magee:
Only last month, researchers at Nottingham University concluded that men who kept up a regular sex life in their 50s were also at lower risk of developing prostate cancer.
From the Help the Aged website:
Sex is exercise too, though it depends what we do and for how long. Energetic sex can support cardiovascular fitness and muscular flexibility. Verdict: Limited as a form of exercise but highly recommended; people with a healthy sex life do appear to have a health advantage.
Times article by Suzi Godson, August 2006:
Physical exertion triggers the release of the sympathetic hormones epinephrine (adrenalin) and beta-endorphins. These are chemicals which if available on the open market would certainly be Class A, yet they are free, legal and completely natural. Previously research suggested that exercise had to involve a significant rise in heart rate over a sustained period to be of benefit. In other words, you had to be puffed out and shattered afterwards. However, researchers from the University of Bristol conducted a ten-year study of 2,400 men from Caerphilly, South Wales, and found that men having three or four orgasms a week halved their risk of having a serious heart attack or stroke.
In a rather beautiful piece of evolutionary symmetry, it turns out that normal, run-of-the-mill, might-not-last-very-long sex actually counts as exercise.
Other articles by Erica illustrated by Tahra:
Shaking the House; Healthy Chocolate?; British Summer Time; A Heart is for Life, Not Just for Valentine’s Day.
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