Does Running Lead to Better Sexy Time?

You heard me.

And I think it's safe to say that yes, yes it might.

I stumbled across an article on Yahoo that talked about what men and women find most attractive in each other upon first meeting (I know, I know...I just wanted to affirm that my decision to grow my hair long despite its inherent annoyances would pay off in the end, right?).

What I didn't expect to find was a reference to a 2007 study in the American Journal of Cardiology titled "Heart Rate and Blood Pressure Response in Adult Men and Women During Exercise and Sexual Activity."

Yeah. It's a mouthful.

Basically, the researchers gave a treadmill stress test to participants, both men and women, and monitored their heart rate and blood pressure. They then also monitored their heart rate and blood pressure during sexual activity (using noninvasive, take home, monitoring devices) to compare the difference.

They found that sexual activity provides moderate physical stress, which, sure is interesting, but not as interesting as other findings.

First, researchers found that age correlated inversely with duration of sexual activity (and treadmill exercise, but that's less interesting). Basically, that means that your sexy time decreases by 1 minute for every year as you age.

Second, and here's what prompted this blog post, researchers found that the duration of treadmill exercise predicted sexual activity duration. In other words the longer, a.k.a. farther, you run, the longer your sexy time.

Just remember THAT next time your plodding through your miles at the gym.

Specifically, the study found that there was a 2 . 3-minute increase in sexy time duration for every minute of treadmill exercise. The researchers didn't cross check their findings with pace or mileage, just time spent on the treadmill. So suddenly I'm okay with my 11-minute mile if it means I spend more time on the run.

My question now is, where should I focus my Pace Booty attention? On the back-of-the-pack half marathoners? Or those dudes who finished the Icebreaker Marathon in a little over 2 hours?

In the Discussion section of the study, the researchers do explain that they encouraged participants to give "maximal treadmill exertion," which I take to mean "go as hard and fast and long as you can." During the treadmill exercise, they noticed that once participants reached a moderate level of physical stress, they "continued and intensified the exertion." In other words, they pushed it.

As as a result, researchers found that "At maximum treadmill exertion, virtually every measured variable exceeded the corresponding peak sexual activity variable."

I take that to mean the longer you run equals more sexy time, but ALSO the harder you run means more sexy time. At which point I leave you to go flirt with the men lined up in the 7-minute mile marathon pace group...

____________________________________________________________ Current Couch Potato | Aspiring Runner
Mandi recently completed her first marathon! Her next goal is running a full half marathon (no walking!) by her next birthday (May 13, 2012).


Follow her journey.
____________________________________________________________