Sex-ercise: Performing just 3 minutes of strenuous workouts can make you horny, study finds
A new study suggests that men who exercise vigorously for just a few minutes are more likely to feel aroused than those who don’t exercise.
German researchers found that men who took a three-minute strength test responded much better to sexual stimuli in the form of sexual photos after they had made an effort.
They claim that just a few minutes of stress on the body in the form of exercise is enough to kick-start the sympathetic nervous system that controls the body’s response to arousal, such as increases in blood pressure and heart rate.
The men in the study who were asked to exert more energy in three minutes showed higher heart rates and faster pupil dilation when presented with sexual images than people who exercised very little energy, suggesting that the after-effects of exercising made a person more easily excited.
A new study suggests that men who exercise vigorously for just a few minutes are more likely to feel aroused than those who don’t exercise
Experts from the University of Siegen and the University of Trier in Germany wanted to determine the extent to which exercise affects a man’s ability to become aroused.
Their findings suggest that increased physical responses to exercise, such as increased heart rate and respiration, lend themselves to an even greater physical response to sexual stimuli.
The study included 45 healthy male college students who were not underweight or obese, had no psychiatric or underlying illnesses, and were not heavy smokers or drug users.
At the start of the experiment, the men were attached to equipment that would measure their baseline heart rate, blood pressure and other physiological responses.
The men in the study had to perform a grip strength test by holding on to a test device as hard as they could, followed by a 10-minute rest period to record their stress, arousal and anxiety levels on a scale.
The study participants were randomly assigned to two groups, the control group, which would expend very little energy, and the “stress” or exercise group. According to the study, the latter had to grip the measuring device at 45 percent of their maximum grip strength and hold the same pressure for three minutes.
Sexual arousal triggers several physiological responses, including increased heart rate, faster breathing and pupil dilation, all of which the German experts measured in their 45 male subjects
The control group, meanwhile, gripped the test device with only 10 percent of their maximum grip, which is considered very weak pressure, followed by a seven-minute rest period.
The men were shown pictures of violence, sports activities, sex, everyday social situations and natural landscapes. An eye-tracking device was used to measure each subject’s eye blink reflex.
The experts behind the study also measured skin conductance, or the skin’s electrical properties. When meeting certain external stimuli, the skin temporarily becomes a better conductor of electricity.
Excitement often causes sweating, and sweat is rich in electrolytes such as sodium and potassium which, when mixed with water, conduct electricity.
The group of men who exercised more energy saw more drastic heart rate changes and greater skin conductance when presented with sexually explicit images than those who expended very little energy.
The study’s authors wrote, “Taken together, our findings provide strong evidence for enhancement of sexual processing by acute exposure to stress in men and suggest differential involvement of parasympathetic versus sympathetic mechanisms.”
Elevated heart rate and clammy skin are hallmarks of arousal controlled by the facet of the nervous system that handles involuntary bodily processes, including blood pressure and digestion.
Their findings were published in the journal 11 Jun 2023 12Psychophysiology.
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