NEIGHBORHOOD GYM—Considering the findings of a recent study on a phenomenon called "coregasms," which refers to orgasms experienced by women during intense physical workout, there may be a lot more to the old saying "It's not the size, it's the exercise." According to Live Science, the research has added "qualitative and quantitative data to a field that has been largely unstudied" over the years, despite the fact that women have reported having orgasms that were directly related to physical exercise at least as far back as the early 1950s.
Since those earlier reports by Alfred Kinsey, who found that about 5 percent of women interviewed mentioned orgasms linked to physical exercise, research has been all but nonexistent. The only public information available about exercise-inspired orgasms was found in the media. Over time, the term "coregasm" came into use to describe the apparent connection between these orgasms and exercises that tareget core abdominal muscles.
Now, thanks to researcher Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, and her colleagues, there is statistical data to back up the first-hand accounts. Culled from online surveys taken by 124 women who had experienced such orgasms, and by 246 women who reported exercise-induced sexual pleasure, the researchers found that a full 40 percent from each group reported orgasms on more than 11 different occasions.
"Of the women who had orgasms during exercise," reported the researchers, "about 45 percent said their first experience was linked to abdominal exercises; 19 percent linked to biking/spinning; 9.3 percent linked to climbing poles or ropes; 7 percent reported a connection with weight lifting; 7 percent running; the rest of the experiences included various exercises, such as yoga, swimming, elliptical machines, aerobics and others. Exercise-induced sexual pleasure was linked with more types of exercises than the orgasm phenomenon."
Despite being interesting in its own right, the study raises a lot of questions about the nature and purpose of female orgasms, said the researchers, who posed open-ended questions to the surveyed women that revealed some surprising details.
"For instance," the Live Science article reported, "the abdominal exercises tied to orgasms seemed to be particularly associated with the exercise in which a person supports their weight on their forearms on a so-called captain's chair with padded arm rests and then lifts their knees toward their chest.
"The open-ended questions also revealed the orgasms tended to occur after multiple sets of crunches or some other abdominal exercise rather than after just a couple repetitions; they also seemed to happen after the woman had really exerted herself."
Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 63, with an average age of 30, and most were in a relationship or married, with 69 percent self-identified as heterosexual. At least one of the women was a virgin, said Herbenick, who added, "She really loved that she could have these experiences at the gym."
Many of the women also reported having the experience as children, with some saying they were as young as 7 or 8 when it first happened to them, leading the researchers to speculate as to the connection between orgasm and exercise, which Herbenick said will have to be explored in future studies.
Still, the current study has the researchers pondering the meaning of their findings.
"For one, orgasm and sexual desire have topped women's list of sex concerns, with around one out of four women not reaching orgasm during sex. The researchers suggest 'it may be that physical exercise has been overlooked in clinical approaches to women's orgasm,'" wrote Jeanna Bryner for Live Science. "Second, scientists have long debated the evolutionary context of the female orgasm and its link to sexuality and reproduction. However, if many women are experiencing orgasm during exercises not related to sex, then exercise-induced orgasm may reveal what orgasm does and does not have to do with sex or reproduction, the researchers note."
According to Herbenick, exercise-induced orgasms may also be one of nature's teaching mechanisms, a "way for women to learn more about how their bodies work in that regard."
That sounds good, but considering the fact that "most of the women in the 'orgasm' group said they felt some level of embarrassment when exercising in public places," it will be interesting to see if along with the knowledge and self-awareness that comes from research such as this will also come greater control over when and where these orgasms are allowed to take place.
It's just another unknown in the eternal mystery that is the female orgasm.
