Maintaining muscle mass while having sex
July 17, 2009 by Shaun
Filed under The Fitness Bug
In my early training years (Late teens) i was still quite a free spirit. You know…no wife, no kids, student life style (still no wife and kid yet) no responsibilities, so i was quite able to put loads of hours into working out at the gym. A year or so after this time i got into quite a serious relationship and like most couples, we had sex.
For most men building muscle, they are always thinking of ways to maintain that muscle. Usually by purposely doing less cardio work. But when a man is in a sexually healthy relationship, the thought of having less sex to maintain ‘bulk’ is near impossible to carry out.
For quite a few years i had always thought and believed that having lots of sex would hinder my muscle building techniques, as i definitely felt a decrease in muscle mass when ever i had an active sexual relationship. But there was a reason for this and my initial thought processes behind the cause were actually wrong.
That thing called testosterone
Now testosterone is one of the biggest muscle-building hormones out there. It is partially what’s responsible for allowing muscles to gain so much more weight than females.
Testosterone is also one of the main sex hormones as well, thus, when you are physically turned on, your testosterone levels will be higher.
Therefore, having an active sex life can actually enhance the testosterone release in the body and work with your workouts to help you gain more muscle mass.
One thing to note though is immediately after sex, testosterone release does tend to drop, therefore having sex right before a workout isn’t the best idea.
I work out for me…only me
People do generally stereotype guys who go to the gym as ‘you do it just to impress the ladies’. For many that generalisation is probably correct, but who can blame them. Positive attention from increased sex appeal will boost confidence levels and this is definitely going to create a positive impact on your ability to build muscle.
I’m so stressed…i need to chill
Finally, the last thing to think about is how sex will affect your stress levels. For most people, sex is a very good release of pent up stress, therefore engaging in it often is a great way to get a control over this.
Also, if you don’t already know it, stress has a very, VERY negative effect on your ability to build muscle because it releases a high amount of a hormone called cortisol into the body, which is catabolic in nature.
Catabolic hormones will work to break down muscle tissue rather than building it up, so trying to do whatever you can to minimize them is essential to your bodybuilding progress.
So, as you can see, regular sex is good for building muscle. The one thing to keep in mind is that you should try and have a couple hours between your bed session and your gym session, just so you can regain your energy back and normalize your testosterone levels.
Some guys are energized by sex and if this is you, that may not be an issue. But for most other people, a short break in between is a smart idea.
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Link to this page
That’s actually pretty interesting, because i always saw steroids as a cheat to increase testosterone levels in the body.
So then finding better ways (natural ways) to do that would be great….besides, sex has gotta be better than sticking a needle in your arms right?
Easy,
Wayne
LOL. well, i never believed in taking steroids, only meal replacements or possibly supplements, so i guess you can use the above instead of sticking needles into yourself. One can be fine living just on what nature has to offer. I’ve heard of all the negatives about steroids, but i’d rather not try, especially as it’s ment to shrink a certain part of a mans body :O . If that is so, then sex won’t even be an option…right?
Wow, how’d I miss this article this whole time? lol
Yet another reason to have sex. This works equally well for women, right? It’s got to!
Thanks for the fun read.
Olesya
I’m pretty sure it works for women too. Although a womans goal is usually to build for fitness rather than muscle mass
Those two are not mutually exclusive, you know. More muscle does mean increased metabolism and that means more fat loss
Commented like 6 months later but I did just see this article…
Very true. This one affected me for a while when I was in a serious relationship. I definitely suffered in maintaining muscle mass during that time. Btw, what do you think of the new interviews.
Having sex is a part of the human nature. It is more of the prominent feeling at the time when people are young. Most men and women start to have less sexual feelings at the old ages. It is due to the reduction in the levels of the growth hormones in the human body.
Hey StayFitBug, I loved the post. I wrote one to respond to yours and speak my thoughts about it. I also have you on my blogroll, would you like to come be a guest blogger on my site http://www.fitnesstroop.com and I can come write something on yours.
Cheers,
Daniel B
Thanks for the mention Dan
That is indeed a popular subject, along side this one
http://www.stayfitbug.com/the-fitness-bug/should-you-smoke-marijuana-if-you-workout/
Which was written around the same time