YOUR AD HERE »

Vail Daily health: Vary your cardio workouts to achieve the best sex

Greg Peterson
Special to the Daily
Vail, CO Colorado

VAIL, Colorado –We all know that men and women see sex a little differently. For women, it is an endurance activity, and for men, it is more like a sprint.

All right, let’s be serious. We know that our heart rate increases during sex, but are we sustaining the activity for more that 15 minutes? I hope we can all answer yes. And if you cannot answer yes then improving your endurance definitely needs to be your first goal.

It’s not that you need to be prepared for a marathon, but you don’t want endurance to be a limiting factor in your enjoyment of sex. While you might not always have the time, wouldn’t you want to be capable of going longer than 45 minutes if you wanted?



What we want to avoid is becoming exhausted before you are satisfied. Not being able to perform creates frustration for you and your partner. Just think how much fun and satisfaction you both will have after a session of 45-plus minutes. That is why we want to train the cardiorespiratory system.

What is cardiorespiratory endurance and why are we including it as an area of interest to improve your sexual performance? Let’s start with its definition. Cardiorespiratory endurance is the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles for a prolonged period of time during sustained physical activity. ACSM, the American College of Sports Management, recommends that we train three to five times a week for 20 to 60 minutes per workout to see improvements.

Support Local Journalism



Now, let’s look at some different training options. I talk about various types of cardio workouts that you can do on land and in the pool in my book, “Sexual Fitness: The Workout Guide to Better Sex.” While many exercises will improve endurance, in my book I favor those activities that also help improve balance and stability because those are also important for good sex.

Let’s start with land workouts. One of the first things that probably comes to mind is getting on a treadmill or another piece of cardio equipment. Well, for training for this type of activity, sex, we don’t want to stick with cardio workouts that involve only certain muscles and very little coordination. Instead, choose activities that will really get you moving around. For example, group exercise classes that are aerobic in nature are a good option. A lot of health clubs offer a variety of aerobic classes. If you choose to go this route, I would recommend that you participate in a variety of classes. Remember, the greater the variety in the training, the better your body will adapt and adjust to change. This is key to an exciting sex life. Variety will help you enjoy sex more and it will also make you a more exciting (and less predictable) partner. Let’s condition our body for changes. Even more importantly, let’s train our bodies to respond favorably to changes in activities. And the best way to train for change and adaptation is to vary your workouts and do something different whenever you have the chance.

It is important to remember that even with cardiorespiratory training, we are still developing muscles. It is estimated that the body burns about 7 kcal per day, per pound of muscle. However, we are not focusing on caloric expenditure as much as we are the ability to sustain sexual activity for a longer period of time without experiencing an oxygen deficit and becoming out of breath. The good thing is that the more muscle we have, the more capable we will become in sustaining these longer sessions without any cardiorespiratory set backs.

Greg Peterson is the author of “Sexual Fitness: The Workout Guide to Better Sex,” available at the Bookworm in Edwards. E-mail Peterson with any questions at gregpeterson@hydropowerwaterworkouts.com or call him at 970-331-1333.


Support Local Journalism