According to a new study, women no longer need to find a man, a vibratory or a new masturbation technique to find the elusive female orgasm – all they need to do is head to the gym! This new research has found that the new place for sexual pleasure may not be an expected one, but that the findings add to data that has been largely unstudied over the years. The phenomenon was first discovered in 1953, with research showing that around five per cent of women who were interviewed stated that they had had an orgasm linked to exercise. However, they couldn’t know the exact prevalence because because most of these women volunteered the information without being asked directly. Labelled ‘coregasms’, named as such because of the connection between orgasms and exercises for core abdominal muscles, these rumours have been circulating in the media for many years. However, despite this attention from the media, little is known about this connection in a scientific manner. Researchers used surveys to gather data surrounding this issue from 124 women who has experienced exercise-induced orgasms and 246 women who has reported exercise-induced sexual pleasure. Most of the women, who had an average age of 30, were in a relationship or married. Of the women, 69 per cent of the participants were heterosexual.
Researchers found that around 40 per cent of both groups of women has experienced this phenomenon on more than 11 occasions throughout their lives, and those in the orgasm group said that they felt some sort of embarrassment when exercising in public places in case it happened again. Most of the women spoken to said that they weren’t having a sexual fantasy or thinking about someone they’re attracted to. Around 45 per cent of the women in the study said that their experience was linked to abdominal exercises; 19 per cent said it was linked to biking or spinning; 9.3 per cent was linked to climbing poles or ropes; 7 per cent was connected to weight lifting; 7 per cent to running; the rest of the experiences included a variety of other exercises, such as yoga, swimming and elliptical machines. Exercise-induced orgasms were linked to more types of exercise than the orgasm phenomenon, according to the study.
This research offers up a variety of implications regarding female sexuality. Firstly, orgasm and sexual desire have topped the list of women’s sex concerns, with around one out of every four women not reaching orgasms during sex. But this research could suggest that physical exercise may have been overlooked in clinical approaches to the female orgasm. Secondly, scientists have been debating the evolutionary context of the female orgasm and it’s connection to sexuality and reproduction. However, if women are experiencing orgasms in situations not connected to sex, then this study could well provide details of what the orgasm does and doesn’t have to do with sex and reproduction. Exercise-induced orgasms could be one way for scientists and women in general to learn about the process of orgasm. Researchers stated that this information could well help women to learn more about how their bodies work in that regard, which could help them develop more satisfying sex lives. Either way, this information is new and exciting to researchers who have now found more data to help them understand the female orgasm. For so many women, who find reaching orgasm difficult, this study could offer real hope into better understanding from a scientific perspective.