Sex before sport – Does it boost performance? - Spare Web SIte

Hot

Post Top Ad

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

Sex before sport – Does it boost performance?

Contrary to the common belief that abstinence from sexual activity can boost athletic performance, a new research suggests that having sex the night before competition may have positive impact on performance.

"Abstaining from sexual activity before athletic competition is a controversial topic in the world of sport," said lead study author Laura Stefani, Assistant Professor of Sports Medicine at the University of Florence, Italy.

"We show no robust scientific evidence to indicate that sexual activity has a negative effect upon athletic results," Stefani said.

For the study, the authors sifted through hundreds of studies with the potential to provide evidence, however big or small, on the impact of sexual activity upon sport performance.

After setting a number of criteria to filter out the most reliable of these studies, only nine were included in the review.

One of these found that the strength of female former athletes did not differ if they had sex the night before.

Another actually observed a beneficial effect on marathon runners' performance.

"Unless it takes place less than two hours before, the evidence actually suggests sexual activity may have a beneficial effect on sports performance," Stefani said.

This review demonstrates the need for proper scientific investigation into the impact of sexual activity on sport performance, clarifying any ethical, gender and sport differences

The authors concluded that because the current evidence debunks the long-held abstinence theories, athletes should not feel guilty when engaging in their usual sexual activity up to the day before competition.

The research has been published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Physiology.


Source:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Post Top Ad