Exercise excitement

By the time Ruth came to see me, she was a wreck. It had been a week since she’d had a good night’s sleep. She was suffering anxiety and depression.

“I have thought and thought about it, and there is no other way to explain what happened to me other than that I have been bewitched,” she said sadly. Her lips were dry from dehydration. Her eyes were red and swollen – whether from her insomnia or from crying, I was not sure.

“Whatever it is, I am sure we can find a solution,” I said reassuringly. “Now tell me what the problem is.”

Ruth hesitated, then looked around to confirm that there was nobody eavesdropping in the consultation room, and then, dropping her head in apparent shame, she whispered: “I climaxed twice in the gym.”

“You mean you had sex in the gym?” I probed.

“No!” she exclaimed.

“Ok, calm down,” I said, deciding that it would be best to take a break from this weighty conversation and take her medical history before probing further. She was 30 and married with two children who had come in quick succession. The outcome of the pregnancies, breastfeeding and nursing her babies at home was that her weight blossomed. Worried about the excess weight, Ruth joined a gym to start a weight management plan. 

On her first day in the gym as she was working on some abdomen-tightening exercises, she felt an unusual sexual excitement. “The next day the excitement reached a peak and I climaxed,” she explained.

CONFUSED MUSCLES

Though she was shaken, Ruth composed herself and continued with the exercise. “And then it happened again – with more intensity! I screamed and groaned in excitement!” she said, tears welling up her eyes. “Everyone in the room stopped exercising to stare at me.”

Ruth is among the men and women who orgasm as a result of exercising. The phenomenon is also called coregasm, exercise induced orgasm, accidental orgasm or orgasm without sex. It is estimated that about 10 per cent of women experience coregasm.

Coregasm happens mostly while performing abdominal exercises, weightlifting and cycling. It can also happen in yoga, hiking or even brisk walking.

Coregasm is not a disease. Although more studies are needed to define its physiology, it is clear that it is a result of interaction of muscle and nerve stimulation resulting from exercises and affecting the sexual system. The outcome is that muscles and nerves normally involved in orgasm synchronise and produce non-sexual orgasm.

“What do you think my husband will say if he learnt that I climaxed in the gym? Remember, the gym instructor is a man,” Ruth asked. Coregasm has nothing to do with infidelity. In fact, you do not have to be thinking about sex to have a coregasm.

That is why it is also called ‘accidental orgasm’. Letting your spouse know these facts is important. Men can have a coregasm even without an erection, which is confirmation that it is not really masturbation or any other form of sex, but a confusion of muscles and nerves leading to unexpected body reactions.

As Ruth left the clinic, she was convinced that some exercises were not meant for her. Fortunately there are other exercises one can fall back on in such cases to avoid such potentially embarrassing situations in the gym.