Sexual Release: Does it Help or Harm Competitiveness?

Both men and women have a competitive nature and a desire to complete a task. Whether it is to get a promotion, work harder and longer hours, or compete in an athletic event; this competitiveness relates to everyday activity. How much will and desire does one person have to compete and work hard? That is a different question. There are many factors that come into effect including sleep, eating patterns, and overall health. However, most people believe that love life and sexual release have an effect on competitive edge, whether it’s for the better or the worse. Now, the question is: does it have a positive, a negative, or no effect at all on competitiveness?

Having sex and having a girlfriend/wife are two completely different scenarios. Being in a relationship does not physically affect the body at all. It can affect your emotions at any time for the good or bad. This could cause stress on the mind which every person reacts to differently. Key things to consider are the fact that some of the biggest competitors in the world including Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and Derek Jeter have girlfriends or wives. Even other successful figures such as Mark Cuban or Bill Gates have families. Having a love life would not necessarily affect one’s competitive edge.

Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous world-champion boxer, gave up sex before a fight because he believed it would snap his strength. Many other athletes would consider the same thing. Former Olympic distance runner of the 1960s, Marty Liquori, summed it up simply: “Sex makes you happy. Happy people don’t run a 3:47 mile.”

With these inputs, many scientists took it to the lab to study and come up with their own conclusion. Dr. Tommy Boone, a fellow with the American Society of Exercise Physiologists, conducted a study that found no difference in treadmill tests between men who had sex 12 hours earlier and those who didn’t. There have been many tests conducted on the correlation between sexual intercourse and performance. Neil Baum, M.D., an associate clinical professor at Tulane Medical School in Louisiana said that people would argue that sex decreases testosterone levels, a hormone that is released during athletic and competitive activity. “But I’ve never seen any evidence that proves sex has an impact on testosterone levels,” he says. By abstaining sex and refraining from it, this won’t cause the body to build up testosterone it can build up later.

Sex only burns about 250 calories an hour. Therefore it does not have much of any physical effect on the body. Whether it will help or hurt your performance is your own interpretation. For many people, sex will help distract the mind from competing which will help sweep away mental fatigue. Whether this is good or bad depends upon who you are.

For those wondering what is right for them, a suggestion would be to not try anything new before a big event. This could throw you off completely. Stick with what feels comfortable, but the correlation between sex and competition is an idea to consider.

Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions feel free to comment. Some of the next articles to come include: how to exercise while on a busy schedule and how to get out of your weight loss or plateau slump. Stay tuned for more to come!

Have any ideas for future blogs or want to learn about a certain topic? Feel free to let me know, and I will be happy to write a post. Also, interested in writing your own blog post? Become part of the Health Expo team and be a contributing author. Please contact me!

-Michael Roulic