Coregasms: I Worked Out, I Saw, & I Came

According to an article at thebodyodd.msnbc.msn.com, women have reported having exercise-induced orgasms, called "coregasms" because of their apparent link to exercises for core abdominal muscles.

The online surveys conducted by Debby Herbenick, the co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, and her colleagues might not have been the most scientific ever conducted, but the results were interesting nonetheless.

Herbenick's data included 124 women who had experienced exercise-induced orgasms (when they weren't having a sexual fantasy or thinking of someone to whom they were attracted) and 246 women who revealed that they experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure. Most of the respondents identified as straight, they were married or in relationships, and the average age was 30. Roughly 45% of the women said that their first experience was linked to abdominal exercise-mostly after multiple sets of crunches in which they really exerted themselves- while a significantly lower number replied that their "coregasms" were linked to biking/spinning, climbing poles/ ropes, weight lifting, running, yoga, swimming, elliptical machines, or doing aerobics.

It's not surprising to me that women can experience orgasms or sexual pleasure after working out, particularly after intense core work outs. Pilates looks to create a strong foundation for movement, which engages the pelvic floor muscles, including the PC (pubococcygeus muscle) muscles. The PC muscles are also essential in strengthening the Kegel muscles, which reputedly help with incontinence as well enhancing sexual pleasure. Even without doing Pilates or specific Kegel exercises, when we work out our abdominal muscles, particularly when we move into certain angles or positions, it has to affect our pelvic floor muscles as the muscles are all related.

And it's also not surprising that the vast majority of the respondents were of an average age of 30 and in relationships because I think that the older we get and the more sex we have, whether alone or with someone, we learn how to move our bodies and become more aware of how to achieve orgasm.

For me personally, while I learned how to best achieve orgasm with my ex-boyfriend, since I have become single again I have become an "onan-artist", and have learned (for me) that I can intensify my orgasms by flexing my abdominal muscles before I come. Since I have become aware of that sexual component of abdominal/pelvic floor/ PC muscle flexing, I have definitely noticed that when I do lots of core stomach exercises, there is a very real element of sexual pleasure. I haven't reached the apex of wondrous bliss of the 124 women in Herbenick's study while working out, which is good because I'd probably have a 24 pack on my stomach, but an underdeveloped everything else.