Follow these simple exercises to work your core muscles
1) Crunches
Because you use your abs a lot during sex, it’s critical that you do exercises that tighten the abdominal muscles. Lie on your back, hands supporting your neck, knees bent, and your feet on the floor. Raise body up just enough to get your shoulders off the ground. Do three to five sets of 15 to 20 reps.
2) Lunge walk
It’s a great way to boost lower body strength. Keep the knee straight and in line with the foot, chin up, breathing natural and take long steps. It works brilliantly for the quads, glutes and hamstrings.
3) Push-ups
It’s the best exercise to boost your sex life, and is great for strength and endurance-building. If you can’t do push-ups straightaway, start with wall presses and aim for three sets of 12-15 reps. Move on to knee push-ups on the floor but make sure you keep your back straight (squeeze butt and suck in gut) while slowly touching your nose to the ground. Once you master this, move on to traditional hand-and-toe push-ups.
4) Run/walk together
One of the biggest reasons most couples’ sex life tends to fall by the wayside is because they are just so damn tired all the time. A quick jaunt — even if it’s only 20 to 30 minutes long, will increase blood circulation, give your tired cells a booster shot of oxygen and improve mental alertness.
5) Burpees
This six-step exercise comes highly recommended by Mumbai-based holistic health expert Mickey Mehta. It’s basically a series of moves involving squats, planks and jumps done as fast as possible. Because it is intense, these are best learnt and performed under supervision. Ideally, you should aim for 40 of these a day, interspersed with jumping jacks or ab exercises.
6) Kegels
“I recommend Kegels to both men and women,” says Mumbai-based sexologist Dr Mahinder Watsa. “They strengthen pelvic muscles, which means tighter vaginas and intense orgasms. For men, these exercises help slow down ejaculation, which leads to a longer climax.” The most important thing is to zero in on the muscles below the bladder that control urination. You can do this by stopping midway while peeing. Once you’ve identified the muscles, contract them, hold for three to five seconds and then relax. Repeat every 10 seconds. Do one set of 10, thrice every day.
Photograph: Simon Upton
