Can Physical Activity Improve your Health
and Sex Life?
I want to share with you a couple things
that I have learned that has helped change my mind on weight lifting and cardio
from my own personal health journey.
I have never been a fan of the gym, weight
training or cardio. My exercise has always come in the form of an activity
whether dance, sport or martial art. Just recently in the last 2 months, I have
changed my mind. Here are the things that contributed to that change.
Exercise is Anti-disease. I was listening
to a talk from the Neuroscience Training Summit last year and learned about how
exercise is an important ingredient for fighting off disease. Why is that? Well
because it helps to protect our telomeres. Telomeres what?
Let me use an example to explain. Telomeres
are what protects our DNA, they’re like the plastic on the ends of shoelaces
that keeps the shoelace from unraveling. The telomeres act the same way. They
form a protective barrier around our DNA to prevent it from unraveling. Within
our genetic code can be a variety of diseases waiting to take form.
Our lifestyles and behaviours can either
shorten these telomeres or strengthen them. How does exercise do this? Exercise
helps to create certain proteins and transforms inflammatory cells into
protective immune cells that support and maintain the telomeres. These
telomeres help to protect all the systems in the body, including the brain, and
boy do I like my brain.
I will be honest with all of you, despite
knowing this and the other health benefits, this was not motivating enough to
start weight training, however this information was planting seeds in my mind
that later bloomed into a change in behavior.
Exercise is Anti-aging. I am a big fan of
the Tim Ferriss Podcast. I was listening to an episode where he was interviewing
a man in his 80’s. He also spoke to the fact that exercise helps to rebuild our
genetics. When we can maintain healthier genes, we feel and look younger. Its
when our genetics begin to age and lose their ability to replenish themselves
that causes us to age and become more prone to injury and illness
He spoke about his exercise routine being
20 minutes of eccentric loading exercise daily. Eccentric means for example if
I do a bicep curl, I focus on the slow release from the bicep curl till my
elbow is straight. Hmm.. 20 minutes a day, you say. It’s sinking in to my
subconscious but still not quite motivating yet for the flower to bloom.
Exercise can improve your sex life. It does
so in a few ways. Firstly it improves circulation and you need good circulation
for the erectile tissues to fill up. Yes ladies we have erectile tissue as
well. When you exercise, which hopefully includes your pelvic floor you improve
the muscles ability to trap the blood in the erectile tissue and contract
harder on orgasm.
Perhaps what you may not have thought of
with regards to sex is stamina. Ladies have you ever been on top, lets say in
the cowgirl position and had your legs burn out? There is nothing worse than
getting into a rhythm and having your legs fatigue, very anti-climatic. I can
remember thinking to myself, well that didn’t take long.
Also, still not motivating enough to get me
into a gym but the seed was starting to sprout.
So this is how the universe played it out
for me. I kept being exposed to this great information and thought to myself, I
really should start exercising more. Who hasn’t gotten caught in the “should”
thinking.
As
luck would have it an opportunity came up to do some group training with a
group I am part of. I learned a piece of wisdom from Gabby Bernstein, she said
that the universe will present you with what you need but you have to say YES.
By saying YES you are taking the first step in your healing and well being.
Gabby is a public figure and spiritual life
coach that spoke at the Self-Acceptance Summit and her words, which I
paraphrased above really stuck with me. It is our responsibility to say yes to
the opportunities. So I said yes to training, once a week for the next 12-13
weeks.
I know this will be good for my health, all
the successful entrepreneurs I follow exercise and this will help me with my
jiu jitsu training. So I just jumped in. I didn’t leave room in my mind to talk
me out of it. I made the decision and could not be happier. The bonus, it only
took 8 weeks to begin noticing a change in my sex life, 3-4 weeks early. Yay!
When I used to fatigue in 1-2 minutes, I
now have more stamina to go longer. I can feel my muscles are stronger and well….
there is more sensation and pleasure during sex. So if you have been thinking
about exercise, the next time an opportunity presents itself, rather than
thinking of all the reasons to say no, say yes and figure out all the details
after. It can be life changing.
The Pelvic Health Lady
