Pre-game Sex: Does it hurt or help an athlete? One of the oldest sports myths is that sex before a big game can hinder an athlete’s performance; however, there is no answer to this date about the influence of sexual activity and how it impacts athletic performance. Many young athletes refrain from sex and practice abstinence before an event, believing that sex can decrease athletic performance (Fischer). This has gained popularity among many successful athletes like Mohammed Ali who abstained from his sexual desires and credited his success with the practice of abstinence before a fight and that this helped him build up his aggression against his opponent. So in order to understand the popular misconceptions of this topic and to determine
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For instance, the popular T.V. show Sports Science conducted a research on this issue if sexual intercourse impairs an athlete’s performance. They obtained both a male and female boxer. Both the male and female boxer went through a multitude of tests that ranged from collecting the pounds of force they both generated from a single punch, measuring heart rate from riding a stationary bicycle for three minutes, quickness for how many punches they can throw in 30 seconds, and took a blood sample after they completed the tests. Then the athletes would return to a room and make love to their significant other and comeback and perform the same tests as well as get their blood drawn. After analyzing the data, the results were staggering. Both the male and female improved immensely from their original scores and this proved that undergoing sex before a match made them perform better. For instance, the girl boxer originally hit the bag with 632 pounds of force and the next day she hit it at 876 pounds, she matched her heart rate on the bike machine with 174 beats per minute both days, but she beat her speed test by throwing 160 punches the second day than 155 the first day. But the most interesting part was when she got her blood drawn. Scientists discovered that her testosterone rate increased by 30% in her blood system when they took a sample. This increase in testosterone as well as beta-endorphins after sex was contributing to her performance making her a better athlete. In a different case study, there was another experiment to see whether sexual activity the night before impairs athletic performance. This experiment was completed in a repeat of measures of design where eight participants underwent 3 conditions the night prior before testing: completely abstinent, sexually active, or did yoga (Vouyoukas). The next morning the experimenter took vital signs, measured morning relaxation
For instance, the popular T.V. show Sports Science conducted a research on this issue if sexual intercourse impairs an athlete’s performance. They obtained both a male and female boxer. Both the male and female boxer went through a multitude of tests that ranged from collecting the pounds of force they both generated from a single punch, measuring heart rate from riding a stationary bicycle for three minutes, quickness for how many punches they can throw in 30 seconds, and took a blood sample after they completed the tests. Then the athletes would return to a room and make love to their significant other and comeback and perform the same tests as well as get their blood drawn. After analyzing the data, the results were staggering. Both the male and female improved immensely from their original scores and this proved that undergoing sex before a match made them perform better. For instance, the girl boxer originally hit the bag with 632 pounds of force and the next day she hit it at 876 pounds, she matched her heart rate on the bike machine with 174 beats per minute both days, but she beat her speed test by throwing 160 punches the second day than 155 the first day. But the most interesting part was when she got her blood drawn. Scientists discovered that her testosterone rate increased by 30% in her blood system when they took a sample. This increase in testosterone as well as beta-endorphins after sex was contributing to her performance making her a better athlete. In a different case study, there was another experiment to see whether sexual activity the night before impairs athletic performance. This experiment was completed in a repeat of measures of design where eight participants underwent 3 conditions the night prior before testing: completely abstinent, sexually active, or did yoga (Vouyoukas). The next morning the experimenter took vital signs, measured morning relaxation