“Exercise-Induced Orgasm and Its Association With Sleep Orgasms and Orgasms During Partnered Sex: Findings From a US Probability Survey”, 2021-08-24 (; similar):
Prior research has described women’s experiences with exercise-induced orgasm (EIO). However, little is known about men’s experiences with EIO, the population prevalence of EIO, or the association of EIO with other kinds of orgasm. Using US probability survey data, the objectives of the present research were to:
describe the lifetime prevalence of exercise-induced orgasm (EIO) and sleep orgasm;
assess respondents’ age at first experience of EIO as well as the type of exercise connected with their first EIO;
examine associations between lifetime EIO experience and orgasm at respondents’ most recent partnered sexual event; and
examine associations between lifetime EIO experience and sleep orgasms.
Data were from the 2014 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (1,012 men and 1,083 women, ages 14 years and older).
About 9% of respondents reported having ever experienced exercise-induced orgasm. More men than women reported having experienced orgasm during sleep at least once in their lifetime (66.3% men, 41.8% women). The mean age for women’s first EIO was statistically-significantly older than men (22.8 years women, 16.8 years men). Respondents described a wide range of exercises as associated with their first EIO (ie. climbing ropes, abdominal exercise, yoga). Lifetime EIO experience was associated with lifetime sleep orgasms but not with event-level orgasm during partnered sex.
Implications related to understanding orgasm and recommendations for clinicians and sex educators are discussed.
…Exercise-Induced Orgasm: In their reports of interviews with thousands of people living in the United States, Kinsey et al (194876ya, 1953) ventured that about 5% of people had experienced orgasms from physical exercise or muscular tension. However, questions about orgasms during exercise were not standardized in their interviews, and thus their estimate was based largely on information volunteered by respondents.
To our knowledge, there has been only one systematic study of exercise-induced orgasm (EIO) (2011). That study used an online convenience survey that specifically recruited women who had prior experience with sexual arousal or orgasm from exercise. Thus, the study design was not situated to estimate a population-based prevalence of EIO. Also, the researchers surveyed only women, leaving men’s experience with exercise orgasms unexamined. In their convenience survey, Herbenick and Fortenberry found that women reported an average age of 19 years at first EIO experience and that the kinds of exercise participants recalled as most often associated with their first EIO were traditional abdominal exercises (eg. sit-ups, crunches, Roman’s chair leg raises), climbing ropes or poles, and lifting weights—all of which engage the core musculature as part of strength training or stabilization (eg. Oliva-2020). This finding was consistent with descriptions of EIO in popular media, where the term “coregasm” was first coined by editors at Men’s Health magazine to reflect correspondence they had received from their readers about unexpectedly experiencing orgasms during exercises that engage core abdominal musculature, whether for strength or for stability (Men’s Health, 2007).
Most women in the 2011 survey indicated that they didn’t fantasize sexually in connection with experiencing EIO; also, most generally felt happy about their experience. However, the survey did not assess any aspects of respondents’ orgasm experiences outside of the exercise context, even though doing so might have helped to situate EIO within broader experiences of genital response and orgasm. For example, it is not known to what extent EIO is an idiosyncratic experience—a bodily quirk, even—or if it reflects something larger about how a person’s body and orgasmic response are organized. The present research extends the limited literature on EIO by—in a US nationally representative sample—assessing participants’ age at first EIO experience, examining EIO among men as well as adolescents, and exploring relationships between EIO and other kinds or orgasm, including orgasms that occur during sleep.
[Keywords: exercise-induced orgasm, orgasm, sleep orgasm, nocturnal emission, probability sample]