Getty Images; Jason Speakman, MH Illustration
NEWS HAS BEEN circulating recently that golf legend Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in order to stay focused ahead of this weekend’s Master’s tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
He’s certainly not the first athlete to institute this kind of pre-game ritual. Ties between sexual activity and poor physical performance date all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It’s rumored that legendary boxer Muhammad Ali would cease sexual activity for up to six weeks before a fight, and soccer programs have been known to initiate sex bans on entire teams during past World Cups.
This belief that sex impacts performance was both summated and immortalized in a line from the 1976 boxing classic Rocky—”women weaken legs”—and continues to pervade the athletic world to this day. Over the last couple of years, it has gained particular traction among certain influencers within the “NoFap” movement, who espouse the testosterone-boosting, muscle-growing benefits of abstinence.
But (shocker!), “there’s no scientific evidence that abstaining from sex, masturbation, or orgasm prior to competition provides any kind of competitive edge,” says Justin Lehmiller, P.h.D, sex and relationship research fellow at The Kinsey Institute. “Results from experiments that have tested this show, for example, no boost in physical strength following abstinence.”
Physically, there have been no findings that participating in sex the night before, or weeks before, competition causes decreased performance. It’s not going to deplete energy, effect testosterone levels, or require extensive recovery like some may think.
Makes sense, considering the act itself is pretty low on the chart of physical demand—as much as your huffing-and-puffing, post-missionary self might disagree. A handful of research has found the average sex session to only last about 5.4 minutes. Obviously, how much effort you expend in those few minutes is going to depend on several factors, including position, pace, and role. On average, though, a PLOS ONE study found that men burn about 4.2 calories per minute during sex, while women burn 3.1 calories.
Do that math, and total energy expenditure doesn’t add up to all that much—less than 100 calories per sexual interaction. Yep—that ‘at-home cardio’ you and your partner have been doing probably isn’t working as well as you thought (but, hey—more of a reason to get it on more often).
Psychologically, there’s not any research to support that sexual activity results in decreased focus or decreased aggression in regards to sport performance. Though, there are a few small studies that have found that regular sexual activity is linked to better memory and overall cognitive function unrelated to sport performance.
However, thinking that abstaining from sex will better your performance, might, well… better your performance.
“If you believe strongly that something will help you, it just might,” Lehmiller says. “This is why placebo effects are so common in the world of medicine. The power of belief can create self-fulfilling prophecies.”
In other words, if an athlete strongly believes that resisting sexual activity will keep them focused during practice, they might end up staying focused during practice, and thus, training harder—boosting their performance during competition.
“It’s not really the abstinence per se that caused the effect, but rather the belief behind it,” Lehmiller adds.
So, is it based in science? No. Will it help? Only if the athlete believes it will.
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