- Exercise-induced orgasms are a real thing — about 10% of women and 8% of men have reported experiencing a "coregasm" at some point in their life.
- Certain exercises are more likely to trigger them, particularly ones that stress the ab muscles like hanging leg raises or pullups. Doing cardio beforehand increases the odds of a coregasm.
- Understanding how the coregasm works could be key to improving people's sex lives.
- Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.
Need a little extra motivation at the gym?
Meet the coregasm, or exercise-induced orgasm. It's just what it sounds like — an orgasm prompted entirely by physical activity of a non-sexual nature.
Researchers and fitness enthusiasts have known about coregasms for a long time. The first authoritative study of the exercise-induced orgasm was published in 2012 in the Journal of Sexual and Relationship Therapy. but Debby Herbenick, a co-author of the study and professor at Indiana University, said the first mention of the phenomenon dates back further, to Alfred Kinsey's groundbreaking work on human sexuality in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
While we've come a long way since then, Herbenick said it's still not entirely clear how the coregasm works.
What is clear is that they're more common than previously though, said Herbenick, who in 2015 published "The Coregasm Workout" book as a follow-up to her research. As many as 1 in 10 women and 1 in 12 men have experienced an exercise-induced orgasm sometime in their life, according to a study included in the book, and a small percentage of those people have them regularly.
"There are a number of people who can induce them almost on demand," Herbenick told INSIDER.
Read more:9 orgasm myths you need to stop believing
Here's what you need to know about the exercise-induced orgasm and how you can apply that knowledge to your benefit — whether that's to make a workout more satisfying or to prevent an unwanted shudder from interrupting your group fitness class.
Some people are more coregasmic than others
Researchers have found that both men and women, married or single, gay or straight, can experience a coregasm. It's also been reported across a wide age range, from people who recalled their first experience as children to those who had it happen in their 60s.
However, Herbenick said some people appear to have a natural tendency to be more coregasmic than others. This is likely do to individual differences in anatomy, but there's not enough research to explain what those differences are.
Certain exercises seem to be especially arousing
Coregasms are most likely to be reported when the lower abdominal muscles are exhausted from a strenuous workout, Herbenick's research has shown. What "strenuous" is depends on the person.
In one case, a woman reported having consistent orgasms from doing pullups after her eighth or ninth rep. Another woman had a coregasm after between 10 to 15 lunges and a few crunches, which "was enough to be challenging for her body," Herbenick said. Some people reported orgasms from running, but only after more than 20 minutes. Lifting weights and cycling can also trigger the sensation, since those activities involve the core muscles.
Still, the most common exercise to cause coregasms is the hanging leg raise — it involves resting your arms and back against a chair-like support while your legs dangle freely. Then, you engage your abs and slowly raise your knees up to your chest. You can also keep your legs straight and extend them forward so your body forms an L-shape.
Running before your core workout can also increase the odds of a coregasm occurring, Herbenick said. This may be partly because it contributes to exhaustion, but also because it activates the sympathetic nervous system, responsible for heart rate, blood pressure, respiration — and sexual response. Getting the blood flowing, including to your pelvic region, boosts arousal and the odds of your workout having a dramatic conclusion.
While there's still a lot to learn about exactly why coregasms happen, Herbenick says it's not simply because the pelvis is rubbing against an object or the legs are squeezing together. "It's clearly not just friction," she said.
It's also not just mental: In fact, most of the people in the 2012 study reported they weren't thinking about sex at the time. Researchers are still hoping to learn "how much of it is physical versus psychological," Herbenick said.
Coregasms aren't always a good thing
Herbenick's research found people who experienced coregasms have complicated feelings, from enthusiasm to embarrassment, about them.
Some exercisers look forward to having a coregasm as a perk of working out, and some have even have perfected the art of keeping it a secret from other gym goers while it's happening. A survey of coregasmic CrossFit athletes, however, found that while some people enjoyed their coregasms, others didn't look forward to the experience or even dreaded it.
Among people surveyed, men were more likely to have negative reactions to coregasms, Herbenick said, simply because the signs are more apparent. "Ejaculation is complicated to experience in public," she said.
The coregasm may be particularly problematic for military personnel. Herbenick said she's been contacted by Army doctors as well as service members about how to prevent coregasm from interfering with the military's standard physical fitness tests.
"In that situation, you might have people who are extremely fit and have good endurance, but they may have an orgasm that causes them to stop" in the middle of the test, Herbenick said.
So, can you stop an impending coregasm?
"We don't know," Herbenick said. "People we know of have learned ways of preventing them by doing different exercises or adjusting them to back off from that. But each person has to figure that out and know their own body. It's quite tricky."
Understanding coregasms can improve your sex life
One of the main reasons behind Herbenick's book, as well as her continued rea search on exercise-induced orgasms, was to find out how the phenomenon could deepen our understanding of orgasms, especially in women, and have practical applications.
"It wasn't at all about teaching people to have a coregasm," Herbenick said.
Whether or not you're coregasmic, benefits of exercise like better blood flow is know to improve sexual health. Being able to tighten your core, knowing what works for your body, and the extra confidence you might get from a good workout are all keys to having a more satisfying sex life beyond the gym.
"If you can learn how you can move your body in ways that enhance arousal, you can get in tune with your body a little more," Herbenick said.
Read more:
Why having multiple orgasms is easier for some people than others
10 things you should always do before sex if you want to have an orgasm