Fitness influencer Steph Claire Smith has revealed how working on her core led to an unexpected surprise.
On the KICPOD podcast, which Steph co-hosts with Laura Henshaw, the pair spoke about “what unexpected thing gets you going”.
“For me, it’s ab exercises. And I’m not alone in that,” Steph said during the episode.
She said when she was in her late teens and exploring her sexual side, she did reach climax while working out.
“It only happened a few times, but I did enjoy it,” she said.
“And it is totally normal, so if ab exercises get you going…”
Laura jumped in to ask what the exercise was, in case anyone wanted to try it.
Steph said that anything in the lower abdomen region, like leg lowers.
“There is a lot of them in the new KIC Progressive Program,” Laura said.
“Maybe Steph sprinkled them in as a surprise!”
Social media users shared their own views on the matter, with some experiencing the same thing.
“As a pilates instructor, this will really make me wonder when doing ab work in class,” one social media user said.
“Also, a little jealous that this doesn’t happen to me ‘cause I’m sure I’d love my job even more so then.”
Another said: “The term thrown around is ‘coregasm’ for anyone wanting to research – I think the working hypothesis is stimulation of similar/local nerve endings.”
“THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT EXPERIENCED THIS SURPRISE (for me it was hanging leg lifts, the transverse abdominals get a little too excited during those),” another said.
One commiserated: “Why is the only thing I get to feel mid-workout pain?”
In 2012, researchers at Indiana University confirmed some women do experience orgasms while exercising, according to CBS News.
The phenomenon is often referred to as a “coregasm”, with the online surveys sent to 124 women between the age of 18 and 63 who had exercise-induced orgasms and an additional 246 women who said they experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure.
Most had a partner, with 69 per cent revealing they were heterosexual.
“It may be that exercise – which is already known to have significant benefits to health and wellbeing – has the potential to enhance women’s sexual lives as well,” Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said.
“The most common exercises associated with exercise-induced orgasm were abdominal exercises, climbing poles or ropes, biking/spinning and weightlifting,” Herbenick said.
“These data are interesting because they suggest that orgasm is not necessarily a sexual event, and they may also teach us more about the bodily processes underlying women’s experiences of orgasm.”
Credit: nzherald.co.nz