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Abstain for Better Performance?

Jill

From Slate:

Olympians are abstaining from sex to boost their performance, despite evidence that they should have sex instead. Triathletes, skaters, swimmers, boxers, ice dancers, and others avoid nookie before big contests; one says he abstained for 233 days. The Canadian swim team required an abstinence pledge; Pittsburgh Steelers coaches order players not to stay with wives or girlfriends the night before games and enforce this with room checks. Rationales: conserving strength, energy, focus, or your edge. But studies refute all these benefits and suggest sex can actually help by steadying you, increasing your tolerance for pain, and boosting your testosterone levels, which is so performance-enhancing it would be illegal if you did it with dope. Cynical theory: Abstinence rules are a fraud used by coaches to make sure their athletes get enough sleep. (WSJ link requires subscription.)

Well. Given that I’m now a triathlete in training (ha), perhaps I should be doing a more holistic, uh, “training”?

And then I remember that I’m also in law school, which means that my hottest date of the week is with my desk in the library. Alas, at least I would make some Olympic coaches quite happy.

8 thoughts on Abstain for Better Performance?

  1. Not all sex is partnered sex. We all have one person available to meet our sexual needs, and that person knows exactly what we like.

    I don’t know if there’s research on it, but I always suspected that the tantrists had a point: that for some folks, and maybe more for men than women, sexual arousal without orgasm has a bunch of positive effects.

  2. Ha. That superstition is as old as the hills, and unless you’re doing some really wacky stuff and pull a muscle, there’s never been any reason to believe it. My ex-boyfriend even bought into it, much to my frustration…. said it had something to do with “wasting his chi”…. yeah.

  3. Ha. That superstition is as old as the hills, and unless you’re doing some really wacky stuff and pull a muscle, there’s never been any reason to believe it. My ex-boyfriend even bought into it, much to my frustration…. said it had something to do with “wasting his chi”…. yeah.

    Well, that’s only linked to ejaculation. If you’re that worried…

  4. Most marathoners believe the exact opposite these days. Gordon Bakoulis Bloch, the editor of Running Times (and despite the name, very much a woman), always advises sex before a race. She doesn’t advise chasing after sex, mind you — just some nice tension relief.

    Jill, you’re getting ready for a triathlon??? When?

  5. What is wrong with these people? Get. It. On. Start fucking, athletes! You are in top form, reproductive rights will soon be a thing of the past. FUCK ALREADY!

  6. Also, I’ve heard that the Olympic Village is the world’s fittest hookup festival. I have heard this from people who have been in the Olympic Village.

  7. Cynical theory: Abstinence rules are a fraud used by coaches to make sure their athletes get enough sleep.

    That’s a cynical theory? I thought it was the obvious explanation.

  8. Because nothing helps you sleep like being frustrated and horny, and sex keeps you awake when you’re finished?

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