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September 27, 2023 27 mins

On this week's episode, Christine and Shannon debunk the myth that sex has a negative effect on sports performance, a myth proliferated by popular media and especially in men's sports. Want to know the truth? Tune in to learn more! 

Follow us on social @sexeddebunked or send us a message at sexeddebunked@gmail.com

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Episode Transcript

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Christine (00:03):
Hi, this is Sex Ed Debunked, a cross-generational
podcast hosted by motherdaughter duo, christine and
Shannon Curley.

Shannon (00:10):
Every episode, we tackle a new myth about sex,
sexuality and pleasure, and useresearch and expert insights to
debunk stereotypes andmisinformation from the bedroom
and beyond.

Christine (00:18):
In 2022, we won the American Association of
Sexuality Educators, Counselorsand Therapists Award for Best
Podcast and also managed to nottotally freak out our family and
friends along the way.
We believe in healthy,sex-positive, pleasure-focused
sex education, backed by realresearch and real experience.
Follow us on Instagram.

Shannon (00:35):
Facebook or Twitter at Sex Ed Debunked, or email us at
SexEdDeBunked at gmailcom toshare your sex miseducation
tales and the myths you'd liketo hear us debunk.

Christine (00:44):
Thanks for listening.

Shannon (00:46):
Hi, this is Sex.
Ed Debunked across-generational podcast about
sexual health, sex positivityand why little swimmers don't
qualify for the Olympics.

Christine (00:55):
Shannon.
What Well if you didn't guessit on this week's episode.
Finally, we're actually talkingabout one of our favorite
subjects, sports, andspecifically sports performance
and sex.

Shannon (01:07):
Yeah, we finally found a way to tie sports in with our
actual Sex Ed curriculum.
So good on us and just in timefor the start of football season
.

Christine (01:15):
And don't forget beginning of baseball playoff
season as well.

Shannon (01:19):
Yeah, but it just goes on, and on, and on, and on, and
on and on.

Christine (01:27):
Well, that's only because our teams are not going
to be in the playoffs.
That's why we don't care aboutit.
But honestly, this was aquestion once again that was
brought up by one of my studentslast semester.
He was an athlete, I think hedid mixed martial arts or
something, and he came up to mebecause he knew about the
podcast and he was basically hey, my coach is telling me that I

(01:48):
have to abstain from sexualactivity before a big bout.
Is that true?
Before a what?
Like a bout?
You know, a boxing match, oh,mixed martial Like a match.
A match, but it's, you know,that's what they call it in the
excuse me.

Shannon (02:01):
This isn't the.

Christine (02:02):
MMA podcast.
My mistake, I think that's whathe was doing.
It was MMA.
So his question was hey, mycoach keeps telling me I have to
abstain from sexual activitybefore a big bout.
And he asked hey, is that trueor is it a myth?

Shannon (02:20):
Sure, yeah, and we see this.
I feel like we see this trope alot in media too, although it
kind of goes both ways, LikeJerry Maguire, when Jerry has a
one night stand, like rightbefore the big game, and then
his player that he representsgoes on to have one of the best
performances of the season.
Sex and sports.

Christine (02:36):
Well, what's his player?

Shannon (02:37):
Sex and sports, sex and sports.

Christine (02:39):
Well, and the one that always comes to mind for me
, back to baseball, is BillDorum, when the pitcher Nuke was
on a game winning streak and hesaid oh, he told Susan Sarandon
, his girlfriend at the time, orhis you know lover at the time,
that he had to abstain untilthe streak ended, which was led
to great hilarity andfrustration on her part, of

(03:01):
course.

Shannon (03:01):
Of course, yeah, but also like again media right,
it's like they're getting sodistracted during the big game
because sex is so exciting andstupid, I don't know.

Christine (03:11):
See, that's not about distraction, I think, what the
body does, as we know, in sexualactivity, if you're doing it
right at the end, you're doingit right.

Shannon (03:20):
Well, I feel like that is not on brand for this podcast
.
There is no way to do sexualactivity right.

Christine (03:26):
In case anyone was wondering In a pleasurable way,
got it?
Okay, that's what I meant.
Doing it in a pleasurable way,of course, but it can be
relaxing and oftentimes leads tosome kind of sleepiness.
Now, whether sleepiness andweakness are related, that's
kind of the question here of theday for the podcast.

Shannon (03:44):
Okay, yeah.
So to get back on track, thismyth is about the idea that sex
negatively impacts your athleticperformance.
Where does that come from?

Christine (03:53):
Well, there's some history.
There is some history behind it.
There's this history of like inthe Greeks and the Romans that
they were telling them toabstain to keep their strength
up, because the idea being thatejaculation, in particular, saps
their strength.

Shannon (04:10):
It's just really funny because it's like who were they
sleeping with?
Like who were they having sexwith?
They're going off to battle.
It's like just 10,000 men.
Who were they having sex?

Christine (04:19):
with.
Well, they were having sex withother men.
I guess yeah if you look at theGreek and Roman tradition, it
was you know, sex was what wasavailable, and if you're going
off to a battle, that's what wasavailable there was also.
There's also a Taoist traditionof that.
The chew the life force is partof is encapsulated with sexual

(04:43):
energy.
So you should be holding on toyour sexual energy in order to
keep your life force.
So there are some myths outthere and I think there's some
stuff like on TikTok and Redditabout holding in your your semen
for guys and that's supposed tomake you more energetic and
more focused and aggressive.

Shannon (04:59):
And all of that.
That's like, I believe, thatcoaches pedal to that.
You know, sexual frustrationand withholding can lead to more
aggression, so then you havemore power, okay, hulk.

Christine (05:09):
That's not that Somehow frustration frustration
equals aggression, which equalsbetter sports performance is
some of what that sounds.

Shannon (05:17):
That sounds like the Patriot teacher.
Yeah, I got it.
That sounds like the Patriot.

Christine (05:21):
And it's true.
So.
So then we lead to the obviousquestion that we always have on
this podcast.
Well, what does the researchsay?

Shannon (05:27):
Right Does ejaculation really draw so much testosterone
from the body that it reducesyour aggression and reduces your
strength and makes you a badathlete.

Christine (05:36):
Well, and the idea of being going to makes you weak,
okay, okay, and I think there'slike a part of it is like this
concept of well sex is soexhausting, so then you have to
recover from it.

Shannon (05:48):
How can it be exhausting when it only takes
seven and a half seconds, man,oh my gosh, shannon.

Christine (05:51):
Okay, so I went in, I went into the research because
I was like, okay, there's got tobe some stuff on this.

Shannon (05:57):
Okay, so, candidly, this is a myth that I don't.
I'd have never really thoughtabout this, and maybe it's
because I'm a female athlete andI've never thought about like
this has never been a particularconversation or anything, but I
don't, I don't know.
I'm surprised that there's evenresearch on this, but
apparently there's enough weirdmisinformation about this

(06:17):
particular relationship betweensex and athleticism that there
have been studies.

Christine (06:21):
Yes, and and Shannon, you're exactly right A lot of
this does come from the malefocused sports and coaches
particularly saying that youknow that sexual activity before
an athletic event is going toweaken you.
So let's go through theacademic research and, as I said
, there's not a lot of it, butthere are some what's called

(06:41):
systematic reviews, metaanalysis, looking at existing
research.
So, first of all, there's onethat I found from 2016 about
sexual activity before sportscompetition, looking at nine
studies.
So, once again, not a lot.
Interestingly, in theintroduction to this study
article, they talk about theancient Greek and Romans who

(07:06):
kind of started this whole myth.
So we can blame Greece and Romefor the myth, but there's very
few scientific data and a lot ofit is anecdotal.
So this one study said that onethe difference, that the real
factor here is the intervalbetween your sexual activity and

(07:26):
the sports.
So in the nine studies this iswhat's so sad in the nine
studies there still was only 133participants, so you're still
that's hard.

Shannon (07:35):
That's hard, difficult research to do, right, because
you're like go have sex before asporting event and report on it
.

Christine (07:42):
Well, and how do they ?
How do they do that study?
Well, there's a few differentways and that's a great question
, because part of what thesystematic reviews are looking
for is quality research and, aswe've talked, survey research
not as good.
And basically survey researchwould be asking people after
their sporting event hey, by theway, did you have engaged in

(08:04):
sexual activity last night?
And also, how was the big game?

Shannon (08:07):
Like yeah, that's how was your sports performance.

Christine (08:10):
So the studies, because part of the reason there
was only nine studies is theywanted to find nine control
trials where they had some onegroup of athletes participate in
sexual activity and then thenet and another group not.
But what they did and is notnecessarily look at sports per

(08:30):
se, but looked at physicalactivity that's related to
sports.

Shannon (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, because it would be hard to say all sports.

Christine (08:38):
sports are different, so right and it's also hard to
be like okay, let's, let'sschedule an experimental study
around a sporting event.
So what they would do is theywould have one group engage in
sexual activity the night beforeand then the next day measure
their strength, their gripstrength, how much weights they

(09:00):
can lift their cardiovascular,do some stuff on the treadmill,
and then compare one group tothe other.
And so it's athleticperformance more than sports.

Shannon (09:10):
I keep saying sports, but like and if we continue to
say sports in the episode, justknow that what we're really
referring to in context of thestudies is athletic performance.

Christine (09:18):
Yes and there's, but it was dealing with athletes who
are in sports, so not justpeople who are working out at
the gym, and so what thesestudies would do was take a
baseline of what eachparticipant athlete's
performance was on a regular day, then have one group engage in
sexual activity that night andthen take another scale the next

(09:40):
day and another test ofstrength.

Shannon (09:43):
So apparently this is a relationship in research that
like merited funding and support.
Well, you know what merit is.

Christine (09:51):
Because curiosity and curiosity and who knows, Maybe
the research was started by someathlete who was told by their
coach that they couldn't engagein sexual activity.
So like, is this real?
And so this one meta analysisthat was looking at nine studies
, all nine studies, when theysynthesized the data, there was

(10:12):
zero, zero data to support thatthe physical performance was any
way reduced by engaging insexual activity.
Interesting.
Now, caveat is there wasanother study that also did a
meta analysis and found sevenstudies of their own to look at

(10:34):
and similarly, which tells methat they're probably not doing
a good literature search becausethey found different ones.
But this other one looked atthe distance between the time
between orgasm through sexualactivity and physical exercise.
So, once again, not exactly aparticular sport, but looking at

(10:56):
physical exercise.
And in this one they found thatthey could not find a
statistically significantdifference in any of the
conditions.
Meaning, did they have sex thenight before?
Did they have sex, no sex atall, or did they have sex, like
six days before?
No difference in physicalperformance based on when they

(11:19):
were engaging in sexual activityand when they were experiencing
orgasm.
Well, first of all, youmentioned, you mentioned six,
eight, seven minutes.

Shannon (11:29):
Well, I know I said seconds.
Sorry, I'm a little salty thismorning.
I meant seven and a halfminutes.
Let's give them credit wherecredit's due.

Christine (11:35):
Well, it's funny.
So this one study, which wasactually not a meta analysis,
but they were looking atstrength performance and they
were looking specifically at menwho do like weight training and
strength training and what theydid is they looked at 50 men
and they measured their time.
They had them put a stop washon their sexual activity and the

(11:55):
average sexual activity was 13minutes.

Shannon (11:59):
Okay, Well, it's almost a whole quarter of football.
Good job guys.

Christine (12:03):
And I mean all right.
So for us thinking that, likesomehow 13 minutes is going to
be so exhausting that it's goingto ruin your sports performance
is kind of hysterical.
To begin with, the articleactually concluded that it has
some potential to reducestrength in your lower
extremities, but it was adifference between seriously,

(12:25):
they called this substantialbeing able to lift 109 kilograms
versus 107.
So I would kind of throw thatstudy out as being kind of silly
.
Yeah, okay, but in the broaderspectrum of things, what we're
talking about is sex exhausting.
Most studies say that sexualactivity is going to only burn

(12:45):
between 25 and 50 calories, gotit?
Which is also kind of a littlelike well heteronormative.
True, true, different.
So here's what the bottom lineis.
Although the research is notcopious, it's very scant, as
we'd say in academia.

Shannon (13:06):
Scant about hope.
Everyone's taking notes.

Christine (13:08):
We're going to learn new words today.
We're back in the set, we'reback in studio, so we're going
to be more like a classroom.
What they're basically sayingis there is zero evidence that,
as long as you're havingengaging in sexual activity the
day before that, there's anynegative impact on sports

(13:31):
performance.
Is there any improvement?
Well, for runners.
Runners say that they actuallymarathon runners and long
distance runners say that itactually, like I said, a handful
of studies do say that runningperformance can improve that.
There is one caveat Sure, don'tengage in sexual activity

(13:56):
between 30 minutes and two hoursbefore you're sporting.

Shannon (14:00):
Got it not an adequate warm up understood.

Christine (14:03):
Understood.
So that aspect is definitelynot.
But anything, most of thestudies we're looking at
athletes and non-athletes andwe're looking at whether or not
they engage in sexual activitythe night before and the night
before was shown to either haveno effect or minimal positive
effects on sports performance.

Shannon (14:21):
Interesting, but we also talk about sexual activity
isn't just about the orgasm, andwe talked about a lot of times
in media.
It's like it's the mindset too.
It's like I can't get over theamazing sex I had last night and
now I don't know how to playbaseball anymore.
So what about the mental oremotional or psychological
impacts Like?
Is there any research on that?

Christine (14:43):
Well, sex distracting the right.
Well, speaking of baseball, Ifound this amazing quote by
legendary New York Yankeesmanager, Casey Stengel, who said
it's not the sex that wrecksthese guys, it's staying up all
night looking for it.

Shannon (15:02):
Ouch, need some ice for that.
Call the trainer Yikes.

Christine (15:07):
But he wasn't entirely wrong is that when
they're looking at thephysiological and the emotional
impact of sexual activity.
Actually, the research saysabstaining is going to tend to
make you if you're normally havea sexual active life,
abstaining is gonna make youfeel more frustrated and less
relaxed.
And so there's a physiological,mental and emotional benefit to

(15:30):
engaging in sexual activitybefore sports performance.
As we said, physiologicallyyou're gonna sleep better,
you're gonna be more relaxed.
So it's not about abstaining tokeep that edge.
It's actually enjoying sexualactivity to kind of be relaxed
and focused when you're gonnahave engaged in sports.

Shannon (15:48):
Well, and what you're also saying is that breaking
your routine is gonna lead tofrustration and it's gonna lead
to disconnect, and it's gonnayou're gonna feel off if that's
part of your routine and thenyou're abstaining, which is, I
guess, another reason why thewhole build-term thing is kind
of bullshit.

Christine (16:03):
And it's an interesting thing that it's
perpetuated, especially like incollege sports and college
athletics you're hearing.
You still say oh.
The other one that some of oursports fans will appreciate is
Buffalo Bills.
Coach Mark Levy, back in theday, told his players to abstain
from sexual activity before theSuper Bowl and, as some of you

(16:25):
might know, buffalo Bills lostfour Super Bowls in a row.

Shannon (16:30):
Sorry, Bills fans.

Christine (16:32):
So maybe that advice was exactly wrong and the
research success that thatadvice was in fact exactly wrong
.

Shannon (16:39):
What I find interesting about these studies and this
topic in general is it's such acommon theme that these athletes
are having a lot of sex right,I mean like in media.
But also lived experience ofathletes like that's the mojo is
like their big college athletesor their big you know whatever,
and it's always the connectionbetween being a big athlete and

(17:02):
being sexual and having a lot ofsex and having a lot of sexual
partners.
So it's interesting that theflip side of that is like oh,
it's gonna affect yourperformance because that's such
a common, you know, relationshipthat's talked about is like big
athlete, huge sex drive, youknow, has a ton of sex, has a
ton of partners.
But then there's also this flipside of it which is but it's

(17:22):
bad for you and you won'tperform well, like it's just.
I just think it's interestingbecause I, like I said, I
haven't really thought of themyth very much of like sex
negatively impacting yourathletic performance, but the
association between athletes andsex is one that is super common
and super well known.

Christine (17:37):
Well, we think about athletes.
You know athletes are generallygonna be very physically fit
and you know they're going tofeel, you know they spend time
connected to their bodies.
So that necessarily is alsogonna make them feel, would
necessarily could lead tofeeling sexual feeling, that
erotic energy.
And, honestly, athletes, youknow, attract people.

(17:58):
You know that's, there's acelebrity to it, even if you're
at I mean, even if you're at ahigh school level, right?
The jocks always got to date.
Yeah, Troy Bullen, I got it.
But right, high school level,college level, the athletes got
some attention, and so that iskind of culturally what tends to
happen.
And so I don't know, I wonder,I'm curious.

(18:19):
You know, the pushback fromcoaches maybe is to try to keep
their young athletes focused.

Shannon (18:25):
Focus, right?
I mean, that's what I wasthinking.
And then I was also thinking,as you talked through the
research, like is it amount ofsex?
Like has that been measured atall?
Because you know what, if like,yeah, like this athlete could
be having sex with multiplepeople, like it could be an orgy
, like you know, there's so manydifferent possibilities and I

(18:45):
think the reason it's likethat's a worthwhile question is
because that's also justspeaking to you know,
confounding variables right, butthat's not the normal, like
that's not the quote unquotenorm.
You're not expecting that everyathlete is going off and having
an orgy, but like that's kind of, I think, where there would be
some like yeah, you know what,if you are having sex 12 times
in one night, you're probablygoing to be tired tomorrow.

Christine (19:06):
Right.

Shannon (19:07):
Well, if you're engaging in an orgy, you're
probably going to be tiredtomorrow.
So it's the extremes of thosesituations.
You can have sex 12 times inone night, I'll be really
excited for you.
Well, welcome to the queercommunity everybody.

Christine (19:16):
But I know you have another question and the
question is is the research allabout?
Meh, I do have that question.
I knew it, I knew it.
One study looked at femaleathletes and that study
conclusively said improvesperformance.
And so there was a yes.
I see a cheer in the background.

(19:37):
Well, and interestingly, Ifound a quote from Canadian
downhill skier and Olympian,karen Lee, who said attributed
all their Olympic gold medals inpart to their pre-race
preparation.

Shannon (19:55):
I bet.

Christine (19:57):
So at least, like I said, small sample sizes, small
studies With the research Iwould go out on a limb as an
academic researcher saying thatright now there is no data to
show that sexual activity has anegative impact on perform.

Shannon (20:14):
I think we just disappointed a lot of athletes
out there that have been usingtheir spore as an excuse for why
they're not getting laid.

Christine (20:22):
You mean the new?

Shannon (20:22):
I have a headache, excuse is taken to I can't
actually have sex, it's notbecause I can get it anytime I
want, because I can, but I'm notbecause of the sports.

Christine (20:34):
Well, and let's talk a little bit though.
So there's, this is the myth,and we're debunking the myth.
But let's talk about the flipside exercise and sex.
We talk about research beingbidirectional.
So the bidirectionality thenbecomes is exercise good for
your sexual function and yoursexual activity?
Yeah, yeah, and it is.
It is it's endurance, well,endurance, yes, well, it's 13

(21:01):
minutes.
Endurance, endurance,flexibility.
Wait a minute, just 13 minutesreally required?

Shannon (21:06):
I don't know, it depends on who it is.
I mean, I would argue that forsome not fit, not athletic types
, 13 and a half minutes ofexercise is probably pretty
tough.

Christine (21:18):
Well, and you're you know you have a point.
There is that one of the, whenyou are looking at the studies
of sexual activity and athleticperformance, they are measuring
that in terms of performance,like not necessarily a specific
sport, but they're looking atcardiovascular health, muscle
strain, grip strength, how longyou can engage in some activity.

(21:40):
So, yeah, maybe we can talkabout exercise and sex both
being contributing tocardiovascular health.
Why not?
Yeah, Exercise it is, Though Ithink that it's not as much
exercise as many.
Certainly heterosexual WishWith life Wish it could be.

(22:02):
But what I'd like to also addabout this issue is to continue.
What we always talk about onthis podcast is to talk about
that sexual activity is aholistic or can be a holistic
experience, and so and we talkabout the psychological impacts,
we are talking about thosetypes of impacts that can be

(22:24):
positive, not just for sportsperformance, not just for
athletic performance, but forcognitive performance and which
means your brain and how you'rethinking.
And all of that with sexualactivity is about blood flow
relaxation, stress relief,sleeping better.
Research shows for painreduction If you're not in pain,

(22:46):
you're gonna enjoy sexualactivity more.
So all of those things are kindof intertwined and I'm gonna
say please, athletic coaches,please stop telling your
athletes that this is bad foryou?

Shannon (23:00):
Yeah, it's a weird one.
Be honest, Before we did thisepisode, I had never really
thought about that connectionbefore, but it's good to know
that it's bullshit and not worthputting more of my energy into.

Christine (23:08):
Well, and another caveat okay, the research says
it is not.
It is not the sexual activity,that's the issue, and Casey
Stengel wasn't that far off.
It's the fact that maybe you'restaying up all night or you're
drinking or you're engaging insome other types of substances
as part of that sexual activityRight the other behaviors, the

(23:29):
confounding variables that aremaking this as we can think
about what happens when you'regoing out on the town.
There's definitely other thingsthan just hey, let's just be
really quiet and do the thing.

Shannon (23:43):
The other thing you heard here first people.
Well, it's a really compellingpickup line.
Let's just be quiet and do thething.
Well, stay tuned for our nextepisode on Talking Dirty.

Christine (23:57):
We are.

Shannon (23:57):
We're gonna have an episode on sexual communication
and that's how I think, spoiler,it's not stay quiet and do the
thing.

Christine (24:05):
So, as just one other tiny caveat, there is a very,
very, very rare disorder that'scalled a post-orgasmic illness,
that there are a very, very,very, very, very small
percentage of male and femaleswho can experience flu-like
symptoms after orgasm.

(24:26):
That sucks so, but I thinkyou'd already know that.
So if you already know thatthat has happened to you, then
perhaps you should engage insome sexual activity of your
force-force performance, butthat it's like an itty-bitty,
tiny, rare thing that happens onsome occasion and it's
basically just makes you feellike you have the flu, which

(24:48):
does suck.
That sucks so bad.
But I don't wanna not mention it, because that would be saying
that there's zero data andthere's a shred of it.
That would suggest that there'ssome validity for a very, very,
very, very, very, very, very,very tiny part of the population
.

Shannon (25:05):
So that group notwithstanding, basically,
unless you've got orgasm fluquestion mark, you plan on
staying up all night looking forsexy time.
You stay up drinking orindulging in other substances
that you then blame on yoursexual activity.
Other than those things, it'stotally okay to engage in sexual
activity the night before thebig game.

Christine (25:24):
Just not right before kickoff or right before the
first date.
Not a viable warm-up For that.
30 minutes to two hours beforemaybe not so much.

Shannon (25:32):
There's just the urge 30 minutes before your game to
go get some.
Got it All right.
So sex it doesn't negativelyimpact your athletic performance
.
In fact there could be abi-directional positive
relationship between athleticperformance and sex and sex and
athletic performance, and atminimum it's not gonna make it
worse.

Christine (25:50):
Exactly, got it so clearly and I can say quite
definitively that is anothermyth Put to bed, put to bed.

Shannon (25:59):
Thanks so much for tuning in for this episode of
Sex and Debunked.
We'll be back next week with astudy session and, as always, if
y'all have any questions,comments or myths you'd like us
to debunk, reach out to us atsexeddebunkedgmailcom or she
does a message across any of thesocials at sexeddebunked.

Christine (26:16):
Take care everyone.

Shannon (26:17):
Go Pats, Ha ha ha.
["sex and Debunked"].

Christine (26:26):
Thanks for tuning in for this week's episode of Sex
and Debunked During the courseof our podcast.
We have limited time together,which means that, unfortunately,
many identities, groups andmovements may not be represented
each week.
The field of sexuality andgender orientations, identities
and behaviors are changing andgrowing rapidly, and we remain
committed to being as inclusiveas possible.

Shannon (26:48):
Please remember that all of us including us are
learning in this area and mayoccasionally slip up.
We ask that we all continue tobe kind to one another so that
we can create a truly inclusiveand accepting environment.
As always, if you have anyquestions or comments, please
feel free to reach out to us atsexeddebunkedgmailcom on
Instagram, facebook and Twitter.
["sex?

Christine (27:07):
and Debunked"].
Sexeddebunked is produced byTrailblaze Media in Providence,
Rhode Island.
Our sound producer is EzraWinters, with production
assistance from Shay Weintraub.
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