The Night Before Your Fight: Should There Be Sex?
Fighters and their coaches have struggled with
these questions for years. Should there be sex during training for a big fight? Should there be sex the night before the big
fight?
Muhammad Ali during his fight career would end
his sexual activities six weeks before his fight. Sugar Ray Leonard on the opposite
end of the stick reported to Ring Magazine that he continued to have sex up to fight time and it never affected his performance. Legendary fight trainer Cus D’ Amato explained that sex and fighters do not
mix during training for a big fight. Trainer Emmanuel Stewart agreed. I have
read the various boxing forums across the internet and the opinions vary but this is a subject that fighters and managers
seem to enjoy discussing.
I decided to do a little research on the subject
to see if there was factual information on the subject and my search ended with two articles from WebMD and NationalGeographic.com.
It turns out that sex is probably good for you
and will give your athletic performance a boost. Dulce Zamora in her article, “Eat Exercise, Relax and Sleep Your Way
To Better Sex” in WebMd reported, “Being physically active can be a natural Viagra boost, according to the American
Council on Exercise (ACE), which recommends 20 to 30 minutes of moderate exertion a day. “Men and women who exercise
regularly are going to have increased levels of desire,’ says Cedric Bryant, PhD, ACE’s chief exercise physiologist.
“They’re going to have enhanced confidence, enhanced ability to achieve orgasm, and greater sexual satisfaction.” Dulce notes …”Studies show that regular, moderate exercise carry positive
benefit on major sexual problems, such as erectile dysfunction in men and low libido in both men and women.”
In NationalGeograhic.com, Sex and Sports: Should
Athletes Abstain Before Big Events? Stefan Lovgren reports, “Athletes have long perpetuated the theory that sex before
competition zaps energy. Muhammad Ali, for one, reported he wouldn’t make
love for six weeks before a fight. But scientists say there is no physiological evidence to suggest that sex before competition
is bad. In fact, some studies suggest that pre-sports sex may actually aid athletes by raising their testosterone levels,
for example.
It is unclear, however, what psychological effects
sex may have on an athlete’s performance. Some scientists suggest that abstinence could help some athletes concentrate
better.
‘There are two possible ways sex before
competition could affect performance...’ said Ian Shrier, a sports medicine specialist at McGill University
in Montreal, Canada. ‘First, it could make you tired and weak the next day,’ ‘This has
been disproved.
‘The second way is that it could affect
your psychological state of mind. This has not been tested,’ he said.”
In the same article, NationalGeoographic.com notes
that Shrier published an editorial titled, “Does Sex the Night Before Competition Decrease Performance?” in the
Journal of Sports Medicine. He wrote that there was a myth that abstinence and sexual frustration led to increased aggression. Which the belief was strongly associated with boxing and football. He goes further
that some sports experts believed that ejaculation brings more aggression from the body.
Emmanuelle A. Jannini of the University of L’
Aquila in Italy, a professor of endocrinology,
the study of bodily secretions and has studied effects of sex on athletic performance, found that sex actually stimulates
the production of testosterone, thus boosting aggression.
Janni adds, “After three months without
sex, which is not uncommon for some athletes, testosterone dramatically drops to levels close to children’s levels,
he said ‘Do you think this may be useful for a boxer?’
National Geographic explains that “Scientists
dismiss the idea that sex the night before the competition has a tiring effect on the athlete or that it could weaken the
athlete’s muscles.
Lovemaking, after all, is not a very demanding
exercise. In general sexual intercourse between married partners expends only
25 to 50 calories, about the energy it takes to walk up two flights of stairs.
Sexual activity helps combat muscle pain or other
sports injuries in women, according to Barry Komisaruk, a psychology professor at Rutgers
University in Newark, New Jersey.
His studies have found that sexual stimulation
in women produces a powerful pain-blocking effect. The effect, he says can last
for up to a day in the case of chronic pain such as muscle pain. ‘At least
one of the mechanisms by which [sex] blocks pain is that it blocks the release of [a neuropeptide called] substance P, which
is a pain transmitter,’ he said.
Komisaruk has found that vaginal stimulation has
a strong effect on muscle tension in the legs, increasing it in some women and decreasing it in others.”
To conclude, there are no problems with sex before
a big fight. Recent studies by these leading experts shows that the right diet, exercise and sexual activities lead to aggressive
performance and in some cases a healing effect among women’s muscles, the age old argument that sex before a big fight
is bad for you is simply a myth.
So remember…
KEEP YOU GUARD UP AND KEEP MAKING LOVE!!!
