Better-Sex Homework You'll Actually Enjoy

This is a no-brainer: The better we feel about how our bodies look and perform, the more we want to show them off. But researchers have found an even more direct link between the gym and the genitals: Certain types of exercise can make women feel excited and even orgasmic. More than 200 women reported in a 2010 online survey that they had experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure, says study author Debby Herbenick, a research scientist at Indiana University and author of Sex Made Easy. The most titillating moves were abdominal exercises like the captain's chair (in which you lift your lower body by contracting the obliques and pelvic muscles), spinning (which causes friction between the bike seat and the pelvis) and yoga. Many of the women surveyed also enjoyed watching themselves perform strengthening and flexibility moves in the mirror. It's possible that going to the gym can stimulate women so that they're more easily and enthusiastically aroused by their partner when they get home, says Herbenick.