10 Stretches For A Better Sex Life
Most people know that stretching offers benefits such as prevening workout injuries, increasing range of motion, and keeping muscles flexible, but did you know that certain stretches can boost your sex life as well?
Here, we’ll take a look at 10 delicious, effective stretches that can help you take things to the next level in the bedroom.
Want a Better Sex Life? Try These 10 Stretches
Stretching helps prevent our range of motion from becoming restricted and gets blood moving through the pelvic area when you stretch your hips and legs. This increase in blood flow can have a positive impact on arousal.
Better yet, these stretches don’t require hours in the gym every day. Simply do them regularly at home, a yoga studio, or a pilates studio such as The Pilates Lab, and start enjoying the benefits!
1. Hip Lift
Best For Improving – When you are on bottom. While this may seem like an easy position, you still need strong hamstrings and glutes for thrusting and lifting.
How to Do a Hip Lift – Lie on your back on a soft surface such as carpeting or a yoga mat and put your arms at your sides. Raise your legs until they are perpendicular to your torso and pointed straight up toward the ceiling. Make sure your knees are aligned over your hips. If needed, you can bend your knees, but straight legs have the added benefit of stretching your hamstrings at the same time.
Next, use your deep core muscles to pull your navel toward your spine and take a deep inhale. As you exhale, lift your hips a few inches off the floor while maintaining legs pointed straight to the ceiling. Avoid lifting your head. Slowly, in a controlled motion, inhale and lower your hips back to the floor.
Watch and Learn – How To Do a Hip Lift
How Often – Repeat 10 times to 20 times total. Do three or four times per week.
Why It Works – This move works on strengthening deep abdominals muscles, stretching the hamstrings, and is less stressful on the back than typical ab exercises such as crunches.
2. Downward Dog
Best For Improving – All positions!
How To Do Downward Dog – Come onto your hands and knees on a soft surface or yoga mat. Spread your fingertips and press firmly into the floor with your hands.
Engage your shoulders as you lift your knees away from the floor. It is fine to keep your knees slightly bent if needed or straighten them (be sure not to lock your knees). Lengthen your tailbone and lift it toward the ceiling, keep a flat back, and aim to press your heels into the floor. Press fingertips actively into the floor. Be sure to keep your abdominals engaged.
Hold for 5 to 10 breaths before returning to your hands and knees.
Watch and Learn – How To Do Downward Facing Dog
Why Downward Dog Works – This calming pose relaxes the mind while invigorating the body – great for sex! It also helps you feel long, strong, and quite sexy as you bend over and lift your butt in the air.
Visually, it also puts you in a position where you are staring directly at your groin and hips and can be an excellent moment to appreciate your body, what it is capable of, and how beautiful it is.
How Often – Do several rounds of this relaxing pose anytime you need to clear your head and wake up your shoulder muscles, ideally completing it at least 3 to 4 times a week.
3. Cat/Cow Stretch
Best For Improving – Doggy Style
How to Do It – On a soft surface, get on your hands and knees with shoulders directly above the wrists. Round your shoulders down as you push through your arms and round your back toward the ceiling. Chin should be tilted down. This is the “cat” portion of the stretch (pictured below).
For “cow”, remain on your hands and knees as you transition to an arched back, tilt your face up, and push your butt out and up as much as possible.
Watch and Learn – How To Do Cat/Cow Stretch
How Often To Do It – Aim to do 10 reps of cat/cow stretch per day.
Why Cat/Cow Stretching Help Improve Sex – This stretch encourages shoulder and arm stability and also promotes a new range of motion in the hips as you practise it more.
It can also help strengthen the Kegel muscles (the ones that contract during orgasm) as you control your tailbone when moving from the cat to cow position. Stronger Kegels mean the potential for stronger, more controlled orgasms.
You can also have some extra fun with this stretch and try slightly tilting your pelvis up and down next time you are in doggy style.
4. Butterfly Stretch
Best for Improving – All positions!
How To Do the Butterfly Stretch – Sit on a comfortable surface. Sit up tall and straight as you bring the soles of your feet together and open your knees to the side and toward the floor. Grasp your feet and ankles. Lean forward slightly if desired.
To deepen the stretch, aim to bring your heels as close to the midline of your body as possible and your knees as close to the floor as possible. Hold the stretch for 10 breaths. This pose can also be completed lying on your back.
Watch and Learn – How To Do the Butterfly Stretch
Bedroom Benefits of the Butterfly Stretch – This move is great for stretching the inner thighs, improving blood flow to the pelvis, and opening the hips for a wider range of motion. It also helps increase feelings of openness and intimacy.
How Often – Aim to do this stretch every other day.
5. Pigeon Pose
Best For Improving – Pretty much any position!
How To Do Pigeon Pose – Once you are comfortable in downward dog, begin in this position. Raise your left leg as high as you can while keeping hips square before bending it as you bring it forward under your chest and toward your left wrist. Angle your left shin under your torso while bringing your left foot to the front of your right knees, behind your left hand.
To protect your knees, keep your left foot flexed. Bend your knees as much as needed to make sure you are comfortable. It is important to protect the knees in this pose to avoid irritating the joint.
Lower the outside of your left buttock to the floor and position your left heel so it is in front of your right hip. Avoid putting any weight on your left hip. Place your hands on either side of your leg for stability and comfort. Hold for 4 to 5 breaths before carefully returning to down dog.
This move can feel tricky for beginners, so it may be best to watch a How To Do Pigeon Pose video if you are not already familiar with it.
Bedroom Benefits of Pigeon Pose – Pigeon pose is an excellent stretch for releasing tension in the hips and relaxing the entire body. By bringing awareness to the present moment, this pose can enhance your ability to tune out other thoughts and enjoy some intimacy with your partner.
How Often – This is a great move to incorporate into your stretching routine at least 3 to 4 times a week.
6. Frog Stretch
Best For – Basically any sex position where you’ll need to spread your legs wide, straddle another person, or be on all fours.
How to Do Frog Stretch – On a comfortable surface, get on all fours. Place your forearms down on the floor, keeping elbows directly under shoulders. Spread your legs as wide as comfortably possible, lift knees a few inches off the floor, and begin gently rocking back and forth.
Continue rocking for 30 seconds before coming back to all fours, resting, and getting back into the stretch for another 30 seconds of rocking.
Watch and Learn – How To Do Frog Stretch
How Often – Repeat for 3 or 4 rounds (with 30 seconds of rest between each round) every other day.
Why It Works – The frog stretch helps open the hips and encourage flexibility in the adductor muscles, meaning it will help you spread your legs wider. Along with added flexibility, this move also engages the core and glute muscles.
7. Deep Yogi Squat
Best For Improving – Woman on top. Ever find yourself running out of steam during cowgirl? This is your move!
How to Do Deep Yogi Squats – This move, also known as Melasana, begins in wide stance position (standing up straight, with feet farther than hip width apart). With feet angled at 45 degrees, lower into a deep squat, keeping your shoulders stacked over hips, knees behind toes, and butt straight toward the ground. Lift your butt and hips a couple of inches until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
Hold until it burns… and then hold some more! To get back into a standing position, press heels into the floor and use your leg muscles to thrust yourself back up.
Watch and Learn – How To Do A Deep Yogi Squat
How Often – Repeat 5 times, resting in between, about three to four times per week.
Bedroom Benefits of Deep Yogi Squats – This move reigns supreme in terms of improving strength and flexibility for woman on top! Get ready to build your stamina, strengthen your thigh muscles and glutes, and take control.
8. Bridge
Best For Improving – All positions
How To Do Bridge Pose – On a comfortable surface or yoga mat, lie on your back. Bend your knees, keeping soles of feet flat on the ground, hip-width apart, and keep your knees in line with your ankles. Keep lower back pressed firmly into the mat and keep core engaged.
Inhale as you lift your hips toward the ceiling, engage your glutes, then exhale as you squeeze your stomach toward your spine and empty your lungs of air.
Hold for 10 deep inhales and exhales. You can also lift up, hold for a breath, lower back down, and come right back up. Repeat 10 to 20 times.
Watch and Learn – How To Do Bridge Pose
Benefits of Bridge Pose For the Bedroom – Along with providing an excellent stretch for the hip flexors, this move also helps tone the deep abdominals (focus on squeezing your abs toward your spine as you exhale). It also helps tone the vaginal muscles for potentially stronger orgasms. In fact, holding bridge pose imparts similar benefits to Kegels.
How Often – Do this pose 3 to 4 times a week
9. Seal Pose
Best For Improving – When you are experimenting with a new position
How to Do Seal Pose – This is a rather complicated pose (be sure to watch the how to video on how to do it) but well worth the effort!
On a mat or comfortable surface, sit back on your heels with the tops of your feet flush to the floor. Reach your arms behind your back, exhale, and interlace your fingers, pressing your chest outward. Work on squeezing your shoulder blades together and pulling your shoulders away from your ears. Arch your chest to the ceiling and exhale as you hinge forward to lower your forehead slowly to the mat.
With fingers still interlaced behind your back, lift your arms up as high as comfortably possible. Inhale as you lift your hips and roll onto the crown of your head. Hold for two to six deep breaths.
How Often – Do this pose three to four times per week.
Why Seal Pose Can Improve Your Sex Life – The lower back gets a lot of use during sex! This move helps prep and strengthen it to help prevent pulled muscles and keep you going.
10. Low Crescent Lunge Pose
Best For Improving – Any position!
How to Do Low Lunge Pose – From downward dog, lift your left leg toward the ceiling before bending your knee and swinging it under you to the front of the mat. You can also begin this move from runner’s lunge — as demonstrated in this tutorial. Keep the sole of the foot relaxed and in line with the knee as you let your pelvis sink toward the floor.
Lengthen through the crown of your head as you extend your arms overhead toward the ceiling.
Hold for five deep breaths before placing hands on the floor and moving your foot back behind you. Repeat on right side for one set.
How Often – Do three sets three times a week.
Bedroom Benefits of Low Lunge – This move is excellent for engaging and strengthening the pelvic floor and opening the hips. It also helps open the heart – especially important if you spend your days hunched forward at a desk. Opening your heart can also help you connect better with your partner, enjoy the experience more fully, and get yourself out of an energetically closed state of mind.
Ready To Stretch?
I hope these poses leave you excited to get stretching and see for yourself if they translate to any benefits in the bedroom. Remember to listen to your body, respect your limits, and take your time learning these poses. As you practice more, you will gradually notice an improvement in your flexibility… and hopefully your bedroom adventures too!
For more tips on how to have the strongest orgasms to loving your body to the best sex toys, please feel free to browse my blog or join my private Facebook group where no question or topic is off limits!
A Special Note – While stretching isn’t often thought of as typical exercise, it does count. As with any change to your exercise regime, it is recommended to consult with your healthcare professional before getting started.