Just got the latest Edinburgh marathon newsletter and was suprised to read the following:
Good sex can increase your self-confidence and also increase your achievement potential. Bad sex can have the opposite effect. Sex modifies the hormonal balance and therefore affects your performance potential also.
For men, sex reduces testosterone levels and also lowers aggression. If you are happy your hormone levels increase and you can go into the event loose and rested. For men, sex before activities that are short and intensive is rather negative and sex before long persistent efforts (such as a marathon) is rather positive.
Women. Sex increases testosterone levels and with it, activity and aggressiveness. So with short distances sex can improve performance. For younger athletes, not making love can interfere with athletic performance. On the days/weeks leading up to the marathon, most athletes usually reduce their training runs and have extra energy. If they don't make love, they spend the night tossing and turning and wake up, exhausted.
The result of the oxford study was that on average the marathon runners who had sex on the day before the marathon were five minutes faster then the others. The searcher tested 2000 runners at the London Marathon.
It is clear that you need a rest of approximately 10 hours after sex and before the marathon – so plan ahead!!
O.
