Shape Up To Get Down

With Valentine’s Day approaching, it’s not too late to get your body aligned with your heart. Consistent smart exercise enhances your sex life at any age. But consistent smart exercise does more than just maintain or improve your cardiovascular function. It also creates and maintains proper hip mobility for what is a hip-centric activity. Additionally, smart exercise keeps you healthy, which maintains desire as you age. Lastly, taking care of yourself increases confidence, making sex more fun.

The Do’s and Don’ts

1. Do be consistent. The “secret” to success in fitness is consistency. Two to 4 days a week and 45 to 60 minutes per day is all it takes to get great results.

2. Don’t be excessive. Training for more than 60 to 90 minutes, as in marathon preparation, can dampen desire by suppressing the production of sex hormones.

3. Do a hip flexor stretch every time you work out – if not every day – for at least 30 seconds. This will improve your ability to do hip extension, which is the most important action in lovemaking.

4. Don’t be imbalanced. Don’t spend an hour just on strength, or just on endurance or just on flexibility. An hour is enough time to properly address all three.

5. Do deadlift. Deadlifts work your core and pelvic floor and add strength to your hip extension. Additionally, deadlifting increases or maintains sex hormone production, boosting desire and performance.

6. Don’t think fitness is about looking “perfect.” Sure, regular exercise helps you look and feel better, but perfection is mostly an illusion created with lighting and Photoshop (and more).

7. Do push ups and planks. These exercises create strength, stability and endurance in the muscles that are important for many positions.

8. Don’t push to “failure.” Like working too long, pushing too hard can suppress hormone production, decreasing desire and performance.

9. Do high-intensity interval training. Sex is an anaerobic (relatively intense) activity, and having specific stamina makes things more fun. Try intense bursts of cycling, jumping rope or running for 30 to 60 seconds, followed by 30 to 60 seconds of recovery. Do five to six minutes of this at the end of your workouts.

A best-selling author and fitness expert with 16 years of experience, Josef Brandenburg owns The Body You Want club in Georgetown. Information about his 14-Day Personal Training Experience may be found at TheBodyYouWant.com.