Friday 15 January, 2010Sex may give athletes aerobic, psychological edge

When it comes to love, athletes are just as romantic as the next guy. That is, as long as they don't have a big game the next day. An energetic romp between the sheets the night before a competition, some athletes and coaches say, can lead to poor performance the following day.

Muhammad Ali is one of those athletes. He reportedly practised abstinence starting several weeks before a big fight, claiming no sex made him meaner, tougher and harder to beat.

Jim Popp, the former coach of the Montreal Alouettes, is one of those coaches. In an interview before the 2006 Grey Cup game between the Alouettes and the B.C. Lions, Popp said he planned to ask his players to abstain the night before the big game.

Are Popp's and Ali's beliefs born of science? Or, is the no nookie rule simply a myth that has become part of sporting lore?

In an October 2000 editorial published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, Montrealers Ian Shrier and Samantha McGlone attempted to answer both questions.

"Of the 31 articles we retrieved, only three were scientific studies (all physiological). All of these studies suggested sex the night before competition does not alter physiological testing results."

That means there's no data to support Ali's belief that abstinence breeds aggression. In fact, researchers have found the exact opposite. Sexual activity actually increases, not decreases testosterone levels.

As for the claim that sex taps athlete's energy stores, once again research indicates otherwise.

A 1995 study published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness studied 11 men who did and didn't have sex 12 hours before getting on a treadmill and working to exhaustion. No difference was noted between the results, suggesting a sexual tryst the night before doesn't affect aerobic power.

A similar study was performed in 2000, again published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, this time featuring 15 high-level male athletes (eight team players, five endurance athletes and two wrestlers). Each performed an aerobic test to exhaustion and a mental concentration test at varying time frames after sex.

A slightly increased heart rate was present in the aerobic test performed two hours post intercourse, but no lingering mental or physical effects were noted 10 hours after sex, leading the researchers to conclude "sexual activity had no detrimental influence on the maximal workload achieved and on the athletes' mental concentration."

In fact, there is little to indicate athletes in top condition would be affected by a little aerobic activity when the lights go out. At best, experts suggest sex burns about four calories a minute. And just to be clear, that calorie burn occurs only during the, uh, more aerobic component of the act. The warm-up and cool-down that accompanies sex burns far fewer calories. I'll leave you to calculate the average calorie burn that you and your partner achieve, but Shrier and McGlone estimate from start to finish most married couples burn about 25 to 50 calories during a night of passion - the equivalent of walking up a flight of stairs.