Radiate confidence with routines that take you from the mat to the sack
That’s right, I said “sex.” You’ve made it through the essential yoga poses and routines. You’ve altered your diet to help you be healthy and aware. You’ve mastered some poses and even have some sequences that you practice on a regular basis, and you feel slimmer, fitter, and more mentally balanced. You have officially graduated to the good stuff. It’s time to learn how yoga will rock your sex life! A 2010 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that yoga was effective in improving women’s desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, and sexual satisfaction, and in lessening sexual pain.
Yoga is the total trifecta: It unifies and improves the body, mind, and soul. Sex (or, I should say, really satisfying sex) is also a combination of all three.
First of all, it’s about having a strong physical connection with your partner. Sexual desire often boils down to instinctual, primal attraction. Once those pheromones kick in, bam—it’s time to communicate without words. But in addition to getting turned on by the sight of hot, rock-hard abs, truly great sex requires a mindfulness that goes deeper than the layer of touchable skin. One-night stands can feel thrilling and risqué, but a meaningful mind–body connection builds trust, which leads to safe sexual exploration. You’ll have the confidence to tell your partner what you like and don’t like. You’ll feel encouraged to try new things, or simply to enjoy the simplicity of the tried and true.
Once you have physical attraction and a deeper connection, you can dive into spirituality. A spiritual sexual connection takes you to a level where you and your partner share the same energy, even though you’re in different bodies—you truly become one, as they say. This takes sex beyond a physical act and into one of the deepest and purest ways to connect and share yourself with another person. It’s both pleasurable and meaningful, and yoga can help get you there.
Confidence, Energy, and Endurance
Wide Angle Seated Forward Bend
Nothing’s sexier than a confident partner. You can do squats till you can bounce a quarter off your butt, but if you don’t believe you’re sexy, it won’t translate to someone else. Practicing yoga blends the physical bonus of gaining strength and an attractive figure with the confidence that your body type is perfect and made just for you.
Once you truly believe you’re a sex goddess (because yeah—you are!), it’s time to jump-start Yoga Sex Boot Camp. You’ve got the attitude, now it’s time to train. Postures that strengthen your lower back will improve your ability to move and thrust without cramping or fatigue. Hip-opening postures increase the blood flood (hello, orgasm buddy!) and allow for a greater range of motion. Core strengtheners help you to sit, swing, and bounce longer and stronger. Put simply: More yoga equals more energy, which equals more (and better) sex!
Here’s a list of postures that can help to make your playtime last longer and be way more exciting.
1
Garland Wide with Palms
2
Bound Angle
3
Plank
4
Locust
1
Happy Baby
2
Wide Angle Seated Forward Bend
3
Half Moon
4
Puppy Dog Stretch
Start with Puppy Dog, then make these adjustments.
• Keep your arms straight.
• Press down into all 10 toes.
• Melt your chest and throat toward the ground.
Mary Clare’s parents introduced her to meditation at a very young age. As she grew up she started practicing yoga as a complement to her ballet and jazz classes. After struggling in her teenage years, she uncovered the secret of the yoga practice when she was in her twenties and began to fall in love with her life.
The practice of yoga has so much diversity that anything is truly possible; that coupled with this idea that we all have the same capacity for love, evolution, and experience is just one of the reasons that Mary Clare practices yoga. It also makes her feel strong and centered. Having a tendency to daydream and float off into outer space, she says the asanas keep her grounded in the present moment—where the past can’t hold her back and the future holds limitless possibilities.
The physical practice keeps our bodies in great shape but the mental practice is just as important. Mary Clare credits her positive disposition to the time she spends meditating in gratitude. She feels that when you focus on abundance, you invite more of what you want into your life than when you focus on the negative. She even attributes her good health and confident body image to yoga. She used to see her body as something that needed fixing. Now she simply checks in with her body to understand how she can serve it more effectively.
Mary Clare owns Lotus House of Yoga, a vinyasa studio in Omaha, Nebraska. The classes she leads are fun, challenging, and filled with love.
Maybe you brought sexy back, but you still can’t quite get on the same track as your partner. Broken lines of communication make it almost impossible to sync up in bed. We’re all living different, busy lives that don’t always mesh at home. You can sit there and talk it out until you’re blue in the face, but often a good shared yoga session is all you need. It helps to “speak” a language that transcends careers and opinions to find a way to reconnect.
When words fail you, unroll your yoga mats and practice moving and breathing together. Your heart rates will rise for long enough for you to sweat out stress and then lower again to calm your hearts (just in time to send those pulses racing again!). Yoga will help you to clear your minds and find what keeps you intertwined. Not to mention that breathing and sweating together is pretty compelling foreplay. Be playful, explore each other’s rhythms and bodies, and know that simply being in close contact with one another’s hearts can be extremely healing and enticing.
TIP
The simplicity of not talking (or nagging) and instead merely syncing your breath with your lover’s is a potent tool. The lack of visual cues and reliance on connection through touch and breathing will start to unify your two bodies for the ultimate act of unification.
1
Seated Meditation Bond
Sit in Comfortable Seat, with your backs pressed together. Sit up tall, gently pressing into each other’s body and back of your head. Rest your palms facing upward in your lap. Close your eyes and sync your breath, breathing slow, deep, and full inhales and exhales.
• Close your eyes.
• Rest your palms facing upward.
2
Seated Inner-Thigh Twist
Sit tall with your backs pressed together and reach your right arm towards their left thigh and your left arm onto your right thigh. Gently press down on the thigh or slide your hand to their inner thigh. Push your legs down with your hand as you sit tall and revolve your chest to the right. Repeat on the other side.
• Revolve your chest to the right.
• Sit tall with your backs pressed together.
3
Seated Partner Twist
Sit in either Comfortable Seat or Lotus Mudra facing each other, with your knees touching. Take your right arm behind your back and reach your hand toward your hip. Extend your left arm forward as you spiral your chest toward the right to grab your partner’s right hand. Gently pull on each other’s arms.
• Press hips into the ground.
• Lift your chest.
• Pull gently to keep chest open.
4
Buddha Straddle
Place yourself onto your partner’s lap facing him. Wrap your legs around his torso and bring your palms to both sides of each other’s heads.
• Cross your ankles.
• Close your eyes, lightly press the center of your brows together and sync your breathing.
5
Buddha Bliss
Sit in Buddha Straddle and grab each other’s forearms (or above the elbows). Root your hips down and engage your lower belly. Inhale deeply and lift your chest, then exhale, and lean back. Arch your chests and bring your arms to straight continuing to hold onto each other.
• Engage your lower belly.
• Root your hips down.
• Relax your throat.
6
Loving Embrace
Come into Bound Angle. Have your partner come into a wide legged Seated Forward Fold with the soles of his feet pressing into your ankles. Walk your arms and chest forward holding onto his thighs. Your partner should fold gently over your head and upper back to rest his arms on your lower back or hold your hips. Switch roles and repeat.
• Reach toward your partners lower back.
7
Digging for Diamonds
Start in Wide Angle Seated Forward Bend, facing one another. Press the outer edges of your heels into each other’s foot or inside of foot. Grab hold of each other’s forearms. One person should lean back as the other plants their hips into the ground and extends their chest forward with a flat back. Switch roles and repeat. Talk to each other about what feels good—when to go deeper and when to back off.
• Plant your hips into the ground.
8
Bound Blanket
Have your partner start in Bound Angle Pose. Come onto your knees behind your partner. Wrap your knees around his hips to help secure them into the ground. Place your palms onto his upper thighs. Switch roles and repeat.
• Extend your chest forward and up as you lean against his back.
• Gently press down.
9
Pretzel Savasana
Have your partner lie on his back with his legs spread hip width apart. Sit facing your partner directly in front of his pelvis and drape your legs over his hips so that your feet rest along the sides of his chest. Lie back and rest for 5 minutes. Afterward, massage each other’s feet, then help each other up into a seated embrace.
• Relax your neck and close your eyes.