What's a coregasm and how do I have one?
The best gym move you’ve never heard of is only a plank away. Okay, we’re exaggerating, but planking is actually a pretty good way to try to experience a coregasm. For the uninitiated, a coregasm is an orgasm that happens spontaneously, while you’re doing a core exercise or workout. Yes, really
Thought to affect around 10% of women while exercising, coregasms have been the subject of studies since the 1950’s, when Alfred Kinsey first reported on them in his work on human sexual behaviour in 1953.
You can’t really plan a coregasm or exercise related climax, they just sort of happen. Or at least that’s what we’re led to understand, and what women who experience them will tell you. So why do they happen, and why are they linked to core exercises?
What is a coregasm?
When you engage your core AKA your abdominal muscles, back muscles and muscles around your hips and pelvis, you also contract the pelvic floor muscles. This hammock of muscles wraps around the bladder, the uterus - basically everything below the belt - and is responsible for the contractions that feel good when you orgasm.
When you do kegels, “tuck your tailbone under” during a yoga class or rotate your hips, you might experience a vaguely pleasant sensation. This is because the pelvic muscles are being engaged. Squeezing your butt muscles might also have this effect and doing so can make your orgasms during sex or masturbation feel way more intense.
But unlike an orgasm achieved through sex or solo pleasure, a coregasm is kind of an asexual response. It doesn’t happen because you’re turned on. It’s usually a spontaneous event that occurs because the muscles are firing and becoming fatigued. However, it is possible to control, as Lorena Savvidou, a Personal Trainer at private wellness studio CHALK tells us.
“It can also happen spontaneously, as it basically involves the contraction of the pelvic floor muscles, which is mimicking the involuntary action of the muscles during an orgasm,” says Savvidou. “But women that have a deep understanding of their body, movement and breathing, that are able to engage their pelvic floor, have a higher chance of being able to experience a coregasm, but also to control it, or intentionally achieve it.”
“The pelvic floor muscles contract and relax involuntarily during an orgasm so the stronger your pelvic floor is, the stronger your orgasms. It should be noted that the pelvic floor is not only the key to better and bigger orgasms, but it is also responsible for supporting and stabilising your spine and providing support to the bladder, bowel, and uterus, and maintaining bladder and bowel control. So, coregasms equals a strong pelvic floor which equals a healthy pelvic floor!”
How to have a coregasm
Obviously everyone’s body is different and responds differently to stimulation, but the rules of exercising your core are fairly finite and straightforward. When it comes to coregasms, holding in your belly button to your spine to engage your core muscles is key. Most yoga, pilates and strength training moves require a tensing of your abdominals and flexibility in the hips.
The trick is also in repetition, you want to be repeatedly working the abs and pelvic muscles until they start to feel tired. Then, when you feel a coregasm coming on, carry on with your reps and let the sensation flow through you.
Of course, you don’t have to be lifting heavy weights for a coregasm to hit. One gym goer - who shall remain anonymous per her request for privacy in the gym, explains how she had her first experience of an exercise-induced orgasm while running on a treadmill. “I was just doing my warm up. I run for about 15 or 20 minutes to get my heart rate up before I do anything else in the gym. This was about ten years ago and I had no idea what was happening to me. I usually run at a manageable pace and then amp up the speed for a sprint for the last few minutes. I was sprinting and I felt this weird pleasant feeling in my lower belly and it hit my whole body. I just ran through it and it felt amazing.”
What are the best exercises for a coregasm?
If you’re not sure where to start with all this, Lorena Savvidou suggests first finding your pelvic floor muscles. Try squeezing upwards, as though you’re sucking liquid through a straw in your vagina. Don’t actually put a straw in your vagina, just imagine it. You can also mimic the action of stopping your pee stream and letting it go again. That lifting sensation you feel? That’s your pelvic floor. The trick is to engage this along with the rest of your core while you’re exercising.
“Start by tightening your pelvic floor 10 times, holding for two seconds at a time.” advises Savvidou. “Do not hold your breath, tuck in your stomach or clench the glutes while doing so. This is one set. Try to do three sets a day and every few days or every week and try to hold for a few more seconds at a time, until you can hold at least 10 seconds at a time.”
Once you’re used to working these muscles, you can turn to your attention to a full workout and see whether a coregasm occurs. Unless of course, a little pelvic floor action is all you’re looking for. In which case, stick with those kegels and keep your muscles healthy.
“Some of the most famous exercises to achieve coregasm include exercises that require stability and challenge your balance.” says Savvidou. “So try the likes of Bird-Dog, Bridge, Plank, Side Plank, Pelvic Tilts. If you have a strong pelvic floor, you can try a pelvic tilts workout. Pilates breathing patterns can also help - make sure you keep your mind focused on the breathing and perform the tilts rhythmically.”
And don’t beat yourself up if you can’t achieve a coregasm - we put ourselves under enough pressure at the gym as it is! Your muscle strength, how tired you feel, how distracted and how well your breath is circulating through your body can all affect the sensation of your muscles and the efficacy of your workout.
It’s also important to remember that yes, exercise is supposed to make us feel good and boost our endorphins, however, having orgasms all over the gym is something your fellow gym goers didn’t ask for. Always be respectful of others and their space when you’re in a gym or fitness studio.
You Might Also Like
