Practicing yoga regularly has so many benefits associated with it. To start with, yoga is a great and calming form of exercise that can also help you build a strong core. It also has the power to improve your mental health, which is a nice bonus. But did you know that yoga can actually be great for your love life? It's true! Here's how that works: Yoga can help you get more flexible and it can also make you feel more connected to your body, as well as reduce your overall stress and anxiety (which are definitely not good for your love life).
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Whether or not you are looking for a way to improve the time you have between the sheets, yoga can definitely help even if you don't quite realize its full potential yet. According to Women's Health, a good yoga flow can help give your sex life a boost. How? Well, according to yoga instructor Tatiana Dellepiane, who is dedicated to helping women transform their sex lives, yoga can help women get in touch with their sexuality, build muscles, and learn movements that can "lead to more satisfying sex." And even if you're perfectly satisfied in that department at the moment, it certainly can't hurt to make things even more satisfying.
Orgasm yoga, or "O Yoga," is what Dellepiane calls her practice. She recommends that women begin with a set of four basic poses and then practice what is called "micro-movements." The point of micro-movements is to work with your hips and pelvic floor muscles to strengthen those all-important areas that are said to help you reach the Big O. Besides that, there are also five "secrets of O yoga" that Dellapiane teaches women to master. To learn how to use yoga to improve your sex life and give you better and stronger orgasms, here are all of the things you need to know.
What is O yoga?
Let's start with a definition of O yoga, shall we? Here's how Yoga Guide Magazine describes it:
"With slow circling hips and microcosmic orbits of the breath moving through the body, O Yoga, awakens sensuality, creativity and life-force energy, bridging the masculine and the Feminine within."
You can think of it as a blend of yoga, tantra, bellydance and burlesque.
According to Dellepiane, who spoke with Women's Health, orgasm yoga (or "O Yoga") focuses on small movements such as "sensual hip undulations of small circles, big circles, tilts and thrusts with squeezes that tighten and tone pelvic muscles for longer, stronger and deeper orgasms." Luckily, the workout isn't JUST for sexy times. It also "provides an incredible lower-body workout that torches calories and builds a strong core and abs," she said.
You must first learn how to master the bliss breath.
The first thing you need to do in order to master O Yoga is to practice the "bliss breath." You can do this by placing two fingers on your throat, then inhaling and exhaling deeply through your nose so that the back of your throat is constricted and creates a sensual whispering sound.
Try the Standing Goddess pose to begin your sexy yoga routine.
The first pose of O Yoga is called the Standing Goddess. What you'll need to do for this one is to stand with your back straight, your core engaged and your knees tight. Then you will want to do the three micro-movements:
- Tilt your hips forward and inhale as you squeeze your pelvic floor muscles, then exhale and release your hips back.
- Inhale as you rotate your hips in a small circle, then exhale and release. Do this moving your hips in both directions.
- Finally, inhale as you sit back on your hips as if you're in a chair (similar to a squat). Bring your arms forward, then exhale as you thrust your hips forward and bring your arms back to your sides.
There is also a secret squeeze you need to know.
To be truly good at O Yoga, you will need to master the secret squeeze. This is how you do it: You will want to place two fingers on your pubic bone and then squeeze your pelvic floor muscles. That's it!
The next move you need to learn is the Kneeling Goddess.
The second move to master, the Kneeling Goddess, is simple. You'll want to sit on your knees while keeping your shins and tops of the feet pressing into the floor. Then your micro-movements go like this:
- Inhale and tilt your hips forward, then exhale and release.
- Inhale and rotate your hips, exhale as you release and complete the circle. Do this in both directions again.
- Reach your arms up to the sky, then inhale as you raise your hips off your heels. Then exhale as you bring your arms down and tuck your elbows in as you exhale "Ha."
Learn to master small tilts for increased libido.
The third little trick to master is the small tilts. For this move, you'll want to inhale as you squeeze your hips forward and then exhale to release your hips back. This is the basis for some of the micro-movements you'll be doing during the actual yoga poses.
You need to master the Doggie Goddess move, too.
Begin this important O Yoga post by kneeing on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. From here, you will want to do the next micro-movements:
- Inhale as you tilt your tailbone up and then exhale as you tilt it down.
- Begin by moving your hips in small circles, at first with just your hips and pelvis, but then bring in your spine and head as well.
- Finally, start in child's pose (where you are sitting back on your heels) and then slowly transition into a cobra position (where you lean your chest upwards with your hands under your shoulders). Make sure to squeeze your pelvic floor muscles as you do these movements.
Raise your sexy senses with the microcosmic orbit.
You'll want to master another small move before trying O Yoga: the microcosmic orbit. This might sound a bit silly but it's really important to raising your awareness of your body during orgasm yoga. Here's what you do: You'll want to caress your body with a featherlight touch.
Finally, master the Bridge/Missionary Goddess move to set yourself up for success.
The last move you need to master for your O Yoga is the Bridge/Missionary Goddess. For this one, start by laying on your back with your knees bent and your feet hips width apart. Your arms should be laying by your sides and you should inhale and squeeze your pelvic floor, then tilt your tailbone (butt) towards your belly button as you lift your hips. Finally, do these micro-movements:
- While your hips are lifted, exhale as you dip your tailbone back towards the floor and then inhale as you lift your tailbone back up.
- While your hips are lifted again, rotate the tip of your tailbone in tiny circles for 20 seconds in one direction, then in the other direction for 20 seconds. Then exhale as you lower your spine back down to the floor.
- Once your spine is on the floor, inhale as you squeeze your pelvic floor and then lift your butt and hips all the way up.
What are the sensual benefits of the bridge pose?
The bridge pose is one of O yoga’s central movements. It is a movement that helps awaken the sexual energy that we all hold in our pelvis, which is our sexual center. Most of us really don't spend much time trying to get in touch with that energy or even focusing on that part of our bodies.
The last thing you need is to learn to do small hip circles.
Once you have mastered all of your yoga moves and all of the other starter moves, you will want to add small hip circles to your repertoire. What you will do here is inhale as you tilt forward, then undulate your hips from right to left. Finally, exhale to release your hips back and then repeat on the other side.
It's not just O yoga that can help in the bedroom.
Practicing any form of yoga helps with stress relief and relieving stress can have benefits in the bedroom. Once study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine followed 40 women who practiced yoga for 12 weeks. Granted the study had a very small sample size, but what it found was that "yoga appears to be an effective method of improving all domains of sexual functions in women." Nice!
Yoga can help you get in touch with what you like.
According to Lauren Zoeller, a certified yoga instructor and Whole Living Life Coach based in Nashville, Tennessee, yoga can improve your sex life because it helps you learn how to listen to your body. “Yoga teaches you how to listen to your body, and how to control your mind,” she says. “These two practices combined can bring you insight on what you like and dislike, leading you to better communicate what is best to your partner.”
Plus yoga can keep you in the moment.
Let's be real, real for a moment. How often do you find yourself in your head thinking about very unsexy things when your body should be occupied by the sexy things that are happening in the moment? Well, who can feel pleasure to the fullest extent when they aren't focusing on said pleasure? No one. But yoga can help.
“A regular yoga practice brings you into the awareness of the present moment which is very important when looking to boost your sex life,” Zoeller explains. "The more present you can become with your partner, the better the experience will be for both of you. Sex and yoga both benefit your physical, mental, and emotional state. Learn to practice them regularly for access to feeling your absolute best!”
