femalenetwork.com

You’re standing in front of the mirror naked, cringing at the sight of that stubborn bulge. After two months of Tae-bo, three months of weight training, and that brief sting you had with step aerobics, it still doesn’t wanna go away. Aside from all this exercising, what’s left for you to do?

Fitness experts agree that to shed off that extra weight, you should make every moment an exercise moment. By integrating exercise into your daily routine, you burn extra calories with little effort. How? They advise taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work; carrying your purchases in a basket instead of pushing a cart at the grocery store; or even parking your car in a far away slot when you go shopping so you’re forced to walk the distance to the entrance. But there’s another sweat-inducing activity a lot of fitness experts seem to have overlooked: sex!

Pairing Off
It takes two to tango—and to make this workout work. If you already have a partner in mind, then you can skip this section and get on with your workout. However, if you are currently unattached, a word of warning: finding a partner is no easy task.

To reap more than just physical rewards from this workout, you must find yourself a perfect match—in and out of the bedroom. The success of this program ultimately depends on the willingness of both parties to work hard at achieving their weight loss goals. What’s the most important criteria for choosing a partner? He should have about the same amount of stamina as you do.

The worst thing you can do is pair up with someone who is at a different fitness level than you are. Twenty-three-year-old Janine, a firm believer in the sex for weight loss program, shares her story. “I was going out with a soccer player when I was your classic couch potato. Halfway into it, I’d already be tired. He was the Energizer bunny and I was a vegetable. It was quite embarrassing.”

Marianne, 24, had the opposite problem. “I work out three times a week but my boyfriend (now an ex) hated to exercise. It was funny because sometimes when we were having sex, he was already wheezing when I was just starting to get into it. The weight loss thing would have never worked on me.”

But stamina isn’t the only key to success. Your partner should also be someone with whom you can schedule regular workout sessions with. And because we are looking at this workout as a permanent lifestyle change, your partner should be willing to stick it out long-term.

The Warm Up
Just like any other workout, preparing for sex requires the necessary warm-up. Of course, you could always jump right into the “main event”, but then you wouldn’t be burning the maximum amount of calories. So for weight loss purposes, ease into cardio-vascular activity through prepping, primping, and light stretching.

Teresa, a 26-yaer-old fitness instructor, lost seven pounds in two months from sexual activity. She begins her “workout” with a shower and a scrub.

Says Teresa, “You can do this alone or with your partner. All you need is a loofah or a small face towel, some bath gel, and warm water. Begin at the neck, scrubbing every square inch of your skin in a circular motion all the way down to your feet.” The main purpose of this prepping process is to get your blood circulating, but your partner will surely appreciate your soapy fresh scent.

To improve your flexibility, you can also do some simple stretching exercises, like lunges, pliés, or side stretches. An added bonus: it puts your muscles in the mood for some mind-blowing aerobics!

Fast forward to foreplay. Here, there is no standard routine. Depending on the mood, you can start with some light smooching and escalate to something more sweat-inducing. Just to give you an idea of the importance of foreplay in the weight loss process, here are a few startling figures. According to Richard Smith in his book The All-New Dieter’s Guide to Weight Loss During Sex (Workman Publishing, 1995), gentle teasing can burn thirteen calories while frantic groping can burn up to forty.

If you decide to pick up the pace, chasing each other around the bedroom for thirty minutes while pretending to be Tarzan and Jane may be equivalent to the same amount of time on the treadmill. For high impact aerobic foreplay, chase each other up and down the stairs.

Let’s Get Physical!
Like most aerobic workouts, even sex has different levels. Start with basic positions, like the missionary position or the woman-on-top position, adding extra gyrations and contracting your abs with each thrust. From there, you can challenge your body with more complicated positions for variety. Here, some samples from Cosmo’s Kama Sutra 2 to test your talents:

If you’re feeling extra flexible, you can try the Face-to-Face Fandango. Lie on the floor face-up with your legs bent under your thighs and your arms raised over your head. (Or you can start by kneeling down with your legs tucked in under you, and slowly lie back.) Your man should position himself on top of you with his legs straight and his hands gripping your shoulders for support.

This position will help to stretch and tone your quads. With each thrust, arch your back, using your hands as support. This will give you a great lower back stretch. (This position is not recommended for those with back injuries.) Remember to tuck in your stomach and keep your abs and buttocks contracted at all times. Use your ab muscles to power your thursts.

The Couch Canoodle gives you a great tricep workout since you will be supporting your own body weight. How is it done? Have your partner sit back on a couch or comfortable chair. Sit on top of him, straddling his lap with your knees bent and your feet flat on the couch. Then, slowly lean backward using your hands as support until you’re almost upside-down. Your knees should be pushed up against his chest and your hands should be touching the ground.

Keeping your abs and your buttocks contracted, thrust back and forth at your own pace. To work your inner thighs, open and close your legs with each thrust using your own weight as resistance. Make sure to use your ab muscles to power each thrust and don’t forget to clamp your PC muscles (more commonly known here as “muscle control”, or contracting your muscles to simulate holding in your urine) too—especially when he’s about to peak. He’ll thank you for it.

If you need help getting your creative juices flowing, use guides like the Kama Sutra to help you out. And if you want to know which muscle group your position’s working, simply observe where you can feel the pull.

Just how effective are these acts of orgasmic Olympics? Very. “My husband has this shirt with a sexual position to represent each sign of the zodiac,” says Ja Ja, 28. “He brought it with him when we spent a week in Boracay. After just three days of devoting our time to completing all the positions on the shirt, I noticed that all the board shorts I brought became a little loose for me.”

Of course, it will probably take more than three days to shed off significant inches. But if you are blessed with a quick metabolism, and you add regular trips to the gym to your sexercise routine, you’ll surely get results. It all depends on the duration and intensity of each workout session.

Keep in mind that it is at this stage that you should be burning the bulk of your calories. And although there is no standard routine, for your sexual encounter to qualify as a cardiovascular workout, you have to experience an increase in your heart rate to 140 to 180 beats per minute for at least twenty minutes.

Post-Coital Procedures
The main event has passed—and you’re all worked out. It’s time to lower your heart rate. You can start your cool down with some simple snuggling techniques. You and your partner can lie face to face, peacefully staring into each other’s eyes. Or you can try spooning each other to sleep (He wraps his arms around you from behind or vice versa). The figures according to Smith: Gazing into each others’ eyes burns five calories; nuzzling burns nineteen calories.

The best part of the cool down? It allows you to start your workout all over again. But no matter how many times you romp and rest, sexercise is still not a substitute for your regular exercise routine. Making sex a workout is simply another way of getting lean and limber through daily activity. Moreover, the amount of extra calories you burn by doing it ultimately depends on you. And what if you’re going through a dry spell? Well, then you’re just going to have to stick to taking the stairs.