Coregasm: Why it happens, how to have one & more

It's a unique phenomenon that was first mentioned by a famous sexologist, Dr. Alfred Kinsey, in the 1950s. In his book Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, he noted that young men and women use muscle tension without direct genital touch as a way to masturbate. Around 5% of respondents he and his colleagues studied reported experiencing sexual pleasure from exercise [1].

In recent years, popular magazines and Internet blogs have described exercise-induced orgasms, frequently identifying them as “coregasms.” Up until the 2010s, when the first official research on the topic started to show up, most of the data we had on coregasms was anecdotal. Exercise-induced orgasms (EIO) are wildly underresearched to this day. Despite having very little understanding about coregasms or why they occur, we know they are real and happen to enough people for us to believe it may be something more common than we think.

In our article, we'll discuss everything we know so far about what coregasms are, why they happen, who can have them, and how to have them (or avoid them) if you're curious to experience one.

What is a coregasm?

A coregasm is an exercise-induced orgasm (EIO) that often happens during an intense core-focused workout. It's different from regular orgasms because coregasms are not sexual by nature — no sexual stimuli of the body or the mind are necessary for these types of orgasms to occur.

A 2014 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, which featured findings from 1,012 men and 1,083 women, found that about 9% of people have experienced an exercise-induced orgasm (EIO) [3].

Why it happens?

We don't entirely know why and how exercise-induced orgasms (EIO) happen. For many years, it was believed that orgasms are a fully sexual experience for people. But research on coregasms has shown that exercise-induced orgasms (EIOs) can happen without any sexual arousal at all.

What we do know is that most of the time, coregasms happen during certain types of exercises. Of the 530 women surveyed, 124 reported experiencing EIO, and 246 reported experiencing exercise-induced pleasure but not orgasms. 124 participants who reported orgasms said these activities were most likely to trigger them:

• Abdominal exercises: 45%
• Pole or rope climbing: 9%
• Weight lifting: 7%
• Running: 7%
• Stretching, yoga, aerobics: 3.5%

There were also other exercises that induced a coregasm, such as swimming, chin-ups, pull-ups, and more [2]. As you can see, though, the most popular form of exercise that may cause coregasms is abdominal workouts, which focus on stimulating our core.

Core muscles are crucial to sexual health and function. One group of core muscles is the pelvic floor muscles, which control bladder, bowel, and genital functions [4]. Research shows that strong pelvic floor muscles can significantly improve orgasms and sexual arousal [5].

Can everyone have them?

Out of 530 women researchers surveyed, 23% of women reported experiencing exercise-induced orgasm on multiple occasions, which means that it's not an uncommon occurrence. What's also interesting is that while only 23% of women experienced EIO, around 46% of participants reported experiencing sexual pleasure while exercising, even if they didn't orgasm [2].

The majority of the limited research available on EIOs has been done on women, so there is not much data on men. However, based on the 2014 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior data, we do know that men can experience coregasms.

Researchers also looked at factors that might predict someone's ability to have a coregasm — like whether they’d recently had an orgasm during sex with a partner. Turns out, there was no correlation between coregasms and the timing of a partnered orgasm. But they did find a link between coregasms and sleep orgasms — both men and women who had experienced sleep orgasms were more likely to report exercise-induced orgasms EIOs [3].

What does it feel like?

Generally, the way orgasms feel will vary from person to person — we're different and experience sexual pleasure and arousal in a way that is unique to us. The same goes for coregasms.

According to blog posts and personal accounts, coregasms have been described as feeling more like deep, full-body orgasms than intense, clitoral climaxes.

How to have a coregasm 

Are you curious about trying to experience a coregasm yourself? Let's talk about the how!

How to increase your chances of having one

A surefire way to increase your chances of experiencing an exercise-induced orgasm is to exercise and strengthen your core muscles. While we don't know how coregasms happen, there's some research that shows strong pelvic floor muscles may lead to better sexual arousal and stronger orgasms [6, 7]. However, our bodies are different, and strengthening pelvic floor muscles doesn’t guarantee improved sexual function for everyone. 

Since coregasms are linked to exercise involving core muscles, you may also want to find a way to incorporate more core strength-building workouts like yoga, pilates, or simple crunches to build muscle strength.

Exercises that are known to trigger coregasms

We do know that exercises that engage our core muscles, especially lower abdominal muscles, tend to be the type of exercise that induces coregasms:

• Crunches
• L-sits
• Planks
• Hanging leg raises
• Captain’s chair leg raise
• Hip thrusts
• Pull-ups
• Chin-ups
• Role climbs
• Pole climbs

Yoga is another form of exercise that targets core strength and was mentioned as a workout that induced coregasms for people in both studies.

Coregasms happen naturally, and workouts should feel good, no matter what — so don't overthink it! Putting too much pressure on reaching an exercise-induced orgasm might have the opposite effect. Instead, treat this as a fun experiment and focus on the sensations in your body rather than stressing about whether or not you're able to have a coregasm.

How to prevent a coregasm

While a coregasm might sound fun because who doesn't love pleasure, for some people, it may be uncomfortable or even anxiety-inducing [2]. That's totally understandable, considering that coregasms might happen in the middle of a public place, which may be the last place you want to climax in.

The best way to prevent a coregasm is to understand what exercise triggers one for you. Because all of our bodies are different, a workout that causes a coregasm for one person may not have the same effect on another. Once you know what types of exercises trigger coregasms, consider avoiding those specific exercises.  

If you don't want to skip workouts just because of the threat of a coregasm (which is totally valid!), you may want to be more mindful of what's happening in your body at all times. Once you pay more attention, you'll be able to spot the cues of an upcoming coregasm easier, which can help you develop better control over them.

If you feel a coregasm approaching in the middle of a workout, slow down the pace and ease off — removing intense stimulation of the muscles should prevent the coregasm from happening.

Understand your body better with Natural Cycles

Increasing awareness about the body, sexual health, and cycle is key to our mission here at Natural Cycles. Our FDA Cleared app can help you track the changes in your body throughout the length of your cycle, which helps you feel empowered in your health and sexuality. Try it to discover if Natural Cycles is right for you!