Photo: Photo Alto

In ancient times yogis practiced celibacy so that all of their energy could be directed toward spiritual advancement. Makes you wonder: How could these supposedly wise guys have gotten it so wrong?

Today yoga lovers are finding that more time on the mat means more—and steamier—time spent reveling in the pleasures of their newly toned bodies without any of those Tantric contortions you may have heard of.  To take a walk on yoga’s carnal side, add these easy moves to your routine. Or just do them by themselves to turn up the heat.

Flex Time Is Sex Time
Having more flexible muscles and joints definitely helps in assuming those compromising positions, and it gives you a greater comfort factor in them as well. Opening your hips in particular gives you a wider range of motion in your nether regions, allowing for more direct stimulation in just the right spots. After all, one micro-movement in missionary is sometimes all it takes to ring the bell.

Sex Rx: Bound Angle Pose. In a seated position, bring the soles of your feet together, bring your hands to the ankles, allow your knees to relax toward the floor, and hinge forward at the hips as far as is comfortable. Hold for 10 to 15 complete breaths (inhales and exhales).


Power of the Pelvis
Strengthening one key muscle increases your ability to engage and lift the pelvic floor, bringing you more sensation and control during those hot times.

Sex Rx: Root Lock. You may hear this referred to in Western terms as kegels or by the Sanskrit name Mula Bandha. Seated or standing, simply contract and then release the pubococcygeus muscle located between the pubic bone and the tailbone, as if you wanted to stop the flow of urine. You can even do this at your desk, squeezing and releasing, say, 10 times, at three workday intervals, priming the pump for nighttime activities.


Sex Goddesses Can Go the Distance
Vigorous, shake-the-headboard sex is a strenuous workout. “The better shape you are in, the more pleasure you have with sex and the longer you can do it,” says Kimberly Fowler, owner and founder of Yoga and Spinning Studio in Venice, California.
 
Sex Rx: Yoga Pushups. Start in the pushup position, arms extended. Engage your abs as you lower your body slowly toward the floor. Stop when your torso is about 2 to 3 inches away. Keeping elbows in, hold there for five breaths then lower to the floor. Repeat three times at first and build up to five.


Charge Up the Booty Batteries
A killer day at work can leave you too beat to boogie. But a few minutes of nonstrenuous yoga when you get home can mean one less night with Netflix and one more erotic evening entwined with your sweetie.

Sex Rx: Legs Up The Wall Pose. Change into some yoga-friendly clothes and take 5 minutes for this pose. Lie on your back with one hip touching a wall, then swing your legs up and turn your body so you face the wall, legs resting against it from heels to butt, arms at your sides. Bring your awareness to your breath and just follow it (without changing it), in and out, for 5 minutes. This position allows more oxygen-rich blood to flow from your lower body back up to the heart and the brain, so you’ll get up reenergized, refocused, and ready to rumble.  


Breath of Desire
While most poses simply help prepare you for a libidinous rendezvous, this breathing exercise can actually heighten your pleasure while in flagrante.

Sex Rx: Breath of Fire. While you’re getting busy, take rapid, forceful, and rhythmic breaths through the nose with the mouth closed. Don’t worry if your partner thinks you’re hyperventilating; he’ll forget all about it when you reach a spine-tingling climax.


Double Your Pleasure
If your man does yoga too, sex can improve exponentially. Practicing together is “like foreplay,’’ says Jacquie Noelle Greaux, creator of the Better Sex Through Yoga video. “You start to breathe together, sweat together, and move together. It gets your energy synced up.” Some mat work just might make him more sex-imaginative as well. “Yoga sparks creativity,” Fowler says. In bed, “Women don’t want bang-boom from a man, they want an explorer—and yoga invites you to explore.”