How The Bar Method Enhances Sex, Part 1

I was putting away my mat after taking class a few months ago and a student approached me. She was pretty and looked like she might have been a lawyer or worked in the corporate world. Have you or anyone ever written about how great the Bar Method is for sex? she asked me. Out of habit I gave her my usual answer: Yes, its great for sex, but weve always played down that feature. Thanks for your answer, she said, but it really is.

As the student walked away, it hit me that for 20 years Ive been giving that same stock response to questions about the Bar Methods connection to sex. My habit of side-stepping this issue started with my Lotte Berk Method trainers in 1990. That year I was studying in New York City to become a Lotte Berk Method studio owner, and my trainers wanted me to keep my approach to this subject consistent with theirs. People might ask you about sex, they told me. Focus on other benefits.

I went with their advice during my ten-year term as a Lotte Berk Method licensee.  Now that license has been expired for ten years, and its about time that I formulate by own policy on this subject.  So here it is: The Bar Method-type workout is absolutely great for ones sex life, and let me tell you why:

First, exercise itself has been proven to increase sexual potency. According to researcher Mark Stibich Studies have shown that women who frequently exercise become aroused more quickly and are able to reach an orgasm faster and more intensely. Exercise gives you an especially powerful boost if you do workouts that focus on stamina, muscular endurance, strength and flexibility. Dr. Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise credits exercise with “physical improvements in muscle strength and tone, endurance, body composition and cardiovascular function (specifically, enhanced peripheral blood flow), which he says says can all enhance sexual functioning. Why? Paige Waehner ACE explains.  Sex also requires you to hold…er…occasionally unusual positions for short periods of time, she says, plus, Being limber can enhance anyone’s sex life by making it a bit easier to get into your favorite position with a minimum amount of fuss.

Do The Lotte Berk Method/Bar Method techniques have any advantages over other exercise forms in this arena? Most definitely! They build a fantastic degree of stamina; they make you more flexible; and most distinctively, they focus on strengthening and stretching the muscles around your pelvis pretty much during the whole class. The Bar Methods narrow V thigh exercise, for example, strengthens the pelvic floor muscles, according to Physical Therapist Heidi Morton. Then of course there are all the glute and abdominal exercises such as water-ski thigh, and water-ski seat, and the other seat exercises, plus the curl work, which students perform with their pelvis locked in place by means of all its surrounding muscles. Finally we come to back-dancing, an exercise that looks almost embarrassingly sexual, but more about that later.

Considering that sex is probably our greatest natural high, youd think these benefits would be worth mentioning. Even so, over the past 20 years, the hundreds of press articles written about my Lotte Berk or Bar Method studios have pointed out only the Methods ability to make you look sexy. Nowhere in my memory has there been anything written or said about its effect on sex itself. The most direct reference to sex in connection to the Bar Method that I could find appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in July of 2002. The writer speculated on what would happen if the “Sex and the City” characters moved to San Francisco. Samantha, the article said, would be in to various trendy California pursuits like the Bar fitness method. Nothing, however, on how much more fun Samantha, um, might have had later

This reticence hasnt always been the case. In the early 70s, the press was all over the news that an exercise technique was improving peoples sex lives. Why then did my Lotte Berk Method trainers in 1990 tell me to zip my lips on this subject? The answer goes back a half a century to the workouts inventor, Lotte Berk, who expressly and unapologetically designed the workout to enhance sex.

Next week: The rise and fall of Lottes sexual revolution (and why we can finally start talking about it again 🙂