Click here for linkAre Yogasms Real?Sep 28, 2011 2:02 AM EDT
Yoga has long been known for its metaphysical benefits to mind and body, but devotees are talking openly about the orgasmic pleasure they experience during practice. Lizzie Crocker reports
“The first time it happened to me I was in Sharon Gannon’s class at Jivamukti, and I was in forward bend,” says Kelly Morris, a yoga instructor with a cult following at the Shala Yoga House in New York City. “I was breathing and concentrating and suddenly, ‘Whoa!’”At first, Morris was flustered and anxious that others in the class might have witnessed her, mid-yogasm. While most people who practice yoga don’t attend class with the intention of reaching the Big O, sometimes they get more than they signed up for.
Rumors of the elusive yoga orgasm have circulated for years, but recently, teachers and students have begun discussing the phenomenon more openly. Sex researchers are also honing in on the subject: “It’s another way that a woman can bring herself to orgasm without touching herself,” says sexologist Dr. Jeffre TallTrees.
There are other non-sexual activities that are said to induce orgasms, such as ecstatic birth, a trend that picked up steam several years ago and culminated in the 2007 documentary, Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret. Across the country, it seems more and more women are discovering yoga’s “best-kept secret.”
“Students open up to me about it all the time!” says Bonnie Saldivar-Jones, a teacher at Ginseng Yoga in San Diego.
In New York City, a woman who chose to remain nameless talked to The Daily Beast about experiencing a yoga orgasm at Pure Yoga, a fancy studio on Manhattan’s Upper East Side owned by the Equinox fitness chain. “I was in lotus pose, focusing on breathing and lifting the muscles of my pelvic floor,” she said. She wasn’t prepared for what happened after her instructor pressed his body against her back and synchronized his breath with hers, lifting her ribs as she inhaled, and pushing down on her thighs as she exhaled. “I was tingling all over!” she gushed.