Sexercise

Sigmund Freud remains one of the most influential psychiatrists of all time, and his most well-known theory is that sex is the primary motivation for all things in life.

Freud’s theory has been a hot topic in the realm of behavior change for decades. While there is plenty of disagreement about how strongly sex influences conscious and unconscious thinking, most psychologists agree that sex is a significant factor in decision-making.

In Working Out Sucks I wrote a chapter about how regular exercise improves your sex life. The fact is that people who work out regularly have sex more often. Studies have shown that couples with an active sex life report higher levels of intimacy and happiness than couples who have infrequent sex.

In fact, couples that reported lower levels of sex had thought about divorce more often than couples that engaged in more frequent sex.

“Happy couples have more sex, and the more sex a couple has, the happier they report being.”
- Professor Denise A Donnelly, When Sex Leaves a Marriage, New York Times

Consider how a happier marriage impacts our lives. If we’re happier at home, we’re more productive at work. Happier, more intimate, loving parents are less likely to get divorced, and more likely to raise happier kids.

If sex is one of the keys to a better marriage, increased productivity and happier families—and exercise increases sexual frequency (not to mention sexual performance)—maybe exercise truly is the key to happiness.

And maybe Freud should have talked about pectoral envy and the energy complex…