people have been demonizing it for most of the AD years i think but it’s quite pleasant really. are there any proven negative effects?

  • Lovstuhagen@hilariouschaos.com
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    5 months ago

    But to be entirely fair to the guy’s point:

    Lots of top athletes have superstitions about abstaining from intercourse prior to events - some are very extreme, with fighters isolating themselves from their spouses and training for months without any release before their MMA fight/boxing match. Some say they do it for, say, just a week ahead of time, etc.

    There are a few who have the opposite philosophy and claim to actually do it more in the week leading up to the fight.

    It’s really a massive point of contention because some people claim it is a mere superstition while others absolutely will not break their routine.

    There is also the famous incident where Bobby Fisher says that he performed poorly at a tournament because he had sex after the first night and the experience totally removed him from his focus…

    This might be why it impacts fighters and certain people whose lifting styles are really about maximized performance and not a routine… If concentration is interrupted, it can result in very poor output. Like I can see how someone who is very intense about what they are doing and requires total focus would be interrupted by any form of sexual distraction. This is probably very, very relevant to guys who are fighters…

    This might also have to do with perspectives on sexuality - people who ascribe a lot of meaning to it versus those who do not…

    Lots of stuff to consider, I think.

    • dustyData@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That’s a problem with attitudes about sex and lack of impulse control during competition. The same could be said about doing your taxes before a tournament. It can take your focus, but it is not the taxes fault. It’s your lack of impulse control to keep your mind focused on the competition. Bad coaches ignore that there is a strong psychological component to training. But it has nothing to do with the sexual nature of the stimulus, just what you do with it and what is the attitude towards it.

      Still, absolutely nothing to do with any physiological element of performance. Jerking one off the night before is not going to knock off anything, much less weight in your lifting personal record, for instance.

      • Lovstuhagen@hilariouschaos.com
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        5 months ago

        I actually think there’s an argument to be made that a lot of top tier athletes are never doing things like their taxes prior to a big match. It’s just really anticlimactic to say “My spouse/manager/dad does all my paperwork and handles my finances before a fight” than to say “I isolate myslf from my spouse and don’t have any orgasms before a fight.”

        I also think that they would make the argument that they have plenty of impulse control and focus, it’s just a matter of the extent to which one has it.

        It’s one thing to be a man who does not look at p0rn or masturb8 and only sleeps with his wife and another thing to be a monk.