Written by: Kathleen Mulvihill

Let’s face it, many of us don’t place enough value on the importance of healthy and loving sex. Sure we try to keep our love relationships sex-intensive early on, but as time progresses, love and sex too often become out-of-shape, second-class citizens in the bedroom.

Libido tips from the lips of Sigmund Freud, Masters and Johnson and Dr. Ruth have been shared throughout the decades, but if you’re looking for a truly practical and sex-sational way to take your love life from fizzle to sizzle, check out one of the newest trends in the world of fitness – sexercise classes. The classes are largely for women, but the guys certainly benefit from these sexy workouts. Gentlemen: think trickle-down sensuality.

Sexercise classes, now offered in many locations throughout the United States, are a healthy way for women to connect with their pelvis (their sexual core), through a series of fun bump-and-grind kind of movements. The proposed end result is a happier love life through improved sexual stimulation for yourself as well as your partner.

If you’re not quite the super-toned exhibitionist you see in those classes, but you madly want that loving feeling back, take heart. You can practice your own form of sexercise in the privacy of your bedroom. Those adages, use or lose it, and practice makes perfect, couldn’t be more true here. In plain language, here are some tips from a variety of experts in love and sexuality:

• Just do it.  Even if you’re not up to hamster speed, sometimes you just need to get back on the old treadmill and give it a whirl. Slow and steady wins the race.
• Initiate. Ladies, this goes for you especially. Too often, the guys have to play Tarzan while Jane goes out on a limb to stay aloof. Take him by surprise, tickle his fancy and watch that caveman drop his remote and evolve.
• Sex toys. Sometimes it takes a good energizer battery to spice things up. Work it, girls!
• Burn it up. The more vigorous the sex, the more calories you burn. On average, a half-hour of lovemaking burns a minimum of 85 calories. That may not sound like much, but it beats vacuuming and adds up during the intercourse of a week. Fun too. Check out Dr. Robert S. Wieder’s study of calories burned during sexual activity published in the American Journal of Exercise Calorimetry in August 2006.

So get in touch with your inner muscles, get that thump back in your heart and reinvigorate your fitness workouts by adding a regular routine of sex. That loving feeling is great for happiness.