The Truth About 7 Big Yoga Claims

Claim 7: Yoga Improves Your Sex Life
True. Studies into the effects of yoga on sexual experience show that both men and women who regularly practice yoga (in the study, subjects practiced for an hour each day) report increased arousal, better orgasm, and more overall satisfaction—at least in part due to increased testosterone.

“Cobra pose improves your testosterone. Then maybe you don’t need the little blue pills,” Broad says. What’s more, a Canadian study of one yogic breathing technique found that it increased sexual arousal, even in women with Sexual Arousal Disorder.

The Bottom Line
If all this science still doesn’t seem to capture what yoga does for you, it may just be hard for science to quantify some of yoga’s greatest attributes.

“Arguably, yoga's enduring fascination comes from its capacity to exceed rational or empirical investigation,” says Dr. Mark Singleton, author of Yoga Body, the Origins of Modern Posture Practice. “The fact is that yoga ultimately deals with states of being that cannot be reduced to the biological or psychological.”

In the epilogue of his book, Broad suggests that there might be many benefits to yoga beyond what science can currently quantify for us. “Many of yoga’s truths surely go beyond the truths of science,” he says.