Yogasms on the mat: Can asanas make you tingle?

“The first time it happened to me I was in Sharon Gannon’s class at Jivamukti, and I was in a forward bend. I was breathing and concentrating and suddenly, ‘Whoa!"

That’s yoga instructor Kelly Morris describing her “yogasm” in a Daily Beast story touting the orgasmic effects of that most revered discipline. It’s tempting to believe the various women who  talk about the miraculous burst of pleasure they experience while doing specific asanas (yogic postures):

“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.

But if this is true, why haven’t Indians — who have been at it far longer — discovered this magical benefit of our ancient tradition?

Kanika Chandhok (name changed), who has been practising yoga for the past ten years now says while one may feel aroused while doing some exercises, a full-blown orgasm is unlikely. But her relationship with her husband has improved thanks to yoga.

Seema Sondhi, yoga teacher and founder of The Yoga Studio, says she has never once experienced a yogasm in her many years of teaching and practice. She dismisses yogasm as a fad created by the American tendency to sexualise everything, but adds: “Practising yoga helps you enhance and control your sexual energy. A flexible spine is considered vital for maintaining a healthy body. In asanas where you are activating your spine, blockages may open and it may help people who don’t have a sexual drive get one.”

And certain postures may indeed enhance sexual pleasure. When one starts practising yoga, the aim at is to align your seven main chakras: crown, third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral, and the root. The process can offer unexpected benefits in the bedroom.

“We do a lot of couple therapy and yoga is actually known to help couples who have problems conceiving. By making couples do asanas like Trikonasana and Parvatasana we help them open up their entire body, and especially activate their lower chakras. They are known to have increased sex drive, but as I had mentioned before, I have never seen them having an orgasm while in class. And honestly, I haven’t experienced such delights and nor have my instructors,” says Sondhi.

Swati Sinha, who’s lost 10kgs thanks to yoga , is offended by the idea that something as pure as yoga can also have “absurd results,” quipping, ‘You should call it Americasms because this is the first time I am hearing of this’.

Ashish Almeida, a yoga instructor at Bharat Thakur’s Artistic Yoga classes in Delhi, too feels such sexualisation violates the yogic spirit. Almeida explains that the practice of Ashtanga yoga involves three parts: Yama, Niyama, and Asana. Yama is often translated as restraint, and outlines actions and attitudes we ought to avoid, Bhrahmacharya is one of the rules of yama. It does not however mean abstaining from sex, but freeing oneself from being obsessed with it.

Practising yoga with the intent of achieving sexual pleasure defeats its very purpose, says Almeida.

I can only find one instructor from Yoga Guru India who embraces the idea of the yogasm even though he doesn’t know anyone who has experienced it. According to him, if you aren’t meditating while you perform certain asanas, you may experience an orgasm. As, for example, the mula-bandh, a posture in which you contract your navel and lift it up towards the spine.

Myth or otherwise, the good news about yoga is that it definitely helps unlock the libido. Besides, who wants to have yogasms at the local gym when they can be better enjoyed in the bedroom.