Will having sex limit your strength gains?

Sexual activity should not limit your training. One study showed that sex did not affect maximal power or mental concentration in athletes. However, vigorous athletic intercourse may affect the short-term recovery of an athlete, and researchers suggested that you do not engage in sexual activity 2 hours preceding an event.

While most research agrees that sex should not affect your performance, there does seem to be a few discrepancies, especially concerning psychological factors. For instance, heart rate and blood pressure responses are different when sex is with a long-time partner or someone new. The differences in physiological responses are most likely due to the added stress of being with an unfamiliar partner. Also, for some athletes, sexual activity or lack of sexual activity is part of a normal routine, and any changes in the parameters of that routine could cause a certain amount of emotional stress.

Many people speculate that hormonal responses that occur during sex may have an effect on regular training performance. However, it appears that the physiological hormonal response to sex is temporary, and should not negatively affect your training or athletic performance. In fact, if engaging in sex before training or competition is normal and customary, there is every likelihood that your performance would be somewhat diminished if you were to abstain from it.

How tight should a belt be worn during a deadlift?

Recently, I have heard a lot of conjecture on how tight a belt should be worn while deadlifting. Some people say it should be worn loose to allow your abs to push out on the belt. Others say it should be worn tight to enhance intra-abdominal pressure.

Most research agrees that a snug fitting belt is more beneficial. A belt will increase the intra-abdominal pressure, thereby pushing your viscera against the anterior aspect of the lumbar spine. This, of course, helps to stabilize the lower spine and prevent injury. It has been suggested that a weight belt may increase explosive power in the squat, though this effect has yet to be tested on the deadlift.

Wearing a tighter belt while deadlifting does give the appearance that the lifter is "pushing out" on the belt, but it appears that maintaining the tight intra-abdominal pressure is more beneficial than allowing your belly to expand. This notion does warrant more research, however, for two reasons. One, we know that sumo-style and conventional deadlifters produce different loads on the lower lumbar. It may be hypothesized that sumo lifters would not require as tight a belt as conventional lifters, since shear force on the lower lumbar is reduced. Two, depending on the size of the lifter, a tight belt is sometimes not an option. A super heavyweight with a large belly and a tight belt may not be able to comfortably get down and grasp the bar. Furthermore, some larger lifters have perfected the technique of using the size of their belly to bounce off of their legs in both the deadlift and the squat to aid in the concentric part of the movement. But until more research is available, I suggest a tighter fitting belt as long as it does not hinder your range of motion.