Running or sex – which is healthier?

They’re both good for you, but we consult the experts to find out which is best for your heart, immunity and weight

She made horse riding and sex forever synonymous in the imaginations of a nation. So it is something of a shock that national treasure and notorious tease Jilly Cooper has sent another form of exercise to war with it.  
“I’m convinced the reason people aren’t having as much sex is because everybody takes so much exercise,” she said last month. “Everybody is running nowadays, and if they’re not, they’re going to the gym. And how can you possibly have sex when you’re so exhausted?”
Which immediately raises two questions. First: why might riding stir the loins and running ruin the libido? After all, both sports require conspicuously tight trousers. Second: would we all be better off if we flung off our running shoes at the first sight of a semi-discrete stable, and opted for a romp in the hay instead? Could we reap all the same health benefits and more? 
Studying sex, in the act itself, is tricky (an awareness that lab coats are waiting in the wings can have varying impacts on your sheet shaking, provoking crippling performance anxiety if you’re a shy Harriet Poole sort, or – if you fall more into the Rupert Campbell-Black model – motivating you to raise your game). 
Implausible as it may sound, however, a Canadian team has actually compared the calorie expenditure of running to that of sex. Women, they found, burned an average of 213 calories during 30 minutes of light running, and just 69 during sex. Men meanwhile, burned 276 running and 101, er… romping.
So “sadly running wins here,” says Dr Janine David, a GP specialising in men’s and women’s sexual health. Per minute,  you are likely to burn roughly the same calories during sex as you might doing a short burst of dusting.  Why the discrepancy between the sexes though? Well size does matter, suggests Dr David. Men are typically bigger in build than women, so burn more calories in the same exercise. 
Worse news follows. In terms of physical exertion, sex is comparable to gardening, says Dr Anand Patel, a specialist in men’s health and sexual function at the Centre For Men’s Health. While it is generally more fun than turning over the compost, he says, “the average time people spend having penetrative sex in the UK is 5.4 minutes – not the longest workout. The NHS recommends 150 minutes of exercise across the week. I always recommend mixing workouts for optimum benefit.”
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Calories burnt, Dr David points out, will be determined by two key questions: how long and how energetic? This means you can boost the burn, should that be uppermost in mind mid-act (please tell us it isn’t). Standing, for example, could potentially increase the calorie burn to three calories a minute for  women, and five for men. That’s still less than running though, so if you’re feeling really risky then go wild with the central heating bill: “Turning the heat up – literally – also helps, as the hotter it is the higher the calorie burn,” says Dr David.
Running, even if done for just five to 10 minutes a day at tortoise speeds of under six miles an hour, markedly reduces your risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Yet, says Dr David: “Both activities improve heart health. Men who have sex twice a week are also less likely to develop heart disease compared to men who only have sex once a month.” Meanwhile, a 2016 study found that sexually active women have a lower risk of cardiac events, while older women who reported satisfaction with their sex lives were less likely to have high blood pressure.
So both are good, but which is better for your cardiovascular system? In 2007, researchers attempted to settle the question, monitoring the heart rate of 32 volunteers (13 women and 19 men with an average age of 55), while they walked on a treadmill in the lab and had sex at home. Afterwards, they also asked participants to rate their exertion. The treadmill won. Especially for women, sex had a smaller impact both on heart rate and perceived intensity of exertion.
Dig into the nuance, however, and there is good news here. While jogging is generally good for your heart, intense exercise – marathons for example – can strain your heart muscle and increase the risk of cardiac events (particularly for those with underlying conditions). Sex on the other hand, is a pretty risk free exercise. Unless it is the thrillingly illicit sort favoured by Cooper’s characters. In an autopsy report of 5,559 instances of sudden death, only 0.6 per cent reportedly occurred during sex. According to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Journal, the overwhelming majority of these were engaged in “extramarital sexual activity, in most cases with a younger partner in an unfamiliar setting and/or after excessive food and alcohol consumption.” Not that we are here to judge.
“Both running and sex release endorphins – or happy hormones – and help with anxiety and stress,” says Dr David. “But sex with someone you love also releases oxytocin, which also creates a feeling of intimacy and togetherness with your partner. That doesn’t happen during a run, though both create a feeling of relaxation.” One small study published in 2006 suggested that people who had had sex within two weeks of a stressful event showed a smaller rise in blood pressure. 
Running, meanwhile, can raise your levels of the stress hormone cortisol. For most amateur runners, that’s no bad thing. Cortisol helps to suppress inflammation and regulate your blood pressure, blood sugar, metabolic reactions and even your sleep-wake cycle. However, over-obsessive runners of the sort Cooper singles out may risk creating a cortisol imbalance.  Known as ‘overtraining syndrome’, symptoms include lack of motivation, anxiety and sleep disturbances.
So sex wins here, but with a coda. “At its best – when we’re feeling great, confident, really in tune with and connected to our partner – sex is great for combatting stress,” says Dr Catherine Hood, a specialist in psychosexual medicine. “We are social beings, we like that connection. But when we’re not – for any number of reasons from body image worries to a lack of connection – it can actually be a source of stress.”
“We sleep better when we’re physically tired,” says Dr Hood. “So both will help. Running can also become quite a mindful process, clearing the head. Sex helps you get out of your head and into your body too but it can also give you a sense of closeness with your partner that can boost your sense of wellbeing and help you drift off.”
Studies have found that low-to-moderate-intensity workouts such as a gentle jog help those with sleep problems to fall asleep faster and sleep longer. Still: “It can take a while to relax post run, whereas the oxytocin released during sex can create a state of deep relaxation which helps sleep more immediately,” says Dr David. Sex also improves your sleep by releasing a hormone called prolactin which, especially for men, can lead to deeper sleep. A warning though: “It’s the hormones released during orgasm which induce sleep – so it has to be good sex,” says Dr David.
 A 2004 study found a correlation between regular sex (defined here as once or twice a week) and enhanced immunity. Participants had higher levels of IgA, an antibody that can help fight infections, explains Dr Davis. Sex’s positive impact on sleep also plays a role: the more sleep we get, the better our immune system works.  
Moderate intensity running (an hour, say, at a steady pace) can also strengthen your immune system. Run much further or faster, however, and you could temporarily weaken it. Marathon runners, for instance, are estimated to be six times more likely to catch a common cold after a race.  
The Greek island of Ikaria is world-famous for the extraordinary longevity of its inhabitants and while diet plays a sizeable role, a preliminary study of male Ikarians aged between 65 and 100 found that 80 per cent claimed to have sex regularly. 
There’s more. A study following 918 men aged between 49-59 for 10 years found that those who had been having two or more orgasms a week had 50 per cent lower mortality rates. Runners, meanwhile, have a 25–40 per cent reduced risk of premature mortality. So if you want to live longer, time spent under the sheets may be more helpful (as long as it’s with your partner, see above on heart health).
“Ideally I think we should do both,” says Dr David. Because in fact, Cooper has things confused. Sex and running are far from mutually exclusive pursuits. “Our self-esteem is very much tied to our sexual esteem,” says Dr Hood. “Feeling good about yourself physically can actually make you feel more confident sexually”
There is, she agrees, a tipping point: “It depends on the level of obsession. If running becomes your everything, there might not be time or energy for sex.” But if you force yourself into your trainers just a little more regularly, you might find yourself jumping into bed more frequently, and experiencing more rewards too. “If you are fitter and stronger with stronger pelvic core from running, this can in turn lead to better sex and more intense orgasms,” says David. 
In fact, according to a review published by the International Society for Sexual Medicine, a regular exercise plan can improve nearly every aspect of a woman’s sex life, including arousal, while another study in the Urology Journal found that men who exercise regularly can last twice as long in the bedroom. So if you are trying to coax your partner into either activity, it might be worth slipping a medical journal under their pillow. Plus a Jilly Cooper novel, just in case. 
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