There are many reasons why you should exercise. Most importantly, as I will continue to repeat for all time, it has amazing benefits for your mental and physical health. But if that doesn’t convince you here’s the kicker.

It can do wonders for your sex drive. And no, this is not some trick personal trainers have worked out to get people to flock to the gym. Physical activity can boost your sex drive for two main reasons—one psychological and the other physiological.

Psychologically exercise makes you feel better about yourself. It doesn’t matter so much whether an hour at the gym actually makes you drop a kilo or develop bulging muscles—one hour won’t.

But it can make you feel like you have—especially after one or two weeks of consistent activity. Given that feeling sexy is tantamount to being sexy, exercise will improve both your desire and your desirability.

In addition to this, exercise releases endorphins—the chemical in your brain that makes you happy. I think it’s a great feature of the human body that we literally get chemically rewarded by our brains for working out.

The more you exercise, the happier you feel as your body becomes healthier and thus releases more endorphins. This also reduces stress, helping you to worry less, reducing another major block to a healthy sex life.

If you feel good about yourself, have more energy and are filled with naturally produced chemicals that make you happy—you are more likely to want and enjoy sex. Finally, as improving your ability to do physical activity is a major component of exercise and sex is physical activity….need I say more?

Amity Weiss is a professional personal trainer from America living in Kigali.

Contact: Amity­_weiss@yahoo.com