from the book:
Sexual Reflexology - Activating the Taoist Points of Love
by Mantak Chia & William U. Wei

In the past, sexual exercises were not merely a way to enhance sexual pleasure or become more attractive. These exercises were a means to enjoy a more vigorous and healthy body, a way to become sensitive to deeper and more intense emotions and to cultivate spiritual energy. The Taoists believed that the body would stay healthy and youthful as long as it was able to reproduce. When the reproductive energy was in a decline, the body would retaliate with sickness or emotional insecurity.

In the East as well as in the West, exercise is a crucial way to keep the body healthy. But when it comes to increasing sexual energy, the teachers of the East have taken exercise to a higher level. To strengthen our sexual energy and thus strengthen the senses and the whole body, the Eastern traditions have developed exercises that focus specifically on the sexual area. By strengthening the sexual organs through exercise and massage, we actually affect the rest of the body and senses.

It is believed that the sexual organs are the strongest reflex points in the body and when stimulated in the proper way can have a powerful healing effect on the senses and internal organs, making you healthier and more sexy. There are pelvic exercises that greatly strengthen the reproductive organs and the complex network of tendons in the surrounding area. Strength in this department is of great importance; it is the root of both a man's and a woman's health. Leading into the pelvis are a vast number of nerve endings and channels for the veins and arteries. Here are located tissues that communicate with every square inch of the body. All the major acupuncture meridians that carry energy between the body and the vital organs pass by this area. If it is blocked or weak, energy will dissipate and the organs and brain will suffer.

These exercises are designed to charge the brain with energy, increase circulation, stimulate nerve flow, strengthen the urogenital diaphragm, and tonify the energy of the sexual organs. Because they focus on enhancing the strength and energy of the sexual area, we have called this workout "sexercises".

In the Taoist view of sexual health, it is important to cultivate our sexual energy rather than needlessly wasting it. For men this means regulating and controlling ejaculation. For women it means working with and balancing the female menstruation cycle.

If men ejaculate too often, it depletes the source of vital energy, not allowing the water of life to spread to the rest of the body. The importance of a man's retaining semen is emphasized over and over again in Taoist literature, which is dramatically different from the religious idea of celibacy. In the Tao, regulating and managing ejaculation does not mean becoming a celibate. The basic purpose of these methods is to increase, as much as possible, the quantity of the life-giving, age-retarding hormones secreted in a man's body during sexual excitement while at the same time decreasing, as much as possible, the loss of semen and its related hormones through ejaculation. All schools of Taoism agree that semen retention and proper regulation of its emission are indispensable skills for male adepts.

To understand more about this concept, I recommend reading The MultiOrgasmic Man by Mantak Chia and Douglas Abram and Taoist Secrets of Love by Mantak Chia.

Breathing Exercises

There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there's another way: a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.

The first step to becoming a more sexually powerful person is to learn how to breathe properly. Many of the sexercises require a certain level of breath control, and when you learn to breathe properly, the exercises become much easier and much more powerful. Breathing exercises are a direct way to control stress.

For example, think about how you breathe when you are in a terribly stressful situation. The breath gets jammed up in the chest with short, shallow gasps that barely allow oxygen into the lungs. Under extreme circumstances the breath might become almost nonexistent. With this type of breathing, life-enhancing oxygen does not flow freely through the body. This creates stress and tension, lodging it in the body rather than allowing it to be processed and released.

Long ago in Chinese medicine it was discovered that the breath is a direct reflection of the emotional state of the body. When someone is sad, the person breathes in short, inhaling gasps, locking the air in the upper chest. When someone is angry, the breath is usually long, contracted exhales, with desperately short inhalations. Even when we are not feeling very emotional, the breath will still reflect the general overall feelings in the body, which are often not very empowering.

Just as correct diet enhances the body's store of nutritional essence, so correct breathing enhances the body's supply of vital energy. Proper breathing is performed by the diaphragm, not the rib cage and the clavicles. Because of laziness, ignorance, smoking, pollution, constipation, and other factors, adults these days invariably become shallow chest breathers rather than the deep abdominal breathers that we are meant to be. All true martial arts and meditation practices use the breath as the gate to control the body.

Breathing abdominally is the most natural thing; it is just that we have forgotten how we used to breathe. Have you ever watched a baby breathe? Notice how the stomach or abdomen does the breathing, not the chest. This is the natural way, the way we have to return to.

Chest breathing employs the intercostal muscles between the ribs to forcibly expand the upper rib cage, thereby lowering air pressure in the chest so that air enters by suction. However, this leaves the lower lungs, which contain by far the greatest surface area, immobilized. Consequently one must take about three times as many chest breaths in order to get the same quantity of air into the lungs as provided by a single diaphragmatic breath.

Deep Abdominal Breathing (for Men and Women)

A complete, deep, abdominal breath should employ three areas of the lungs in a smooth, unbroken expansion that begins at the bottom, in the abdomen, and not in the upper chest. One first inhales air slowly into the lower lungs by letting the diaphragm expand and balloon downward into the abdominal cavity. When the diaphragm is fully expanded, the intercostal muscles come into play to open the rib cage and fill the middle lungs with air. As the rib cage reaches full expansion, the breather utilizes the clavicles so that air flows into the narrow upper pockets of the lungs.

Exhale in the reverse manner, releasing air from the upper part of the chest, downward through the ribs, finally expelling the air out the lower lungs by slightly contracting the abdomen.

Breathing with the diaphragm in this manner reduces the number of breaths per minute by more than half, greatly enhances respiratory efficiency, saves the heart from strain, and conserves vital energy. This type of breathing has many benefits for the body and emotions. When we are able to breathe in this manner, the body automatically takes it as a sign to be relaxed and calm. This is one of the best ways to combat the stress of everyday life.

If you can practice deep abdominal breathing whenever you have a few extra minutes, driving the car, standing in line, waiting for the dentist, or anywhere else you can imagine; great benefits will result. With practice, your body will soon automatically start breathing deeper without conscious intention.

Deep abdominal breathing activates the cranial and sacral pumps, movement of minute bone structures that keep the spinal fluid moving in the joints and cranium. Spinal fluid and seminal fluid are very similar in nature. Deep abdominal breathing is a wonderful exercise for increasing sexual energy. It sends energy down through the urogenital diaphragm, loosening and relaxing the whole pelvic cavity.

Without deep breathing, the lower abdomen has a tendency to become tight and contracted. This leads to low sexual energy or uncontrollable sexual energy. With this tightness in the abdomen, there is inevitably an imbalance throughout the sexual area. For men, tightness can cause premature ejaculation, nocturnal emissions, impotence, or sexual frustration. For women, this tightness can cause menstrual cramps, frigid sexual energy, PMS, and other more complicated emotional problems.

Energy Breathing (for Men and Women)

The energy breath is performed by rapidly expelling air out of the lungs and is designed to create efficient circulation, strengthening the energy of the lower abdominal area. Imagine that there is a small fire right behind the navel. To build this small spark into a vibrant fire requires air. As you perform the exercise, the breath should sound like a bellows fanning a fire.

Start by forcefully expelling all air from the lungs with a strong contraction of the abdominal wall. Immediately after the expulsion of air, let the lungs fill naturally without effort, about halfway. When the lungs are half full, immediately contract the abdominal wall again to forcefully expel another gust of air. The exercise should consist of about twenty to thirty rapid expulsions of air. This strengthens and energizes the lower abdominal area (Sexual Palace and Lower Tan Tien).

from the book:
Sexual Reflexology - Activating the Taoist Points of Love
by Mantak Chia & William U. Wei