Shannon de Lima and Canelo Álvarez are dating, and during a visit with Raul de Molina, she got asked a very intimate question–would she put off sex with Canelo before his boxing match? Most trainers tell boxers that they shouldn’t drink alcohol, to get plenty of sleep and to abstain from having sex. But how exactly does abstaining from sex affect athletes, like Álvarez?
“Shannon, please take care of Canelo. Nothing for at least one month before, you promise?” said Raul de Molina from El Gordo Y La Flaca show, referring to having sexual relations with the boxer. “Nothing, I promise. I’m going to take care of him,” she says.
Abstaining from having sex is something that many coaches recommend their athletes in a variety of sports. Even during the World Cup and Olympics, there were team-wide bans on having sex before games, but why?
There are a number of hypotheses that have been formed throughout the years, but there is a lack of evidence showing that sex makes athletes perform badly. “It’s often talked about, but it has not been shown to be true,” says sports medicine physician Dr. Jordan Metzel to TIME. “There are lots of factors that could account for how a player performs.”
Others believe that when it comes to performance, it’s all about testosterone, which is why many times athletes use drugs to boost their testosterone during game day. Research shows that having sex leads to increased testosterone levels, but there’s also evidence that shows that abstaining from sex can also give you a boost.
Another reason why people abstain from sex is that it makes them lose concentration. As we all know, sex could be pretty exciting with the right person, and many times when you are trying to focus on a sport, your mind might be somewhere else, like where you were last night, which is not good for your game.
There is definitely some logic to abstaining from sex before a game and most athletes continue to put off sex until after they perform, which if you think about it, it’s a great way to celebrate if you win the championship!