Various reasons can make you feel anxious about your sexual performance but do not despair, these five simple hacks can help you quickly boost your lovemaking performance.

1. Be careful what you eat prior to sex
Make sure to carefully monitor your food intake before sex because it can seriously damage your performance. On top of being a frequent source of discomfort, the digestive system tends to hog all the blood when it’s full. That can cause a lack of potency and/or difficulties in achieving orgasm. If, however, you play it right, food can be your great ally. The best foods for sexual performance are easily digestible and slow in releasing their energetic load (essentially good carbs). As sports aficionados already know, oatmeal and fruit top the list of high-performance snacks. On the other hand, anything high in protein and fats requires lots of energy to digest so be moderate and extra careful about their intake. Timing is also very important; while you can have a very light snack within half an hour before sex, any heavier meal should not be eaten less than an hour before intercourse. If you’re in a mood for a large and hearty meal, indulge in it at least two hours before the act.

2. Prepare your body
If you had a really sluggish day, your body might not be ready for sex. Depending on your age, choice of partner(s), and intensity of a particular session, sex can be seriously physically demanding. Think about it – would you attempt a ten-mile run without warming up? (Hint: you shouldn’t.) The same goes for sex, especially if you hope for a festive event. Next time try doing a light to moderate exercise routine before sex and see how it feels. The choice of activity depends on your preferences and might include things like a brisk walk or very light run, swim, yoga, or dancing (for intensity assessment, check the AHA recommendations). The activity should focus on improving your circulation and mobilizing your joints, not wearing you out.

3. Clear your mind
If for any reason you feel anxious or you’ve had a rough, stressful day, you might feel too distracted for lovemaking. Trying to order yourself to calm down or focus never works as intended; instead, it would be best to clear your mind with a simple exercise. Close your eyes and relax in a comfortable sitting position, breathing from the belly. First, just observe the path of air through your body for a couple of minutes and only after you feel familiar with your breath, try counting the length of your inhale and exhale to completely align their duration. Do ten or more slow rounds and instead of trying to chase your mental distractions away, gently notice them each time and calmly bring your attention back to your breathing. After you end a cycle, open your eyes and observe your physical and mental state. If necessary, repeat the exercise.

4. Do a tactical jack off
Males, especially younger ones, usually have more issues with delaying orgasm than reaching it. A strategically timed ejaculation prior to an important sexual encounter can massively help with this problem. Very young guys and those with very strong libido can just jack themselves off immediately before the date, but for most, the buffer period needs to be longer to preserve the ability to achieve and maintain sexual focus and/or erection. A sound strategy might be to masturbate around ten hours before sex – for instance, the morning before an evening date. However, if you have a history of erectile difficulties, it is probably smarter to skip masturbation for a day or two before to allow your libido to recuperate.

5. Edge yourself to warm-up
If you, on the other hand, have a hard time reaching orgasm, you can warm yourself up and increase your sexual energy with several quick edging sessions. The plan is to fill your sexual reservoirs enough to be able to reach the plateau more readily. Instead of one long exhausting edging session, it is better to do several quicker ones in hours preceding your date. Each time, bring yourself close to climax but stop before you get overcome by the urge to orgasm. Should the urge get too strong and distracting, give yourself a quick intermittent cold and hot shower. The shower is not a bad pre-sex preparation itself as the exchange of cold and hot water improves circulation, boosting your general vigour.