Haha those were pretty priceless.
However, to actually throw out a serious answer, I'd think that freediving (very) shortly after sex could in fact enhance your static breath hold.
I came across a chart once while looking up arterial oxygen saturation during apnea
breathhold
(It's very interesting how the O2 saturation curve works, by the way. Concentrations are high to moderate for most of the time, before plummeting quickly near the end when your lungs are basically out. contractions really do help squeeze every bit of oxygen out even as concentrations in your lungs decrease)
Anyway the interesting thing here is heart rate. See how it's at 'normal' levels for the majority of the time, only after 3 minutes does the body finally figure out whats going on, and its not until around 4-5 minutes that the heart is really slowed down to preserve oxygen.
So for the first few minutes, you've just been wasting the precious oxygen in your lungs because your body wasn't exactly prepared for what was coming.
Here's where I'm just going to say it, i think yes... for men. For women, its a bit more complex. Women don't *always* achieve orgasm, there are different hormonal levels throughout the menstrual cycle, and a woman's resolution period is gradual, not sudden like that of a man's. There are simply too many variables for me to just say yes or no. So I'm going to focus on men here, sorry ladies.
Post orgasm, a number of chemicals are released into the blood system, some good for freediving and some bad. The big bad guy here is norepinephrine, which we all know increases heart rate, along with nitric oxide which does the same.
But, there are also a few other things released, these include: serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, and prolactin. All of these are related to relaxation, slowed heart rate, and sleep. Yeah.. we don't get sleepy after sex because of the workout, its the hormones, so ladies, hate the pituitary gland not us.
Anyway, from here it becomes individual physiology, and also importantly how the sex was carried. I'll leave it to you to decide on the details, but suffice to say that the less work the freediver does, the better.
Immediately after sex, the heart rate will be high, but that norepinephrine doesn't last long and you it will quickly drop down as the other hormones take over.
Anyway, so normally your heart rate and brain activity (your brain consumes 1/3rd of the oxygen you take in) are at regular, a few minutes in. If you were to have sex first, its conceivable that your body would enter that 'lower workload' state even before the breath hold, somewhat anyway, and preserve the oxygen that would normally be wasted in the beginning.
But.. between jumping in the water, breathing up, etc... those hormones might wear off.
But it certainly has *potential* to increase your time, by lowering heart rate and other such relaxing effects. But like any freediver knows.. everyone is different.. every day.
I'd like to add by the way, that I've never seen the heart rate changes of an elite freediver as they breath up, but I'm sure there heart rate gets very low from all the yoga and such training, maybe more. It's quite possible that they are achieving those same results mentally instead of hormonally. I think sex beforehand would just be an easy way out for those who don't want to learn meditation.
-Matt
