Shoot Like a Pro: How To Maximize Your Ejaculatory Function

By Dr. Josh

There is a lot of time and energy put into maximizing male sexual health from an erection standpoint.  But what if getting and staying hard isn’t the problem?  What if a man is more focused on the finish, the culmination of sex?  I see this a lot: men who have no problem with their erection but have a variety of concerns about their ejaculation and achieving a satisfying orgasm.  In other words, their focus isn’t on their boners, but instead on how they can optimize their money shot.

Before we go over some tips on how to maximize your ejaculatory function, we should take a minute to discuss why men are often fascinated with their ejaculation.  One easy place to start is pornography.  Porn has become increasingly cum-centric with bigger loads often being the focus of the pornographic material we consume.  Couple this with a burgeoning market for “male supplements” that promise (often without supporting data) to enhance your sexual performance, and it’s easy to see why men have become preoccupied with their ejaculate and subsequent orgasms.  I think we also associate more ejaculate with masculinity and virility.  Perhaps this is based on evolutionary assumptions or cultural norms and preferences, but there are no real data to suggest this is true.

We should also emphasize that there are some factors that influence ejaculatory volume and force, which are fixed and immutable.  Age is one of those factors that can affect ejaculation volume.  The truth is as men get older, our semen production diminishes and so ejaculations tend to decrease in volume and force.  Our money shots become more like a monetary dribble.  Genetics can also influence ejaculation and sexual stamina.  One study found a moderate genetic influence on premature ejaculation and a moderate familial effect on delayed ejaculation (Jern).  So unless you’ve figured out a way to turn back time or rearrange your DNA, some elements of your ejaculate and semen volume are simply out of your control.

Now let’s get into the meat and potatoes of it all.  There are important factors one should consider when thinking about how to maximize ejaculatory function and semen production.  Of all things related to ejaculation, I get asked about volume and force more than any other issue.  But other ingredients go into optimizing your ejaculate, besides ejaculation volume and force.  Things like: timing, sperm count, and even taste.  What follows is a summary of these considerations and some tips on how to achieve the highest quality ejaculation.

1. Cut back on the alcohol

People often mix alcohol with sex to make the whole experience more fun and pleasurable.  But alcohol, beyond a modest 1-2 drinks, can often sabotage your sexual performance and sexual stamina.  Alcohol has been shown to not only decrease sperm count but also lowers the amount of your ejaculate.  It can make it harder to get hard and can lead to delayed ejaculation or anejaculation (where you can’t cum at all).  So if you’re looking to level up your load, just say no to that next drink.

2. Avoid the heat

In order to enhance your ejaculation, you need to keep your balls relatively cool.  Extreme heat is bad for sperm production and semen volume.  There’s a reason our testicles reside outside the body.  It’s because they need to be able to maintain a lower temperature than our core body temperature to produce effective swimmers.  From a practical standpoint, if you want to boost your ejaculate make sure to avoid activities or behaviors that turn up the heat including, saunas, steam rooms, jacuzzis, baths, heated seats in the car, and even tight underwear.

3. Diet

What we put in our bodies on a regular basis is important for what “cums” out during sex.  Diet is so important for improving your sexual performance, especially your ejaculatory function.  Certain foods have been linked to healthier testosterone levels and decreased inflammation, both of which are crucial to sperm production.  Foods high in antioxidants, like berries, coconuts, and artichokes, can not only increase your ejaculatory volume but also help improve sperm quality.

Diet has also been linked to the way our ejaculate tastes.  There is not a lot of evidence supporting specific foods and their influence on the taste of semen (you can imagine the difficulty conducting a scientifically sound study on this), but that doesn’t mean you can’t try switching up your diet to avoid funky spunk.  Some adult film stars have suggested that a vegetarian or vegan diet leads to tastier semen. Certain fruits like pineapple and spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, and peppermint have commonly been recommended to make things taste sweeter, while other foods like dairy, red meat, asparagus, garlic, onions, and all things fried are generally to be avoided. Read more to find out what foods are good to eat for better sex.

4. Stay hydrated

Upping your fluid intake is important for maximizing your ejaculatory function.  Semen is largely water-based and if you’re walking around parched, your ejaculate will likely be more of a dribble than a fountain.  Drinking 2-3 liters of water per day is important for so many of our bodily functions.  So, if you want to increase the size of your load, always keep that bottle of water nearby.

5. Caffeine

Certain forms of caffeine have been linked to poorer semen.  Coffee, while necessary for most of us to function on a daily basis, can leave a bad taste in your partners mouth.  Cutting back on your daily intake of java may help to improve the flavor of your semen.  One study also suggests that cola may be bad for sperm production, so if you want to optimize the health of your little swimmers avoid consuming too much Coke (Jensen).

6. Smoking

Like caffeine, smoking can also have a negative impact on the taste and quality of your semen.  Cigarette smoking has been linked to decreased sperm production and can negatively affect your fertility potential.  Aside from the other negative aspects of smoking, cigarettes can also affect certain bodily fluids including ejaculate.  Smoking cessation is important for maximizing your overall health but can be especially helpful to enhance your ejaculatory function.

7. Get physical

In addition to improving mood, reducing stress, and helping keep our bodies stay in tiptop shape, regular physical activity has been shown to be beneficial for improving sperm count.  Exercising specific parts of your body can also be important for increasing the size and timing of your loads.  As we get older many of our muscles atrophy and become weaker.  This includes the muscles in our pelvis, which are crucial for healthy ejaculatory function.  Other factors such as chronic pelvic pain, prostatitis, and even certain neurological conditions, can negatively affect the muscles in our pelvic floor.  Pelvic floor muscle dysfunction can cause problems with ejaculatory force and lead to cumming too soon or not being able to ejaculate at all.  Very often when I encounter a man complaining of decreased force or problems with ejaculatory timing, I refer him to a pelvic floor physical therapist.  Learning to control your pelvic floor under the guidance of a specialist can have a dramatic impact on your ejaculations.

8. Sleep

Many of us have heard of the benefits of getting good sleep.  It helps maintain a healthy immune system, reduces weight gain, decreases stress and promotes good mood, and lowers our risk for serious health problems, like diabetes and heart disease.  But sleep is also crucial for maintaining healthy testosterone levels.  Testosterone is necessary for sperm production and promoting sexual desire, and it definitely plays a role in the size of our ejaculatory volume.

9. Abstinence and arousal

Abstinence may not be a reliable contraceptive method, but it can be very helpful to improve your ejaculation.  Taking time off between masturbation and sex can help your prostate reload, which will likely lead to stronger, larger, and more dynamic money shots.  How much time off is debatable and likely based on the individual, so do some experimenting with breaks between ejaculations.  Arousal is also an important factor to consider when discussing ejaculatory function.  How turned on you are during sex has an effect on the amount and force of your ejaculate.  This may be why you’ve noticed more satisfying and impressive cumshots with different partners and/or varying degrees of arousal when you’re masturbating by yourself.

10. Supplements

Most of our understanding of the benefits of supplements comes from medical literature on male infertility.  One study found that men with fertility problems who took 5 mg of folic acid a day and 66 mg of zinc sulfate a day for 26 weeks had a 74% increase in total normal sperm count (Wong).  Amino acid such as L-arginine, L-citrulline, and carnitine have also been shown to improve semen parameters (Morgante, Wang, Stanislavov).  These supplements have demonstrated improvements in fertility, but may also increase your ejaculatory volume and enhance your overall sexual performance.  These cum-friendly nutrients can be consumed through over the counter supplements or found in everyday foods like peanuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, and grains such as quinoa, oats, and wheat germ.

Maximizing your ejaculatory function is key to leading a fulfilling sex life.  I hope you have found some of these tips helpful.  But remember, we can’t all perform like our favorite porn stars.  And it should be noted that what you see on camera is often not human ejaculate, but other liquids used on set to simulate semen.  So, try to make some of the changes we discussed, but give yourself a break and learn to love your load.

Jern P, Santtila P, Witting K, Alanko K, Harlaar N, Johansson A, von der Pahlen B, Varjonen M, Vikström N, Algars M, Sandnabba K. Premature and delayed ejaculation: genetic and environmental effects in a population-based sample of Finnish twins. J Sex Med. 2007 Nov;4(6):1739-49. doi: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2007.00599.x. Epub 2007 Sep 21. PMID: 17888070.

Tina Kold Jensen, Shanna H. Swan, Niels E. Skakkebæk, Sanne Rasmussen, Niels Jørgensen, Caffeine Intake and Semen Quality in a Population of 2,554 Young Danish Men, American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 171, Issue 8, 15 April 2010, Pages 883–891, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwq007

Wong WY, Merkus HM, Thomas CM, Menkveld R, Zielhuis GA, Steegers-Theunissen RP. Effects of folic acid and zinc sulfate on male factor subfertility: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Fertil Steril. 2002 Mar;77(3):491-8. doi: 10.1016/s0015-0282(01)03229-0. PMID: 11872201.

Morgante, G. et. al. (2010). Treatment with carnitine, acetyl carnitine, L-arginine, and ginseng improves sperm motility and sexual health in men with asthenospermia. The Italian Journal of Urology and Nephrology. Volume 62, Issue 3, (pp. 213-8)

Wang, Y, et al. (2010). L-carnitine: safe and effective for asthenozoospermia. National Journal of Andrology. Volume 16, Issue 5, (pp. 420-2)

Stanislavov, R. and Rohdewald, P. (2014). Sperm quality in men is improved by supplementation with a combination of L-arginine, L-citrullin, roburines and Pycnogenal. The Italian Journal of Urology and Nephrology. Volume 66, Issue 4, (pp. 217-23)

---

Dr. Josh

ASTROGLIDE’S SEXUAL HEALTH ADVISOR

Joshua Gonzalez, MD, is a board-certified urologist who is fellowship-trained in Sexual Medicine and specializes in the management of male and female sexual dysfunctions. These include issues surrounding hormone deficiency, menopause, sexual arousal, orgasm, ejaculation, libido/desire, sexual pain, penile curvature, and erectile function. Throughout his career, Dr. Gonzalez has focused on advocating for sexual health and providing improved healthcare to the LGBTQ community.