“In March — and I hope this is an adult crowd — no climax,” Newton said in discussing his various offseason regimens, which also include veganism. “I’m going through a transition right now.”
After actor David Boreanaz, sitting next to Newton on Corden’s sofa, astutely suggested that he should have chosen February as his month of chastity because it only has 28 days, Newton said he chose the longer portion of the calendar because it posed a greater degree of difficulty.
“I wanted it to be challenging,” Newton said. “I’m coming off shoulder surgery.”
It’s all about mental vigor, you see.
“It makes my mind stronger,” he said. “So when the season comes around, I say if I did those things, I’m mentally stronger.”
Whether abstinence will actually have that effect on Newton is up for debate. Beverly Whipple, a leading sexologist and the co-author of “The Science of Orgasm,” told Broadly’s Hanson O’Haver in 2017 that she was unaware of any medical benefit to abstinence.
“I would know about this if there was something scientifically to it,” said Whipple, who has a PhD in psychobiology.
But Nan Wise, who has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, told O’Haver that there might be something of a placebo effect with such a plan.
“When it comes to sexuality, you always have to look at biological, psychological, and social stuff,” she said. “Here’s a place where the power of belief is going to determine what people experience, and their experience is going to confirm their belief. For people who believe that abstinence is going to help them, the belief itself may be driving some of the benefits.”
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