Looking to make sex last a bit longer before reaching the Big O? Then edging may be the right thing for you. This wonderful practice brings excitement, awareness, and a newfound intimacy during solo or partner play.

The Loveangels Guide to Edging

Passionate, wild, kinky sex – anyone interested? Going to the edge, digressing, and going back to the edge. Edging can open a whole new world of exploring arousal, pleasure, and the journey to the mighty orgasm. 

What is Edging?

Edging is the act of stopping yourself (or your partner) from reaching orgasm during the climax, taking a moment to calm the body, and then going back to climatic arousal. You can practice this as many times as you desire until you’re ready to enjoy an explosive orgasm. Other names for it include surfing, teasing, and peaking.

This form of foreplay or sexual teasing involves being aware of your body, recognising the signals before an orgasm, and focusing on being fully present in the moment of solo or partnered pleasure.

It offers us the opportunity to shift our angle on the purpose of sexual play. Instead of an orgasm being centre stage during sex, the exploration of pleasure in the present moment is the focal point. In other words, “it’s not about the destination, but the journey there”, as the saying goes.

How it can make sex better

Edging allows more control over your orgasm, which offers more time to explore sexual arousal and pleasure leading up to an orgasm. Incorporating the practice of edging can help reduce performance anxiety and prevent premature ejaculation by delaying an orgasm.

More satisfying sex? Yes! For many people, when they do finally reach an orgasm, the awakened and teased nerve endings rejoice in an explosive orgasming pleasure.

How can it help with performance anxiety? Without the pressure of needing to arrive at an orgasm as quickly as possible, your body and mind enter a state of relaxation as you and your partner fully explore the multitude of sensations during sex.

Edging can also strengthen intimacy and communication in a relationship or sexual partnership. By relinquishing and exerting control over your or your partner’s orgasm, you can connect through playfulness and exploration of what arouses one another. This can make you more aware of what your and your partner’s turn-ons, preferences, and sexual pleasure are.

Exploring solo edging

“Studies and literature support that one of the best indicators of a satisfying sex life is to masturbate and self-explore,” CEO of a smart vibrator Liz Kriger shares with Healthline. She continues to describe that practising self-pleasure allows us to understand the techniques and needs of our bodies, which can improve our solo pleasure as well as sex with our partners.

Want to try edging alone? Experiment with your hands or sex toys, and as you slowly explore your own pleasure, tap into what’s happening in your body. What turns you on? What happens in the body as you climax right before an orgasm? When you reach the ‘edge’ of an orgasm, slow down or completely stop. Let the orgasm dissipate, and this is when you explore sensations. Touch yourself or move your body, and explore the pleasure of how your body feels. Then, you can start again and continue edging as many times as you want or reaching an orgasm.

Incorporating edging with a partner

As always, it’s important to discuss exploring edging with your partner beforehand. Find out if your partner would like to try it, and share your thoughts on why you want to try it. Edging is gaining more popularity in partnered sex, and rightly so.

Practising edging with a partner adds excitement to the bedroom, and more passionate and mindful sex creates a closer emotional and physical connection between partners as they play through the sway of exerting and relinquishing control over their and their partner’s orgasms.

You can explore edging with oral play using mouths, hands, or sex toys, such as vibrators and non-vibrating cock rings (which are great to help delay an orgasm). Or during vaginal or anal penetration. You can also explore different sex positions, rhythms, speeds, and sensations through touching, kissing, and dirty talk.

Communicate with words or body language when you’re close to the brink of an orgasm, and verbalise what you need to stop the orgasm and when you would like to go again. And this is where the intimacy and connection happens: Being mindful of how your and your partner’s body reacts to different techniques during arousal and before orgasm allows you to better understand what each person’s preferences and desires are.

As you move through edging, explore multiple cycles of arousal and stopping before an orgasm. This will increase blood flow into the pelvis creating more powerful orgasms.

Loveangels Pro Tip: Strengthening your pelvic floor with kegel exercises, whether you have a penis or a vagina, helps the act of preventing an orgasm and improves orgasms, too. 

Final Thoughts

Ready to incorporate edging into your solo and partnered play? Enjoy the sensual journey of sexual exploration and ignite the power of orgasms with the mindful practice of being in the moment. Have fun, keep it consensual, and be open to exploring newfound pleasure within yourself and others!