When regular you typically has sex or masturbates, you position your body so you can get off with optimized comfort. Trying to porn things up in our sex lives, with wildly elaborate positions inspired by history’s most intense games of Twister, is usually an exercise in futility for anyone not on a San Fernando Valley film set. Because most of us are not gymnasts, or even in good physical condition, there’s awkwardness, discomfort and risk of injury. The only upside? If you do try out an uncomfortable porn-flick position, it’s not like there’s a director of photography or dozens of tipping fans ordering you to stay in it longer than you or your body desires.
This is why the physicality involved in being a porn star and cammer is notably intense. To better understand how physically challenging it is, I chatted with some of them to learn the positions they find the most difficult in which to perform.
Here’s what they said…
Reverse Cowgirl Is THE WORST
Reverse cowgirl features facial expressions, genital exposure and breasts gyrating wildly, all in frame. But for the female performer, the endurance it takes to execute this position in a boy-girl scene is outlandish. “You’re on your feet and you’re straddling and more or less doing a squat,” adult film star Sofia Rose says. “You go ahead and tell me you can do a squat for five minutes. It’s not easy.”
In reverse cowgirl, just balancing oneself — while looking sexy — is an adventure. “In order for you to be upright enough for the camera to see you properly, a lot of times you have to put your hands back on the guy’s chest,” says porn star Lisey Sweet. “Usually, the guys will sort of help out by holding your hips a little bit raised up and they’ll do the work.”
Which basically sucks for the guy.
“Sometimes the girl doesn’t know how to position themselves, or you’re holding them the whole time so you don’t get much of a break,” says Jake Adams. From the male side of things, he says reverse cowgirl shots are “pretty rough” on the arms and core muscles. “I think it’s almost everyone’s least-favorite [position] because most people don’t do it in their personal lives so maybe it’s just a muscle memory thing [and] people aren’t used to it,” he adds.
Rose adds that reverse cowgirl can cause bodily harm to the male talent as well. “I know a male performer who had his dick broken from it,” she says. “So he refuses to do it now.”
Ditto for all this in guy-guy scenes with reverse cowgirl, but add in ball shifting, for greater lens exposure of the penetration, and cock stroking on top of it all. “Essentially you’re holding yourself up with one arm, dick in the other hand and squatting for three to five minutes,” says Steve Rickz, who’s both a cam boy and adult film performer. “My legs are so worn out by the end.”
Doggy Style Is for the Birds
Rose dislikes reverse cowgirl, but her No. 1 most-uncomfortable position to shoot is doggy style, mostly due to the fact that the male talent’s penises are so comparatively big. “Anything over an eight-inch dick, it starts to get real painful pretty much no matter what position you’re in,” she says. “I don’t lie, size matters: There is such a thing as too big.”
In terms of doggy specifically, though, “it hits your cervix and your uterus differently.”
“Now, in real life,” she continues, “I quite enjoy that position and can take it longer, but I’m dealing with the more average-size male. On set, we’re trying to make it look aesthetically pleasing for the camera and audience. [But] you’re not relaxed in the same way as you are in your personal life; everything’s just not mechanically the same.”
Male talent Johnny Goodluck didn’t denigrate traditional doggy style, but discussed the difficulties a modified version of it brings. Like for the ladies in reverse cowgirl, if a guy is penetrating a girl in doggy, with her rear end extra high in the air, and his knees are upright, body in a crouch, it’s like doing squats, for five consecutive minutes, in a room teeming with lights and packed with people, while trying not to cum and stay hard.
“Guys are counting on blood flow,” Goodluck says. “We’re counting on our blood to be where we need it and when we need it there, so when you do really strenuous positions like that, it’s making your muscles work, which means your body is pumping blood [elsewhere].”
Rickz also names doggy style as the position his cam fans respond to most — mainly via tips — but that he finds the most challenging to stay in for prolonged periods of time. “You have to face away from the camera, so now you have to be looking back, turning your head while trying to have a chat,” he explains. This awkward stance puts pressure on the arm he’s using to hold himself up, his back and neck and, not to mention, the other arm he’s using to thrust a toy up his butt.
When Rickz tires of doggy style, he’ll switch to missionary for a break and hope there are some viewers who are into that position as well. But…
Even Missionary Can Blow!
Goodluck says, for the male porn star, missionary provides particular strain on whichever arm is holding their body up. The other arm usually has to be placed elsewhere, like behind their back, so that their body is “opened up” for the camera.
“You have to basically be planking the entire time,” but with one arm, Goodluck explains. The workout is felt not just in the arm, but also the shoulder and the oblique muscles.
Scissoring Sucks (And Isn’t an Actual Thing)
Many girl-girl scenes boast scissoring sections, where the stars rub crotch to crotch and act like it’s actually doing something. But it doesn’t sound like that’s the case. “I’ve never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever scissored in my life, and I’m married to a woman,” female porn performer Jessie Lee says. “Scissoring is a porn thing. [E]very single female that I talk to that sleeps with women, I’ve never heard of them scissoring.”
Lee and her wife “fuck each other with toys” and “eat each other’s pussies,” but scissoring isn’t on the menu. She says it’s not intimate and just not practical, offering limited access to the clit and no access to the G-spot.
When It Comes to Camming, Just Don’t Try So Hard
Nikki Night, a former cam girl turned cam star coach, says that “anything where you’re trying to look unnaturally gorgeous or like a Photoshop image” is to be avoided in cam performances, for cam stars of both sexes. “People try to lengthen their bodies — put all their weight on one side, or they’re posing to get rid of any kind of creases or rolls or folding of skin — and I’m going to tell you right now, that’s almost impossible,” she explains.
Though it looks good, this type of positioning leads to cam stars holding much of their body weight up with one arm, putting tons of pressure on their shoulders, elbows and wrists. Night adds that many female performers arch their backs for long stretches of time to make their breasts bulge out and slim their stomach, but that, too, can cause extreme soreness and back injuries. “People can tell you’re posing,” Night says. “You look foolish. Just let it all go; it’s so much better to watch.”
Cam girl Cecilia Morrell says she tries to sit upright on her bed for as long as she comfortably can because it “showcases the best angles.” But she agrees that the more natural the positioning the better, explaining that viewers “want to see you having a good time, not feeling uncomfortable.”
The same goes for you. Contorting yourself like a pretzel to be the next Riley Reid in bed probably isn’t going to work — or make things feel any better. So the next time you’re about to masturbate or have sex, just sit back in your desk chair or lay down on your bed and try something that doesn’t require the miraculous sexual agility of a noodle-spined acrobat — there’s much less chance of a broken cock that way, too.
Your Hardest Questions About Porn, Answered
- First, check out Tasha Reign’s MEL column about porn and sex. You’ll probably learn a ton.
- What is ahegao, that hentai porn face you might know from Belle Delphine?
- Can porn actually be COVID-safe?
- Who are the big men in small penis porn?
- What’s with the enduring appeal of girl-on-girl or lesbian porn?
- How do you play the Pornhub intro music?
- How is TikTok — and NSFW TikTok on Reddit — changing the porn aesthetic?
- Wait, does TikTok have a porn problem?
- Inside porn’s newest #MeToo campaign.
- Who is Nick Finch, the, um, extremely NSFW YouTube chef?
- What is Thothub?
- What is — and no, this is not a typo — porm?
- What’s up with all the bikini barista porn?
- It’s okay, pal. Lots of people think premature ejaculation is actually hot.
Michael Stahl
Michael Stahl is a freelance writer based in New York City. He's covered the arts and culture, sex and relationships, business and tech, history and politics and other topics for Rolling Stone, Vice, Vulture, CityLab, Quartz, Narratively and many more publications. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelRStahl and read more of his work at MichaelStahlWrites.com.
