There are many excuses for getting the job done quickly, but no really good reasons. Perhaps one or both of the sexual partners has to get up early the next day, thinks foreplay is a waste of time or is just really anxious to get off. In any one of those situations, the truth remains: no sex is really that great if it doesn’t last that long. In fact, the vast majority of sexual sleuths-both men and women-would agree that the best sex is the kind that lasts a while, and that the trick to making it last is foreplay.

In today’s goal-oriented society, people have lost sight of the true enjoyment of sex. Seeking the quick fix orgasm, people are often left feeling unsatisfied with the sexual experience. Sure, the orgasm is a lot of fun, but how long does it last? And after a developing a habit of rushing through the routine just to splurge and roll over, one tends to find that sex yields very little in terms of its satisfaction, its fulfillment and even its simple enjoyment. There is, however, much to recommend spending hours upon hours deeply immersed in tantalizing enticing sex involving the highly enticing act of foreplay, which, eventually, culminates into an insuperable and highly ecstatic orgasm.

But before going into the details of all the best ways to engage in foreplay for both men and women, it is important to understand the mindset with which one should approach foreplay, and indeed sex overall. Foreplay is not the equivalent of the microwave’s defrost cycle, nor is like pulling a lever so as to get the vaginal juices flowing after which the man can shove it in and jerk it off in no time flat. No, no, no. It’s about interaction, excitement and fun. In fact, foreplay is really what the fun of sex is all about while the orgasm is more like a ‘game over’ popup. And even if a man or a woman is already accustomed to employing some form of foreplay during sex, it might be advisable to pay a greater deal of attention to the game, focusing on its joys rather than rushing through the process.

As foreplay is generally any act done to bring about sexual stimulation before actual intercourse, the list of possible activities is endless. Light caressing, kissing, and the taking of the clothes off are classic examples of what people often do before having sex. Once the interaction has gotten more intense, it is not uncommon for sexual partners to kiss various parts of the others’ bodies and engage in oral sex. Manual sex, or the use of the hands and the fingers to stimulate the male or female sexual organs, is also another common way of heating things up. But again, these actions are all constantly misinterpreted as having the sole and express purpose of warming up the dish before it can be served, leaving people with little room to explore the intense joys of each one of these actions in and of itself.

Take undressing for an example. The simple act of removing ones clothes is more often than not seen as just that, a functional activity meant to prepare two bodies for sexual intercourse. And while all possibility of sexual enticement of clothing removal is lost on many people, still more only see it a mild turn-on and ignore the vast potential for stimulation that it contains. Indeed, there is little that competes with the foreplay that takes shape as a form of strip tease. The unzipping of dresses and the unfastening of underwear provide ample excitement, while the use of teeth to tear off garments has had incredibly positive results for some. Unbeknownst to many, the invention of edible underwear was in fact thought up as a way to take the strip tease to a whole new level, with the act of mouth to genital contact coming as an obvious and beneficial, yet only secondary occurrence of this type of foreplay. As a fusion of undressing and oral sex, the use of edible underwear is a highly stimulating sexual game.

But with or without edible underwear, the act of oral sex is an extremely intimate and exciting part of the sexual experience. Yet it should be said to those who are truly looking for a long and extended session of sexual interaction, that oral sex – and manual sex as well – are probably best reserved for the later stages of the game. As a rule, oral and manual sex usual directly precede actual sexual intercourse, while some couples even choose to substitute these methods of pleasuring the other partner for intercourse itself. This lends a hand to the idea of oral and manual sex as final stage techniques meant to achieve climax and finish it off. However, once that is said, it can also be argued that, if gone about the right way, these sexual techniques can be drawn out in a deliciously stimulating and anticipatory manner, attaining much the same effects as nipple biting or feather tickling.

In order to extend the duration of oral and manual sex it is highly important to take into account the physical nature of each partner. Whether or not a man is circumcised may have a lot to do with how he responds to various possible stimuli presented by his partner. Since it has been shown that circumcised men have much less penile sensitivity, there is likely to be a lot more leeway in the oral and manual sex techniques the sexual partner enacts. Also, regardless of a male’s circumcision status, the preferred rapidity of hand job movements varies from person to person. While some like it slow and methodical, others enjoy fast paced action. But throughout all this it is important to remember that the goal here is really to delay the orgasm as much as possible, increasing the excitement of pleasure of the interaction while maintaining impetus to continues for a long time. Remember that when it comes to foreplay, the journey is more important than the destination.