Praised for its supposed ability to intensify female pleasure, the speed bump has become the latest trending sex position. Curious about all the fuss, Amelia Reynolds tries it out and reports back with the results.

I was in the bath when I first saw it. A short video on Tik Tok set to a line from ‘Paparazzi’ where Lady Gaga sings “I’m your biggest fan I’ll follow you until you love me”. The TikTok user was declaring their undying adoration for the person that invented the ‘speedbump’ position. 

Intrigued, I did what anyone would do in this situation: I clicked on the little recommended search bar thing, and was immediately propelled into sex position Tik Tok.

As I fell deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, my bath getting cold as I feverishly swiped from one video to the next, two things became apparent to me. The first being that despite its vague sounding name, the act of ‘speed bumping’ itself is pretty simple (literally just placing a pillow under your hips to raise your pelvis during sex). The second was that I needed to try it, immediately. 

What exactly is ‘speedbumping’? 

The speed bump entails placing a pillow under your tailbone. 

You use the pillow method to enhance a bunch of your favourite positions: a pillow under your bum during missionary; underneath your hips to lift you up for doggy; or just to support one hip in the spooning position. 

Apart from the comfort and support that a pillow can offer, making positions easier to hold for longer periods of time, one of the main drawing factors is the opportunity to enhance your pleasure.

How does it work? 

You know that feeling you get when your partner is really hitting the spot? Supposedly, the pillow method helps to achieve just that. 

By lifting the hips, the vaginal canal is straightened, setting the course for penetration directly towards the anterior wall (or G-spot) according to Tatyannah King for Mashable. 

For just 18.4% of women, penetration alone is enough to reach orgasm. So stimulating the clitoris or G-spot can help improve the overall experience. Sometimes it can be hard to find, and once located, it can be difficult to maintain the angle or position; often incredibly frustrating for all parties involved.

“The G-spot is located on the front of the vagina about three inches up, essentially below the belly button” says Mayla Green, sex expert and podcaster. She champions the pillow method not only for missionary but during doggy as well. 

“It's easy to re-position the pillow as needed to improve G-spot contact, and if you've got the angle just right, your hands are free to rub your clitoris during sex which will greatly improve the power and pleasure of your orgasms.”

Sex therapist and podcaster, Lyndsey Murray, also praises the speed bump method: “Due to the position that each partner is in, there’s more of a likelihood of insertion hitting the G-spot. It’s easy for the partner who is laying down to touch their own clitoris at the same time their G-spot is receiving some action.”

All these things considered, the pillow method was shaping up to be one of the more exciting sex-periments I have partaken in. 

The Experiment

Once I managed to rouse myself from my pillow-tok deep dive, I knew exactly what I had to do. I text my boyfriend and let him know that I would be requiring his services, in the name of Sextras, to test out a new sex position. He very graciously accepted and to his credit was incredibly committed to the investigation. 

We decided that in order to maintain optimum sciency-ness we would need to keep this strictly professional. 

We donned our lab coats and goggles (not really, but that would be kinda hot) and got to it. 

To have made this a completely viable experiment, we would have had to put a control test in place. But, a mixture of our excitement and awareness of our stamina, we forewent this important step.

After a little experimentation with pillow texture – hard, flat, puffy – I landed on a soft pillow, and folded in half for height. 

The pillow trial started, of course, with some foreplay. Using a ‘come hither’ motion (which can stimulate the G-spot), my boyfriend began fingering me. Although this method is almost always successful, the raised position of my hips definitely heightened my sensitivity. 

Perhaps it was a placebo effect or the fact that the whole affair was focused on enhancing my pleasure, but it genuinely did feel as though my G spot was more accessible. I came, quicker than I normally do, and without stimulating my clit – which is incredibly rare for me.

The penetrative sex that came afterwards also definitely felt more intense. I like to get really close to my partner during missionary, sometimes this means sacrificing the level of pleasure I get (it's not a position that lends itself well to G-spot stimulation). However, I found that the  angle of my hips with the aid of the pillow enabled us to have the best of both worlds. 

Heeding the words of Mayla Green, we decided to try out doggy with the speed bump aid. As much as I enjoyed missionary, I think this was where we both noticed the greatest difference. 

I’ve always enjoyed doggy, but deep down (ahem) I’ve found it easier to orgasm during missionary, or any other position where clitoral stimulation is easier. With the pillow I found I was able to angle my hips in a way that made penetration feel really good. 

I had more freedom with my hands, as I wasn't holding myself up, to stimulate my clitoris and am happy to report that I orgasmed twice! 

Reflections: 

During our mandatory pillow talk after pillow sex session, my partner and I both agreed that we had found the experiment to be a success. 

For me, I found that penetration (both by finger and penis) gave me more intense sensations of pressure and pleasure when using the pillow method. I would have to agree the angle optimises the pathway to the pleasure spot. 

My partner, when asked if he thought it felt any different, said that although it didn’t necessarily feel any different for him, his overall experience was enhanced by the pleasure it was bringing me. He has since said that he would definitely try it again. 

In terms of anything I would do differently, the only issue I encountered was that I probably wasn’t using the best pillow for the job. We got a little bit carried away (perhaps testament to its success) and had to stop a few times so that I could reposition myself back on top of the pillow. 

Closing thoughts: The pillow method definitely worked for me and it gets a thumbs up from both me and my boyfriend.