Married At First Sight bride Jacqui Burfoot has revealed a jaw-dropping detail about her sex life with TV husband Ryan Donnelly – and it’s left their fellow co-stars stunned.

During a candid girls’ chat, Jacqui, 29, a New Zealand-born lawyer, confessed that Ryan, 36, has a strict rule when it comes to intimacy – and it all comes down to his devotion to the gym.

‘He really cares about training all the time,’ Jacqui told the group.

‘He only wants to have sex if he’s not training. As in, he’ll only have sex after training and never in the morning. It has to be at night, after training. Because he wants to save his testosterone, he says.’

Her fellow brides were visibly shocked as Jacqui elaborated.

‘Apparently testosterone helps you work out,’ she explained, suggesting that Ryan believes refraining from sex before a gym session boosts his performance.

The revelation was met with disbelief, with the women questioning the logic behind his self-imposed abstinence.

‘Is this real? I’ve never heard of that, and can no one tell my husband because I don’t need him savouring his testosterone for the gym,’ fellow bride Jamie Marinos joked.

‘Surely that kind of release is a lot more exciting than hitting the gym? That’s just me personally.’

Jacqui admitted she had never dated a gym fanatic before and was unsure if this behaviour was normal. ‘I don’t know, I actually thought it was a gym boy thing.’

But the revelation sparked a major confrontation at a group gathering when Ryan was confronted about his ‘testosterone theory.’

Things quickly escalated when the topic of his gym-over-sex preference was put under the spotlight.

Ryan was visibly frustrated as the group pressed him to explain his theory.

‘Thanks, Jacqui, for not keeping that private,’ he snapped. ‘It was girl chat first night,’ Jacqui replied.

Ryan then vented: ‘I can’t believe we’re talking about our sex life and intimacy and all that. It’s not what I wanted at all.’

‘I just don’t want to talk about our sex life,’ he continued. ‘I prefer to keep private, intimate details out of a group setting.’

But the other contestants weren’t willing to let him off the hook. ‘What is your connection between testosterone, sex and the gym?’ fellow bride Veronica Cloherty demanded.

Ryan hesitated before finally doubling down on his controversial stance.

‘It’s not going to make sense to a few people, but a lot of my mates are athletes, and a lot of guys do train the same way and have the same sort of mentality.’

‘If you do have goals and you want to perform a certain way, then sex every day is not conducive to that,’ he argued.

‘In terms of going to the gym, I prefer to train before having sex because saving my testosterone enhances performance. It’s served me very well for like 15, 20 years.’

While some of the grooms attempted to support Ryan’s logic, others couldn’t help but mock his self-imposed celibacy.

‘Self-imposed blue balls,’ one quipped, while another scoffed: ‘That’s an Olympic athlete thing – not a ‘going to the gym to do bench press’ thing.’

Ryan, however, refused to back down. ‘All I said was, I don’t feel like having it every single day. It’s not a need of mine, it’s not a desire of mine either.’

Despite his firm stance, the group couldn’t hide their amusement at his controversial gym protocol. ‘No, you touch my leg, I’m ready to go,’ he then snapped at his bride.

As the night continued, it was clear the testosterone theory had become the talk of the evening – with Ryan left fuming over the group’s reaction.

Married At First Sight continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine.