Study Says Intense Workouts Impair Fertility

• Thursday October 12, 2006 in: Diet and Exercise Tag(s):

  Technorati Tags: exercise, health, fertility

  While working out, it is common among both men and women to try to push their limits, whether it's adding another hour to their treadmill time or doing heavier weights. Naturally, the exercisers who do this do so to the point of exhaustion. Most of us think that pushing our limits gives us better results, but a new study reveals that heavy-duty workouts may impair fertility in men.

  Conducted by Dr. Diana Vaamonde of the University of Cordoba in Spain and her colleagues, the study, published in the September 2006 issue of the International Journal of Sports Medicine, says that changes in hormone levels and sperm counts take place in men who exercise themselves to exhaustion. Dr. Vaamonde and colleagues, however, also say that the changes are not permanent, and that the effects of exercise on men's fertility are not yet that clear.

  Reuters Health has more:

  The researchers set out to investigate how recreational exercise might influence male reproductive factors by assigning 16 healthy young men to either pedal to exhaustion on a special exercise bike four times a week for two weeks, or to avoid intense physical activity.

  The exercisers showed a drop in their sperm concentration, ejaculate volume, and the number of sperm per ejaculate, as well as other changes in sperm quality. Their levels of two other hormones -- follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone -- fell, but remained within normal levels, while their testosterone levels rose.

  Two to three days after the training ended, hormone levels and measures of sperm and semen quality and quality had returned to near-normal levels among the exercisers, the researchers found. However, recovery might not be so quick among older men, the investigators say, noting that the average age of the men in the current study was about 19.

  To be perfectly honest, I'm not buying this one. If this really is the case, then how come people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lee Haney and Ronnie Coleman all have children? These guys couldn't have gotten the bodies that won them multiple Mr. Olympia titles without doing extremely intense exercises. And yet they've all managed to knock their wives up.