NYT: Endurance exercise (lengthy cardio) puts damper on sex life (lowers male libido)

120 miles per week is my off season.

There have been plenty of scientific studies over the past several decades documenting the risk of hypogonadism with chronic, intense endurance exercise. The most striking part of this thread is that somebody actually reads NYT (or any pop science source) for up-to-date 'scientific' information.

Me either, and I'm 77.

Not sure about this wrote:So doing an activity that ensures that blood circulates the body very effectively and increases stamina is going to decrease libido and function ?

Not for me and I'm 52.

Me either, and I'm 77.

Garbage mine was the same whether I trained the same every day or had months off with injury.

You know what kills sex drive? NOT training and sitting on the couch getting fat. Sure, your test levels will go up a bit.... it nobody will want to have sex with your flabby body.

Can't win either way.......

?

No probs ovah heah

At least it wasn't "console" wrote:

Chronic exerciser wrote:

They're spelling is as bad as rojo.

Your sew rite!

VegetableSoup wrote:

I believe it. However, I think 'light in intensity' should be relative. Elites running 60 miles a week in the offseason is considered 'light in intensity' for them, while it's unattainably high for most of the population.

With my experience, if you were to graph my mileage vs libido, it'd be a bell-shaped curve. If I'm injured (no running), my libido very low. If I'm 4 weeks out from a race and I'm running 120 miles a week, it's just as low. In that middle area, right around 55-70 miles a week, it peaks.

I've actually found this to be true in my own life as well.

Low mileage = high sex drive

High mileage = low sex drive

Not sure about this wrote:

So doing an activity that ensures that blood circulates the body very effectively and increases stamina is going to decrease libido and function ?

Not for me and I'm 52.

Being healthy and physically fit actually increases libido, the study is looking at people who train and compete in endurance events. Hopefully this is not news to anyone that running 100 mpw isn't healthy; plus, went its time to have sex your body is tired.

Honestly I'm not that worried about it. People act like low sex drive is the worst thing that can happen to you next to dying of cancer, surely there are worse things in life. Maybe for married men it's different, but all I know is I'm happier when I'm running and I'm fit than when I'm horny and frustrated.

I would guess there are some upsides to intense cardio too. For example, how many people posting here do you think have erectile dysfunction? I'm guessing 0%.

1) Yes, studies have been done before: "But those studies examined only hormone changes related to exercise, which can be measured easily, and not differences in sexual emotions and behavior, which are tougher to quantify."2) Not sure why the knock on NYT. They're reporting results from an established peer-reviewed medical journal and followed up to interview the lead researcher. I'd certainly trust the Times more than a random LetsRun dude.3) I'd also like to know their thresholds for "Low-medium-high" duration and intensity. But it probably corresponds to most athletes' notions. After all, subjects were selected from "running, cycling and triathlon training groups, university athletic departments, and publications targeted at endurance athletes "

probably worth it wrote:

Honestly I'm not that worried about it. People act like low sex drive is the worst thing that can happen to you next to dying of cancer, surely there are worse things in life. Maybe for married men it's different, but all I know is I'm happier when I'm running and I'm fit than when I'm horny and frustrated.

I would guess there are some upsides to intense cardio too. For example, how many people posting here do you think have erectile dysfunction? I'm guessing 0%.

4) Maybe 20%, given the number of middle-age and older runners, as well as frequency of misogyny.

3hr marathoner wrote: Lowering your libido isn't a bad thing if your baseline sex-drive is a lot higher than your wife's.

That's a much less frequent scenario than the horny female pretending she's not interested - in hubs - but spreading eagerly for the invasions of a real master.