Men with weak heart muscles reported marked improvements in their sex lives after bicycling three times a week for eight weeks, according to a study led by Dr. Romualdo Belardinelli, director of the Lancisi Heart Institute in Ancona, Italy. Dr. Belardinelli reported his findings November 12 at an American Heart Association conference in Anaheim, CA. "It's a simple exercise you can use to improve your sexual function,'' he said. The Associated Press reported on the findings.
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Study after study has shown that people who are physically fit are less likely to let stress bother them. One of the most recent — published in November 1999 in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine — found that college students who exercised regularly were better able than their non-exercising classmates to take life’s daily stresses in stride. If you rarely feel stressed out, it follows that you’ll rarely be too cranky for sex. And when you’re less stressed, you can be much more focused on improving your sex life.
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At the University of California, San Diego, James R. White and colleagues enrolled 95 sedentary, middle-aged men in one of two exercise programs. One group did aerobics for one hour, three days a week. The other took less vigorous walks on the same schedule. The researchers asked the men to keep diaries that included their frequency and enjoyment of sex. After nine months, both groups reported increased sexual energy, frequency, and enjoyment, but the aerobics group reported the greatest increase. In fact, the increase in sexual enjoyment was most closely correlated with participants' increase in aerobic capacity. "Exercise," White said upon publication of the study, "is a powerful instrument for sexual enhancement."
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The Massachusetts Male Aging Study and a study from the Harvard School of Public Health poke holes in the notion that the aging process contributes to problems in bed for men. Rather, a sedentary lifestyle is to blame for erectile dysfunction, or ED — when small blood vessels in the penis become blocked, making erections difficult.
The studies found a direct correlation between ED and physical activity — sedentary men are at highest risk for impotence, while their more active counterparts are at lowest risk, according to the article. Regular exercise increases blood flow to all areas of the body.
[This message has been edited by xyzzy (edited 10-28-2002).]
