West London Girl

Too fit for sex?

January
2

Doubtless, there will be countless variables that will lead to further studies…

too fit for sexToo much exercise is bad for your sex life, apparently. A study by researchers at the University of North Carolina, which involved questioning 1,100 endurance athletes about their sex lives, exercise habits and medical histories, has found a clear association between increasing levels of extreme exercise and falling male libido.

I’m not really sure why this is news (yet here I am regurgitating it). It seems pretty logical that if you put your body under extreme stress, your libido will be affected. What’s more, the researchers are now working on a follow-up study to work out what the exact ‘dose’ is that leads to the change in libido. Doubtless, there will be countless variables that will lead to further studies.

One of which is highly likely to be exploring why these guys are running 50 miles a week… Jake, a banker I once dated, had previously been in a relationship for half his life and hadn’t had sex during the last five years of his marriage. During those last five years he had also completed two ironman triathlons (a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile cycle and a marathon, raced in that order and without a break – it’s considered one of the toughest one-day sporting events in the world). Perhaps high-intensity exercise is often a technique employed to cope with difficult relationships… When I met him, his sex drive was fine and he was a keen cyclist though wasn’t training for any extreme challenges.

However, anything extreme can seem more exciting and can become addictive. At least more so than a ‘comfortable’ relationship, which was how Jake described ours. (I wasn’t impressed by the description and things fizzled out soon afterwards.) Everything in moderation is a good motto to have, but sometimes we can’t help being attracted to extremes…

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