The more sport, the less sex: "Resistance training can impair sexual appetite"

With the first outings, the explosion of desire.

When starting to play sports, anyone feels better, looks better, feels better and sexual desire grows.

But the years go by, the training increases and the effect is the opposite.

The more hours running, cycling or swimming, the less libido.

Why happens?

"It must be noted that sport in general helps to lose weight, improves circulation, decreases stress levels and increases testosterone and estrogen levels. This should not be forgotten. But it is true that resistance training can impair sexual desire "There is a correlation between the hours of exercise and the levels of testosterone and estrogen. After a certain point there is a reduction in sex hormones", explains

, a researcher at the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid and editor of the scientific magazine Fissac, which recognizes that it is a subject that has been scarcely studied.

In the correspondence between sex and sport, possibly the most recurring question is the one that concerns relationships prior to competitions.

To determine if these are harmful, performance studies have been carried out that have always concluded in the same way: physiologically they are not a problem, they do not affect.

But there are few works on how exercise impairs sexual mood.

And that can be a clear indicator that something is not right.

"The loss of libido is an identifiable consequence of what we call overtraining, that is, the energy deficiency syndrome. When an athlete spends more energy than they ingest, when they do not reach caloric requirements, their sexual appetite is seen In the case of men, for example, beyond the subjective fact of wanting to have sex, this deficit can be measured through the lack of morning erections: they disappear.In the case of women, the consequences of the process hormonal go further, with amenorrhea, the absence of periods", points out Valenzuela, who accepts that most of the 'papers' carried out on this subject are based on surveys.

The 10 hour rule

Five years ago, several researchers at the University of North Carolina concluded that "regular resistance training is significantly associated with decreased libido in men," but their analysis was based on questions of just over a thousand questions. athletes.

The following year, based on this hypothesis, they corroborated this loss of testosterone without further continuation of this line of research.

"For athletes, it would be very interesting to control these sex hormones, like cortisol, which is the hormone related to stress. If a runner or cyclist takes an analysis and their testosterone is low and cortisol is high, they will be able to conclude that he is overtraining", warns the Spanish researcher in the face of a disease that is more common than it seems.

It is common to think that overtraining only threatens professional athletes, who can exceed 20 or 25 hours of training per week, which disproportionately add kilometers, but this is not the case.

In fact, professionals are the ones who control their work the most, who measure the loads the most, and who improve more progressively.

In reality, overtraining is a very serious danger, especially for those popular athletes, cyclists or swimmers preparing for Ironmans, marathons, ultra-distance races or long cycling events.

From fatigue to caloric deficit and overtraining there are few efforts.

"Generalization is a danger, but a study established that, for the amateur athlete, the threshold from which the libido was affected was 10 hours a week. In any case, it must be borne in mind that what is important is whether that athlete it consumes enough energy, if it eats well, if it does not have a caloric deficit. And it should also be noted that it is a reversible process, that these hormonal levels recover with simple rest", concludes the researcher Pedro L. Valenzuela.

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• Articles Javier Sanchez