Erectile dysfunction from weight lifting

What is erectile dysfunction? Why do men become impotent?

An erection is achieved when physical or mental sexual arousal cause the muscles within the penis to become relaxed, allowing for increased blood flow to the area. This blood flow fills special structures within the penis, allowing it to become erect and facilitating sexual intercourse.

Erectile dysfunction is considered to be a common health problem among men. Erectile dysfunction is also known as impotence, a less medical term. Impotence is basically a man's inability to achieve and maintain an erection to the point that normal sexual intercourse is possible, which can range from no erection at all to a very weak one.

Erectile dysfunction becomes more likely with age and stress, but it's not unusual for a man of any age to occasionally have trouble maintaining an erection.

Heavy Weightlifting and Erectile Dysfunction: Is there a Link?

A lot of people exercise on a regular or even daily basis. There are many reasons why people exercise — to become or remain healthy and fit, to become better looking, or to break personal records. Weight lifting is a popular form of exercise that can become a big part of a person's life. It can have many health benefits if done correctly, but lifting weights also comes with risks.

Men who lift weights should always engage in a proper warm-up routine before they begin their weight lifting session. There are some individuals who neglect the warming up and that is wrong because this part is very important before strenuous trainings. People need to understand that just warming up is good for your overall health. In addition to this, there is almost not one bad effect that warming up can have on the body.

Weight training has a lot of benefits for the body but it also comes with some potential negative effects as well. One of the potential dangers of weight lifting might be erectile dysfunction. If you lift weights, you may have read that men who lift weights more than recommended or normal could be in real danger of suffering from erectile dysfunction.

Erectile Dysfunction and Weight Lifting: What Does the Research Say?

There is actually no evidence that weight lifting can direct cause erectile dysfunction. In fact, exercise in general and muscle strengthening workouts in particular have been shown to be a protective factor against erectile dysfunction — men who keep in good shape are less likely to find themselves struggling to achieve and maintain an erection than those who are overweight, obese, and have high cholesterol levels.

If you lift weights, that alone is therefore highly unlikely to be the cause of any erection problems you may be suffering from. There is a caveat, however.

There were numerous research studies conducted on the topic of men who cannot get an erection or have trouble maintaining one. An interesting thing that researchers noticed many men who had problems with an erection were participating in heavy weightlifting. In addition, these men were consuming anabolic steroids as well.

Despite the prevalence of erectile dysfunction, most studies of the association between erectile dysfunction and lifestyle factors like physical activity have been relatively small or have been conducted in men mainly in their 50s and 60s. That changed with a 2006 report from Harvard’s Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which included 22,086 men between ages 40 and 75 who completed periodic questionnaires about their health over 14 years.

After analyzing the data, researchers found that men who ran for an hour and a half or did three hours of rigorous outdoor work per week were 20% less likely to develop erectile dysfunction than those who didn’t exercise at all.
More physical activity conferred an even greater benefit: men who ran two and a half hours a week were 30% less likely to develop the condition than their sedentary counterparts.
Interestingly, regardless of the level of exercise, men who were overweight or obese had a greater risk of erectile dysfunction than men with an ideal body mass index, or BMI.

✓ Fact confirmed: A prospective study of risk factors for erectile dysfunction Constance G. Bacon, Murray A. Mittleman, Ichiro Kawachi, Edward Giovannucci, Dale B. Glasser, Eric B. Rimm; 2006, Jul

Due to that fact, a certain study concentrated on the occurrence of impotence in men who participated in heavy weightlifting and were using steroids on a daily basis. The study included 250 men who underwent heavy weightlifting trainings for at least a period of 6 months or more. All of the men needed to provide answers about their sexual life and more than half of these men experienced certain problems with impotence. Some of the men claimed that they had been using certain drugs like Levitra and Tadalis in order to fight the problem of impotence.

After the questioning, all of the men were told that they suffered from impotence mainly because of the steroids they used as part of their heavy weightlifting. An interesting thing is that all of the men thought that the researchers did not tell the truth due to the fact that they had been told by certain doctors that they need to exercise in order to solve the problem of impotence. However, the men did not know that the exercises they were meant to perform did not include heavy weightlifting.

Therefore, the researchers asked the men to quit the strenuous regime of exercising for a period of 60 days. The men agreed and after that period they talked to the researchers again and the results were quite different. All of the participants claimed that there was significant progress regarding their health issue and they no longer needed to take certain pills in order to achieve and maintain an erection.

The Damage Sustained from Heavy Weightlifting

The majority of people are familiar with the fact that by participating in heavy weightlifting they put extra pressure on the arteries and it is not uncommon for the arteries to get injured. There are arteries in the penis as well and many people are worried that they may get damaged as well. When this happens there is not sufficient blood flow for a person to achieve and maintain an erection which leads to impotence. Apart from the arteries, extra pressure is placed on the testis as well.

However, we have been unable to find scientific evidence to support this. What is clear, on the other hand, is that weight lifting sometimes goes hand in hand with the reliance on anabolic steroids to boost a weight lifter's performance. These steroids do very much have the potential to induce erectile dysfunction, as well as other sexual problems. If you lift weights and value your sex life, do not use steroids.