Prescription for Men: Walk for Sexual Health

Daily Walking, not Viagra!
A brisk 2 mile walk each day can reduce men’s risk of impotence according to Dr. Irwin Goldstein, from Boston University School of Medicine in a study published in Urology.

His 9-year study of 600 men who at the start of the study had no impotence problems found that those who kept exercising or took up exercising at middle age reduced their risk of impotence. Taking other healthy actions at mid-life such as quitting smoking, losing weight or cutting back on drinking did not reduce the risk of impotence.

Message to Men
Two miles a day, even if you start at mid-life, can maintain your sexual health without drugs.

How Does Walking Help Men’s Sexual Health?
Exercise improves blood flow through your blood vessels and keeps things clear. The penile blood vessels give early warning signs of heart artery disease when impotence shows up due to a slow-down of the blood flow. Exercise keeps the blood flowing and prevents impotence in the same way it prevents heart attacks.

Why Men Should Walk
The activity level needed to improve the blood flow amounts to two miles of walking at a brisk pace per day – about a half hour walk a day. Or a jog or other exercise that burns 200 calories and increases the heart rate. Biking is not recommended as it has been shown in some studies to increase the risk of impotence due to blood flow restriction from the bike seat.

Women: Get the Men in Your Life Walking
You couldn’t get him to come along on your daily walk before, maybe this will get him moving!

A study of more than 4,000 Danish men indicates that regular joggers are not only unlikely to experience a fatal heart attack during their runs, they also are less likely than non-runners to die of any cause.

During the last 30 years, jogging has become a popular form of aerobic exercise, and many runners train for races as long as a marathon (26.2 miles). Danish researchers, led by Peter Schnohr, M.D., of the University Hospital in Copenhagen, decided to study longevity among regular (persistent) joggers, non-joggers and new joggers following sporadic reports of deaths during jogging.

A total of 4,658 men, ages 20 to 79, were examined twice over 5 years by the researchers. At the first exam, 217 men said they were regular joggers. Of these, 96 were still jogging 5 years later. Between the first and second exam, 106 men started jogging; 4,335 men were non-joggers at the time of both exams.

The authors examined death rates and found that men who jogged at the time of both exams — the persistent jogger group — had a significantly lower risk of dying compared with the non-joggers or those who jogged at the time of only one of the two exams.

The effects of jogging remained strong even after researchers took into account other health factors such as smoking, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

“Regular jogging is not associated with increased mortality in men, as shown by the significantly lower mortality in joggers than non-joggers,” the authors say in the study, published in the Sept. 9 issue of the British Medical Journal. “The lower mortality of joggers could be an effect of the physical training, but it could also be due to other lifestyle attributes or a combination.”

The authors note that many studies have pointed toward the health benefits of physical activity, but they add that the optimal intensity, frequency and duration have yet to be established.

“Although light exercise has some value, moderate and vigorous exercise is now considered more favorable for health,” the researchers conclude. “Our study supports this by showing that even a vigorous activity such as jogging is associated with a beneficial effect on mortality.”

Edward R. Laskowski, M.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist and co-director of the Sports Medicine Center at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., says frequency is important when it comes to exercise.

“This study provides more evidence that regular ‘doses’ of a consistent physical activity like jogging can make a significant difference in overall health and may contribute to a longer life span,” says Dr. Laskowski.

If you’re like most people, finding time to exercise can be a challenge, so you want to get the most out of the time you do have. Including “intervals” in your exercise routine can help you maximize your weight loss and fitness results.

Intervals are brief periods (about one minute) of more intense exercise mixed into your regular aerobic exercise sessions. For example, if you’re walking, you would do a one minute interval of faster walking about every five minutes throughout your exercise session.

Here’s how it will look.. you’ll start with your normal three to five minute warm-up and then five minutes into your workout you do your first interval, one minute of faster walking (or perhaps jogging). At the end of that minute you should be “winded” and ready to slow down. You’ll slow down to your normal exercising speed for the next four minutes and then your fifth minute is another one minute interval. This pattern continues throughout your exercise session.

You’ll derive several benefits from intervals..

1. Intervals can help you to get past a weight loss plateau.

2. Intervals increase your aerobic fitness level by “pushing the envelope”. While doing your interval you cross the anaerobic threshold into anaerobic metabolism, forcing your body to become conditioned to more intense exercise.

3. Your increased level of fitness means that a given level of exercise will feel easier and that you will be able to exercise at a higher intensity which “burns” more calories.

4. Your increased level of fitness also means that you will be less fatigued from daily activities and you’ll have more “energy” throughout the day.

5. Intervals increase your basal metabolic rate (BMR), causing you to burn more calories 24 hours-a-day.

6. Intervals cause you to “burn” more calories during your exercise session and for several hours afterwards.

7. Intervals will tone the involved muscles to a greater degree than your regular aerobic exercise would.

8. Intervals can make your exercise less monotonous and help the time pass more quickly.

9. Intervals will energize you!

If you’d like to put a little excitement into your exercise, and you’re looking for better results, give intervals a try!

Measuring Your Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Your Cardiorespiratory (aerobic) fitness level is improved through a program of consistent aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming, jogging, cycling, aerobic dance, rowing, etc. Increasing your Cardiorespiratory fitness level is important because of the many positive affects on your health and well-being. It has a direct affect on your quality of life and it enables to you to lead a more active lifestyle. It also enables you to increase the intensity and duration of your exercise sessions, which leads to increased caloric expenditure and an increase in your basal metabolic rate (metabolism).

Testing your Cardiorespiratory fitness level periodically enables you assess your progress and motivates you to continue to improve. Dr. Kenneth Cooper developed a simple cardiorespiratory fitness level test called the “12 minute walk/run.” The objective is simply to travel as far as you can in 12 minutes by walking, jogging, or a combination of the two.

PLEASE NOTE: You should NOT do this test if you are not currently exercising on a regular basis or if you have just started an exercise program. Also, you should always check with your doctor before making any changes in your activity habits or participating in any strenuous physical activity.

This test can be used on a regular basis, perhaps monthly, to monitor your progress. You start with a five to ten minute warm-up of walking at a slow to moderate pace. Then you start at a given point and travel as fast as you can for twelve minutes. Measure the distance that you traveled and refer to this chart for your score:

Note: distance is in miles
“<" means less than
">” means greater than

Age 15 – 30

Female >1.5 = excellent
1.4 = good
1.3 = borderline
<1.2 = needs work

Male >1.7 = excellent
1.5 = good
1.4 = borderline
<1.3 = needs work

Age 31 - 50

Female >1.4 = excellent
1.3 = good
1.2 = borderline
<1.1 = needs work

Male >1.5 = excellent
1.4 = good
1.3 = borderline
<1.2 = needs work

Age 51 - 70

Female
>1.2 = excellent
1.1 = good
1.0 = borderline
<0.9 = needs work

Male
>1.3 = excellent
1.3 = good
1.2 = borderline
<1.0 = needs work

If your score isn’t what you want it to be, you CAN improve it by losing fat and by developing a program of regular aerobic exercise. Keep a record of the date and the distance you travel for the twelve minute test. Do the test once a month and I think you’ll be encouraged by your progress. The key is to get moving!

Author and exercise physiologist, Greg Landry
Copyright 2000 by Greg Landry, M.S.