You want another reason to exercise?  Here’s a new one- sperm count.  Yup.  There’s data for that.

Drs. Gaskin, Mendiola, Afeiche, Jorgensen, Swan, and Navarro (first and last from Harvard School of Public Health, who are the senior authors) published their study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.  Their results?  Those that exercised more than 14 hours a week had the highest sperm counts.   Those that watched the most television had the lowest sperm counts.

The study was undertaken to discern the reasons for the decline in sperm quality that has been observed over the past decades.  It would seem logical that our more sedentary behaviors could be the cause.  So, the relationship between TV watching and physical activity to sperm parameters was an obvious choice to examine.

These students were participants in the Rochester Young Men’s Study (2009-2010).  The subjects were normal college-age men (ok, normal for college age men).  Previous studies of trained athletes (cyclists and long distance runners, for example) found they had lower sperm counts than normal subjects.   The 189 folks (18-22 y) in this cohort played baseball, football, soccer, or basketball- or even just ran,

Moreover, once one exercised more than 8 hours a week, the sperm counts were clearly elevated and continued to rise until that 14 hour mark.  And, for those folks who watched 20 hours of television a week- bad news…Their sperm counts were 44% lower than for those who watched just a little TV.

This study examined sperm concentration and total sperm count.  There was no real correlation between sperm quality and activity.  You should know that sperm quality, the ability of sperm to achieve fertilization, includes factors such as motility, morphology, fructose levels.

So, we still don’t know why our sperm quality is decreasing.  But, we do know how to elevate our sperm counts.  (Or course, if one exercises 14 hours a week, goes to class 16 hours a week, does homework, and eats 3 meals a day… means there may be less time for other activities.  And, while those activities increase sperm quality they do decrease sperm quantity.)

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