Cycling affects fitness. Staying fit and healthy is something on which we should never compromise. In fact, in the present day and time, people are encouraged to remain healthy and fitter. Aerobic fitness is highly recommended and hence cycling helps you burn a lot of calories. This not only helps in providing you healthy leg muscles, but your entire body also achieves a lot through this aerobic activity.
Cycling burns calories and gives you extra stamina. However, it has been found that men who cycle too much may experience infertility or erectile problems. To learn how cycling affects one's sexual health, please keep reading below.
Erections and how do they get affected due to excess cycling?
When one sits on a bike for a long period, a lot of force is placed on the perineum. This is the region between the penis and anus. This area has a lot of arteries as well as nerves. which is useful for producing blood that’s covered with oxygen. It also helps in generating sensation in the penis.
When males want to get erect. Arousal messages are sent to the penis from the brain, because of nerve impulses. Through the signals of the nerves, blood vessels start to ease and relax. Also, blood starts to move into the penis through the arteries.
If there is any kind of problem with the nerves or even the blood vessels, there will be a problem in men whenever they try to have an erection. This is the whole reason for men facing ED or erectile dysfunction.
As researched in the past few years, it has been revealed that cyclists who are male gradually tend to get their pudendal nerve injured. This is the very chief nerve of the perineum as well as the pudendal artery, whose chief work is to transport blood into the penis.
Men who spend a lot of time cycling have proclaimed facing erection problems and also feel a sense of numbness in this area. Medical care experts say that usually, ED tends to start. When both the nerves as well as the arteries get caught in between the narrow seats of the cycle and the rider’s pubic bones.
If you want to treat ED, then make sure that you make the following changes in your daily life:
- Ensure that if you have a seat of the bicycle that’s a bit on the narrower end, alter it and get one. which comes with extra padding and wider too. It must be comfortable enough to support the perineum. Opt for a seat that comes with a nose. This means it will be a bit towards the rectangular end since this would help in easing pressure.
- Take the handlebar down. When you lean forward or bend, you release pressure from the backend of the seat. Also provides ease of perineum.
- To provide more comfort and support try to always wear padded bike shorts.
- Try to cycle for a few hours only.
- Try to stand on the pedals too from time to time.
