PE And ED: These Exercises Can Help

Lifestyle modifications can have a significant impact on sexual health along with overall health.

Talking about male sexual dysfunction (MSD’s) can be hard; however, people often search for solutions — some choose to take an easier route with internet rumors. It is a myth that all MSD’s need to be treated with medications and/or surgeries. Lifestyle modifications can help improve the symptoms of common sexual disorders such as premature ejaculation (PE) and erectile dysfunction (ED). A holistic approach with both medical and psycho-sexual treatments with the addition of lifestyle modifications is an effective one.

So, does exercise really help with sexual dysfunction? If so, what types of exercises help with PE and ED? How and why do they help? We can coherently agree that the lowering of BMI’s and maintaining a healthy lifestyle does have a high dependency and sustainability on exercising regularly.

Exercises that can help with PE and ED

Pelvic floor exercises
These help with strengthening the pelvic floor. Most commonly done by women to help regain muscle tone after child delivery, they also help with sexual wellness. Kegels, a type of pelvic floor exercise, can particularly help improve the strength of the pubococcygeus (PC) muscles. These types of exercises help improve incontinence, manage conditions such as prostatitis and BPH, and of course, increase male sexual pleasure by helping men have greater control over ejaculation and orgasm.

Aerobic exercises
Exercises such as brisk walking or jogging are examples of aerobic or cardio exercises — this means that they help in cardiovascular conditioning. They help in keeping the blood vessels clear, and so, have the ability to improve one’s sex life. MSD’s such as ED, are commonly caused by problems with the blood flow to the penis. Factors such as diabetes, high cholesterol, or concerns in weight management leading to obesity, can affect blood flow and lead to ED symptoms. Aerobic exercises help in all these conditions and improve sexual functioning.

Why you should believe it

• Pelvic exercises helped 40% of men with ED regain normal erectile function.
  - Pelvic floor muscle exercises are an effective treatment for men with ED.
  - Pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation, could be a “viable therapeutic option for the treatment of PE” as per a research study.
  - PE was less frequent in men that performed regular physical activity compared to those with a sedentary lifestyle, research revealed.
  - A report from Harvard’s Health Professionals Follow-Up study with 22,086 revealed two valuable statistics: 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 ED than those who didn’t exercise at all and, men who ran two and a half hours a week were 30% less likely to develop the condition than their sedentary counterparts. In fact, independent of the difficulty of the exercise, men with higher BMI had a greater risk of ED.

While exercise — aerobic and pelvic floor exercises — are highly recommended as a lifestyle modification while dealing with ED. As per a research paper, 40 minutes of aerobic exercise (moderate to vigorous) and 160 minutes of weekly exercise (of any type) for 6 months can positively affect erectile problems in when with ED. It is important to remember that overdoing it with exercises can also stress the body which can lead to the worsening of ED symptoms. Listen to your body, and don’t push limits.

Besides the ones in the image, Aerobic exercises include dancing, water aerobics, biking, walking, hiking, kick-boxing, treadmill, elliptical etc. — essentially anything that gets your heart pumping. Pelvic Floor Exercises include heel slides, Happy Baby Pose, diaphragmatic breathing etc.

Lifestyle modifications can have a significant impact on sexual health along with overall health. However, there are various causes of men’s sexual dysfunction. This cause should be determined by an urologist, an andrologist, and/or a psychiatrist before a treatment plan is put in place. Treating the underlying causes of MSD’s is an effective way to approach maintaining sexual health. Another way is the understanding that small lifestyle modifications, lead to healthy formed habits which allow for a better sex life.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Sandip Deshpande and Dr. Pramod Krishnappa.

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