Semen quality improves with regular exercise in healthy men: Study

Healthy men screened as potential sperm donors were recruited at the Hubei Province Human Sperm Bank of China. Between April 2017 and July 2018; 746 men completed the long-form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). A total of 5252 semen samples were analyzed during an approximately 6-month period.

They asked participants how often they exercised, and how intensely, as well as what other activities they did. Then total metabolic equivalents (METs), moderate-to-vigorous METs and sedentary time were abstracted from the IPAQ. Sperm concentration, total sperm count, progressive motility and total motility in repeated specimens were determined by trained clinical technicians.

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Key findings of the study include:

• After adjusting for multiple confounders, total METs and moderate-to-vigorous METs were both positively associated with progressive and total sperm motility.


• Compared with men in the lowest quartiles, those in the highest quartiles of total and moderate-to-vigorous METs had increased progressive motility of 16.1% and 17.3%, respectively, and had increased total motility of 15.2% and 16.4%, respectively.


• Sedentary time was not associated with semen quality parameters.

"Our findings suggest that maintaining regular exercise may improve semen quality parameters among healthy, non-infertile men. Specifically, we found that higher self-reported total and moderate-to-vigorous METs were associated with improved sperm motility, which reinforces the existing evidence that physical activity may improve male reproductive health," concluded the authors.