Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Sperm counts lower with more TV time

Stories about sperm counts always get a guys attention. We're sensitive about our little swimmers. They represent a critically male mission and our fitness to fulfill it. 

This one talks about a small but "well designed" study that shows men who watch lots of TV have lower sperm counts than those who spend that time working out instead.

        Sperm counts lower with more TV time - Health - CBC News

While I'm sure there's some value there somewhere, I always like to read about these studies and poke holes in the conclusions drawn. 

This article seems to be well balanced, but the funny part is at the end. A doctor is quoted as saying something like "but be careful not to work out too much, because that can be bad too". What's funny about that is that, IMO, it would be virtually impossible for most average citizen to work out so much that you'd be creating a negative health effect. 

Most people have no idea where those limits are - and how far away they are. It reminds me of when I was just starting to do some serious conditioning for triathlons, I was worried about over-training because a buddy warned me about it. Funny.

I mean, really. If you were doing 10-12 hours a week of pretty tough workouts, to the point where the workouts themselves were stacking up and making the week's workouts harder as you go along, you are likely still a long way from creating a negative health effect. 

It's kind of like warning people that they shouldn't run a marathon every day before breakfast. Like that's gonna happen.