Hard exercise should not reduce libido

If hard exercise or training causes you to lose interest in making love, get a medical check-up. If your doctor finds nothing wrong with you, you may be training too much. Most endurance athletes have normal blood levels of the male hormones, testosterone and dihydro-testosterone, and lose neither sexual desire nor sexual performance (Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, October 2008).

Endurance athletes who have low levels of testosterone usually have normal blood levels of LH and FSH, the brain hormones that control testicular production of testosterone. Defective testicular production of testosterone is usually associated with very high levels of brain hormones. That means that reduced sexual desire associated with endurance training is governed by the brain, not testicular damage, and is often part of an overtraining syndrome.

Training for competition is done by taking an intense workout on one day, feeling sore on the next, and going at reduced intensity for as long as it takes for the soreness to go away. Taking intense workouts when you feel soreness causes muscle injuries and fatigue that affects all your organ systems, including your sexuality. Once you develop an overtraining syndrome, it can take a very long time to recover. If this has happened to you, I recommend jogging slowly each day and stopping each workout immediately when your legs feel heavy or sore. When you feel better, you can start to train intensely again, but be sure to include slow recovery days in your training program.