Jarring Result: Extreme biking can hurt men’s fertility
By Nathan Seppa
Men who maintain grueling mountain-bicycling programs are apt to have lower sperm counts and more abnormalities of the scrotum than nonbikers are, a new study finds.
Using various measures, scientists in Austria compared the health of 40 male mountain bikers with that of 35 similar men who didn’t engage in so-called extreme biking. The volunteers ranged in age from 17 to 44 years.
The bikers spent more than 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, riding mountain trails. They logged roughly 3,000 miles a year. Recruited for the study from a biking club, these men had been riding mountain trails for 7 to 28 years.