Physical activity and semen quality: findings of the ActiART study

Objective. We aimed to examine the association of physical activity, objectively measured by accelerometry, with semen quality indicators.

Materials and Methods. A total of 62 men attending an infertility clinic participated in the study. We assessed physical activity during 7 days objectively, using accelerometers. Semen parameters included volume, sperm concentration, total number of sperm, motile concentration, total motile sperm and total motility.

Results. We observed that men who spent a middle number of 10 min-bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity demonstrated significantly better sperm quality than those with low or high number of bouts of activity (p < 0.05). No associations were found for sedentary or moderate-vigorous physical activity time when it was not sustained during 10 minutes (i.e. not in bouts).

Conclusion. We conclude that middle levels of physical activity conducted in sustained periods of 10 minutes are likely to have better semen quality than low or high levels of such activity.

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