3 Exercises for a Better Prostate

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If you found out that you had prostate cancer, would you regret not having exercised if the diagnosis could have been prevented?  The truth is you can protect your prostate from enlargement or cancer simply by exercising three times a week.

Vigorous exercising is preferable, but non-vigorous exercise help increase survival.  The Harvard School of Public Health researched men over 18 years and found those that exercised on a regular basis, including running, bicycling, walking, swimming, other sports — or even outdoor work — reduced their risk of death, not just from prostate cancer, but from many other diseases.

If you can sport a vigorous training session at least 3 hours in a week, then you lower your risk of prostate cancer by 61%.  Consider this rude awakening, that just a single hour workout session a week doesn’t cut it.  It would be better to walk 90 minutes at a brisk pace over the course of a week and lower your risk of prostate cancer by 46%. Don’t fool yourself into believing that one workout a week makes you healthier.

You won’t want to wait until you hear that dreadful prostate cancer diagnosis before your consider adding physical activity into your weekly routine.  Walking 90 minutes in a week is good enough, but 3 hours of vigorous training give you 50% of life back to live – especially when it counts.

By simply taking an hour walk after dinner every night will decrease your chances of developing these issues.

In a recent Johns Hopkins study, researchers determined that men who gained 5 or more pounds prior to—and up to one year after–prostate surgery were nearly twice as likely to battle cancer again, compared to with those who maintained their weight.

“Obesity and weight gain are associated with inflammation, which might influence prostate prostate-cancer recurrence,” explains says study author Corinne Joshu, Ph.D.

“Exercise is the single thing that comes closest to a magic bullet in terms of its strong and universal benefits,” says Harvard associate professor Frank Hu.

So, head to the gym (and try to lose some weight) for these top 3 exercises for better prostate health.

Aerobic exercise

Whether you want to maintain a healthy prostate, prevent prostate cancer, prostatitis, or BPH, or improve quality of life after prostate surgery or other treatments for prostate cancer, examples of aerobic exercise include walking, jogging/running, bicycling, tennis, jumping rope and rowing.

According to a study published in the “Journal of Urology” in 2007 and cited in Harvard Prostate Knowledge, men who did aerobic exercise had an improvement in prostatitis symptoms when conventional treatments failed.

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Resistance exercise

The basic idea behind resistance exercise is that your muscles work in opposition to a force that pulls or pushes them. Examples of resistance exercises are push-ups, weight lifting, and swimming. Resistance exercises improve strength and muscle tone and also have an anti-inflammatory effect.

The healthy prostate study posted in the “Journal of Urology” found that men who participated in both aerobic and strengthening exercises together had a greater improvement in prostatitis symptoms than those who did just one type of exercise.

Kegel exercises

No, Kegel exercises are not just for women. Kegel exercises can help men better control urine flow, achieve better sexual arousal, enjoy better orgasms and ejaculation control.  (See Kegel exercise instructions HERE.)

Lastly, researchers at Nottingham University concluded that men who kept up a regular sex life in their 50s were also at lower risk of developing prostate cancer.

This backs up the findings of a major study five years ago by the National Cancer Institute, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that increased sexual activity is protective for older men.  The reduced risk is due to the release of toxins from the prostate gland.

So, now you have two options for an after-dinner activity.