Last Updated on 5th February 2024 by Charlie Walsh
Working out isn’t the only important area when it comes to improving your sexual power. The way that you live can have a significant influence on your penile health and sex life.
If you want to develop your sexual power, you need to understand what environmental factors may be affecting you.
Let’s dive in…
Physical Influences on Sexual Ability
While you should already have some idea about some of the physical factors that can impact your sexual ability, a full list might surprise you. We’ll be going through some of the key issues just below, and it’s worth understanding the common link between all these factors.
In practically all cases, the real problem is the effect that the factor has on your blood flow.
Whether it’s clogging arteries or increasing blood pressure, anything that impairs the movement of blood can cause Erectile Dysfunction, and will negatively affect both your sexual and penile health.
Smoking:
You’ve probably seen it on the side of a cigarette packet, but smoking really does have a clear, extremely negative effect on the penis. Unfortunately, unlike a lot of smoking’s other health risks, this isn’t just caused by the added chemicals. Nicotine shrinks blood vessels, resulting in weaker erections (and a smaller penis for some).
Drinking:
Another totally unsurprising one. The penis-related effects of excessive drinking aren’t just limited to Brewer’s Droop/ Whiskey Dick/ Alcohol-Induced Erectile Dysfunction (pick your favorite name).
By narrowing your blood vessels, alcohol makes it harder for your heart to push blood around the body, making it harder to gain a fully satisfying erection.
Dietary Issues:
A little less obvious, but a crappy diet can play a serious role in your sexual ability. The foods you eat, how much you eat and how often you eat them can wreak havoc with your testosterone levels and blood flow, both key players in gaining and maintaining a healthy erection.
Medicinal Side Effects:
It often does help to read the small print. Many forms of medication can either negatively affect your penile health, or straight-up cause Erectile Dysfunction. If you’ve noticed your sexual ability worsening since taking a new medicine, it might be worth having a chat with your doctor to see about alternatives.
Diabetes:
As diabetes (particularly type 2) often involves damage to blood vessels and nerves, it’s not surprising that penile health can become a real concern. In the vast majority of cases, it’s possible to recover full sexual health with a regular penile workout.
Other Medical Conditions:
Unfortunately, penile health issues can, in some cases, point to serious underlying concerns. In some cases, Erectile Dysfunction and similar intimate conditions can act as an early warning for heart trouble and other cardiovascular problems. It never hurts to get checked out if you’re worried at all about this kind of issue.
Age:
Unfortunately, it’s fair to say that getting older does generally have a negative effect on penile health. However, it doesn’t necessarily follow that aging inevitably makes your sex life worse. A proper penile workout regime will effectively help you counter some of the sexual effects of aging, achieving maximum sexual power whatever your age.
Mental Influences on Sexual Performance
Right from the start, there are two big problems to think about when it comes to the mental side of sexual health.
First of all, your mental state has a far more significant impact on your sexual capacity than you might think. In roughly a fifth of Erectile Dysfunction cases, psychological factors are a primary or major cause, and are partially responsible in many more cases. That statistic explicitly shows the sheer importance of understanding your mental health and how it relates to your sex life.
Secondly, there’s a social problem that needs confronting. Many men are not comfortable talking (or thinking) about their sexual health, especially when it comes to more sensitive details. Being cut off from real information about sexual health leads to a whole lot of men forming false (and often harmful) misconceptions about what it means to be a man.
These misconceptions often end up piling up on top of other psychological factors. A one-off inability to get an erection can lead to real, lasting concerns about being normal or healthy, leading to recurrent Erectile Dysfunction – a vicious cycle.
So, what psychological factors are most important to look out for, and what steps can you take to beat them?
Stress / Depression/ Anxiety:
By far the most common set of psychological effects on penile health, these issues can be difficult to understand or to become aware of, yet alone to fight. While it’s often not possible to avoid the root causes of these issues, it’s possible to make a difference with active effort.
Here, it’s vital to be able to talk about your problems with people you trust, while it’s also worth considering another fact. Being able to take control over one part of your life can have a substantial positive impact on mental health. Whether it’s starting a workout regime, beginning a new hobby, or improving your living conditions, even the smallest change can genuinely help.
Intimacy Issues:
From insecurity about your appearance to a lack of communication with any partner, intimacy issues can quickly start having a negative effect on your sex life.
Important tip: you’re almost definitely overthinking things. Countering intimacy problems has to start with honest conversation about the issue, as it can be practically impossible to objectively analyze the problem by yourself.
Excessive Porn Use:
While most would agree that there’s nothing wrong with using porn, it’s worth being aware of one major issue. Porn typically depicts intense or extreme sex, so if you’re primarily or exclusively using porn, your perspective of what is normal can end up changing. In some cases, this perspective change can lead to feelings of inadequacy and a lack of sexual fulfillment.
Low Self-Esteem:
From the start, sexual performance is heavily dependent on confidence. Because of this, it’s not surprising to see that self-esteem issues can result in sexual health problems. These two areas can compound into a vicious cycle, making the problem far more serious if it’s not confronted.
Positive Influences on Sexual Ability
It’s not all bad news though. Some simple changes can improve your sexual power without requiring disruptive alterations to your life.
Healthy Eating:
By cutting back on foods that can inhibit blood flow, and including more foods that boost testosterone, it’s absolutely possible to improve penile health and sexual function.
Try a more ‘natural’ diet, focusing on grains, fish, fruits and vegetables, while cutting back on highly-processed foods containing a lot of saturated fat and sodium.
Exercise
While there’s a lot of aspects to consider when it comes to fitness, there’s one crucial point for penile and sexual fitness. Improving sexual power requires work on the cardiovascular system, which pumps blood around the body. By improving your cardio, you should find that your erections naturally improve, forming quickly, getting harder than ever, and lasting even longer.
Relaxing and Sleeping More:
Being fully rested can help out in more than one way. Long nights and stressful days don’t just mean being tired – they can often cause real damage to your sexual ability. There might be an unavoidable reason for your stress, but trying to relax and sleep properly won’t just help your penis – it’s going to help you.
Better Masturbation:
I’m guessing that pretty much everyone reading this masturbates. That’s a good thing – it helps keep the penis in perfect working order (that’s why you get erections while you sleep). However, it’s possible you’re not quite doing it right. If you’re just masturbating instead of having sex, or gripping too tight, you’re going to reduce your ability to have fulfilling sex. You’ll be more used to the sensations of overly forceful masturbation, making sex less fulfilling. Try something more natural. With a relatively loose grip, masturbate by thrusting into your hand – it’ll stop over-stimulating your penis, making sex feel far more fulfilling.
