It's been locker room talk for years: Getting fit improves your love life.

New research supports this "jock wisdom" about the connection between physical fitness and sexual ability, with studies suggesting that some of the declines in male sexual functioning often attributed to age are actually the result of sedentary living.

"It's always amazed me that men come here so out of shape they can't walk up the stairs, then they wonder why they're impotent," says LeRoy Nyberg, director of urology programs at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK). "Physical fitness is important to keep all bodily organs functioning at their peak -- especially those that require a good blood supply."

"Erectile dysfunction isn't inevitable" with age, say Nyberg, who echoes other experts in encouraging patients to exercise for physical and sexual health. Two recent studies support this "sexercise" link, indicating that regular exercise boosts sexual performance while inactivity increases men's risk of impotence.

"The only behavior we found that can reduce the problem of erectile dysfunction is regular physical activity," says John McKinlay, an epidemiologist at the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Mass., and co-author of several recent reports based on the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, the largest random-sample study ever done of the condition known as ED.