How to increase testosterone naturally?
Many gym-goers believe that doing squats, deadlifts and other heavy compound exercises will boost testosterone more than lightweight exercises.
In a way, resistance exercises can increase serum concentrations of hormones such as testosterone.
The understanding in the early 2000’s was that, the higher the training intensity (training with heavier loads) and the more muscle mass involved in the exercise (compound movements for example), the more testosterone increase you see.
However, the level of testosterone increase seen by adding these modifications into your training isn’t enough to increase muscle growth on its own.
“This heavy-compound strategy is, most likely, effective for a different reason: it induces progressive tension overload and activates a large volume of musculature, with the modest testosterone increase being a mere side effect, so to speak,” explains Jeff Nippard, a pro bodybuilder with a BSc in biochemistry/chemistry.
Why is testosterone desirable?
Testosterone is anabolic, which means it helps build muscle.
Source: Total Shape / UnsplashHow to increase testosterone naturally?
A normal range of testosterone for healthy, non-obese men aged 19 to 39 years, is 264 to 916 ng/dL.
Overtraining is bad for your testosterone levels; if you train too hard for too long and see long-term detrimental effects on your performance, your testosterone levels drop. Avoiding this won’t necessarily increase your testosterone levels naturally, but it will prevent them from going down.
In terms of diet, “it seems like the main dietary factors driving changes in testosterone are body composition and caloric intake,” says Nippard.
He dives into the science and explains how to increase testosterone levels naturally through training, diet and lifestyle factors in the video below.
Image Sources
- Barbell curl (2): Total Shape / Unsplash
- how to increase testosterone naturally: Arthur Edelmans on Unsplash