Testosterone and Weight Lifting: Increase Your T Levels Naturally

Does Weight Lifting Increase Testosterone Levels?

To boost testosterone there are some important areas you need to look at. These areas include:

• Sleep and relaxation
• Eating the correct diet
• Sexual activity
• Herbal and nutrition supplements
• The right exercise
• The right dosage of exercise

If you can work on all these areas your body is going to have no choice but to ramp up its testosterone production.

If your goal is to increase testosterone naturally then these factors mentioned above are where you should concentrate all your efforts and take real action.

Let’s now take a look at the link between testosterone and weight lifting.

Does Weight Lifting Increase Testosterone

It’s pretty much common knowledge that weight lifting boosts testosterone.

However, research is now showing that certain exercises have a greater capacity to increase testosterone than others.

Here are a few studies showing the correlation between weight lifting and testosterone

• This study showed that prolonged weight training over 2 years leads to a significant increase in serum levels of testosterone. To see this study click here
• This study discovered a link between weight training and growth hormone/testosterone release. To see the study click here
• This study looked at the response of different rest periods between sets on total testosterone levels. To see the study click here 

There are a few different factors that will influence how effective your workout will be at increasing testosterone.

 The factors include:

• Rep range and the number of sets.
• The intensity and stress to the muscles.
• The amount of muscle recruited in each set.
• Rest between sets
• Training to failure or not

Rep Range, Number of Sets, and Testosterone Production

I first want to start off by saying that the intensity of a set is what produces the testosterone response and not so much the number of reps.

Some people claim that the best rep range is low reps of 1-5, and they will list reasons to support this claim.

While other experts will claim that you need to be in the higher rep range of 8-12 for maximum results, and again they will list reasons to support this claim.

So who is right? 

The truth is that both rep ranges will increase testosterone and build muscle. And both of these rep ranges will have specific benefits that are unique to them such as:

• Low reps increase strength
• Low reps will improve the density of the muscles
• Higher reps will stimulate the growth of muscle
• Higher reps have been shown to increase growth hormone

As both rep ranges have different benefits it makes sense to get the best of both worlds and include:

3 sets of 5 reps, and 3 sets of 10 reps into your workout.

Intensity, Muscle Recruited, and Testosterone Production

Research has discovered that the more muscle that is recruited while exercising the higher the testosterone response will be. And the best way to recruit more muscle is to perform compound exercises that work multiple muscles at the same time.

When we perform these exercises we will not only be increasing testosterone but also burning fat because more energy is needed to perform compound exercises.

To include some compound exercises into your routine concentrate on exercises that involve pulling, pressing, and lower body movements.

Let’s not forget that two of your body’s largest muscle groups are in the lower body. So make sure you train your legs to increase testosterone.

Here are some examples of compound exercise to include in your workout:

• Shoulder press
• Chest press
• Upright rows
• Squats
• Pull Ups
• Rows

Does this mean I should only do compound exercises?

In a word no, these compound exercises are very high-intensity which is the reason they are so great at increasing testosterone. However, the number of compound sets you can safely perform will depend on your experience, age, and daily stress levels.

The goal is to get all the benefits of compound exercises without the risk of burning out from the high intensity, which leads me to…

Training to Failure and Rest Between Sets

Before I discuss if we should train to failure or not I first want to say that the answer to this question will largely depend on the individual and their current situation.

With that being said there are definitely some things you want to be aware of when you are training to increase testosterone levels.

For instance, the Spanish researcher Dr. Mikel Izquierdo discovered that if someone trains to failure on every single set the levels of the catabolic hormone cortisol increase dramatically.  And what we need to remember is that when stress levels go up,  testosterone levels go down.

Research from the University of North Carolina also showed that when we don’t give our bodies enough time to recover between workout sessions we can expect to see a whopping 40 percent reduction in circulating testosterone levels.

There is a saying that “the difference between poison and medicine is in the dose” and this holds true when it comes to exercise. If we train to failure consistently and stress our bodies beyond normal levels we are turning something that could benefit us into a poison.

This is not to say we should never train to failure but we should be aware of the signs of overtraining by monitoring if we feel tired, irritable, grumpy and listless the hours and days after a workout. If we notice we are experiencing these symptoms consistently then it might be time to reduce the number of sets that lead to failure.

A good way to guard against overtraining and fatigue is this:

If you are doing 3 sets of a certain exercise then make sure that only one of these sets reaches failure and the other 2 sets can be stopped just shy of failure.

Conclusion

There are so many studies that prove that there is a link between weightlifting and testosterone production. They key is to be wise when we train and remember to stimulate and not annihilate.

Combining weight training with nutrition and a proven herbal supplement will help you naturally boost your precious testosterone.

Thanks for reading

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