{"id":503,"date":"2020-06-18T20:27:28","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T20:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/?p=503"},"modified":"2020-06-18T20:27:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T20:27:28","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-testosterone-interacts-with-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-testosterone-interacts-with-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything You Need to Know About How Testosterone Interacts with Exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re reading this, you&#8217;ll have probably heard about how testosterone, resistance training and\/or exercise, and lean muscle mass gains are all interconnected.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not like it&#8217;s something novel, either. For what seems to be an eternity, the media has bombarded us with messages saying that testosterone boosts the production of muscle mass. There&#8217;s nothing inaccurate with that statement.<\/p>\n<p>However, the close connection between testosterone and muscle mass isn&#8217;t simply limited to being a causal relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, the relationship is thought to be more cyclical.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, testosterone increases the production of lean muscle. But the same can also be said of the opposite. That is, physical activity &#8211; exercise, for that matter &#8211; influences the body to produce more testosterone. The resulting gains then increase the body&#8217;s capability to handle more strenuous physical activity, which paves the way for even more testosterone production.<\/p>\n<p>This relationship between testosterone and exercise is a continual cycle. Both high-intensity interval training (HIIT), as well as resistance training, are among the exercises that provide an acute and substantial impact on testosterone levels.<\/p>\n<p>Just the mere ability to increase your testosterone levels is reason enough for starting a resistance training regimen and sticking with it all the way.<\/p>\n<p>That said, let&#8217;s discuss the important role testosterone plays in the body before we examine the link between testosterone and exercise any further.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">What is testosterone and how does the body produce it?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Biochemically, testosterone is an androgenic sex hormone that is also a controlled substance in certain jurisdictions.<\/p>\n<p>Testosterone is produced by both men and women &#8211; in the testes for the former, and the ovaries for the latter. The adrenal glands that are located in the kidneys are also a marginal testosterone producer for men and a major testosterone producer for women.<\/p>\n<p>There are yet other ways in which the body produces testosterone. In women, the hormone is converted from dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) within tissue, but only a minuscule amount of the testosterone you produce affects the concentrations of the hormone that are currently circulating in your body.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the compound from whence all sex hormones come forth regardless of how they are produced in either gender is every cardiologist and dietitian&#8217;s arch-enemy &#8211; cholesterol.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">The important role testosterone plays in men&#8217;s health<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Testosterone affects a wide range of critical bodily functions. Here are some of them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-492 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1-400x231.jpg\" alt=\"crunches\" width=\"300\" height=\"173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1-400x231.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1-650x375.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1-250x144.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1-768x443.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1-150x87.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1-800x462.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Distribution of fat deposits in the body<\/li>\n<li>Creation of muscle mass<\/li>\n<li>Development of strength<\/li>\n<li>Development of bone mass and density<\/li>\n<li>Production of red blood cells<\/li>\n<li>Regulation of libido<\/li>\n<li>Production of ejaculate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to understand why the leading items in this list are important for men&#8217;s physique and appearance, not to mention performance. When your testosterone levels are in the pink of health, so does your body. There&#8217;s something about it that you know just makes it feel, look, and perform better.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">The impact of low testosterone on muscle mass<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Hormones are the biochemical messengers that transmit signals from the brain to your organs. They have a big influence on how you feel and how you look, depending on the information that they contain and transmit to the rest of your body.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, testosterone is the hormone that tells the body to produce lean muscle by binding itself to receptors in muscle cells, and promoting protein synthesis to create more muscle tissue faster.<\/p>\n<p>Your body will not be able to recover and repair itself as well as adapt to the exercise load you are doing without testosterone &#8211; that&#8217;s <em>how <\/em>important it is to the body.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, low testosterone could be hampering your ability to achieve the gains you would otherwise have been able to experience if your body had better hormonal equilibrium.<\/p>\n<p>More on this in just a second.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">How does low testosterone interfere with your gains?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Chronic fatigue is one of the most common manifestations of imbalances in the hormones. This may include hypogonadism, hypothyroidism, and low estrogen.<\/p>\n<p>Men and women suffering from low testosterone levels or any other kind of hormonal disequilibrium were found to lack the energy they once had.<\/p>\n<p>This substantial loss of vitality can make working out, staying active, and performing in the bedroom all the more challenging.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">How does testosterone help build muscle mass?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Hormonal imbalances present all sorts of symptoms. If you have been diagnosed with such, or suspect as much, then you&#8217;ll need to understand some truths about the body and its relation to hormones.<\/p>\n<p>Testosterone levels, or hormonal levels, for that matter, are not just numbers on a screen. Something&#8217;s out of order when imbalances occur. And that imbalance is manifested by symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>Fixing imbalances isn&#8217;t fixed by merely increasing the levels in terms of numbers, but rather getting your body to start firing on all cylinders to work.<\/p>\n<p>The endocrine system, which is responsible for the production of hormones, is an integral part of fixing a hormonal imbalance.<\/p>\n<p>Summarizing what we already know about testosterone:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Testosterone produces lean muscle mass<\/li>\n<li>Lean muscle mass gain allows for greater increases in testosterone production<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the case of estrogen, here is what we know:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Raised estrogen levels promote the creation of fat tissue<\/li>\n<li>Fat tissue produces estrogen, which means more fat deposits lead to more estrogen production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to see why this cyclical relationship can produce a rumbling crescendo of negative consequences to your body. Being unfit leads you to an unhealthy balance that&#8217;s heavy on the estrogen. And the more you delay staying in shape, the greater the imbalances that eventually drive you one step further from your health goals.<\/p>\n<p>There will come a point in time where you have to decide that you want to end that self-perpetuating cycle to stop producing more fat cells, build more muscle mass, and get your endocrine system working to aid you in your goals, instead of working to sabotage you.<\/p>\n<p>And this is where exercise (and proper diet and sleep) come in.<\/p>\n<p>The unique dynamic between exercise and testosterone has been studied for many years. It has been found that certain exercises work that work to boost T levels more than others and eventually stabilize them to healthy working levels.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s discuss them in further detail below.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">How does exercise increase testosterone?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>First things first: any increase in testosterone from exercise is always temporal &#8211; we&#8217;re talking about mere moments after physical activity levels drop. The good thing is, however, we&#8217;ve come up with some specific exercises that can give you an assist with the symptoms you might be experiencing.<\/p>\n<p>Just the mere act of performing strenuous physical activity can already directly help certain symptoms of low T, like insomnia and depression.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some exercises that help you experience an incremental boost in testosterone.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>High-intensity interval training is typified by the repetition of short, strenuous bursts of activity that take you to your absolute limit, punctuated by short intervals of rest.<\/p>\n<p>The underlying principle behind HIIT is to create an oxygen deficit that your body will be working triple time to recover from. This leads to higher metabolism levels for a few hours after completing a HIIT session, making it an extremely efficient way to burn calories, fat, and increase human growth hormone and testosterone, which the body needs for muscle growth and bone mass.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Circuit training<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-493 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"circuit training\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2-650x434.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2-800x534.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-How-Testosterone-Interacts-with-Exercise-2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Circuit training means a series of exercises that are performed in succession. Once the series is completed, you then do a short recovery break and then start the cycle again.<\/p>\n<p>In this regard, it&#8217;s a lot like HIIT when it comes to how it is performed, only that the underlying principle is to work out a particular set of muscle groups that prevent overtraining and the risk of injury, while giving you a fuller workout that covers a wider, more diverse set of muscle groups.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Heavier weights<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>If you solely want to exercise to build muscle mass and improve testosterone production, then resistance training with heavy weights is what you&#8217;ll want to do. Resistance training with heavy weights gets your muscle fibers all fired up with the heavy weight and the lower amount of reps.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not as intense as HIIT may be when it comes to building an oxygen debt, but it can be just as beneficial by pushing your exertion levels to the max.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.physiology.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1152\/jappl.1990.69.4.1442\">A study in 1990 suggested<\/a> that lifting as much weight as you possibly can at low repetitions increases testosterone production as it requires that your body create more muscle to perform at its peak levels.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Testosterone-boosting best practices for your exercise regimen<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>There are more ways to implement best practices to get the most benefit out of your exercise regimen &#8211; particularly if you want to increase your testosterone levels.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some ideas.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Increase the reps<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Evidence suggests that testosterone levels increase by increasing the number of repetitions. Try working out with a partner who&#8217;ll be able to spot you while you ramp up your reps and your weight.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Take extended breaks<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Testosterone is increased by heavy lifting. That much we know. That&#8217;s why taking extended breaks can help, particularly when you lift heavy. That&#8217;s because extended rest allows you to do more.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Ditch the jogging<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>We&#8217;re going to stick our necks out by saying this, but while long-distance jogging is a good cardiovascular workout that helps keep off the excess weight, it does very little to increase your testosterone.<\/p>\n<p>That means you&#8217;ll have to do burpees or sprints to get that same intensity as you would doing HIIT, resistance training, or circuit training. You can incorporate jogging in your regimen, just don&#8217;t expect it to do much for your T levels as lifting heavy does.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Conclusion<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>If you struggle to put in time at the gym to meet your health goals due to a lack of energy or motivation despite eating right and exercising, you might want to consult your doctor about the possibility of low testosterone impeding your progress &#8211; you might just find that it was the culprit all along.<\/p>\n<p>These strategies may help you get back the mojo you&#8217;ve lost and get the most out of your gym time &#8211; but it&#8217;s no substitute for getting a comprehensive consultation from your physician.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/male-enhancement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-333 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-400x172.jpg\" alt=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/male-enhancement\" width=\"602\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-400x172.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-650x280.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-250x108.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-768x331.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-1536x662.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-2048x883.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-150x65.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-800x345.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-1200x517.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-1600x690.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Purchase_Section_V2-1-2000x862.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re reading this, you&#8217;ll have probably heard about how testosterone, resistance training and\/or exercise, and lean muscle mass gains are all interconnected. It&#8217;s not like it&#8217;s something novel, either. For what seems to be an eternity, the media has bombarded us with messages saying that testosterone boosts the production of muscle mass. There&#8217;s nothing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amp_status":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultracorepower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}