Both male and female patients often ask me, “Does working out increase testosterone?”
In healthy individuals, the short answer is yes. Working out — specifically, muscle resistance exercise — does increase testosterone levels. And by muscle resistance, I mean weightlifting.
Cardiovascular exercises like calisthenics, running, or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can work muscles and boost testosterone a bit. However, muscles adapt to repetitive forms of cardio, rendering it less effective at building muscle over time.
The best way to build and maintain muscle is through resistance training with weights. You must periodically tear down muscle in order for it to rebuild. Thus, strong muscle builds slowly over time.
It’s a cycle: You need testosterone to build muscle, and then the increased muscle helps generate more testosterone.
How to Build and Sustain Muscle
Testosterone, a steroid hormone, is crucial for both men and women. It regulates sex drive, bone and muscle mass and strength, fat distribution, and the production of red blood cells. While women have significantly less testosterone than men, the hormone is vital to healthy female organs, bones, and muscles.
Here are some fundamental ways all adults can develop sufficient testosterone levels:
Perform resistance exercises
Cardio is excellent for heart health, and flexibility training keeps you agile. But neither activity builds muscle.
When patients ask, “Does working out increase testosterone?” I advise them to include muscle-resistant exercise in their workout regimen. Resistance builds the strong muscles needed to ensure a good quality of life.
The three — muscularity, cardiovascular health, and flexibility — become interdependent in a healthy, long lifespan.
Get proper sleep
Good sleep hygiene is essential to sustaining adequate testosterone levels. Males typically experience a daily peak in testosterone about an hour after awakening. Then, it wanes throughout the day.
So, ideally, we check your testosterone level in the morning, around its peak. If you get eight hours of sleep, you have the potential for a full peak of testosterone. If you get fewer than eight hours, your peak lessens.
Consume healthy fats
As a steroid hormone, a healthy supply of testosterone depends on an adequate reserve of cholesterol and fat. So, proper nutrition is necessary to support testosterone and strong muscles.
Avoid completely fat-free diets, which may disorder hormones dependent on critical healthy fats.
Relieve stress
Stress is the great disruptor. It dysregulates levels of the hormone cortisol, increasing belly fat and making it harder to lose weight.
Prioritize relief of chronic stressors that affect cortisol and inhibit muscle recovery and growth.
Common Misconceptions
Let’s clear up a few common areas of confusion when it comes to the need for testosterone and adequate muscle mass:
- Many women believe they don’t need to care about their testosterone level. Or, they avoid weight-bearing exercise, believing they’ll “bulk up.” In most cases, however, resistance training brings women the level of testosterone they need in the form of lean muscle and a toned physique, not excess bulk.
- Males often feel they can “beef up” simply by using testosterone supplements. However, the key is to put in the physical effort via resistance exercise. Testosterone therapies alone won’t make you gain muscle mass overnight, but they can complement your workout efforts and enhance your results. Ask your physician for more information.
- In days past, doctors asked patients with a high risk of cardiovascular disease to avoid increasing their testosterone, believing the hormone placed an extra burden on the body and encouraged heart attack or stroke. But today, we understand that patients who perform resistance and cardio exercises, increase their testosterone levels, and are generally more active actually lower their cardiovascular risk.
Lift Something Heavy
So, these days, when physicians hear the question, “Does working out increase testosterone?” we encourage patients to go for it.
Eat properly, sleep well, manage stress… and lift something heavy.
Your Priority Physicians can work with you to ensure that your essential hormone levels are where they should be and that your workout regimen fosters a long healthspan and optimum quality of life.
We look forward to chatting about muscle with you!
