Floyd StewartThe Harvard Medical School reported that more than ⅓ of men older than 45 years old could have lower testosterone levels. Most women also display signs of testosterone deficiency, especially when they’re nearing menopausal age. But, boosting testosterone levels is possible with the best legal steroids for bodybuilding but also through exercise. Continue reading to learn exercises that can increase this hormone.
HIIT
Many studies have reported that sprinting or HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, can increase testosterone levels. One study mentioned that testosterone levels are significantly improved for people who do a series of very short but intense sprints for 6 seconds. Even after a full recovery from the workout, their testosterone levels were still high.
Lifting Something Heavy
Similar to HIIT, you need a lot of effort to reap the benefits of this exercise. Full-body and heavy exercises such as Olympic lifts, deadlifts, and squats are perfect. However, you need to do these exercises at 85% to 95% of your 1RM or one-repetition maximum.
Regardless of the size, this is going to feel somewhat heavy. Every week, you need to complete 2 to 3 full body weightlifting exercises to enjoy the great and lasting improvement of your testosterone.
Having Longer Resting Time
Though this isn’t a workout, this plays an important role when you exercise. Experts have researched how very brief short resting time between sets affects testosterone. They learned that longer resting (about 2 minutes) between sets is better. But, it doesn’t mean that you can develop other hormones, such as growth hormone, when you have shorter resting time.
If you aim to increase your testosterone with your exercises, it’s recommended to get the most out of your time in the gym by doing alternate exercises in your long resting time.
Forced Reps
You can do forced reps by performing a weightlifting exercise for as many as you can. You also need to get help from someone to help you complete a few extra reps, which can be 1 to 5 or more.
According to research conducted in Finland, this exercise produces more testosterone than doing reps alone. It’s also recommended to do forced reps using large range-of-motion and multi-joint movements.
Although you don’t have to do forced reps in every exercise or set, it will be more beneficial to do a forced rep set as your last set if you want to boost your testosterone.
Leg Exercises
In a study to explore the response of hormones to weight training, participants were divided into a group that does arm training only and a group that does arm and leg training. A significant improvement in testosterone levels was seen in the latter
It can be tempting to skip leg day and focus on other exercises such as bench press. But you’ll see better results with your energy, muscle mass, fat loss, and sex drive when you incorporate leg exercises such as squats and lunges in your workout.
Finally, having healthy testosterone levels is important for your overall health. These exercises can help to increase these hormones naturally. You also enhance your strength, burn calories, and shed some weight.