The Effects of Exercise on Testosterone Levels

Does Working Out Increase Testosterone?

You’re certainly making more money, but that increase probably isn’t enough to change your feelings about your income. Total testosterone tells you the overall amount of testosterone in your body. If this is low, free testosterone gives you more information about the amount of bioavailable testosterone in your blood.

However, even over the short term, exercise has been found to have effects. Some exercises, more than others, have been found to increase testosterone levels within fifteen minutes and an hour of doing them. RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT strength exercises and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can increase testosterone levels.

Resistance training and HIIT can both cause beneficial boosts to T levels, especially in men. HIIT is another proven way to boost testosterone, but only in men. But it’s found in everyone’s bodies — just not in the same amounts. If you’re exercising a couple of times per week and have adjusted your diet accordingly, Weston reckons you’ll see results in about six to eight weeks.

Low-intensity aerobic exercise like walking can boost your T levels, although this may be attributed more to overall weight loss than the exercise itself [14]. Unfortunately, HIIT for women does not boost T levels, with one study finding that the workout reduced T levels in women [7]. Some forms of exercise can improve overall T levels, while others are better at enhancing your serum testosterone hormone values [4]. As obesity leads to varicocele low testosterone testosterone and other health problems, doctors recommend regular exercise for overall health and weight management. Another option is to talk with a provider about your health concerns.

But exercises that train several large muscle groups simultaneously boost levels of testosterone more significantly. Testosterone boosters have been proven effective at increasing testosterone levels, while a doctor can prescribe TRT for the most severe testosterone deficiencies. Keeping cardio sessions under minutes and focusing on lower intensity can help prevent any negative effects on your testosterone. HIIT is all about pushing yourself to your limits for short bursts, followed by brief rest periods. This quick, intense effort can also give your testosterone a temporary boost, similar to resistance training. The great thing about HIIT is that it’s not just for strength—it’s awesome for improving cardiovascular health too. Now, let’s dive deeper into the impact of testosterone on different aspects of health.

So, to improve your athletic performance, you might want to take a rest day or two each week. The researchers don’t know the exact link between testosterone and human muscle strength (or the dose of exercise needed to produce higher testosterone). But they do know that high levels of physical activity correspond with high levels of inflammation, which has been linked to low testosterone. It is likely that exercising helps you maintain a healthy weight and improve your cardiovascular health, which in turn affects your testosterone levels [10]. According to him, exercise does not greatly affect testosterone levels in these studies. However, some exercises, particularly weightlifting, can temporarily increase testosterone levels. Higher testosterone levels have been linked to increased muscle mass and strength.

Additionally, Baydil57 reported that exhausting exercise affects the total testosterone profile in females, further supporting the observed fluctuations in our study. Here are a few exercises that have been shown to help increase testosterone levels. These include resistance training, sprinting, and high-intensity interval training. While all of these exercises can be beneficial, avoiding overtraining is important, as this can lead to decreased testosterone levels. Instead, focus on quality over quantity and give your body adequate rest between workouts. Resistance training, also known as weightlifting or strength training, is one of the best ways to increase testosterone levels. When you lift weights, your body releases more testosterone to help build and repair muscle tissue.

And having healthy or heightened T levels can actually help you build more muscle than if your T levels are slightly or very low. «I recommend each muscle group is trained two to three times per week,» he says. «Rather than doing 10 sets of chest in one workout, you could do five sets on Monday and another five on Thursday. Cox adds that it’s important to do enough sets to stimulate the muscles without becoming overly fatigued – «For most people, this will fall roughly between sets per muscle, per week,» he says. It’s essential that these brief sessions are of at least moderate-to-vigorous intensity to maximise their benefits. This means that even after a short burst of activity, your heart will be beating more quickly, you’ll be breathing heavier and you’ll feel hot and sweaty. While short workouts have many advantages, there are some caveats to consider.

For testosterone to have a meaningful impact on muscle growth, levels must stay elevated for long periods. Thus, the boost in T you get from training probably won’t affect your ability to build muscle. Ultimately, it seems likely that strength training increases women’s T levels, but we need more high-quality research before we can say what effect cardio has on T levels in females. For example, several studies show that strength training exercises increase T in women. That said, the increase is often less pronounced and shorter-lived than the increase experienced by men. Women with low testosterone suffer similar symptoms to men with low testosterone, including loss of muscle and bone density, irregular moods, reduced sex drive, weight gain, and fatigue.

HIIT alternates between short bursts (typically seconds) of intense exercise and periods of rest or low-intensity recovery. These workouts are usually shorter than traditional cardio, but way more physically and mentally challenging. Popular HIIT exercises include sprints, burpees, jump squats, mountain climbers and battle ropes. If you’ve been working out consistently and not seeing any gains, you might have low T.