Do you wish to boost testosterone without using testosterone boosters or supplements? Are you looking to learn how to increase testosterone naturally? Do you want to boost your T levels with more than eating a good diet or living a healthy lifestyle?
If getting enough rest and de-stressing isn’t doing enough to boost your T levels, exercising will. Below is a guide on the various exercises to boost testosterone. Keep reading to learn about what they are and how to do them in the gym, at home, or in an at-home gym.
1. How Exercising Boosts Your Testosterone Levels
If you do a lot of physical activity, you likely have a lot of testosterone levels. Why or how does being active boost testosterone, you ask? As you know, exercising promotes muscle building and growth.
Testosterone is a chemical that helps our muscles adapt to these exercises. Other than build muscle, testosterone or T also helps with the development of male traits. That includes growing facial and body hair, a deeper voice, and more muscle mass.
Whether you’re a man or woman, you need to have the correct levels of testosterone. In adults, keeping a healthy level of testosterone is vital to living a healthy life. Having enough testosterone in your body also helps lessen the risk of disease.
2. Add High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to Your Routine
One of the most effective ways to give your testosterone a boost is to take HIIT. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a strategy that demands intense but short bursts of exercise. Often, some low-intensity exercises or rest gets combined with the intense ones.
Because of this, most people know HIIT from its efficiency in cutting body fat and adding muscle mass. If you want to learn how to raise testosterone, it’d do you well to try HIIT, as well. You can also find several studies that prove how much more testosterone you produce from it.
Below is an example of this intense full-body workout:
- Fast pedal on a stationary bike (30 seconds)
- Slow pedal on a stationary bike (2-4 minutes)
- Repeat for 15 to 30 minutes
Some HIIT routines involve more challenging exercises, like squat jumps and sprints. When you create your HIIT, use exercises that match your preferences. It may take some trial and error, but I’ll be worth the experimentation. You can also ask a trainer to make one for you.
3. Lift Weights and Then Your T Levels With Resistance Training
Let’s get to one of the most favored exercises to boost testosterone: weight training. When you visit a gym, it’s common to see people working with weights. You may even notice that others use weight machines while some use resistance bands.
Resistance training is the best type of exercise to do if you want to boost both short- and long-term T levels. It’s especially effective for men who follow a regular strength training schedule.
If you are female and you want to lift weights as well, you may see temporary T level gains with weight training. Weight training can affect your vaginal testosterone. It can cause an unhealthy drop in your testosterone levels, which you’ll need for much later in the game.
As a note, make sure that you do resistance training right. Don’t jump into the routine without researching the proper weights for you. If you’re new to weight training, talk to a qualified trainer who can help you use the correct form and weights.
4. Don’t Forget to Do Leg Exercises to Boost Testosterone
It’s always a good idea to keep your legs toned like your upper body. This doesn’t only build your legs so they can support a bulkier upper body. It also has a huge impact on your testosterone boost.
The problem with leg exercises is that you’d need to do a lot of mental preparation before you do them. Add the intensity of the pain and soreness of leg exercises. The results often involve excuses to do other kinds of exercises.
However, if you want to optimize testosterone-boosting exercises, then give attention to your lower body. You can do this by not skipping leg day. Try a workout like:
- Warm-up and stretching
- Bench press, 4 sets, 8 reps
- Squats, 4 sets, 8 reps
- Deadlifts, 4 sets,8 reps
- Pull-ups, 4 sets, 8 reps
- 90-second sprints, 8 sets
- 90-second easy got between sprints
- Cooldown and stretching
Do the exercise above thrice a week. This can help boost your testosterone by a ton. To an extent, it can also serve as a rest day for your upper body.
That is only an example of a leg day for you. You can alter it to your preferences later. When you do, make sure that you put more focus on the legs rather than the arms or back.
5. Break a Sweat With Cardio Exercises
In 2018, 27.2% of US men on average spent enough time working out and breaking a sweat. The Department of Health and Human Services planned to raise the percentage of active adults to 20.1% by 2020. Yet, because of the pandemic, we may see a drop in those numbers.
One of the easiest things to do during the coronavirus pandemic is to do cardio exercises. You don’t need to take a long route around the neighborhood to get the right amount of cardio for the day. A couple of rounds around your lot will be enough to get your T levels up.
If you live in an apartment complex, jogging in place makes a decent alternative. You can also get a stationary bike instead. However, stay away from doing too much cardio. Below, we’ll explain why this can harm your T level rather than help it increase.
6. Avoid Exercises That Lower Testosterone
While most exercises help increase your T levels, some have the opposite effect. Often, these are exercises that increase cortisol levels. If you didn’t know, cortisol is a stress hormone that impacts mood, muscle mass, and sleep.
When you have higher levels of cortisol, your testosterone levels decrease. If you want to keep your T levels up, avoid chronic endurance exercises or training. That includes activities like running or cycling for hours.
This may seem confusing since we said that doing cardio helps increase testosterone. As with many things in life, balance and moderation are the keys to success. You can keep activities for cardio in your routine, but make sure that you don’t do them for too long or too much.
Exercises to Avoid for Women
If you have a vulva and you want to increase your T levels, avoid HIIT. It will only have the opposite effect on your T levels. Yet, if your goal is to decrease your testosterone because you’ve got too much of it, go for HIIT.
You may also want to avoid too much cardio. Too much cardio affects both sexes the same way. Again, doing cardio is good, but you’d want to keep it at a moderate level.
7. What to Remember When Exercising to Raise Testosterone
Rest is a crucial part of growing your muscles and increasing testosterone levels. It’ll help a lot if you create a strategic workout and rest time. Take longer periods of rest between sets.
Give yourself about 120 seconds of rest between sets to build your testosterone better. This is more effective than taking 20 or 30 seconds of rest between sets. If you feel like a fool doing nothing between sets, optimize your rest time by doing some stretches to relax the stressed muscles.
The anabolic effects of exercise aren’t the same for everyone. Your gender plays a role in how much testosterone your body creates as a response to exercise. A study found that a 30-minute weightlifting session upped the T levels in men by 21.6% and by 16.7% in women.
It’s also good to get your testosterone levels checked before you do anything. This way, you know where your T levels lie.
Also, remember that exercising alone isn’t enough to raise your T levels by a margin. Take steps to change your lifestyle so that your body responds in the way you want it to. Don’t rely on a workout routine alone to increase your testosterone.
8. Other Ways to Boost Your T Levels
Some alternative ways to improve your testosterone include:
- Eating a balanced diet
- Getting enough rest
- Losing weight
- Taking vitamins and all natural male enhancement supplements
- Staying away from alcohol and drug abuse
As we mentioned, exercising alone won’t be enough. You also need to commit to changing some parts of your lifestyle. This is the best way to raise your testosterone levels.
Raise Your Testosterone and Fitness Levels Now
That is the end of our guide on the many exercises to boost testosterone. We hope you learned a good variety of exercises for raising your T levels. We also hope that you learned something useful and informative from this quick guide.
Did you enjoy reading this guide on boosting your testosterone levels? Do you want to read more content that’s as educational as this one? Feel free to check out our other posts for more health and wellness guides like this.
