Sorry ladies, this one is geared towards the Fellas! (Doesn’t mean you can’t read it anyways.)
Was Movember a bit of a letdown this year? Didn’t quite grow the ‘stache you were hoping to?
Haven’t been feeling very energetic? Not feeling as good as you did a few years ago? Have a low sex drive? Not seeing the results you’ve busted your ass to get at the gym?
Well guys, if you’re over the age of 30 and you’ve began to feel this you might be the victim of your Testosterone dropping. Don’t feel bad though, it’s nothing you’ve done specifically! Normally, every year after 30 you drop about 1% in your testosterone levels, so how can you fight nature and win?
Let’s start with what testosterone is!
Plain and simple testosterone is what makes you a man. Testosterone controls your body’s ability to make muscle, burn fat, produce red blood cells and sperm, and it’s vital for your sex drive.
Testosterone is a hormone the body naturally produces, while your peak testosterone levels will be during your adolescence and early twenties that doesn’t mean you can’t prevent these levels from dropping. They can stay quite high into your sixties if you exercise, eat the right foods, avoid smoking and limit your body’s fat levels.
So here are are some tips to help you boost your testosterone!
1. Lift Heavyweights! (Do Squats and Deadlifts)
Lifting heavy ass S**t will help stimulate your body into producing more testosterone. The more you tax your body, the more testosterone your body will produce. What are the most taxing exercises? Squats and Deadlifts, hands down.. Both are compound movements geared towards using your full body to work together to move the load. Aim for your 5 rep max (with proper form of course) and your body will pump the testosterone!
2. Do Sprints and Interval Training! (Get your legs moving!)
Short burst of energy have been shown to increase testosterone levels, not only during the activity but during the recovery as well. So ditch the long boring cardio sessions and start giving it 100% effort 10s on 20s off and watch your body change!
3. More Sleep! (Go to bed already)
Getting sleep is important for testosterone production. How important? Testosterone levels can drop 10-15% in healthy lean males who do not consistently get enough sleep (between 6-8hrs). Testosterone is linked to energy levels, and if your testosterone levels are low (You guessed it) your energy levels will be low as well! So instead of relying on coffee, energy drink or anything else, just sleep!
4. Eat Fat! (Eat it, don’t be it)
Testosterone is produced by cholesterol, which is a derivative of fat. So eating more fat will increase your testosterone levels! What kind of fat? Omega-3 fatty acids actually help elevate testosterone even more! What are some good sources then? Eggs (yolk and all), nuts and meats are great sources of fat to help boost your testosterone levels!
5. Eliminate Stress! (Deep breath in, Deep Breath out)
Stress creates a hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol is not your friend. Cortisol it wants to make you fat, keep you up all night and ruin any testosterone production your body might have. It is a catabolic hormone, which means it will break things down. Avoid stress, or find healthy ways to deal with it (Like exercise…. seriously, exercise. Get on it if you’re not already). The less Cortisol you have, the more testosterone you’ll produce.
6. Train the right way! (Your body will thank you)
Spending 3 hours in the gym a day is ridiculous and it’s impractical. Stop chatting with your friends, cut down your rest periods and keep yourself moving, you’ll find that results will come a lot faster. Reducing the amount of time in the gym also cuts down your chances of over training your body. Over training can lead to the opposite effect of what you’re working towards. When you over stress your body creates (Drum Roll Please) Cortisol! That’s right it rears its ugly hormonal head back into the picture. While small elevations in Cortisol are fine and can actually increase performance (Like when you’re about to lift your heavy ass weights. Sustained elevated Cortisol levels can lead to muscular breakdown and not allow you to recover properly.
7. Supplement (Whoa there, put the needle down)
When possible, you want to try to get all your nutrients in through real foods. Sometimes this isn’t possible, so supplementation is necessary. There are 3 types of supplements that naturally boot testosterone; Zinc, Vitamin D and Fish Oils.
Zinc: Essential for long term sexual health Zinc is important for sperm production and testosterone levels. Your body doesn’t store Zinc so getting the Daily requirement of 11mg of Zinc daily is vital for boosting your testosterone.
Vitamin D: The glands that release testosterone have Vitamin D receptors, which increase production of the hormone in men. Vitamin D has also been shown to inhibit the process called aromatization in which testosterone is changed into estrogen in men.
Fish Oils: As previously stated, Testosterone is produced by fat; Fish oils are an easy way to get healthy fats into your diet!
Using these 7 tips will help boost your testosterone to make you feel younger, get better results, increase your sex drive and improve your overall health.
Rich Hill
CSEP – Certified Personal Trainer
RK Athletics – https://linktr.ee/RK_Athletics
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