Exercises to Boost Testosterone
Boosting your testosterone
Boosting your testosterone is probably a lot easier for the average person than first thought. The easiest way to kick-start the production of testosterone is to start lifting weight – the bigger the exercise (multi-joint movements), and the heavier weight, the better. Now, ‘heavier’ is a relative term but when combined with the term ‘bigger’, the result is compound movements. A compound movement is one which uses various joints and various muscles at once in order to lift the biggest weight. The more stress you put on your body, the more it stimulates the production of testosterone. However, there is a limit, overexertion releases cortisol, a hormone that inhibits testosterone production.
You don’t have to only do compound movements. However, you should include them in your training plan to achieve the best results for strength, size and testosterone production.
Hold on a second, why would you want to testosterone production? Well, testosterone is imperative to your muscle creation, physical performance and libido. Low testosterone, usually causes people to lack in their training, sports and potentially sexual performance. It can be a genuine health issue for people who suffer from it. Therefore, this is why you would want to increase
So, now that you know the importance of testosterone to your life and training, and what compound movements are, which are the best to implement?
Testosterone & muscle building compound movements
The Squat
This is one of the biggest and best strength builders all around. It is the absolute cornerstone of lower body training for power-lifting and bodybuilding. But how do you do it?
Squats can be done as either high bar or low bar, the definition literally depends on how high or low on your back you hold the bar. This may not sound that important, but the limb and torso length of the individual come into play – so if you have longer legs and a relatively shorter torso then you may want to go this route.
Comparing the two movements is an article in itself so for now just remember that to do a squat you need to be able to lower your hips down so that they are level, or preferably lower, to the top of your thighs. By smashing the quadriceps and, to an extent, the glutes and hamstrings you will encourage a production of testosterone.
The Dead lift
Another cornerstone of power-lifting and strength sports for your lower back. This exercise is basically how to safely pick a weight up off of the floor. You can do it sumo or conventional but either way, you will be using a massive amount of muscles throughout the body. It would be easier to say which muscles this exercise doesn’t affect than to list the ones it does – but just keep in mind it will definitely give you strong hamstrings, glutes, lower back, forearms and traps, while also giving you a big boost in testosterone.
Clean and Press
This is more technical than the previous two, but this just means that it affects more muscles and therefore creates a better testosterone stimulus. To do it you will have the bar in a dead-lift position on the floor and you will explode up so that your hips bring the bar forward and up, then you will attempt to squat under the bar to catch it, stand up and then press it overhead. See, what I mean by technical? All of this movement and all of these muscles involved mean that it will give your testosterone a massive boost. Take a look at this link for a tutorial of clean and press exercise.
The Shoulder Press
This exercise is basically the end part of the previous one, but now you can focus all of your energy and stress on just that portion of the movement. Start with the bar in a rack at roughly shoulder height, grab it just a bit wider than shoulder width and step back. Then you will press the bar overhead, being careful not to hit yourself in the face, and then lower it back to the starting position.
This exercise is terrific for building upper body strength and size. It builds up the shoulders and triceps massively and, frankly, it feels pretty badass to be able to push a big weight up overhead – meaning it is surely going to increase your testosterone production. Here are a range of shoulder exercises you can do to build your upper body strength.
To summarise what exercise to boost
If you want to increase your testosterone you need to include compound movements like those above but you will also do very well to ensure your diet and supplementation is on point. This means following a diet plan that is tailored to your caloric and macro nutrient means while also supplementing for vitamins and minerals that are difficult to get in your diet. Certain things like Zinc, Magnesium and Vitamin D are hard to get enough of via diet alone. Supplementing with these can lead to an improved testosterone production, mainly due to how they help with your sleep, recovery and general mood – all of which will then translate over to an improved sexual and physical performance.