Testosterone and strength training
Have you ever wondered why there is so much talk about compound exercises? Or why should all training programs be built around them? Meanwhile, many beginners are not too happy with their attention to this type of exercise and prefer to wander in the wilds of all sorts of isolating movements. Their training sessions last for hours, and they go from exercise to exercise in the hope of finishing off their muscles.
There is another extreme. A beginner finds a professional bodybuilder's program in a specialized magazine and tells himself that you should only do it this way and in no other way. I strongly do not recommend doing this, because beginners are far from professional athletes. I admit that I also stepped on this rake at the beginning of my training path. However, I soon understood why it is so important to build training around compound movements.
Compound exercise is not just a Foundation for building a strong building, it is also a powerful booster of the secretion of testosterone, an anabolic hormone that we all love so much. In these exercises, more than two muscle groups work, and the movements are performed in several joints (so they are also called multi-joint), which increases the production of testosterone.
When I talk about testosterone, I don't mean "Pharma", but the endogenous secretion of the hormone in our body. Testosterone is a male sex hormone, widely known in the iron world for its tremendous effect on muscle growth. The higher the level of testosterone in the blood, the higher our potential in terms of gaining muscle mass and reducing the percentage of body fat.
Increase in testosterone secretion due to training
How to increase testosterone synthesis during training? First of all, it is proven that strength training increases the secretion of testosterone, but the severity of the hormonal response depends on the number of muscle groups involved in the work, the intensity of training and the amount of load. Simple lifting of heavy objects is not enough. To achieve your goals, you need a really effective training program that helps you gain serious muscle mass.
The more muscles you stimulate during training, the more testosterone is produced in your body. This explains why training based on basic multi-joint movements is considered the key to increasing testosterone levels naturally.
This means that you should not spend most of your precious time flexing your biceps and straightening your legs in the simulator. Instead, it's better to focus on squats, deadlifts, barbell presses, and so on.
What is the optimal load volume?
The above does not mean that everyone should go to the gym and perform insane amounts of repetitions and approaches in these anabolic exercises. You need to find the optimal amount of training load that allows you to achieve maximum testosterone secretion. If your muscles do not receive the necessary load, testosterone secretion does not reach peak levels, and you lose a significant percentage of the anabolic potential of this training.
Although a high volume of exercise significantly increases the secretion of testosterone, studies have shown that after 45-60 minutes of strength training, there is a sharp decrease in the production of the hormone. Therefore, those who practice multi-hour sessions with an infinite number of exercises should reconsider their approach and ask themselves whether their training is really productive.
It has been experimentally proved that a larger load volume gives a greater secretion of testosterone, but the second component of the equation should not be forgotten. This is the load intensity as a percentage of the one-time maximum. Scientists compared two groups of trainees. Representatives of the first group worked on hypertrophy with 10 repetitions in the approach and a minute's rest between sets. The second group focused on strength work and performed 5 repetitions in the approach with a three-minute rest between sets. It turned out that in the first group, the level of testosterone increased more than in the second. However, the second group also recorded a significant increase in hormone secretion.
Output
If you want to realize the potential of the natural anabolic hormone produced in our body, I recommend taking a critical look at your training program. Remove from it unnecessary exercises that only inhibit muscle hypertrophy. Training should consist mainly of compound movements.
Most don't want to mess with compound exercises because of their complexity. Meanwhile, if the exercise seems too difficult for you, you should definitely do it! In addition, keep track of your progress in compound movements and devote maximum time and effort to this aspect of the training process. When you see that your working weights are steadily going up, chances are that your muscles are growing as well.
