Testosterone is a signature hormone for male gender. This amazing hormone doesn’t just give us increased muscle mass, testosterone plays a big role in decreasing body fat levels, increasing our sex drive, mental focus, gives high energy and also protects us from osteoporosis. Healthy individuals have testosterone levels in blood between 350 – 1000 nanograms/dl , anything below these levels will cause major health problems. Increasing your testosterone levels with banned substances can cause even more problems, the body doesn’t tolerate anything that is synthetically made. In this article i will focus on how you can increase your testosterone levels naturally without using any illegal supplements.
Low Testosterone Level Symptoms for Men
Physical problems:
- Loss of muscle mass
- Losing body hair
- Lack of strength
- Heart problems and Osteoporosis
- Increase in fat gain
Psychological problems:
- Feeling of depression for no reason
- Lack of motivation
- Problems with focus
- Low sex drive
Common reasons you might have low testosterone levels right now:
- You are following a high protein, Low carb diet, low fat diet
- Your body fat levels are above 20% which increases production of estrogen
- Starving to lose body fat, your brain will shut down testosterone production to save energy for other vital body functions
- Over-training, common symptoms of over-training are lack of sleep and decrease in muscle volume
- You consume alcohol occasionally
- Not enough sleep, you need at least 7-8h of high quality sleep for optimal results. Check out How To Fall Asleep Fast.
How can you avoid all these problems above? Very simply put, you just increase your testosterone production. Lucky for us today we have at our disposal a large variety of foods that can naturally increase production of this hormone. Combining the right nutrition with the right intense workout routine can make a huge difference.
Incorporate Big Compound Movements in your Workout Routine
Easiest thing you can do is change your routine so you involve compound movement exercises. These exercises force the body to use many muscle groups at once which leads to bigger metabolic stress on your body and that will increase testosterone production.
Best examples of compound movement like that are dead lift and barbell squats. These exercises should become a core part of your routine. After you exhausted your body with compound exercises then you can finish the job with some isolation exercises for maximum results.
Train with Enough Volume and Intensity
Not only do you need complex, compound exercises to increase testosterone levels, you also need enough volume. Three repetitions in only one set will not do much. In fact, one set of any exercise is not enough to make any difference. You need a total number of repetitions at each “lift” that will be high enough to maximize testosterone production. Numerous studies have shown that multiple sets of any exercise are much more effective for the secretion of testosterone than just one set. So what is the optimal number of sets? It depends, but you will need a minimum of 3 working sets for each exercise to get the wanted results.
Enough volume in your training is crucial but if your intensity isn’t high enough you won’t see any progress. Research shows that athletes doing HIIT to burn fat also increased their testosterone levels. These two factors are linked together and one without the other doesn’t work. Intensity isn’t about performing each set to failure or using wrong exercise form to speed up the execution of exercise, intensity is influenced by how much you rest between sets. For maximum testosterone production your rest time shouldn’t exceed 2 minutes and in most cases it should be around 1 minute between sets.
Testosterone Diet – Eat the Right Food to Boost Testosterone Production
Even if you do all the above it won’t make a different if the diet is wrong. Wrong diet can seriously damage testosterone production, I’ll give you some nutritional tips you can apply instantly. Today some of the popular diets like low calorie, low carb, low fat, Atkins diet all have negative effects on testosterone production. For optimal body function you need to have a balanced diet that feeds your body with the right macro and micro nutrients each day.
11 Nutrition tips for increased testosterone production
- Consume a protein + carbohydrate meal before and after workout
- Eat enough fat, at least 30% of daily calorie intake has to come from fat, make sure you eat mainly healthy fats and not fat from junk food
- Eat more nuts, Flax seeds, almonds, peanuts. Studied have shown that mean who eat more mono unsaturated fats have increased testosterone levels
- Avoid alcohol at all cost (Be careful when using Creatine and Alcohol, it can be very dangerous)
- Don’t avoid red meat completely
- Consume enough calories, if you run a Low calories diet your body will stop producing testosterone
- Don’t throw away egg yolks, testosterone is made from cholesterol
- Don’t eat soy products, some studies have shown that soy increases estrogen production
- Vegetables are a crucial source of Vitamins and minerals for testosterone production
- Foods rich in zinc are proved to increase testosterone and immunity
- Spice up your food with ginger and cinnamon
- Consume garlic (I know it smells bad, but trust me it’s a miracle food)
Superfood for testosterone: Pumpkin Seeds
This super food is a rich source of fiber, potassium for healthy heart function, calcium and phosphor, which together are involved in building bones, iron for blood and magnesium which protects the skin. It is also a good source of beta carotene a very powerful antioxidant, contains a significant amount of Vitamin E and also vitamins B1,B2 and B6 which are extremely important for energy. Pumpkin seeds contain zinc which is directly linked with increasing testosterone production and improved immunity.
Inspirational quote for today: “If it is important to You, You will find a way. If not You will find an excuse.”
