3 Tips To Naturally Boost Testosterone

Jonny Parr
Jul 3, 2018
4 min read

Improving testosterone levels has huge benefits. You can expect higher energy levels, renewed motivation, enriched mood and, of course, performance in your fitness endeavours will dramatically progress.

In essence, boosting your testosterone plays a vital role in our standard of life and overall development.

Here are three tips to help you advance and make the most of this powerful hormone!

1. Exercise

This is perhaps the most recognised method of increasing testosterone levels. When muscles become stimulated, they naturally release the hormone. Activities, whether in the form of resistance training, fitness classes or playing sport will all contribute to increasing natural levels of the 'T-stuff'.

With specific relation to exercises you should be doing in the gym, compound lifts such as deadlifts, squat variations, bench press, overhead press and pull/chin up variations will elicit the best chemical response.

Why? These movements require greater muscle activation and tension due to the multi-joint nature and demands they entail. Put simply, these are your top ‘bang for your buck’ practices that are best incorporated into a typical training day at the beginning of sessions.

Why the beginning? These movements can be challenging in terms of technique, particularly if you’re a beginner. Therefore, try to do these when you're fresh as you're far more likely to give considerate attention to your form.

Perform your warm-up sets, select a weight that is low to medium, and start by performing anywhere between 3-5 sets of 5-12 reps.

By incorporating compound lifts, your testosterone levels will increase significantly and areas such as muscle mass, bone density, coordination and more, will improve.

2. Rest and Recovery

Easily the most overlooked component of improving testosterone and also refining your fitness is that of adequate rest and recovery.

Everyday activities - particularly if you exercise - cause muscle fibres to break down. It’s only after this time that the recovery process begins. There are many factors you can incorporate to promote the rest and recovery process.

• Sleep - It’s commonly recommended that you should aim for 7-8 hours every night. However, it’s fundamental that this is ‘good quality’ sleep. In other words, if you’re restless and regularly wake up during the night, you may not be getting the ‘quality sleep’ you need. Simple changes such as temperature control and even your bedding/mattress can all contribute to improved sleep.

Another consideration is that of mid-day naps - which I personally can't live without! - as many studies suggest snoozing for around 20 minutes can help recovery and therefore advance testosterone levels.

The key point regarding this tip is quality of sleep, so try the above pointers if you feel this isn’t happening for you.

• Care For Your Body - Much like a car, it’s vital to maintain and fuel the stresses your body experiences. Proven physical methods to achieve this are good nutrition (see Tip 3) and restoration routines such as static stretching and soft-tissue therapy.

You can easily manually stretch yourself by performing a series of stretches on the whole body. Major muscle groups such as the hamstrings and quads generally require more attention but overall stretching of the full body is hugely advantageous.

With relation to soft-tissue practices, massage is excellent but you can also get benefits from foam rolling. Again much like static stretching, most people will benefit from targeting the major muscle groups of the body, but again, a full-body approach is more valuable.

3. Nutrition

Nutrition is vital given any circumstance and helping boost your testosterone is no different. There are some particular key food sources you should consider – namely fats, calcium and vitamin D.

• Fats - Fat has a bad name but please don’t confuse bad fats with those that are good. As is always the case, you should aim to eradicate bad fats such as saturated and trans. Instead you should aim for a steady supply of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats which can be found in fish, nuts (i.e. almonds), avocado and even my favourite, natural peanut butter.

• Calcium - I mentioned bone density as important earlier in this article and calcium most definitely contributes to this. What’s more, calcium will also play an important role in your muscular and nervous system. Good food sources include ‘healthy’ cheese, milk and even broccoli.

• Vitamin D - It's safe to say that if you live in the middle east, you can get a huge dose of Vitamin D if you brave stepping outside!

This vitamin is important for fighting off illnesses, colds and reducing stress. These all negatively affect your levels of testosterone. The sun is the most obvious method of getting your vitamin D but you can also get it via foods such as fish, ‘some’ fresh orange juice, and supplements.

Closing

To get the most out your life, improved levels of testosterone can pay dividends both mentally and physically. Three natural remedies to tackle this issue include exercise, rest and recovery and nutrition. Try and address these issues and you can look forward to a life more appreciated, fulfilled and ultimately happy.