14 tips to boost testosterone

Melanie Ramos 10 min. of reading Natural remedies Leave a comment

For many, it’s the million-dollar question, how to boost testosterone in men? When it comes to maximizing muscle mass and promoting optimal physical recovery, there are no magic solutions, but there is a long list of great tips that can really help you out.

What is Testosterone?

Testosterone is a crucial hormone within a group of hormones called androgens. Essential for its important role in sexual function, it also provides invaluable help in building muscle mass, maintaining bone density, and regulating hair growth. Like all sex hormones, it derives from cholesterol and its immediate precursor is DHEA.

What factors influence muscle gain?

Several factors will help you determine how much muscle your body will build. The main ones are:

Training.
Nutrition.
Rest.

If you’re a bodybuilder, these are definitely the variables you need to respect when setting your goal to gain muscle, as they’ll be the foundation of your training plan. However, we can’t ignore other factors, such as the hormones involved, especially one that really stands out: testosterone.

Basically, the above premises will be less relevant if your body can’t produce enough testosterone to trigger “progress.”

Let’s take a quick biology break…

Did you know your brain secretes a substance called Luteinizing Hormone (LH) that stimulates your body to produce testosterone? That’s right, and once this happens, the adrenal glands release DHEA into the bloodstream. Both LH and DHEA travel to the testicles, where testosterone is produced.

What are the benefits of Testosterone?

The list of testosterone benefits is very long. Here are the main ones:

Increases muscle size and strength.
Promotes fat loss.
Boosts sexual vigor and related endurance.
Improves mood.
Helps reduce LDL or “bad” cholesterol.

As you can see, testosterone offers countless benefits to the body, so from both a training perspective and the goal of maximizing development and supporting muscle recovery, it’s in your best interest to maximize natural testosterone production.

Tips to increase your levels

It’s time to boost testosterone release by giving you the key guidelines on the most relevant aspects for improvement. We know it’s a genetically marked factor, but by following these points, you can alter your endogenous levels by raising the amount of testosterone produced.

How to do it in training?

There’s no doubt training is a fundamental pillar when it comes to boosting hormone release.

Prioritize compound exercises

Focus on compound or multi-joint exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press, and military press.

Also, add bodyweight exercises that allow you to add extra weight to increase intensity, such as push-ups, dips, or pull-ups. Each exercise with its corresponding angle variations, and if possible, you can add weight to increase load and generate more intensity.

All these exercises cause significant stress on the body, which requires a large release of testosterone to “repair” the damage caused.

Optimize your effort

Or in other words, find the balance between Intensity and Frequency.

No one doubts you can’t train with this premise every day, but you don’t need to train muscle daily either. A good idea is to plan a full body training routine, dividing the week into 3 training days. Hit a compound exercise hard each of those days. The rest of the exercises will follow suit.

Remember, more Testosterone means more Development.

Train your legs

Training your legs is one of the biggest stimuli for your body.

Sometimes you might not know what to train. Then squats become your best option. We suggest trying a 10×10. You might also prefer daily muscle training or, even better, add an extra leg day to your schedule. In that case, you could see huge results in a very short time.

The key is to add a small muscle group alongside your leg training, and you’ll see those little guys stop being so little…

HIIT

Against all odds, this type of training generates higher post-workout testosterone levels than traditional cardio. Doing sprints is the first choice for “anabolic cardio,” especially if you want to increase muscle size and reduce body fat.

Talking about sprints means giving your max effort in each set. This approach shortens the time considerably while making the most of quality work done.

14 ways to naturally boost Testosterone

If you think your testosterone levels might be low, here are 14 tips to help you increase them naturally.

1. Forget about Alcohol

Even if it’s just a couple of drinks a day, alcohol makes it harder for your liver to break down estrogen, increasing your estrogen levels and lowering testosterone.

The result won’t take long: some masculine traits will disappear. You might experience loss of pubic and facial hair, reduced libido, and develop male breasts. On top of that, alcohol lowers zinc levels in your body.

2. Take Zinc

Zinc is essential for producing testosterone because it prevents it from converting into estrogen, the female hormone that stops the aromatase enzyme from doing its job.

Zinc transforms estrogen into testosterone, helping produce healthier sperm and increasing sperm count. Low zinc levels cause low testosterone levels.

Click here to learn how and how much zinc to take.

3. Watch out for Xenoestrogens!

Xenoestrogens are man-made and mimic estrogen effects. You can find them in pesticides, hormones and steroids for artificial growth, as well as in plastic containers and air purifiers. Xenoestrogens raise your estrogen levels and at the same time lower your testosterone levels.

Avoid them with these measures:

Eat more organic fruits and veggies, free of pesticides. If they’re not organic, make sure to wash each piece well to reduce the chance of consuming xenoestrogens.
Eat meat from naturally raised animals instead of beef, chicken, pork, or even milk from animals treated with hormones and steroids for artificial growth.
Stay away from perfumes, colognes, or air purifiers containing parabens (a type of xenoestrogen) as one of their ingredients.

4. Include healthy fats in your diet

Several studies show men who eat diets rich in healthy fats like Omega-3 and monounsaturated fats have higher testosterone levels. Try naturally boosting your testosterone by adding healthier fats. Good sources include nuts and seeds, avocados, olives, peanut butter, vegetable oils, and fatty fish like salmon and tuna.

Your body needs “good” fats to produce testosterone, but that doesn’t mean you should overdo fat intake. Make sure at least 20 to 30% of your daily calories come from healthy fats.

5. Lose body fat

The higher your body fat percentage, the higher your estrogen levels. Body fat contains an enzyme called aromatase that converts your “male” testosterone into “female” estrogen. This lowers your testosterone levels.

Ideally, set up an exercise program to reduce body fat, lowering estrogen and raising testosterone. Forget strict low-calorie diets when trying to lose fat. A starving body will stop producing testosterone.

Check out this link to discover the best thermogenics to help you lose fat.

Aim to lose between 400 and 700 g per week through weight loss exercises.

6. Eliminate estrogens

To naturally boost testosterone and get rid of excess estrogen that causes your body to store more fat, take these steps:

Eat more cruciferous veggies, especially Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. These veggies contain a chemical called diindolylmethane (DIM) that helps your body eliminate excess estrogens.
Take a supplement containing DIM to help remove excess estrogen.
Increase fiber intake to cleanse your body and remove toxins causing excess estrogen. Vegetables, most fruits, nuts, and legumes are rich in fiber.
Use a natural supplement that helps your liver eliminate excess estrogen.

7. Include vitamins A, B, and E in your diet

Vitamins A, B, and E (along with vitamin C and zinc) are essential for testosterone production. So, not getting enough vitamins can cause low testosterone levels. Eat plenty of veggies, fruits, nuts, and lean meats, and don’t worry too much about supplementing with other vitamins.

To get any type of vitamin, click here.

8. Keep sexual stimulation

It’s not hard to significantly raise your testosterone levels if you stay sexually stimulated. The key is to do everything possible to get quality erections without needing Viagra. German scientists found that even a simple erection raises testosterone levels.

A study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology showed that watching porn increased testosterone in 9 men after 10 minutes.

Another study by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Urban Ethology in Vienna involved 10 men watching a sexual film for 15 minutes, resulting in a 100% testosterone increase.

A third study measured testosterone every 15 minutes for 3 hours in 8 men before, during, and after watching explicit sexual content, showing an average 35% testosterone increase.

Warning! Not having sexual stimulation for periods leads to a significant drop in testosterone levels. If you find it hard to stay sexually stimulated, you can follow the other tips here to boost testosterone. This will increase your libido and make staying stimulated easier.

9. Avoid overheating your testicles

This might be new to you. Wearing tight underwear or pants, taking very hot baths, or anything else that overheats your testicles can hurt testosterone production.

To avoid this, it’s best to wear lighter underwear, like boxers, to prevent testicle overheating.

10. Balance your protein intake

Simple reason: proteins provide amino acids that build your muscles. High-protein diets stimulate the synthesis of the anabolic hormone glucagon, releasing moderate amounts of testosterone.

11. Train at 100%

Many scientific studies show physical exercise raises testosterone levels if done between 45 and 60 minutes daily. After an hour, cortisol rises and testosterone drops, causing muscle catabolism.

Make sure you rest more than you train. Overtraining always leads to higher cortisol. After proper training, you might need more than 8 hours of sleep to recover and produce more testosterone.

12. Sleep 6 to 8 hours daily

A University of Chicago study found men sleeping less than 6 hours have lower testosterone than those sleeping 6 to 8 hours. Lack of sleep can reduce testosterone by up to 40%.

Remember, testosterone levels are about 30% higher in the morning than the rest of the day, which is why your masculinity feels stronger in the early hours.

Loss of morning erections or sexual appetite signals your testosterone is dropping. That’s your cue to sleep 6 to 8 hours nightly. Most testosterone is produced during deep sleep, so within reason, more rest means feeling more manly.

13. Include 1,000 to 1,500 mg of vitamin C daily

Vitamin C works like zinc by lowering cortisol levels, which helps testosterone production. It also reduces aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen.

14. Relax and say goodbye to emotional stress!

You might not realize it, but every time problems overwhelm you, an alarm mechanism kicks in as a stress response, increasing catabolic hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that protect the body and keep you alert. Stress causes a big drop in testosterone to save energy usually used for sexual functions and muscle building.

Why take supplements?

We’ll show you some supplements that help counteract any nutritional deficiencies, stimulating natural testosterone production.

This includes sports nutrition supplements aimed at improving and optimizing hormone levels. They can even raise them naturally. These are known as “Natural Anabolics”.

Try these supplements: