Squats and tetosterone

[Guff]

I've heard many times that one of the reasons regular, heavy squats are so important is because it forces your body to release more of it's natural growth hormones. While I've heard this many times I've never seen any kind of study to prove this. What does this really mean? If you squat heavy, will the body create more testosterone?

[namtrag]

It hasn't helped me, or if it has, I must have been really low before. My T level is only 296 and I do squats every leg day.

[partsRheavy]

I think it's true.

The morning after leg day (squats and leg press), I often wake up really calm/relaxed.

Also...

I've done a little experiment on chest/shoulder days. First, I'll warm up on the bench and then crank out a set of my target weight. The other week, I got 9 reps of 65 lbs.

Then, I'll walk over to the hack squat machine or the squat rack and I'll put a fairly light weight on it - something I can easily do 12 reps of. I'll do a couple sets of 12 over there.

Then, back to the bench. I'll do my other sets at the target weight on bench...and get out quite a few more reps e.g. 11 or 12 or even 13 at the target weight that yielded only 9 after just warming up on the bench. I'm a lot happier with the results.

I've tried this on 3 separate chest days and it's worked consistently.

The legs aren't extremely tired/fatigued from the couple of sets of squats or hack squat, but the chest w/o is much improved. Better on overhead press as well.

Don't know if it's testosterone release or growth hormone or what, but I definitely think that squats have effects thoughout the body and not just on the leg/glute muscles.

[lukamar]

This is an interesting article that was posted on the AFPA website.

http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/articles-and-newletters/research-articles-index/athletes-sports-conditioning/interventions-for-enhancing-lean-muscle-mass-gain-and-fat-mass-loss-during-strength-and-speed-training-protocols/

[ectoBgone]

This is an interesting article that was posted on the AFPA website.

http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/articles-and-newletters/research-articles-index/athletes-sports-conditioning/interventions-for-enhancing-lean-muscle-mass-gain-and-fat-mass-loss-during-strength-and-speed-training-protocols/

That was indeed interesting and helpful. Thanks for posting it.

[Capt_Lou]

One question about the article, WTH is Vibration Stimulus?

[Guff]

Very interesting article Marty.


Diet and caloric intake influence the amount of Testosterone produced. Diets higher in protein, cholesterol, saturated fat, and total fat content tend to maintain higher Testosterone levels. One study[1] showed that decreasing fat calories from 40% to 25% while decreasing saturated fat and increasing polyunsaturated fats led to decreases in both total Testosterone[-18%] and free unbound Testosterone levels[-15%]. Upon resuming the original higher fat intake, Testosterone levels returned to original values. Subjects in this study ate -500 fewer calories on the lower fat diet, implicating both fat selection and caloric restriction with decreased Testosterone.

The reason I posted this was, since I've started hitting it really heave a few months back (and upped my calorie AND protein intake significantly) I've been fight acne (bacne) really badly. It's like it's exploded on me. I was wondering if it could somehow be related to an increase in testosterone.

[jf1]

This is an interesting article that was posted on the AFPA website.

http://www.afpafitness.com/articles/articles-and-newletters/research-articles-index/athletes-sports-conditioning/interventions-for-enhancing-lean-muscle-mass-gain-and-fat-mass-loss-during-strength-and-speed-training-protocols/

wonderfull article!
\thank you!