Testosterone: How to train to increase it?

Certainly, it is not possible to build muscle without testosterone, but do you know how to maximize its release by making specific decisions in the gym?

When preparing any workout, some strategies are better than others for naturally increasing testosterone levels and potentially promoting muscle growth.

Manipulating certain training stimuli can increase testosterone release… so let’s get to work understanding why and how to achieve it…

Testosterone Basics

Testosterone is an anabolic hormone associated with increased muscle mass, strength gains, and sex drive and, contrary to what some believe, it is not released by the muscles.

Testosterone is released by specific cells called Leydig cells, located in the testicles. 

Specific regions of your brain—the hypothalamus and anterior pituitary gland—signal the release of testosterone from your testicles through a series of hormonal messages.

Forms of testosterone

The hormone is typically found in two forms in the body: free and bound.

The free form is the most active, as it can enter a target cell (muscle) directly, allowing it to exert anabolic or anticatabolic effects.

Bound testosterone binds to sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), which blocks testosterone’s action.

Some of it can also bind to albumin, but this does not prevent it from positively exerting anabolic and anticatabolic properties.

The conclusion is that, among all forms of testosterone, the goal is to increase the blood’s reserve of the free form through weightlifting, because the hormone can increase protein synthesis and muscle mass.

Speaking of this, let’s take a look at a series of training variables that have been measured for their relationship with testosterone release.

Intensity and testosterone

Intensity is best defined as the percentage of your one-repetition maximum (1RM); therefore, if you bench press 150 kg for a 1RM and work with 105 kg, you are training at an intensity of 70%

To optimize your testosterone response, you should work at a relatively high intensity. Therefore, when all other factors are held equal, sessions with the highest overall intensity will result in the greatest hormonal response.

In general, research has shown that:

• Sets of 3–10 repetitions, using a relative intensity of 3–10 RM, will result in a greater testosterone response.
• By contrast, training with isolation exercises or, alternatively, with high repetitions, appears to be less effective at maximizing its production.

Volume and testosterone

Volume equals the total amount of work performed, that is, sets × repetitions × intensity. It is a somewhat difficult variable to manipulate in the hope of optimizing the testosterone response, partly because there seems to be a point at which greater volume does not mean greater hormone release.

To reach this threshold, you must be sure that you are performing a relatively high amount of volume per session. From this perspective, you should not limit yourself to reaching 1RM maxes all the time, since ideally you should vary your repetition ranges between 6–10 and sets between 3–10 per exercise.

Total-body training should consist of 3 to 6 exercises—in other words, doing more exercises and fewer sets, or alternatively doing fewer exercises if you do more sets, as when following a high-volume program such as GVT or a similar one.

Exercise selection

Exercise selection is the most important variable you can manipulate when you want to optimize testosterone.

The greater the muscle mass involved in a movement, the greater the hormonal response.

In addition, the amount of testosterone released is directly related to the amount of muscle mass used, meaning that a squat will result in greater hormone release than a bench press.

Multi-joint exercises, which involve more than one pair of joints, are superior to single-joint movements, and because they require more stabilizing activity, working with free weights is a better option than using machines.

When in doubt, select an exercise that requires a large amount of muscle mass, which could include squat variations, deadlifts, lifts, and bench press variations.

Exercise order

Published research has demonstrated significantly greater increases in the testosterone response when multi-joint exercises are included in the same session, along with single-joint exercises targeting smaller muscle groups.

These same increases in testosterone are associated with a significantly greater increase in strength for the smaller muscle group.

So, if your goal is to satisfy all the criteria above, it would make sense to put heavy compound exercises first in your session, ensuring adequate intensity and volume to optimize the rest of your session.

Think of it another way: that feeling of almost dying after a solid round of squats can now be viewed as a testosterone bath for your muscles!

Rest periods

As we discussed, acute increases in testosterone have been observed with increases in metabolic demand—that is, working at a higher intensity relative to your 1RM and performing a large volume of work.

But that is not the only way to do it, as another approach is to shorten the rest periods between sets, which would ideally allow for a greater sustained load throughout the entire session.

Increasing rest periods results in less testosterone release.

Currently, there is not enough evidence to determine an exact rest period for optimizing the hormonal response, but ideally, take enough time to recover and catch your breath, while also making sure the barbell weight is sufficiently heavy.

Testosterone: How should you train, then?

With this basic knowledge of how you can increase your testosterone response through training, you will achieve far greater gains than you would by randomly following any previous workout.

This training program to increase testosterone follows a three-day-per-week split, allowing you to maximize your training intensity while also providing enough downtime to keep you mentally fresh.

If you want to train more frequently, that is fine; you could do so by splitting the push day into separate shoulder and chest days. Compound exercises should have a primary focus, so make an effort to actually move the heaviest weights.

Follow this protocol for four weeks and you will see your strength and muscle gains skyrocket.

• Sets do not include warm-ups; do as many as you need, but never perform warm-up sets to muscular failure.
• Select a weight that allows you to reach muscular failure on the target repetition. Each set should approach muscular failure, except when doing deadlifts; in that case, use a weight that allows you to perform several repetitions.
• Rest 1-2 minutes between sets of all exercises except the deadlift; take 2 minutes between sets when doing the conventional deadlift.
• On your active recovery day, walk outdoors, play sports, go to the sauna, or do yoga, but choose an activity that moves your body while allowing your muscles to recover.

However, to increase testosterone, you also need motivation, determination, and that inner vital energy—which, if you have it, means it is simply a matter of combining a plan with execution.