By Russ Klettke

If you’ve paid attention to the hubbub around women and hormone replacement therapy (HRT, estrogen), you have to be concerned about how men are getting prescriptions for their own HRT in testosterone. It’s tempting, because testosterone (T) therapy pretty clearly is able to help guys lose fat, gain muscle (when combined with exercise), improve mood and increase libido. But T therapy has several known side effects – gynecomastia (“bitch tits”) and increased prostate size – with the latter of these suspected to contribute to existing cases of prostate cancer. There are no long-term studies of synthetic testosterone supplementation’s effects.

The facts are, meddling with biological systems very often leads to unintended consequences. So why take a chance if there is a natural approach? 

Exercise can cause the body to increase its natural production of T. But not just any exercise. In fact, long distance running, biking or swimming might detract from it (and I don’t make this observation lightly, as I am a veteran triathlete). Studies out of Brazil and the UK found a halving of serum cholesterol in men who’ve just completed a marathon.

In general, extreme and extended periods of exercise, particularly at low levels of intensity, have a tendency to reduce testosterone levels. But so does a sedentary lifestyle and obesity. So where’s the middle ground?

There are smart ways to exercise that can actually increase your T levels. It can happen with intermittent bursts of intensity in both cardiovascular activities (running, swimming, biking) as well as fairly strenuous resistance training.  Here are ways to accomplish that:

Running: Run the same distance you typically do, but throw in intermittent stretches of sprinting (runners sometimes refer to this as fartlek training). It can improve your endurance, and you should expect to have sore muscles as a result (a good thing).

Biking: As with running, tossing in some fast hill work or higher resistance on a stationery bike for 10-60 seconds several times within a workout will tax the muscles just enough to stimulate more T production.

Swimming: Competitive swimmers know that sense of absolute exhaustion – and a tingle that accompanies it – when they swim at maximum speed for several lengths of the pool. T levels are higher then.

Weight training: Work the largest muscles to fatigue, the point at which your body cannot complete one more rep, and where you are breathing heavily and perspiring when finished. The extra T will promote muscle size increases.

Plyometrics: These are bursts of energy output, where you start out squatting, then thrust up and off the floor, hands reaching upward before landing and returning to the squat position (repeat ten or more times, to failure). This is an exercise you can work into any other workout, alternating with other exercises. You can also create plyometric-like bursts with other parts of your body, such as with a push up where you clap your hands on the “up” part of the exercise.

The general feel you should have is that of strong exertion. It takes you out of a comfort zone, but in fact expands your exercise range the more often you do it. After a couple weeks of this training – sometimes sooner – you might notice a markedly improved mood and a libido boost. Long term, greater fat loss and muscle size gains result.