Regular intense training can lower testosterone. Do this instead:

Over-training can lower testosterone.

Regular intense training (e.g. long distance running) can lead to lower testosterone and higher levels of hypogonadal symptoms (study here)

What does hypogonadal mean?

When your body produces insufficient amounts of the right hormones (like testosterone) it means you don’t function optimally.

Common symptoms can be:

• Infertility

• Overweight

• Reduced sex drive

• Erectile dysfunction

• Loss of muscle mass and strength

• Fatigue and lethargy

• Mood changes, such as depression, anxiety or irritability

In the graph below, the grey marks are the endurance group and the black marks are the control group.

Some people can buffer the stress better than others, so the distance required that will lower testosterone will differ for each individual.

Poor sleep, eating nutrient-poor foods, not eating enough, stress, etc, will drop your testosterone even faster.

For most men, 30-45min of aerobic exercise 3-4 times per week seems to be the optimal point for helping increase testosterone and optimising your overall hormonal landscape (this is why weight lifting is so effective).

Furthermore, this also reinforces why, for many of my overweight executive clients, I rarely advocate regular intense training (once a week max).

Why?

They are often:

• Sleep deprived

• Under enormous work pressure

• Eating all sorts of junk food

• Habitual mouth breathers

Combined all together, this means they have a higher level of systemic stress than most people.

With chronically elevated cortisol levels, what most men fail to realise is that regular intense training will only exacerbate this further and make it worse.

This is why so many of my clients come to me saying how hard they find it to lose weight (despite training regularly).

They fail to recognise how much of an impact the stress from intense training is having on their stress hormones, which is (ironically) making it harder for them to cut fat

Our bodies have a greater propensity to hang on to excess weight when we’re chronically stressed as a survival mechanism but also, we produce less grehlin and leptin (hunger hormones) which act as key signals to tell us we’re satiated (and don’t need more food).

That said, only once we fix diet, sleep quality, correct breathing and light environment, do we then see the rate of weight change speed up.

If your health coach or health adviser isn’t helping you resolve the fundamentals that form the foundation of your health first, then find a new one.

If those fundamentals aren’t fixed, for most men, especially those in high pressured jobs, intense training can actually do more harm than good.

Hope this was valuable.

Your Simmo.