Valentin Bosioc
A good heavy exercise is good for your body, and this is more apparent as you are aging. Your testosterone level decreases as you grow older and this can cause a lot of problems in your body. To offset this, you need to increase your testosterone level. And a good heavy exercise regimen like lifting weights, pulling weight and heavy squats can ramp up production of testosterone. But how to ramp testosterone levels by doing heavy squats? We should first look at what testosterone is and its effects on the body.
Testosterone
Testosterone is defined as an androgenic hormone made by the body. This hormone is both present in men and women but has a more prominent function in men. Primarily, the hormone jump starts a men’s sexual ability and its reproductive development during puberty. Testosterone also contributes to your hair growth, muscle mass, strengthening of the bone density, the production of red blood cells and affect your emotional and psychological health. The production of this hormone is also very dependent on the age of the person when you reach a certain age you might feel the effect of the changes of the levels of testosterone in your body.
READ: Cardio or Strength Training: Which Comes First for Testosterone Boost?
But why does testosterone affect our body so much? Aside from being an integral hormone in regulating our body, testosterone levels decrease with age. At the early 30 years old your body will naturally create less and less, and it will continue its development until you are advancing to old age. This age-induced testosterone decrease can be correlated with the over-activity of an enzyme that is known as 5-alpha reductase. This Enzyme makes testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and this causes various effects in your body.
After you reach the age of 30, the succeeding years will cause the level of your testosterone will start to slowly dip at a yearly rate of 1%. At first, the effect will not be very significant, but if you do not do any activity or take additional medication to increase your testosterone level, you will eventually notice its effects. The continual decreases in testosterone levels will eventually lead to these symptoms are associated with Low Testosterone levels of this hormone:
- Muscle Mass Testosterone directly integrated into your muscles when you have less testosterone can cause a decrease in muscle mass. There is a reason why testosterone is called the “male” hormone, and this is because they cause your body to develop muscles and make you look “manly.” Low levels of this hormone can also cause an increase of the storage of body fat and will lead you to feel constantly fatigued.
- Bone Density another alarming effect of low levels of testosterone is a decrease in bone density. “Low testosterone is one of the more established risk factors for osteoporosis in me,” this is according to Joseph Ellen, MD, a physician at Albany Medical Center in New York City. Brittle bones are more prone to be broken in cases of accidents.
- Sex Drive low levels of testosterone also causes the biggest worry of middle-aged men, low sex drive. It is, after all, a sex hormone and is produced mainly in the testicles. In a large study that tested for testosterone levels among men in Massachusetts, around 11% of the participants reported that they had a lack of sex drive. And around 28% of the men with low testosterone said that they had low libido in bed. The men who were tested had a variety of age levels but were relatively young, averaging around 47 years old.
- Sperm Production sperm is created in the testes, your brain creates special hormones called gonadotropin-releasing hormones (GnRH) into your bloodstream. When it reaches the testes, the organ, in turn, starts producing testosterone and increase sperm production. A low sperm count is often a good indicator that you are experiencing low testosterone levels.
- Red blood cell production testosterone has also been documented to increase the red blood count. Some patients who are undergoing Testosterone replacement therapy often experience Polycythemia. This means that there is a direct correlation with low levels of testosterone and low blood cell production.
SEE: Leg Day Workout for Testosterone Boost
To avoid these symptoms, it is imperative that as you are aging, you must supplement or increase your production of Testosterone. In this case, you have two options you can do, first is by getting testosterone replacement therapy or by doing heavy exercises to naturally increase it. Doing the therapy is not a bad thing to do, but testosterone supplements can be expensive, and some studies suggest that by saturating your body with the hormone can lower your sperm count. So it is better that you do heavy exercises like weight lifting and heavy squats to naturally supplement your testosterone. Though testosterone is a natural Male Fertility Booster and increasing it unnaturally may cause infertility. One of the best heavy exercises you can do to increase your testosterone is by doing heavy squats.
Heavy Squats
A heavy exercise like squats greatly increases the production of the Testosterone hormones. Heavy squats can cause an anabolic hormonal surge throughout your body. This type of exercise utilizes large muscle groups such as your gluteus maximus, your hamstrings, and your quadriceps. Heavy squats also target the muscles near the testes, so this type of heavy exercises can be very beneficial for testosterone production. But if you are performing the routine wrong then you may be doing more harm than good to your body. Here are some ways to properly improve the way you are doing your Heavy squats:
- The Back
The lower back is within the region of your body that nerves are found which can control your lower extremities. When squatting make sure that the part of your spine in this location forms a natural ‘S’ shape while you are squatting. Under-arching or over-arching here can cause unwanted pressure on your spine and nervous system. It can also interfere with the brain’s signaling to the lower extremities. That is why you should always strengthen your core and lower back muscles by doing exercises that stabilize your back and engage your core. It’s also a good idea to warm up before doing heavy squats; you can do lower back stretches such as the cobra.
READ: Why You Should Choose Squats Over Leg Presses
- The Hip Region
Even a simple tweak concerning the flexibility of the hip flexors can tremendously help with your heavy squats. If your work requires you to spend a good deal of your time sitting down, then this will have an adverse effect on the muscles in your hip region. This can also cause shortening of your hip flexors and be lengthening your hip extensors and ultimately inhibit lowering your butt to the ground when performing the heavy squats. A good way to prevent damage to this area is by doing hip flexor, and extensor stretches daily. You can also use some foam rollers to stretch the muscles within your hip area.
- The Knees
The right knee alignment also helps you keep a proper form while doing your heavy squats. This can prevent pressure on the joint that can result in injuries. If you are doing your squats poorly, you may under activate your inner quad muscle or over activate the muscle attached to the Iliotibial band. To prevent injuries on your knees, do the following before or after doing your heavy squats. One leg weighted step ups to strengthen your inner quad muscles. Foam roll your IT band and muscle attached to it.
READ: Back Squats VS Front Squats! What’s Better?
Benefits
The heavy squat is considered to be the most efficient lower back exercise that delivers more results than your effort. By mimicking the most primitive movement pattern that human beings have ever known. And the benefits that you can receive from this basic but heavy exercise are many and tremendously helpful. Not only will these kinds of exercises help you increase your testosterone level naturally, but it also has some other benefits namely:
- Increase your muscle strength
The squat can allow you to handle a large amount of weight and effectively stimulate the increase of your muscles strength and size. Research has also shown that strength is gained the fastest when doing this type of workout whenever you go to the gym.
- Efficient
Quadriceps and the gluteus is the most obvious target of this exercise, but it has shown to be affecting a wide variety of primary muscle groups when being performed. Squats not only build up the quads but also significantly tone your gluteus, activate your hamstrings, spinal erectors, abdominal muscles, obliques and even your calves.
- Reducing Risk of Injury
Squats also strengthen your connective tissues, ligaments and stabilizing muscles. By performing squats regularly, you can strengthen these small support organs to create a study foundation for your lower extremities. This, in turn, will lessen the risk of you getting injured while performing athletic activities.
- Increase Testosterone
ALSO: Why You Should Consider Single Leg Squats
According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, anabolic hormones like testosterone create a signal that enhances the development of muscles. After doing heavy squats and other strenuous exercises, your anabolic hormone levels will increase. Exercises also increase your heart rate and in turn spread the testosterone to a larger area than when you are just ingesting a supplement.
- Core Strength
Heavy squats are also known to activate the muscles of your core. This is done by the extra work your muscle need to keep your body upright and by supporting your lower back. This improvement on your core can greatly enhance the performance of other exercises as well. Good core strength also prevents injury to your lower back and stimulates muscle growth in your abdominals and obliques.
- Mental Strength
Squats can be a very demanding exercise, its simplicity can sometimes overshadow the fact that you have to perform heavy squats while carrying a barbell at maximum intensity. Unlike the deadlifts that have brief periods of rest the heavy squat requires that you are active throughout the entire regimen. This needs some serious focus on your part which in turn builds your mental strength. If you can master the heavy squats, then you not only have a healthy body but a healthy mind as well.
MUST SEE: How to do jump squats
Heavy exercises and more specifically heavy squats can greatly improve not only your testosterone levels but also your over-all health as well. Because low testosterone levels can start very early, like in your late 20’s or early 30’s, then it is also imperative that you also start to do squats at that age. Doing those types of heavy exercise when you are older may less effective than when you have started it at a younger age. For one thing, your muscles, joints, and tendons have also been weakened by a lack of early exercise and your cardiovascular system can also need some exercise. If you are a beginner to the gym then start by getting tips from older members, or you can do beginners squat like the following:
1) Be careful where your weight is, it should always be on the heels and the balls of your feet.
2) Keep your body tight like a spring
3) Remember to breathe in then exhale while you push your butt back
4) Always keep your back straight and your chest and shoulders up when in a neutral position.
5) When you squat down to keep your knees aligned with your feet
6) Try to squat down until your gluteus maximus is lower than your knees
7) Breathe out and drive through your heels while still keeping the balls of your feet on the ground
Check out also this post on DarkIronFitness blog and see another perspective and some more amazing infos.
Finally, drive your knees out the same way you did on the way down
Conclusion: Those are just some basic steps doing a beginners squat, you can even start without weight or a barbell so that you can master your form. They can still be good to your muscles over-all but not quite as effective as heavy squats. When you think you are ready, you can finally do the heavy squats that are required to increase your testosterone levels.
