huge thank you to hims for sponsoring this video if you ask the average gym goer with the most important hormone is for muscle growth they probably say testosterone and in this case they'd be right study after study has demonstrated testosterones ability to enhance muscle growth take this paper from basin and colleagues for example eight men were injected with 600 milligrams of testosterone over the course of 10 weeks which Rose their testosterone levels to roughly 3 times higher than the highest testosterone levels you can expect to achieve naturally as a result despite performing no resistance training
whatsoever these men were still able to gain 7 pounds of lean muscle and improve their overall strength which is a feat that would likely not be possible naturally now this is pretty cool and all but the real question is how would naturally increase in your testosterone levels affect muscle growth well the truth is it's relatively unclear at the moment but a few studies are able to provide us with some insight 1 2016 study by Mouser and colleagues states that testosterone levels for adult men can range from anywhere between 240 to 950 nanograms per deciliter with
the average being somewhere in the middle of this range and what's interesting is that multiple studies have found that when men who were at the lower end of this range increased their testosterone levels to average or above average they saw significant increases in muscle mass and strength even when the old resistance training was performed so what's clear that if you have lower than normal testosterone levels then increasing it can definitely enhance muscle growth but unless you have male hypogonadism or experience obvious symptoms of low testosterone like low sex drive or erectile dysfunction then chances are
you probably have normal levels so the real question now is what effect would increase in your testosterone levels from average to above average levels have on muscle growth well again research is definitely lacking in this area however one 2016 study showed that those at the higher end of the normal testosterone range had greater lean muscle mass and lower levels of body fat compared to those with average or below average levels and this finding was still significant even when race age activity and protein intake was accounted for which does support the idea that increasing your testosterone
levels to the higher range naturally may very well enhance muscle growth research also illustrates that testosterone plays a big factor when it comes to fat loss for example this 2003 papers showed that when researchers decreased subjects testosterone levels from average to below average levels they saw a dramatic 36 percent increase in fat mass in addition optimal testosterone levels are essential for a variety of other factors as well and becomes especially important as you age since it helps slow down muscle loss and since your testosterone levels begin to decrease by around 1 to 2 percent per
year starting from some time in your 30s it would likely be in your best interest to learn what you can do to naturally increase your levels of this hormone so what exactly can you do well one popular belief is that the large increase in testosterone caused by the use of heavy compound movements is what makes them so effective although it's true that testosterone spikes to a meaningful degree after compound movements this actually doesn't last for very long and in the words of researcher dr. Brad Schoenfeld well I can't dismiss that acute hormonal elevations may play
a role in the growth process I'm quite confident in saying that if such an effect does in fact exist it would be of small significance therefore relying on this might not be the best approach so with that being said let's take a look at a few more effective options for increasing testosterone in the long term the first thing you can do is to stay within a certain range of body fat that isn't too low and isn't too high research shows that as body fat levels rise your testosterone Falls whereas your estrogen levels actually increase researchers
have noted that this is probably because the more fat you have the higher your aroma taste enzyme activity which converts testosterone to estrogen so by lowering your body fat you lower the activity of this enzyme and more testosterone is left unconverted as for how much of an increase you can expect to see it will depend on how much fat you have to lose 1 2013 meta-analysis found that based on 20 relevant studies overweight subjects were able to experience an average testosterone increase of 100 20 nanograms per deciliter after losing a significant amount of fat which
was roughly equivalent to a 20 to 50 percent increase in testosterone levels now this doesn't mean you want to lower your body fat to extreme levels since this can be detrimental as well but there is likely an optimal range that you want to stay in which seems to be around 8 to 15 percent and is why I recommend staying within this range even when bulking the second thing you can do is to correct deficiencies in your diet now although to optimize testosterone levels it's recommended that you eat a balanced macronutrient ratio of protein carbs and
fat most people already seem to be doing this where most people fail though is with micronutrients and the two main micronutrients that seem to affect house Austral levels are vitamin D and zinc one 2011 study showed that one year of daily vitamin D supplementation in those who were deficient increased testosterone levels by 20% and another study from the Journal of nutrition showed that daily supplementation of zinc in males that were deficient almost doubled their testosterone levels in just three months and since multiple studies have indicated that zinc and vitamin D deficiencies are in fact very
prevalent I would advise ensuring that your in taking adequate zinc and vitamin D from your diet or through supplementation which is actually very affordable the third thing you can do to increase testosterone in the long term is to get adequate sleep multiple studies have shown a strong positive correlation between Kotal sleep time and total testosterone levels with one study showing that subjects who routinely slept for four hours a night had testosterone levels that were roughly half that of subjects who routinely slept for eight hours a night in fact each hour below eight hours of sleep
seemed to drop testosterone levels by around 15% therefore aiming for around 8 hours of quality sleep on a consistent basis would be ideal now aside from the previous recommendations there are various other ways to increase testosterone but are of less significance since it increases only short-term for example just being sexually aroused or conversing with an attractive woman is enough to briefly spike testosterone levels to a large degree whereas on the other and being around a woman while she's crying is enough to decrease testosterone by 12% but again this effect doesn't last for long so unless
you're constantly sexually aroused or constantly around crying women these won't have a very big impact rather I'd suggest sticking to the three main points I covered and you'll likely be able to make a meaningful difference in terms of your testosterone levels and experience the many benefits that come with it that's pretty much it for the video guys thank you so much for watching I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful I also just wanted to quickly thank hims for sponsoring this video for those of you who don't know hims offers personalized recommendations for prescription
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included they've taken me months to put together but as you guys know I'm all the providing quality content and that goes from our programs as well so stay tuned for that anyways thank you again for watching this video if you enjoyed it as always give it a like leave a comment down below subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and I'd also really appreciate it if you gave me a follow on Instagram as well thank you so much guys I'll see you next time [Music]
