How To Increase Testosterone Naturally

What you do in the gym is going to have a very large impact on how quickly you build lean muscle. However, only working out wont cut it. Having a proper diet and a overall hormonal balance will have a much larger impact on your muscle gain. About, 80% of your muscle gain is due to proper diet. You can workout until your blue in the face but that will only get you 20% of the way there.

The same thing goes for testosterone, the less testosterone you have the less muscle you can build. If your diet isn't full of slow digestive carbs, protein, healthy fats, and green leafy vegetables, then you aren't doing what you can to maximize your testosterone levels. Some people are lucky and have high testosterone levels, this can be influenced by your age (testosterone levels are at there highest between the ages of 18 and low 30's).

Here are a few ways to increase testosterone naturally:

1. Get more Zinc

Zinc is very important for the production of testosterone. Zinc prevents testosterone from being converted into estrogen, witch is the female hormone, equivalent to testosterone in males. Also, Zinc converts estrogen into testosterone, so low levels of zinc can cause low testosterone levels.

Foods high in zinc:

oysters
liver
seafood
poultry
nuts and seeds

2. Lose Body Fat

The higher body fat percentage you have the higher your estrogen levels will be. Try not to cut too many calories out of your diet to loose body fat because you don't want your body to go into "starvation mode". This will cause your body to stop producing testosterone and slow down your metabolism.

For example, If I can take in 2,000 calories a day to maintain my body weight and then I drop my caloric intake to 1,000 calories. What happens is your metabolism will slow down and your body will gradually become accustomed to taking in 1,000 calories a day. This is bad because now I can only take in 1,000 calories a day to maintain my body weight, so if I were to go back to eating 2,000 calories a day I would end up gaining weight.

3. Get at least 8 hours of sleep every night

A study that was performed at the university of chicago showed that men who got little sleep had way lower testosterone levels than men who got 6-8 hours of sleep. When I say low levels of testosterone I mean your testosterone levels can drop down by as much as 40% when you don't get enough sleep.

Your testosterone levels are 30% higher in the morning than in the evening. Thats why we all get morning wood. Your body produces the most testosterone while your sleeping and the better you sleep the more testosterone your body will produce. If you are having trouble getting 6-8 hours of good quality sleep look at The Secret To Overcome Insomnia

4. Try to reduce stress

When you get stressed out, your body releases a stress hormone called cortisol that shuts down testosterone production. Cortisol is the one thing you don't want if you are trying to increase testosterone and build muscle. Here is a link to a previous article where I talk about ways to reduce stress. The Effects of Stress and How to Reduce Stress

5. Workout

Your body produces more testosterone on certain exercises and less testosterone on others. Here are the workouts you should and should not be doing if you want to increase your testosterone:

Compound exercises that train more than one muscle group like Power Cleans, Squats, Bench Presses, Deadlifts, Chin-ups, Dips, and Military presses. You can still do your isolation exercises like bicep curls and tricep extensions, but just make sure you are doing compound exercises as well
Make sure you lifting a weight that only allows you to perform 8-12 reps
You also want to limit your workouts to 1 hour because if you are working out for to long your body will secret the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol breaks down muscle and stops testosterone production. The best way to hit the gym is to get in, workout hard for 45 minutes- 1 hour and get out.
Avoid low intensity cardio where you walk or run for long periods of time. Instead, try doing high intensity workouts like sprints.
Make sure you get enough rest because overtraining leads to more cortisol and lower testosterone. You should give the muscle group that you worked out about 72 hours to recuperate before you work out that muscle group again.

6. Get Sexually Stimulated
Not getting sexually stimulated for long periods of time can actually decrease your testosterone levels. Try to get sexually stimulated at least twice a week.

7. Dont overheat your testicals

If you wear tight underwear, take long hot baths or do anything else that will overheat your testicles, you may decrease your testosterone production. It is best to wear loose clothes like boxers and comfortable jeans.