Testosterone and weightlifting.

Rydrax · May 22, 2019

Anyone with already low T tried to stop weightlifting for a while and re test to check if T went up?

people say “lifting weights increases T”, but the majority of the people i see (if i remember correctly) with already low T are weightlifters.

i wonder if lifting weights could actually be the problem of so many weightlifters with low t?

fifty · May 22, 2019

No. Try again.

fifty · May 22, 2019

Resistance Training and Testosterone: 40% More T after 4-Weeks

Mountain Man · May 23, 2019

Rydrax said:
Anyone with already low T tried to stop weightlifting for a while and re test to check if T went up?

people say “lifting weights increases T”, but the majority of the people i see (if i remember correctly) with already low T are weightlifters.

i wonder if lifting weights could actually be the problem of so many weightlifters with low t?

I don’t think so either. I think most guys who workout are more aware than most and/or are less likely to settle for feeling sub par all the time. They are no more prone to low T than anybody else. I also think that a lot of guys get on TRT and think that’s all they need to do. TRT enhances your life and ability to exercise, your health, and your sex life. If you are on testosterone and you eat poorly, don’t exercise, have poor relationships or your woman does not excite you then good numbers are going to be just that- good numbers.

HealthMan · May 23, 2019

If you overtrain your testosterone levels can definitely suffer. But healthy training with enough rest should do the opposite

Rabbit91476 · May 23, 2019

last year when I got "fit" is when I noticed I had low T. that despite dropping weight and exercising that something was wrong. I was still way tired. to way to long to recover. personality changes when fatigued and not as strong as I should of been after months of exercise.

Rydrax · May 23, 2019

fifty said:
Resistance Training and Testosterone: 40% More T after 4-Weeks

thanks for replying!

JimBob · May 23, 2019

It's my understanding that growth hormone takes a hit with extended workouts.

Charliebizz · May 23, 2019

Rydrax said:
Anyone with already low T tried to stop weightlifting for a while and re test to check if T went up?

people say “lifting weights increases T”, but the majority of the people i see (if i remember correctly) with already low T are weightlifters.

i wonder if lifting weights could actually be the problem of so many weightlifters with low t?

I know for me my health and hormones took a hit from overtraining and under eating. I’ve never fully recovered from it and it was over 10 years ago. One of my biggest improvements in my health was quiting lifting. I still do cardio and play competitive hockey 1-2x a week.

Rydrax · May 24, 2019

HealthMan said:
If you overtrain your testosterone levels can definitely suffer. But healthy training with enough rest should do the opposite

thanks a lot for replying!

Rydrax · May 24, 2019

Mountain Man said:
I don’t think so either. I think most guys who workout are more aware than most and/or are less likely to settle for feeling sub par all the time. They are no more prone to low T than anybody else. I also think that a lot of guys get on TRT and think that’s all they need to do. TRT enhances your life and ability to exercise, your health, and your sex life. If you are on testosterone and you eat poorly, don’t exercise, have poor relationships or your woman does not excite you then good numbers are going to be just that- good numbers.

thanks for replying!

Rydrax · May 24, 2019

Rabbit91476 said:
last year when I got "fit" is when I noticed I had low T. that despite dropping weight and exercising that something was wrong. I was still way tired. to way to long to recover. personality changes when fatigued and not as strong as I should of been after months of exercise.

this sounds a bit like under recovery issue. did you do something about it and recovered t or did you went for trt?

Rydrax · May 24, 2019

JimBob said:
It's my understanding that growth hormone takes a hit with extended workouts.

uhm well i scored wayyy to low in igf-1. could this mean i was over training? thing is, i lift 3 days a week and sometimes one day of cardio. thanks for replying!

edit: what are your thoughts on this?

11 Ways to Boost Human Growth Hormone (HGH) Naturally

i eat planty of sugar but from fruits and natural sources. could that still impact growth hormone?

Rydrax · May 24, 2019

Charliebizz said:
I know for me my health and hormones took a hit from overtraining and under eating. I’ve never fully recovered from it and it was over 10 years ago. One of my biggest improvements in my health was quiting lifting. I still do cardio and play competitive hockey 1-2x a week.

wow thanks for sharing. i have a doubt. i quit lifting for a month and one or two weeks to see if i feel better, but tbh i felt more depressed. my sleep got worst and i even lost like 8-9 pounds. so i decided to go back to training this week, but guess what? now my head hurts, i feel low energized and feel like sick + no motivation to lift weights. i wonder if i should go like a year or so without training to see if i improve? isn’t one month or so enough?

also did you tried gaining weight before to see if you recovered? im scared i might not be able to lift again and im young.

lastly are you on trt?

sorry for all the questions.

thanks for replying!

Charliebizz · May 25, 2019

Rydrax said:
wow thanks for sharing. i have a doubt. i quit lifting for a month and one or two weeks to see if i feel better, but tbh i felt more depressed. my sleep got worst and i even lost like 8-9 pounds. so i decided to go back to training this week, but guess what? now my head hurts, i feel low energized and feel like sick + no motivation to lift weights. i wonder if i should go like a year or so without training to see if i improve? isn’t one month or so enough?

also did you tried gaining weight before to see if you recovered? im scared i might not be able to lift again and im young.

lastly are you on trt?

sorry for all the questions.

thanks for replying!

No problem bro that’s why we are here to share experiences. Yes after the crash diet going from 190 down to 145. I went back up to 205. Even got as heavy as 240lbs while on trt. I’m currently off trt. I tried everything hrt and it never works for me so I’ve accepted it and moving on. The only medication I take is low dose of lexapro to help with my low cortisol symptoms I have and works pretty good for me.

Rydrax · May 25, 2019

Charliebizz said:
No problem bro that’s why we are here to share experiences. Yes after the crash diet going from 190 down to 145. I went back up to 205. Even got as heavy as 240lbs while on trt. I’m currently off trt. I tried everything hrt and it never works for me so I’ve accepted it and moving on. The only medication I take is low dose of lexapro to help with my low cortisol symptoms I have and works pretty good for me.

i get you. it’s weird that even with trt you don’t feel the benefits since thats was the thing that got wrecked when you dieted down? im actually scare man. right now im young (27) have dropped college, feel fucked, low test in the 100’s and don’t know what to do. i started prozac this week (10mg) to deal with depression and ocd. ocd took over my life and i will take control of it. i accepted i have this, but i won’t let ocd control me, i will control the ocd! i took a month and like 1-2 weeks (can’t remember if it was one week or two lol) off the weights to see if i recover, but imo ocd got worst and also depression so this week i started again, but i gotta ask, should i give it more off time? im scared i might not be able to workout without feeling fucked up again :/.

you mentioned cortisol. my blood am cortisol scored normal and a bit higher (tested a few times) but urine 24 tested high. i think urine was taken while in a day i was lifting weights.

does this mean anything?

you mention lexapro. im on prozac. why people say no to ssri? im wondering if this will help

lastly, i had the same thing you had. i yoyo with weight. went from 170 ish to 140 ish then went up and then went down again and if i remember correctly im 147.5 right now and im 6’3” i wanted to check if maybe going to 170 might increase t. but i scored low t when i was 170 ish already :/

Guided_by_Voices · May 26, 2019

Two huge variables not mentioned here are whether "weightlifting" includes going to failure or not, and what your state of underlying aerobic work capacity is. IME many people would be better off lifting in a way that avoids reps to failure and also incorporates long-duration low intensity activity like walking with a weighted backpack. Many of the healthiest societies do not do anything we would recognize as "weightlifting" but rather do consistent activity along the lines of construction or farm work (at least before farming became overly mechanized.)

lemonflavor · May 26, 2019

Guided_by_Voices said:
Two huge variables not mentioned here are whether "weightlifting" includes going to failure or not, and what your state of underlying aerobic work capacity is. IME many people would be better off lifting in a way that avoids reps to failure and also incorporates long-duration low intensity activity like walking with a weighted backpack. Many of the healthiest societies do not do anything we would recognize as "weightlifting" but rather do consistent activity along the lines of construction or farm work (at least before farming became overly mechanized.)

I've found this to be true both with experience and also many people smarter than I that I follow. I do much more volume (number of sets) now, but with less intensity of effort. I almost always stop one rep short of failure, sometimes as much as three. I could go on, but that's the short version, especially for people like me who deal with fatigue brought on by depression, and very prone to anxiety, which going to failure on compound movements exasperates.