The gold hormone in muscle building, testosterone, is a hormone present more in the males than females. It's responsible for the male characteristics, especially, muscle formation. Again, research prove, in a consistant manner, that the level of serum testosterone is higher after a bout of demanding resistance training. That increase being affected by the amount of muscle mass stimulated, the training load and the level of intensity (again intensity refering to a %age of your 1RM).
Effect of the amount of muscle mass stimulated on serum testosterone
Findings all flood in the same direction as to say that the larger the amount of muscle mass is stimulated simultaneously, the more the testosterone level increase. You might have heard a trillion time that multi-joints exercises were better than isolation exercises to develop muscle mass and strength but without really knowing why.
Well this is one of the reasons: multi-joints exercise stimulate more testosterone production compared to single-joints movements. That's why doing heavy sets of squat will build you all around, because it shut your natural levels of testosterone through the roof!
For that reason the bulk of your program should be constituted of the basic, multi-joints movements, if you want more testosterone that is!
Yet despite that we see countless individuals doing endless hours of biceps curl, leg extension and the likes. Literaly wasting their time when they could be training productively!
Effect of the Rest between Sets on Serum Testosterone
Since a higher volume lead to more testosterone but longer training time lead to less there must be a time factor somewhere that will enable us to conciliate the two. Of course it's the time of rest between your sets.
To cut a long story short, many studies researched that variable, the most significant being by Kraemer et al.
This research consisted of two groups, one performing an hypertrophy workout made of sets of 10 RM with a minute of rest between each sets.
The other one was a strength training consisting of multiple sets of 5 RM with 3 minutes between each sets.
Both group shown significant increase in serum testosterone, the earlier showing a slightly higher increase.
That indicate that hypertrophy workout do increase testosterone level more than strength training. Also shorter rest periods seem to have the same effect.
If 1 minute seem to lead to bigger increase in testosterone level than 3 minutes I wouldn't recommand going below 1 minute in hope to increase the testosterone level even more, because by doing so you would greatly impair your short-term recovery and would have to decrease your load.
Points to remember
1-You should stick with as many multi-joints exercises as you can.
2-You should use a training load high enough to fully stimulate testosterone production.
3-Keep your reps in the 5-10RM range.
4-Keep your rest between sets in the 3-1 minute(s) range according to your intensity level.
5-For maximum testosterone release keep your time under tension between 40 and 70 seconds.
6-Train early in the morning if you can. Not to worry if you can't since th
Posted by
Chuks
on
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
categories:
I was a little skeptical when i first read about the DR MAX POWERS TESTOSTERONE BOOST (supplements), since I'm not a huge fan adding to much "unknown" to my diet., and since I am super healthy.
After using 1 bottle i exploded in energy. I had some problems increasing muscle and bulking up on my biceps and chest for a few months, but after taking this for 3 weeks i increased my lift by 30%, more intensity, more focus and just an overall good felling day around.
I have had no real side effects. The only thing i might mention is that you can get a aggressive a little easier than before. But if you use it in the gym or to work out and not on your fellow people, then i wouldn't worry about it. Ohh, and yes, blood is pumping all day long, which can have the side effect of your "little friend" turning active at times you might not want him to :)