TL;DR: Boost your testosterone and stay young through weightlifting, and red light therapy.
Introduction to Testosterone
Testosterone is the hormone that makes a man manly.
Testosterone has been shown to play a key role in muscle mass and bone density, facial and pubic hair growth, development of a deep, sexy voice, sex drive, your mood and quality of life as well as your verbal memory and thinking ability. [1]
Naturally, boosting your testosterone levels will improve how manly you are, your health, the quality of your sex life, and just the quality of your life overall. In our article on Sex and Supplementation we went over various supplements that could be used to increase your testosterone levels. In this article we will discuss more external means of testosterone boosting.
Benefits of Testosterone
Testosterone is strongly linked to sex and sperm production. Men with higher testosterone levels have a stronger sex drive and an easier ability to produce and maintain an erection [1]. If you find you’re never in the mood or you have difficulty getting or keeping it up, it may be a sign that you are suffering from low testosterone.
Testosterone has also been found to have a large impact on your heart health. A 2015 study [2] was performed on approximately 83,000 men over 50 with documented low testosterone. Some of the men had their testosterone levels boosted and they were broken into 3 groups, as follows:
Group 1: Men who had their testosterone levels boosted back to normal levels
Group 2: Men who had their testosterone levels boosted, but not fully back to normal levels
Group 3: Men who did not have their testosterone levels boosted
Follow-ups were performed after approximately 5 years and the findings are nothing short of astounding. When compared to the untreated men in group 3, the treated men of group 1 were found to be:
- 56% less likely to die during the follow up period
- 24% less likely to have a heart attack
- 36% less likely to have a stroke
Interestingly, there was not much difference to be found between groups 2 and 3, other than group 2 having a slightly higher survival rate. This seems to highlight the importance of keeping your testosterone at normal levels.
Why Does Testosterone Decrease?
As men age, their testosterone levels decrease. This is related to many diseases older men experience. However, if you work at maintaining your testosterone levels you can keep them higher later into your life.
More surprisingly, average testosterone levels across similar age groups have been decreasing over the last few decades. This is likely due to many factors including diet, exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals, less physical activity, and less sunlight.
Try these two methods below to give your testosterone a boost and keep it in a youthful range.
Weightlifting
For those wishing to become more manly, weightlifting goes almost without saying. Testosterone and weightlifting are very complementary to one another, with weightlifting boosting your testosterone levels and your testosterone levels boosting both your performance in the gym and increasing muscle mass while lowering body fat.
In their article on the relationship between working out and testosterone levels, healthline.com [3] cited the following studies:
- A 1983 study of testosterone levels in men and women after lifting weights found that men experience significant increases of testosterone while women experience almost no increase.
- A 2001 study of women found that resistance training can temporarily increase testosterone and have an impact on fat distribution.
- A 2004 study of older men found that regular physical activity increased testosterone and growth hormone (GH) levels, as well as had a positive effect on brain function.
- A yearlong exercise study published in 2008 of 102 men who previously didn’t exercise much found that levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) increased by 14.5 percent.
- A 2012 study of men found that exercising regularly was linked to higher testosterone levels than men who were sedentary (didn’t work out at all).
- A 2016 study of men with obesity found that regular exercise did more to increase testosterone levels than even losing weight.
- A 2007 study found that people men who did strength/resistance training 3 days a week for 4 weeks were linked to increases in testosterone levels right after a workout and over time
All these studies show a strong relationship between exercise, especially weightlifting, and raised testosterone levels. For those wanting to boost their testosterone level and reap countless other benefits, weightlifting is a great place to start.
If you’d like to start getting into weightlifting, but don’t know where to begin, we recommend you check out our article on getting the most out of the gym here as well as our article on Stronglifts here.
Red Light Therapy
A lesser known method of testosterone boosting is red light therapy. Red light therapy involves exposing your skin to low wavelength red light. It is a somewhat new technique that is being researched as a treatment for numerous medical conditions.
Interestingly, a 2012 study [4] performed on lab rats actually showed a significant testosterone increase when a red light laser was shone on their testes for 5 days. That’s right, scientists actually blasted some rats balls with red light for 30 minutes a day for 5 days straight and found a significant increase in their manliness, i.e. test levels, after doing so.
How significant, you’re probably wondering?
On the fourth day, the rats who were treated with 670nm light had testosterone levels roughly 6.7 times higher testosterone levels than rats who were not treated with light. More importantly, upon investigation from the scientists, there was no damage found to the rats’ testes when treated with the 670nm frequency of light.
This led them to conclude that red light therapy could potentially be used as an alternative method to treating men suffering from low testosterone levels. In addition, red light on any skin on the body will increase testosterone in men, though not quite as drastically as shining it right on the testes.
Where to Get Red Light
So if you would like to try red light therapy where do you begin? There’s a very easy and cheap answer to that and it’s called the sun.
The sun is a huge source of red light, blasting the earth every single day with large amounts of it. Taking advantage of it is simple, just expose lots of skin, preferably even your testicles, if possible, and go soak up some rays. Just keep your sun exposure within reasonable limits to limit sun burns.
If you live in an area where it is cold and there is not much sunlight, or where standing outside attempting to get sunlight on your balls is frowned upon, you can also get red light therapy in the comfort of your own home. The materials to make a rig can be acquired for under $100 on Amazon and construction is as easy as sticking a bunch of lights to your wall, turning them on, and then standing in front of them, preferably naked.
For more information on red light therapy and its benefits please check out our article on it here.
Conclusion
Having the right testosterone levels will not only make you more manly, it will also increase your health, your sex life and the quality of your life overall. Weightlifting and red light therapy are great methods to give your testosterone a boost.
Click the button below to read the next article in our series on Sex.
References:
[1] https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-testosterone
[2] https://www.research.va.gov/currents/0815-5.cfm
[2a] https://breakingmuscle.com/healthy-eating/man-food-nutrition-to-increase-testosterone
[3] https://www.healthline.com/health/does-working-out-increase-testosterone
[4] https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/the-effects-of-low-level-laser-therapy-lllt-on-the-testis-in-elevatingserum-testosterone-level-in-rats.html
