How Exercise Improves Love Life
Testosterone or “T” is a powerful hormone produced naturally in both men and women. It’s responsible for sexual arousal and can be increased through exercise.
Fit adults have more electrifying sex lives than individuals who lead sedentary lives. A fitness lifestyle involves healthy nutritional practices and adherence to regular exercise. Exercise done properly enhances sexual functioning because it can naturally increase testosterone levels in both males and females.
Testosterone (T) is an androgen secreted mostly from the testicles of males and the ovaries of females (small amounts produced in adrenal glands of both sexes). It is best known for its affects on increasing lean muscle mass, reducing body fats and slowing aging processes. T also plays a central role in promoting sexual desire.
Genders Experience Increased Sexual Pleasure
With males, testosterone enhances sex life by producing more frequent erections, increasing sexual urges, helping sustain the bone density, mass and muscular strength necessary to make love-making pleasurable—especially during the morning. Testosterone also reduces depression and chronic fatigue, which obstructs a good sex life. Normal levels of testosterone for men are about 300-1,200 ng/dl(nanograms/deciliter). A blood test can determine testosterone levels.
Women enjoy sex more often when they have normal, healthy levels of testosterone. Normal levels for women are approximately 20-100 ng/dl. Heightened sexual arousal in women generally occurs when testosterone binds with estrogen receptors, which directly influence her sex drive, mood, muscle and bone density, energy levels and metabolic processes that ignite sexual metabolism.
Exercise To Enhance Lovemaking
Combining proper amounts of certain exercises and quality rest periods can increase testosterone production. Intense forms of resistance training like weightlifting reflect positively on increasing testosterone levels.
Men who train regularly, stick with compound, multi-joint movements and short spurts of lifting between 45-60 minutes per session could increase testosterone levels by as much as forty percent or more. Examples of mult-joint exercises include squats, bench presses and similar movements where more than one joint is necessary to move weight resistance.
Strength/hypertrophy schemes of 5 – 12 repetitions work best with rest periods during exercise ranging 30 seconds – 3 minutes depending on intensity of the routine and the amount of overload. In other words, it’ s acceptable to take longer rest periods (closer to 3 minutes) when training hard.
For women to spike exercise-related testosterone levels, they must train hard using compound exercises, moderate reps of 8 – 12, and rest periods of 30 – 180 seconds between sets—similarly to men overall. However, women generally train longer than is required for men to boost testosterone levels . Simply stated, women increase T-levels through participation in grueling workouts and require more time to yield exercise-related T-levels sufficient enough to increase their libido.
A report by Aeron Life Cycles Clinical Laboratory, which studied male and female weight trainees found elevated levels of testosterone in men after six weeks and after eight weeks for women. Perhaps the difference is due to the more complex physiology involved in producing and converting chemicals into testosterone within women’s bodies.
Additional Tips To Optimize T-Levels
Dr. Fred Hatfield, Co-founder and President of the International Sports Sciences Association suggests using multiple sets and exercises together with heavier weights to innervate higher threshold motor units (nerve cell plus all muscle fibers it stimulates) and increase serum testosterone concentrations that interact with muscles. Three sets per exercise tend to work well in training strategies designated to spike T-levels in both sexes.
Interestingly, extreme endurance training such as prolonged aerobics could reduce testosterone levels—especially in males, which is why some exercise experts discourage doing both weight training and extended cardio-training within the same workout. Proper rest and sleep also play a huge role in maximizing natural testosterone production by repairing the body and helping stabilize normal hormonal functions.
Novice trainees should not exceed their exercise tolerance by entering states of over-training syndrome. Full recuperation is critical between bouts of intense exercise. If unsure, it’s best to lean toward the “less is more” paradigm when increased testosterone production and better sex is the goal.
Individuals who want to experience better sex should not ignore the importance of naturally increasing levels of testosterone. Exercise in the form of resistance training is a practical and natural solution to increasing T- levels. With proper exercise, both men and women can spike levels of this powerful sex hormone and raise or revitalize lovemaking episodes to new heights.
