T-Levels and Training

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hey T-Nation, this is my first post here. I’ve been lurking around here @ T-Nation for the last few months or so.

Anyways, I have a question; I’ve been looking through the archives here & various other articles & keep running across the fact that after a workout, depending on the intensity of course, our t-lvls can drop below the norm for up to 3-days or so.

If this is the case, couldn’t we just sit on our asses all day, I mean, this would be better for our t-lvls right? What positive effects could working out regularly have on our t-lvls over time? could someone please clarify? thanks.

-beefster

2

Sure, don’t train if you want to be small, flabby, and weak. Your T-levels still won’t be higher anyway. In the longterm, a healthy lifestyle (exercise and diet) lead to elevated T levels. In the short-term they may be lower. The same applies to the immune system. After a particularly hard training session, it can be compromised. But athletes generally have better immune systems overall than coach potatos.

3

Building more muscle mass increases T levels. One reason T levels are decreased after training is because the T is in the muscles making more muscle.

4

Thanks guys for the input. don’t miss understand me, I’ve been lifting wieghts for about four years now and have been involved in many sports for as long as I can remember. I was just concerned about that piece of info I came across; I’ve never heard of it before until recently.

5

[quote]bikemike wrote:
Building more muscle mass increases T levels. One reason T levels are decreased after training is because the T is in the muscles making more muscle.[/quote]

Is this something you made up or have you actually seen some type of scientific research that supports this idea?

6

T rises immediately after exercise,then drops a while after.

One theory is that the t goes to repair muscle.From an evolutionary point of view,this seems logical since after vigorous activity it wpould be a bad idea to run around challenging other men and ogling hot,big-breasted cavewomen.Well,maybe oglin ut not mking moves.

7

[quote]bikemike wrote:
Building more muscle mass increases T levels. One reason T levels are decreased after training is because the T is in the muscles making more muscle.[/quote]

This kind cought my attention too. where can I go to read more about that?
You had also mentioned (bikemike) that that is only one reason why out t-lvls drop; what other reasons are there?

8

[quote]beefster wrote:
bikemike wrote:
Building more muscle mass increases T levels. One reason T levels are decreased after training is because the T is in the muscles making more muscle.

This kind cought my attention too. where can I go to read more about that?
You had also mentioned (bikemike) that that is only one reason why out t-lvls drop; what other reasons are there?[/quote]

Yeah-I’m not sure about that one. I don’t know that testosterone can be ‘in’ the muscle making more. I don’t think that’s how hormones work.

9

I didn’t make it up, it’s just a theory I heard many years ago (don’t even remember where). It was probably based on testosterone binding to the receptors in the muscle, and extrapolating from there. I should have mentioned that it was a theory in my original post.

10

At a risk of everyone saying “duh”:

There?s been quite a few posts lately with regards to low testosterone levels. I would like to offer my humble opinion as rationale for some of these cases: overtraining.

Yes, I know. In light of the wisdom expoused by some who believe overtraining as rationale is a cop-out, I truly believe that we as iron warriors probably tend to work ourselves into overtraining frequently.

Now, this could be due to undereating or sleeping for even a day; it could be unusually high stresses in life such as work, family, what have you; or it could simply be idiots like me who just can?t seem to ?back off? from really hard training every once in awhile even though we?re supposed to know better.

Time and time again, I find myself in periods of fantastic gains, always (and I do mean always) these are followed by a period of slow gains, lack of energy, lack of sex drive, etc. etc. All these are tell tale signs of overtraining??and of low testerosterone levels.

Why the heck am I writing this? Because I thought I had low T too, until I started experimenting around.

I like to experiment with the supplementation I take. I love HOT-ROX. Don?t think I can live without it. But I’ve always been kindof ho-hum with things like Alpha-Male. I would take a very minimal dose (like 1 or 2 caps a day) and not notice anything.

Well recently I decided to just go hog wild and use the max dosage of Alpha Male. Do you know what I?ve discovered? I?m not getting these periods of ?overtraining? or ?low testosterone? anymore. And yes, I?m still being a training idiot and not backing off when in my mind I know I probably should. I truly think that Alpha Male is keeping my T up enough to get me through those ?periods?. Amazing.

Now, in my case, Alpha Male is turning out to be a masking agent for my real problem: containing my need and enthusiam to train ALL THE TIME. I NEED to take a week off every now and then; preferably one week out of every 4 to 6 weeks of training. I bet if I did this, the same effect would occur; i.e. the periods of overtraining will be gone.

There?s been some interesting posts and some articles I?ve read that indicate that athletes a lot of times have lower testerosterone levels than your standard couch potato. There?s a lot of theories that try to explain this, but I believe the answer for many of these athletes is that they were in a state of overtraining when they got measured.

I?m probably completely wrong, but the evidence, at least to me, says otherwise.