Five rules to raise your testosterone naturally

Testosterone is a vital hormone crucial for so many functions. It is responsible for growth, repair and sexual function, so maintaining a normal level is important. Men need testosterone for strong bones, building muscle and erections. But this hormone isn’t just in men; women have it too, just at lower levels.

In men, testosterone levels peak in our early 30s, before starting a gradual descent. But now a large research programme from the University of Massachusetts has shown that male testosterone levels at 54 are a staggering 22 per cent lower than just two decades earlier, with scientists laying the blame on poor diet and lifestyle.

If this is a real generational change – and testing within my own facilities would back those numbers up – we need to rapidly address the problem and raise the bar again. Our vitality depends upon it, so what should you do to reboot this essential hormone?

1 Eat whole grains and oily fish

Eat as little processed food as possible and aim to eat a rainbow of colours of vegetables. The scientists behind the study all pointed to processed food as the major culprit for low testosterone, since it is poor in quality nutrients and high in sugars and trans fats. Also, make sure you have plenty of magnesium, zinc and Vitamin D. These nutrients have a positive effect on testosterone production. Up your intake of avocados, nuts, legumes, seeds, oily fish and whole grains, and get plenty of direct sunlight whenever possible.

2 Lift weights

Hundreds of studies have shown that lifting weights increases the production of testosterone. Strength training inflicts controlled damage on the body, stimulating testosterone to start the repair process. Lift weights as heavy as you can for three or four sets of between eight and 10 reps. One big message that comes out of research is: don’t forget to train your legs. Upperbody-only training produces far lower demand for testosterone production, so don’t forget your squats and lunges.

3 Switch between walking and sprinting

You get the most testosterone benefit out of training at the two ends of the cardiovascular spectrum. So, regularly go out and get your low intensity walks for long periods of time, 60 minutes or more, and if you are reasonably fit, pop on a rucksack to add some more weight and make sure your heart is working hard enough. Then on top of that, do high intensity training, going all out for 60-90 seconds and then recover to bring your heart rate back down before you repeat. Aim to do this between eight and 10 times, but gradually build up to this level. Use heart rate to measure your recovery every time. It’s best to use a heart rate monitor, but if you don’t have one you can place two fingers on your wrist to count your heart beats for 10 seconds then multiply by six.

4 Don’t overtrain

There is an optimum sweet spot for stimulating testosterone. Training harder or more will lead to fatigue, which has the opposite effect on hormonal health.

Planning your week of activity is essential. You need to hit all the right activities at the right intensity to create the perfect stimulus for improvement and testosterone production.

You need to strength train at least twice per week, perform low intensity cardio at least twice per week, and perform HIIT training twice per week. If you’re new to this, take a progressive approach and build up slowly.

5 Maximise your recovery

Sleep is so important for hormonal health. If you limit your sleep, you limit your testosterone.

Getting enough sleep is stage one, but you also need to make sure you’re getting good quality sleep. There are plenty of wearable devices that give you good data on this. Look at how long you have managed to be in deep and REM sleep, the key phases for recovery and restoration. According to the sleep tracking company Whoop, we should have a combined two-and-a-half to three hours per night of the two, within a sevenhour sleep.

If you don’t have a device, consider keeping a sleep journal and documenting what you did before bed and then how you feel when you wake each morning.

Over time you will probably notice trends of what is working well or not. If you find you have trouble with quality sleep, start to experiment with eating earlier, cutting out alcohol, and trying magnesium baths or supplements.

Use your device to monitor to see if there is a positive response to the trial.

Tyred out: strength training is key to testosterone production