Importance of Testosterone in running

Yesterday, 33 year old, two time Olympian and American half marathon record holder (59:43), Ryan Hall announced his retirement from professional running. He did this just a few weeks before the U.S. Olympic Trials. The criticality of the decision makes it certain that the man has given it some serious thought.

Injuries and low testosterone levels have been outlined by him as the reason for announcing his retirement.

Injuries are easy to understand and diagnose but the same cannot be said about testosterone. Men nowadays have way less testosterone as compared to our forefathers. Poor diet, bad products (food and lifestyle products), stress (mostly work and money related), lack of exercise (or too much of it, as I will explain below) etc. are some of the main reasons for this.

Testosterone plays an important role throughout the body in men (and women too). It affects the brain, bone and muscle mass, fat distribution, the vascular system, energy levels, genital tissues, and sexual functioning. The opposite of testosterone is estrogen. Women are predominant in estrogen and men in testosterone. Too much of estrogen, and someone will wife you.

A drop in testosterone levels can contribute to, diminished erectile quality, changes in mood, reduced intellectual and cognitive function, fatigue, depression and anger, decrease in muscle mass and strength, decreased body hair, skin alterations, decreased bone mass/mineral density and increase in abdominal fat mass. Basically, with low testosterone you will become the old lady next door.

Endurance exercise like distance running, cycling and swimming have been shown to reduce testosterone levels in a male body significantly.

So a lower base level of testosterone which is common in men nowadays, coupled with testosterone losses from endurance exercise sounds like a recipe for disaster for amateur athletes who train hard but it seems won’t get hard. Moreover, training will suffer due to low testosterone levels since energy levels will be low, mood swings will be present and fatigue will be holding you back. There will be higher chances of a burnout and bad race timings.

Research has shown that chronic exposure to prolonged endurance training can result in disturbances within the reproductive physiological and endocrinological systems of humans (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2675257) and this is probably why men’s testosterone levels are lowered by endurance training.

In another study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1899423), over 6 months of training, the men increased weekly running mileage to an average of 56 km/week. The result was that total testosterone and free androgen index levels decreased significantly.

Endurance exercise has been said to develop “exercise-hypogonadal male condition". Specifically, men with this condition exhibit basal (resting-state) free and total testosterone levels that are significantly and persistently reduced. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16268050)

Interval training on the other hand has been shown to increase testosterone (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23310924). In this study, interval exercise session was repeated periods of 90-sec treadmill running at 100-110% maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and 90-sec active recovery at 40% VO2max for 42-47 min. The steady state exercise session consisted of a continuous 45-min run at 60-65% VO2max (like an easy 8-10km run). The study suggested that interval sessions might produce a higher turnover of free testosterone than the slow long endurance run.

Such reduction in testosterone is not limited to just running. In this study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8861670) even endurance swimming was producing the same low levels of testosterone. Cycling also leads to a same “unhappy ending”.

Moreover, after the age of 30 in men, the levels of testosterone decrease by approximately 1% per year. Your bank balance may be going up but something else which is as vital is going down.

Flo Rida was right when he sang that

For athletes who race ultras and Ironman or who have a high weekly mileage (cycling or running), it is important to protect your “family jewels”, your “Mc Nuggets”, your….oh you get the point. The ladies and races need us and we must oblige.

Some ways to naturally increase your testosterone levels or at least maintain them are given below. I have already read the scientific papers on these, so I won’t bore you with those since you already have enough on your plate and will have more (literally). Rest assured that the methods below are not only simple but also are the easiest:

FOOD

Make the following a part of your diet:

a.               Cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower

b.               Pomegranate

c.               Garlic

d.               Meat (provides Zinc which is essential for testosterone production)

e.                Eggs

f.                Omega 3 Fatty Acids (present in Eggs, meat and mustard oil are easy sources)

g.               Vitamin D (go stand in the sun for some time. Fair & Lovely is for douchebags)

h.               Bananas

i.         Fat (good fat like Desi Ghee, olive oil, mustard oil)
j.         Black lentil

STRENGTH TRAINING

The most important non-food source of testosterone is strength training and within strength training, the best exercises are compound exercises like Squats, Deadlifts, Pull ups and Bench Press.

Moreover, if you are performing strength training and endurance training in the same session then the order of exercise should be endurance exercise followed by strength training. This study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25028991) has shown that testosterone increases more if endurance training is followed by strength training.

CHEMICAL AVOIDANCE

Avoid Shampoos, Body Wash, Hair Gels etc. as much as possible. 

Stick to regular soap mostly and use shampoos, body wash and other similar products only when necessary. 

Look for the following names on the product label since these ingredients cause a reduction in testosterone:

a.                Parabens- methylparaben, butylparaben and any other word ending with paraben.

b.               Sulfates- Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate etc.

c.                Organic alcohols- Propylene Glycol, Polyethylene Glycol etc.

ALCOHOL

This one actually hurt while writing. Everyone likes alcohol. The Beer Mile should be an Olympic Sport. 

Who doesn’t like alcohol? Your parents, but only when you drink it.

Alcohol is anyway linked to low testosterone levels. So moderation in alcohol intake is the key. Now the real bad news is the Hops in beer. You see, before the German Beer Purity Law was introduced in the 16th century (not sure), hops were not used for making beer. Other herbs were used and these herbs made the beer tonic like and good. The beer of olden times would make you feel like Thor and you’d be ready to bring the hammer down and nail it….all of it.

The erstwhile herbs in beer increased energy and aggressiveness in men. Then some asshole found out that women were dozing off too much in fields of hops while harvesting and they discovered that the extremely high estrogen content in hops was the cause. So, the Church decided to replace the good herbs in beer with hops by passing the German Beer Purity Law, in order to control men. Any beer maker contravening this law was severely punished.

This study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11134162) found out that the women who pick up hops by hand, experience disturbances in their menstrual cycles due to the extremely high estrogenic activity in the hops. The results of the study indicate that the endocrine properties of hops and hop products are due to the very high estrogenic activity of 8-prenylnaringenin and concern must be expressed about the unrestricted use of hops in herbal preparations for women.

Now, the modern beer has hops as an ingredient and this makes your beer super rich in estrogen. Estrogen is the opposite of testosterone. Do the math.

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

As far as the post race beer is concerned, there is more bad news. A study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8800389) was conducted to see the combined effect of alcohol and physical exercises on testosterone. As per this study, physical stress immediately before alcohol administration prolonged the depressant effect of alcohol on testosterone secretion.