the testosterone effect

The process of becoming a better athlete involves not only creating great workouts but also getting your body to RESPOND to the workouts in an optimal way. The desired responses often include improved cardiovascular function and enhanced muscular endurance and power. While most athletes hope for stronger hearts and better muscles, many of them forget that these responses are mediated by the sex organs

For example, in male athletes the testicles like to pour out surplus quantities of testosterone, the primary male sex hormone, after heavy workouts and during difficult training. This wave of testosterone has a highly anabolic effect, strengthening muscle cells, fortifying tendons and ligaments, and repairing and toughening bones. Because testosterone enhances muscle power and promotes recovery from tough workouts, athletes with higher testosterone responses to exercise may enjoy greater adaptations to training - and better performances. A low testosterone response can mean little improvement in performance, even when workouts are of high quality.

The testosterone effect is so dramatic that elite Chinese FEMALE swimmers have been getting testosterone injections during training - and then proceeding to make Hulk Hogan look like a weakling as they win one world championship after another. But how can male athletes boost their natural testosterone response without doping?

A traditional idea has been that consistent training, combined with periodic 'overreaching' (increasing the volume or intensity of training for short periods), can 'teach' the gonads to release greater quantities of testosterone. Unfortunately, the gonadal response to various exercise programmes hasn't been studied very well. However, a new research effort carried out at Ohio University and Penn State University sheds some light on the topic. Researchers from these institutions studied nine elite male weightlifters who had participated in either the U.S. National Championships, the Pan-American Games, or the Olympics. These athletes participated in a one-week, intensive strength-training camp, during which they doubled their usual volume of training. One year later, the athletes returned to the camp and again trained twice as much as usual. Their testosterone responses to the increased training loads were carefully monitored

During the first rugged camp, the athletes' testosterone levels actually decreased during the week of hard training, declining by about 230 per cent (when measured after hard workouts). A year later, the story was completely different: During the week of overreaching, testosterone levels actually blossomed by 31-36 per cent.

Why was the testosterone profile better during the second test? The researchers concluded that one year of solid training (which corresponded with increases in muscle strength of about 10 per cent), plus an occasional exposure to overreaching, had made the strength trainers' testicles more responsive to hard training. Since increased testosterone production is associated with greater muscle strength and decreased output is linked with overtraining and losses in performance, a key goal for the future is to identify the training programme which can create the best testosterone response. Such a programme will no doubt combine periods of consistent, high quality training, periods of rest and recovery, and periods of overreaching. Unfortunately, at present we have little idea how often this overreaching should take place.

('Endocrine Responses to Overreaching Before and After 1 Year of Weightlifting,' Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 19(4), pp. 400-410,1994)