Testosterone and endurance training?

[gcasillo]

I have read that endurance training, exercise that is longer than one hour can actually decrease testosterone levels in the body. In fact, testosterone production is actually lowered by exercise, period. This article suggested that exercise be restricted to 45-60 minutes focusing on intensity rather than endurance. Maybe I'm wrong or, rather, what I read was wrong.

http://www.thehormoneshop.com/maintainingtestosterone.htm

Anybody here in the know regarding testosterone levels and how exercise affects it? Discuss...

[Enthalpic]

Most of what I have read points to increased hormone levels with exercise.
This article may explain what that study found; backward results may be found at first while the body adjusts.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0308.htm

"During the first rugged camp, the athletes' testosterone levels actually decreased during the week of hard training, declining by about 230 percent (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 percent."

[Az B]

I get a physical every year. The more in shape I am, the higher my testosterone levels.

I don't know about any studies, but at my age testosterone levels usually start dropping off and mine are going up. I don't know why, but since I exercise regularly, sometimes for long periods, I don't think it's hurting.

Az

[Al.canoe]

So what if exercise were to reduce levels? If you didn't read the article, you'd never know and would never have noticed.

I had to take a testosterone-reducing treatment for a year to counter prostate cancer. My ride times for this particular 18 mile single track dropped to 6.9 mph avg. Now that I'm back to normal testosterone levels, I run around 9.4.

It is known that reduced testosterone reduces muscle mass, endurance and energy level. Longer rides builds those things, so I personally doubt that long rides reduces testosterone based on my experience at least. While under treatment, I always felt better for several days after the single track or a metric (road) century. It just took a long time to do those rides.

Al

[WarrenG]

So what if exercise were to reduce levels? If you didn't read the article, you'd never know and would never have noticed.

I had to take a testosterone-reducing treatment for a year to counter prostate cancer. My ride times for this particular 18 mile single track dropped to 6.9 mph avg. Now that I'm back to normal testosterone levels, I run around 9.4.

It is known that reduced testosterone reduces muscle mass, endurance and energy level. Longer rides builds those things, so I personally doubt that long rides reduces testosterone based on my experience at least. While under treatment, I always felt better for several days after the single track or a metric (road) century. It just took a long time to do those rides.

Al

Do some searching on pubmed and google about cortisol. Cortisol shows up when you're under stress, mental and physical and the levels go up after an hour or so of longer rides. Cortisol basically counter-acts testosterone. How much is the relevant question. There are other hormones, like growth hormones that increase under physical stress, generally the higher the stress the greater the levels, so it's all just a big soup of hormones trying to do their thing. The hormone situation is just a part of what impacts your training so no need to be overly concerned about it unless Testosterone levels are chronically low on a test.

I think it's prudent not to subject yourself to chronic, high stress in training and in life because performance does suffer, in part because of the hormone issues. Best not to do some really hard intervals and then continue riding for 2-3 more hours unless you handle that really well, i.e. your training next day is not sacrificed. It is also possible to (essentially) use up all your adrenaline because of physical and mental stress, something that is very important for HR regulation and performance. Allow yourself some time to "recharge" your hormones and Central Nervous System.

Sprint training in sessions of about an hour or slightly longer will generally give you the most bang for the buck in terms of hormonal activity, and people who are more or less good sprinters tend to see even better hormonal activity than non-sprinters. Even doing one really hard sprint can raise GH levels significantly. Check Pubmed for more on this. Search on "GH sprint". This is part of the reason some people do their highest intensity training in a morning session with a more endurance session in that evening.