Saturday, January 3, 2009

Ten Easy Ways To Increase Your Testosterone Naturally

By Ricardo d Argence

The amount of muscle you can achieve is regulated by testosterone, also known as the Holy Grail of muscle growth. Quite simply, testosterone is the most important muscle-building hormone in your body and is one of the limiting factors that determines how much muscle you can ultimately build. Here is just a small handful of the many amazing benefits that increased testosterone levels will provide you with: Increased muscle size and strength, decreased body fat levels, increased sex drive and sexual endurance, improved mood and decreased levels of "bad" cholesterol.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Well it is, and in this article I'm going to outline 10 simple steps to naturally raise your testosterone levels and achieve all of these incredible benefits. While these steps will not result in "steroid-like" muscle gains, they will definitely contribute to your overall bottomline results.

1) Your workout exercises should have compound exercises as a foundation. I'm talking about the basic, bread-and-butter lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, chin-ups, dips, lunges and military presses. At the gym, you can maximize your workout with these exercises because they provide the greatest muscle resistance and make your body produce more testosterone.

2) Always train with 100% effort and intensity. If you want to see real muscle gains, you must be willing to push yourself to the limit in the gym. Again, greater muscular stress in the gym translates to higher testosterone output.

3) It is necessary to train your legs with the same intensity with which you train your upper body. As you might already know, you can stimulate the growth in the back of your chest as well as arms, by doing some intense leg training. This is partly because your testosterone increases from your leg training.

4) Increase your EFA consumption. Sources such as peanuts and avocadoes, will be the source of Essentail Fatty Acids. One interesting way of naturally boosting testosterone levels is through the regular use of olive and canola oils in one's diet.

5) Eat less soy. Testosterone levels are negatively affected by elevated levels of estrogen, which can be caused by soy protein intake.

6) Do not drink so much alcohol. It has been revealed that alcohol has a remarkable affect on testosterone production, therefore try to limit the nights you might "binge drink" and consume alcohol in moderation.

7) Up your dietary consumption of cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, cabbage and brussel sprouts have all been shown to dramatically reduce estrogen levels, thereby raising testosterone.

8) Decrease the levels of stress you are under each day. The highly catabolic horomone cortisol causes testosterone levels to drop severly when you are stressed out.

9) Increase your sexual activity. Sexual stimulation causes the body to increase the production of oxytocin which increases endorphin production, the "feel-good" chemical, and this also raises testosterone.

10) Make certain that you get enough sleep each night. Insufficient sleep may result in a reduction of your testosterone levels due to the production of cortisol.

To boost your muscle size and gain strength, implement these techniques regularly for a noticeable difference. - 16003

About the Author: