Will female fitness increase testosterone?

Normal and regular exercise will only cause a short-term and transient increase in women's testosterone, which will not exceed the normal physiological range for a long time, and will not lead to the masculinization that everyone is worried about. There is really no need to panic when you hear that testosterone is rising.

A while ago, I took care of a girl who was new to strength training. She finished 3 sets of heavy deadlifts for the first time. She went to check her hormones out of curiosity that day. Her testosterone was almost 35% higher than her usual resting value. She cried on the spot because she was afraid that she would grow a beard and have a thicker voice. As a result, I asked her to take the test again two days later, and the values ​​returned to her usual normal range. Nothing happened. This short-term increase after exercise is actually the body's normal stress response. The increased testosterone will help repair muscle fibers damaged during training, and it can also boost metabolism. These are all benefits and will not leave any "sequelae" at all.

As for the issue of long-term testosterone excess that everyone is most worried about, there are actually different voices in the industry. The results of most current clinical tracking are that there is no significant difference between the resting testosterone levels of ordinary women who insist on regular fitness all year round and those of women who do not exercise. At most, they are a little higher than the normal reference range and do not reach the threshold of pathological increase at all. Some exercise physiologists have also suggested that if you maintain extremely high-load training conditions for a long time, such as professional female powerlifters training for 2-3 hours a day during their preparation period, pushing each set of movements to more than 90% of their own limits, and accidentally touching supplements containing banned ingredients, it is indeed possible that testosterone will be high for a long time. However, this extreme case is far from our ordinary enthusiasts who train 3 or 4 times a week for about an hour each time.

What's more, women's own basal testosterone secretion is only about 1/20 of men's. Even if it rises by 40 to 50% in a short period of time after exercise, it is not even a fraction of the normal resting testosterone level of men. How can it meet the threshold of "becoming stronger and more manly"? Many girls feel that their legs are thicker and their backs are thicker after training. Either the muscle congestion after training has not gone away, or the body fat has increased because the diet has not been controlled. Don't blame it on testosterone.

I met a girl before who was found to have high testosterone after working out for half a year. Later, she traced the source and discovered that the "muscle-building protein powder" she bought from an Internet celebrity was a three-no product with illegal anabolic ingredients secretly added to it. After stopping the supplement, the value returned within two months. It really has nothing to do with normal fitness. If it is really found that long-term testosterone exceeds the standard, the priority is to check for endocrine problems such as polycystic cysts, or if you have taken supplements of unknown origin, it is really no wonder that you are rolling on the iron head.

To put it bluntly, we ordinary girls don’t need to worry about the fluctuation of testosterone at all when they are working out. We can just practice without worrying. The benefits of a good figure and good condition outweigh those unwarranted worries.