Ever wonder how exercise affects your sex hormones? If not, then I apologize, but come one, you know it's all you think about...riiight.
Anyways, here's what happens. In a gender-specific fashion, acute exercise of any type of significant intensity is directly associated with a rise in plasma concentrations of sex hormones. Translation: If you work out hard, your body will very quickly respond with an increase of sex hormones. As to which hormones are released will depend on your gender.
For males, it's an increase in Androstenedione (precursor) and Testosterone. These levels seem to peak at around 30 minutes, then slowly decrease. Males also experience little change in levels of estradiol and estrone. Estradiol is the main representative of estrogen. A lot of people (including yours truly) think estrogen is somewhat evil for guys. I mean, it has been shown to be directly leaked to lower sperm levels. Guys should take solace in knowing your body knows what to increase and what not to when you train.
For females, you're looking at acute increases of estrogen and progesterone during a workout. And accordingly so with the menstrual cycle, estrogen increases more during the follicular phase and progesterone increases more in the luteal phase. And similar to guys, increases in Testosterone are miniscule in response to exercise (Borer 166). I should definitely note here this is probably the biggest reason why females who are scared to lift weights in fear of "getting huge" should fear not. Testosterone is a major culprit in an increase of muscle mass. (Steroids, anybody?) Since you're not producing much of it, you can't build the guns your male counterparts yearn for so badly. So stop fretting and move some weights!
I should also note that these increases are directly related to exercise intensity. The harder you go, the more profound these increases are. So, if you've been training like your in a year-long deload, give it up and push yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment