Resistance Training & Androgens; An Explanation for the Temporary Rise in Testosterone

Testosterone has long been known to be increased by exercise;

[1]

But the rise itself has consistently been found to be transient in nature, with testosterone levels returning to baseline before a half-hour has even passed in some instances;

[1]

It would be too easy to hypothesize that training-induced increases in testosterone were due to the anabolic stimulus that testosterone could provide to the stressed, and soon to be regenerating, muscles as the body strives for adaptation, but in reality, it’s likely much more complicated, and perhaps less glorious, than that. You see, testosterone has a slew of functions in both the male & female body, and one of those functions is to relax blood vessels;

[2]

Accordingly, an argument can be made that increased androgenic serum concentrations in response to exercise is directly related to the body’s urgent need to manage the vascular pressure-related stresses that are borne out of these resistance training sessions.

We know that a bout of resistance training will induce significant surges of blood perfusing into the trained muscles. We call this the “pump.” The pressure of this surging blood likely stresses the canals of the vessels which serve as conduits for perfusion, thereby producing a demand for agents that can help manage the pressure. In comes testosterone for one of its probably most inglorious responsibilities: vasorelaxation, which will serve to reduce blood pressure.

References

  1. Schwab R, Johnson GO, Housh TJ, Kinder JE, Weir JP. Acute effects of different intensities of weight lifting on serum testosterone. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1993 Dec;25(12):1381-5. PMID: 8107546.
  2. Perusquía M. Androgens and Non-Genomic vascular responses in hypertension. Biochem Pharmacol. 2022 Sep;203:115200. doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2022.115200. Epub 2022 Aug 1. PMID: 35926652.