Is Cycling Training Lowering Your Testosterone and What Can You Do About It? The Science
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Low Testosterone is so prevalent in endurance athletes that it actually has a name, EHMC. Is this low testosterone something to be concerned about for performance and overall health, and if you have low testosterone what can you do about it?
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I am not worried about Testosterone. My friends tell me that shaving my legs already puts my Testosterone level to -90.
😂😂😂
Just like Arnold
They are right 😂
🤣
Good friends 😂
Pretty great video!
Personally, I found a solution by swapping two bike rides a week with two weight lifting sessions.
The other 5 bike rides can stay.
But I have to be honest: all my best PR’s, especially uphill, were achieved by riding more and more, being on the edge of too-skinny, being on the edge of low-libido, and on the edge of overtrained.
It’s a very fragile balance unfortunately, at least for those that aren’t genetically super lucky
That is true. I had been race for cycling really hard in last year. It was quite low and after visiting doc , now I am taking rest between training days
Have over trained before too, can attest to a loss in sex drive was not interested at all.
Was working a physical job plus doing a combo of Crossfit boxing and running.
Every session just went hard hahaha
8:45 actual 😂😂😂
I am a 40yo male and did a year of pretty serious training which also lead to quite some weight loss and I noticed my previously normal libido to be completely gone. Went to the doc to get my testosterone levels checked and it was closer to the max value for females than the minimum of males (i think females max was 3, men range was 8-21 and mine was 4). I probably always had low testosterone to begin with (no hair loss at 40, little hair in other places, pretty lanky dude) but that still shocked me a bit. Overtraining and calorie restriction could definitely a factor here so I am trying to get that in order now.
I am 61 and am quite lean at 75 kg. I do a mixture of cycling and core work; and earlier this year my testosterone was 23.66 nmol/L (normal range 8.64-29 according to my blood tester). I have since started to cycle boron (one week on, one off), which is said to increase testosterone.
@ebiomat mostly trying to recover more, no more fasted rides (only very short and low intensity), fuel better during rides and generally avoid the combination of over training and calorie deficit. Not sure if its gonna work though
@@speedsociety9177 Did your doctor mention anything about testosterone replacement therapy or did they just recommend more rest/proper fueling/etc?
@@kevinmarshall730 if I can't get the values recover to at least the minimum of normal ranges and my libido coming back, there is the possibility of testosterone injections to get it back to normal ranges yes. All under supervision and regular bloodwork etc of course. But since can impact a lot of things, like if you plan to have kids in the future etc.
@@speedsociety9177 Got it, thanks for the reply and good luck to you!
As an exercise physiologist who is very often concerned about the amount of pseudoscience related to health and exercise, here is another well balanced and thoughtful video from Dylan on an important topic. Thank you for your evidence based approach.
so brave
🤡
Thank you for that. Plonker.
Do you believe what you just wrote?
@@notreally2406 who's brave?
That explains why every group ride is like a fashion show.
That's why I avoid them...I'm already a fashion icon! 😁
Hahahahahaha!
Best comment by far!
I am suffering from clinically low Testosterone probably brought on by overtraining and underfueling. That being said, your comment made me literally laugh out loud :)
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
So glad you made a video about this common (private) discussion.
Being married for 30 years...thats lowered it for me...😎
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣‼️
🤣
Hahaha 😂😂😂 so true
20 years for me….doing just fine. Weekly Yoga Classes seem to boost the “T” …..I can’t tell if its the scenery or the exercise 😂
Is it true that wearing Crocs lowers T? Need the science on that one.
Great video. Wished I had this a few months ago. Happened to have my testosterone tested in peak cycling season when riding hundreds of miles per week and also dieting. It was quite low. I suggested to the doctor that it might be related to RED-S. He hadn't heard of that and said exercise and weight loss tend to increase testosterone so it's probably not that. As you noted, that wisdom doesn't apply to trained endurance athletes. He referred me to an endocrinologist. Took months to get that appointment, but in the mean time the season was ending and I replaced some of my cycling volume with weight lifting and added more calories to my diet, and my levels went back to normal.
A huge problem with cyclists is that their balls are too hot. Ball temp is underrated and intentionally cooling them can noticeably increase test levels.
I ran a very serious training block during COVID quaratine 2 years ago, getting down to single-digit body fat for the first time in my life and the lightest I had been since middle school while doing crazy volume and putting out great (for me) power. However my libido absolutely disappeared and I gradually began recovering much more poorly. At the beginning of the ~6 month block my resting hr was around 55, getting down to 46-48 by the end of the 4th month, then going back up to the low 50s with much more variability. I then went on this week-long backpacking trip that wasn't very strenuous, so essentially had a week of active recovery. Wouldn't you know, during the trip I saw the lowest resting hr values I've ever seen (one day it was 38!), felt amazing, and in the month of training afterwards my numbers jumped up more than they had in the prior 3.
Similar experience for me, I also started during covid with serious training, went from 84kg to 69kg at one point and single digit BF. Was super fit on the bike but my libido was gone and the check at the doc revealed, while otherwise great results, clinically low Testosterone (half of the male minimum). I have since gained back 5KG but am still struggling with recovering the T.
I can also second that when I did a longer break after a serious training block, my numbers had a bigger jump in a timeframe of 2 weeks than I ever experienced during the hard training block. Getting proper rest and fuelling properly is definitely real.
Walking is so good for the body. I did the camino frances last year and never had such a low RHR and had multiple 95-100% sleep score streaks on whoop. Even walked off a nasty knee pain.
I bet this doesn't apply to mountain bikers nearly as much, mountain biking being much shorter in duration with more of a resistance element, plus the trails are in a natural setting which has to be good for the stress levels and cortisol
Very insightful video. I'm 6'2" and 215lbs. I was like 250lb years ago before training for races, and now I feel great, my clothes look good on me, and sex life is wonderful at my age. Chatting with other cyclist, they were trying to tell me I needed to get to like 170lbs to optimize my power to weight ratio. I disagreed because the lifestyle I have now is very much sustainable, I eat healthy, I (and my wife) like a little muscle tone, and I feel good overall. To get to 165-170lbs, I would be miserable trying to keep up that much intensive activity and limiting calorie intake. Just wasn't worth it to me. This added perspective about testosterone is on point.
Agreed. Also what we can look forward as a non pro cyclist is to improve sustained power without loosing much weight.
Wouldn't recommend being vegan either
Grest vid. As an endocrinologist that works on optimizing hormone levels, your facts are on par with what I see clinically. Though you mention a study that checked cortisol, the key to understanding the T decline in endurance and over training is the HPA axis and its connection to endogenous androgen synthesis. In short, excess stress (in all its forms) lowers sex hormones.
I don't know why, but I just subscribed to Drew Dillman. just kinda felt like it I guess
That’s right!
Your T-levels fluctuate greatly depending on time of day (mornings, duh), how much drinking you did the night before and even heavy meals or recent diet. My doc and i were looking at my levels and they had dropped significantly but we then saw that the last blood draw was in the morning and then next in the afternoon. His advise is just to keep draw times constant
Thank you for making this video! This is why I partly quit competitive cycling. I was relatively good. I won a few amateur races in elite. I had a 5.33 w/kg ftp at my peak. But every other area of my life sufferd because of cycling. It doesnt just consumed a lot of time from my schedule, but low testosterone caused me to feel off after a hard training and I couldnt really focus on anything else in life. And a got tired of being a skinny, financially broke guy,( who is a quite good cyclist but nothing else) so I quit, because certainly there are better activityes with higher ROI like weight lifting and learning sales for instance. And I found testosteron is closely related to success, bc you feel like you want to conquer the world.:D You feel more ambitious and more energetised.
Love this!
i think a lot of it has to do with the mentioned practices of overtraining and under recovering - a cyclist preparing for the tdf for example, will undergo extreme caloric deficits during certain training blocks to stimulate weight loss to be race ready fit - now, they don't do this all year round so during these times, i firmly believe they micro dose with T to get levels back up to par to be able to perform for the 3 weeks - rinse, recycle, repeat as the season goes on
Great information. Though, about 6 months too late for me. It was the perfect storm, and I didn't feel a thing until it was too late to fix. Cycling and training for 14-16 hours per week, with at least 1 alldayer and no days off. I held a CTL of over 100 for many months - bumping into 130 and cycling back down to 100. Restricted my diet to stray as light as possible and switched to a lower carb - keto like diet. I was getting stronger and stronger, and I felt great-right up until I didn't. Zero warning signs, other then a slight drop in testosterone on 2 previous bloodworks. Now that I reduced my training load, and cut out all endurance efforts, my T is still not coming back-23 free on last test. It's look'n like TRT for the rest of my life at 64 years old. Even if you don't care about performance, low/no T opens you up for all sorts of other problems.
Check out the Huberman Lab podcast on hormone optimization with Kyle Gillette before you go the TRT route
So what you’re saying is that the reason why I’m slow is that I’m trying to keep my testosterone levels high. I agree with this
For the ladiesssss - T is important for y'all too (recovery, energy, libido)! You should get it tested as part of a comprehensive hormone (blood) lab - ask your doc. Mine was low (
I read "ladiesssss" in Bill Burr's voice in my head
I can't see why libido is any use to us cyclists. When you're on a 3 week tour you don't need the added distraction I would imagine.I have always had very low libido but fine in every other way apart from being built like Marco Pantini! I certainly would be very wary of taking any T particularly as you could fail a drugs test , even tho you think you might be within the numbers
@@lydiagould3090 well, many of us like to ride bikes AND enjoy other parts of life too
Testosterone has a big impact on fatigue…
Low testosterone that is. As well as mental focus.
Endurance exercise of ANY kind causes a drop in testosterone in men. It's one of the prices to be paid for hours and hours of steady-state exercise, just like loss of muscle mass, increased susceptibility to colds, constant fatigue, increased risk of AFIB, overuse injuries, etc. America's best-ever marathoner, Ryan Hall, retired suddenly due to chronically-low testosterone. It increased almost immediately when he ceased endurance training. Most of us have experienced a lack of sex drive, grinding fatigue, increased resting heart rate, etc, when we increased our mileage. Cardiologist James O'Keefe did deep research into the increased risk of heart disease among endurance athletes. He doesn't link it to lowered testosterone but I'll bet it has something to do with it.
vegan diet + endurance exercise = bye bye testosterone if you are 40 yo or more..
Why DR is jacked up on T
Nonsense. If you're vegan you just have eat enough carbs, protein and calories to fuel your energy output just like anybody else. And sure just like anyone else, if you don't you will overtrain and your test will tank. It's well known around 50% of all men have erectile issues over 40. Got a feeling 50% of 40r olds aren't vegans! smh
Yep, this is why I quit cycling for strength training. Was an avid 40yr old cyclist. Daily commute plus structured training for the odd crit. T levels tanked. Now, jacked. 15kgs heavier and Mrs loves the new me...ALL for me
Also, get enough good quality sleep to maintain healthy T levels!
When I was in my teens, whenever I came back from a really hard training camp I would get sick a few days later. I think a lot of those bodily systems that are normally using that energy get sacrificed when you over train. Really interesting video.
100%
I ´ve been sick after every multistage race... and overtrained during my first training camp and was out for a month. Nice to hear the same feom someone else
You have it too simplified when saying "energy get sacrificed". Simply put, your test went down big time int hat major training bloc and most likely your immune system suffered as a result of you getting sick. I'm a former competitive bodybuilder and before I did bodybuilding, I did cycling. The energy levels, post workout, between the two activities, is massive. After a pump up workout, you feel amazing and have less cortisol (this is backed by studies) whereas after even a normal ride, you feel more stressed, more tired, and they attribute it to RED-S but really, its your test went down post ride. I feel even cold after my rides but I feel warm after my bodybuilding pump workouts. Controversial opinion; Simply put, I honestly think cyclists need to be put on testosterone to maintain energy levels. You can only do so much with your diet in cycling before your energy levels suffer. In bodybuilding, diet plays a crucial role but the activity itself produces more test/higher energy levels. Hence why I think if you are doing cycling for the long term, get on test.
I’ve recently been diagnosed with CMV Virus and it’s messed up my liver functions.
Can I request a liver function video? Importance, functions, how to fix.
Gonna use this video as yet another excuse as to why Im a virgin still...
This makes a strong case for structured training with plenty of zone 2 work and regular rest weeks.
All of which have tended to avoid....until now!
Great video! I had some issues last year I was working out myself and the science lines up pretty well. I would however think a discussion between Free testosterone and Total testosterone would be great... as some people with low T might just have low free testosterone which indicates most of the testostetone is being used/binded to proteins (possibly for recovery to training)... I could be off here, but that's my thoughts and it might explain why elite athletes have low T versus us normies. Any ex-physiologists here can correct me. Thanks Dylan!
Years ago I was in the US Army Ranger School. Imagine doing a Tour De France stage every day for 72 days on 1 meal a day and 4 hours a sleep. They tested us for a lot of things but out of the 333 of us that started the course (139 finished) our testosterone levels were
Have you come across any studies on training in erg mode vs slope? Love the channel. Thanks.
I had a stint of overtraining and undereating, my overall T was still in the 800s but my SHGB was in the mid 80s tanking my free T numbers.
A super important factor is also everyday stress and what goes on with studying/work/family.
Had a big deadline for my thesis last week and for the 2-3 weeks before that, energy appetite and libido were completely gone. Took a complete break from sports. Fast forward to now and my body can endure the same training again, plus appetite and libido are 100% back.
I guess I learned to beating my body down with training, when other things in life demand most of me.
good points when I play guitar I have carbs on hand low GI potato mash...lowered with a few other veggies and oils or I have fruit.
It is intense practice requiring focus endurance and strength.
Thanks, Dylan, so what's the dance between training and resting, percentage-wise. For myself, biting the bullet of daily all-season commuting, I do enjoy my 'weekend' of not doing much on the bike, particularly during these winter months. And the commutes add up, 150 miles a week is 600 a month is a ride all the way to the coast and back and then some annually. So my mix these days is five days of stout commuting and working a physical job, with one day of nothing and another of light errand running, pretty much. And congrats to you on making the list of that big-time gravel series again. And I hope the backwards hat guy made some sort of list, like microbus driver of the year or something.
I think age is a key factor here, as recovery slows down so much over the years.
Did you lose a bet to Dillman?
Watching porn increases testosterone production. So, maybe watching porn is a viable alternative to strength training? What would backwards hat Dylan advise?
So does talking to women apparently but agreed watching porn goes hand in hand with increased T
There should be much more awareness of red-s among endurance athletes and in professional sports. Thank you for this video.
I heard watching Drew's videos boost testosterone levels
Absolutely.
Thanks for the info! Are you retiring now to hit that sweet spot for training and testosterone levels? I’m in for the beast mode supplement.
Should mention talking to your doctor about monitoring low testosterone, especially for Masters aged athletes. Love the hand written Drew Dillman note in the background.
I picture this as Drew snuck into the shed and stuck this on the wall and Dylan didn't notice it until he was editing the video and was like Meh, I'll just leave it.
Great relevant and informative video!! I would like to see your take on testosterone supplementation. In a similar theme, I’d guess there is a lot of myth debunking possible in the follow-on.
Waste of money
This might be true but I avoid this by cross-training with weight lifting 3 -4 hours a week, along with cycling 1,000+ miles a month. It's weird how fit people often identify strongly with their chosen activity and pride themselves on not doing anything else. Weightlifters don't run or cycle and cyclists don't lift weights. That's just plain dumb.
Any loss in normal testosterone levels is a training load error. Intensity control is the remedy. After an all out effort or race, Testosterone levels may reduce temporarily, but will return as recovery happens.
"Subscribe to Drew Dillman" sign. Did you lose a bet?
It was a joke and he actually left it up! Great!
@@DrewDillmanChannel haha, nice
Is this how the Italians came to like the color pink?
Weightlifters have been doing this for decades now - we call it "deload" weeks. Easy to no load training. Then start a periodizaition cycle again so that a performance vs time curve looks like an increasing sawtooth pattern.
If you don't have spare 13 minutes, read summary of video - physical activity beyond level required to maintain body has detrimental effect. This is why high level athletes struggle with health issues and are happy if they don't spend hard earned money (if there's any!) on medications and doctors.
Next video suggestion - TRT effects on cycling!
Or maybe, the collateral effects of TRT in the long term.
Hear that?
That's the sound of a thousand 5th Cats clicking the 'BUY' button on Canadian Pharmacy...
I'm single so who needs testosterone anyway. FOR THE WATTS
Actually all cardio doe this.
Any thing above 3 x 45 minutes is really bad.
HIIT is the best form.
HIIT and walk.
Or do HIIT Tabta sprints on a Heavy Bag.
Cardio slows down any chance of a fit lean muscular body...completely ruins it.
Cardio in the traditional sense is for plebs.
After studying for years and testing I realized that the best option is to leave two of the three factors high(you choose) and one low:
-frequency
-intensity
-duration
For example : frequent and intense but short
Yes it lowers testosterone. 40yo, I do cycling as hobby and commute. I have two girlfriends. When i was 30yo I had 3-4 😅
Before I watch this whole video,
I have my own opinion.
So its like Going outside
So there's the sunlight where I believe that it improve/increase hormones.
So??????..
I don't know why guys want to look like stick figures. You have to balance out endurance with muscle and strength.
Low bodyfat levels will ALSO lower testosterone. Below 10ish% bodyfat is a general cut-off.
New transfemme hrt just dropped
I was here to write exactly this
"Do something against low testosterone"? Are you crazy? The cycling probably is the only thing keeping the last few hairs on my head right now..
Yes. My libido gone since I start running and training evryday.
3:56 He says, "not the population you think of when you think of low testosterone," and then shows a clip of a bunch of grown men on bicycles, wearing spandex and prissy shoes.
😅😂🤣
Hey dylan - not sure if my emails going to spam - waiting for meeting link - trying whichever way i can to contact you outside of email :)
This is why on one hand I love biking and the feeling of freedom it gives but on the other hand hate how every pro or amateur cycler is skinny boy. Especially that endurance athletes needs so much more protein then normal people! So I just strength train, eat lots of nutritious food, rest and recover and do cycling for healthy cardiovascular system. And just stay away from pro cyclers
Just need to include wife workout as part of the training program and track on Strava like other training....
"We already knew you weren't getting laid" 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
As a cyclist myself I think we have to ask the question for causality. Does cycling really cause low testosterone or does low testosterone induce the questionable behaviour of cycling?
Do heavier weight training and eat lean red meat
I probably have low testosterone because I am definitely not getting any action in the bedroom. 🙂🤣🤣
News just in: All Trainer Road plans boost T.
I skimmed past all the boring stuff and ordered the Hyperbeast testosterone.
Backward hat Dylan is my man.
I use recovery periods, but those always end up making me feel worse 😄.
Believe it or not cholesterol from from animal protein/fat boosts T big time. Testosterone is cholesterol based.
I'm delivery cyclist. I pedal 4 hours and 30 minutes every day, 5 - 6 days per week. How bad is it?
but constantly being told that we are benefiting from heavy training is a very damaging lie.
I reduced my training volume by 80% and my libido is back to teenage levels!
5:35 😂🤣😹 overweight couch potato))) OCP
12:21 That feel when you finish hours after everyone else and only your two friends with cameras are waiting for you. Man even that lady just plain ingonred your existence.
But ye, thanks Dylan, well put together video just as always.
mate this was a great video. I understand balancing your training volume/intensity is key to avoiding the drop in testosterone. Do you have any data on cyclists that focus on Zone 2 riding only? Does not feeling burnt out from too much training impact testosterone levels? Does it affect the levels?
overtraining in general does that. also, dipping into single digit body fat destroys testosterone levels too (bodybuilders say thats the shittiest part of their cut). cyclists do both for long periods of time...
Zwift racing will kill your T. Hours of Zone 2 doesn’t seem to affect it though. Sleep is super important. I take ZMA supplements & eat red meat with eggs.
im a vegans for how many years, doing training everyday. and I don't see any decrease in my testosterone
I wonder how much the rate of testosterone production varies in athletes or has any bearing on this discussion? ie The free testosterone measurement may indeed be lower but if the athlete is producing it faster then it might not be such an issue? This goes in hand with what I understand the body does when someone starts injecting it. Their body will stop or greatly reduce production, thereby committing them to a life-long dependency on testosterone injections. Not something I'd find very enticing unless there's a clinical need.
You can very easily restart your own test production after test injections. It's not a life long dependency as you stated.
Road weenies are the epitome of low t
just do some squats and deadlifts.
If more people knew that wed get cheaper bikes
I have a low testosterone level, almost a deficiency. What I learned today, if I reframe it:
Having low levels is normal, but increasing it (like with maca root supplements) would propably serve me well and potentially increase performance?
Also: where can I get super mass gainer raw edition with extra testosterone?
Tongkat ali 😉
Hi Dylan, great video. You were kind enough to reply to me when I contacted you about this a while back, I suffer from testicular failure and as a result chronically low T levels. I’ve been on testosterone injections since 2016 and the biggest change I have seen has been when working with a Plant based nutritionist for 8 weeks where I saw the largest single jump in my overall T level. This year I stopped “training” and listened to my body a lot more and have had a great year whilst doing a bit less. Dr Stephen Seiler said I should look at periodising my riding / training similar to how female athletes have to, something I will be doing next year.
Must only be true for road bikers, sorry... 🙈
Not sure if you are aware but I think Dizzle is punking you 🙂
Yes. So great.
The seat definitly causes testicle damage
ride differetn bicycles with different seats
Cortisol (a catabolic hormone) and testosterone (anabolic) are antagonists.
Yet cortisol is necessary to release energy, in order to *do* the training, to maintain muscle mass and burn fatty tissue as energy (which is also necessary to maintain T levels).
A tough training block/overreaching/overtraining decreases T in the short term but this is obviously necessary to maintain lean body mass in the long run.
Strength training/intervals can boost T in the short term but due to the nature of high intensity work, the effects are short lived due to excesssive cortisol long after stopping the workout for the day.
So at this point you as an athlete need to time the intensity, duration, and rest days in order to find that escape velocity of improved performance metrics, rather than T levels by itself.
T levels in isolation mean little. Exogenous T diminishes need for endogenous T. Aromatase converts T into estrogen. Hence the gynecomastia from steroid abuse in bodybuilders.
Bro when I quit cycling and got into dirtbikes I feel way better, stronger, alert, and focused. Sex drive is better and all around health feels better.
Dr. Stephen Seiler pointed out that if you're only having 3 rides a week like less than 6 hrs a week, you should just go hard on all of those rides(if im not mistaken). Can you have a video that focuses on us people who can only give 4~6 hrs a week. Been doing the 80/20 yet my friends who go all out in all sessions are improving better.
Excellent Idea!
See Dylan's 'How to get fast on 6 hours per week video ruclips.net/video/H9SvLGv2c1E/видео.html
Ashwaganda! Try it. I dont know if it affects testosterone (it claims it does) but recovery is amazing while taking this supp.
Great vid and very relevant.. need to be talked about more 👍🤩🏅🚴
Dressing in Lycra tends to do that