We all know that training in certain levels stimulates different physiological responses — training around thre shold is a great way to induce mitochondrial biogenesis while training in the anaerobic zone will help improve the amount of work you can perform using anaerobic energy systems. But one adaptation that doesn’t always get discussed is hormonal responses to training, and I was surprised to find that performing certain workouts are more effective at stimulating the body to produce hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone, so if you want to boost your body’s production of these hormones without recourse to any special “preparations” (i.e. doping), read on.
It’s been know for a long time that the resistance training is one of the best ways to prompt the body’s production of testosterone. Of course, as cyclists we all know that lifting weights is one of the vexed questions in coaching, the subject of often heated debates on various online forums. I’ve written about that subject before and won’t get into it here, but I think it’s safe even the most ardent proponent of lifting doesn’t want to spend too much time in the gym. The good news at least as far as hormone response to lifting is that you don’t have to, but you may have to change the way you lift.
Most cyclists I know work their legs first and as it turns out that’s ideal if your goal is to increase testosterone production because studies have shown that engaging large muscle groups (e.g. squats) early in the workout boosts testosterone more so than starting with smaller or single muscles (e.g. bicep curls). When it comes to rest intervals, weight and repetitions, however, it appears that ?some adjustments may be necessary. First, weight and reps — most cyclists use a progression going from low weight and high reps to high weight and low reps as the training cycle moves along. But for testosterone production that last phase, the max strength phase, does not do as much as earlier phases because it appears that what counts most in this context is total work (i.e. pounds lifted) over the entire workout?. This is not to suggest that the optimal solution is to lift a light weight for a hundred reps. There is some basic threshold of intensity that must be met (generally around 70% of 1 rep max), but one needn’t be piling the plates on the leg press to the point where only 4-6 reps are possible. When it comes to rest intervals, it turns out that most of us are resting too long. The ideal rest interval it appears when lifting to prompt testosterone production is 2 minutes or less, and the longer the rest interval, the lower the hormonal response even when load and reps are kept the same. As the authors of a recent review on the subject ?put it, training “protocols high in volume, moderate to high in intensity, using short rest intervals, and stressing large muscle mass tend to produce the greatest acute hormonal response” (Kraemer and Ratamess 2005).?
Growth Hormone is also released in response to resistance training and is best targeted using a protocol similar to those used to stimulate testosterone production, so you can target both hormones during the same workout. Growth hormone is also released in response to relatively high intensity endurance exercise of at least 10′ in duration. Most studies found that intensity to be the lactate threshold though one group did report that the hormone response increases with intensity without necessarily having some threshold to pass. In general, though, the consensus seems to be that you need to be doing intervals of at least 10′ in length at or just above your threshold power. Interestingly, it also appears that spreading the efforts throughout the day was more effective than doing multiple repeats in a single session in terms of stimulating growth hormone production. As another review on the subject summarizes, “if the aim is to optimize hGH secretion, training should occur a number of times per day with each exercise session being of a duration greater than 10 minutes at an intensity above lactate threshold” (Godfrey et. al. 2003).
Of course, doing a single 10′ interval a couple of times a day is no way? build fitness, so designing workouts to maximize hormonal response is probably not a good idea during a build or base phase, but I could certainly see using workouts designed to target hGH secretion as part of a taper/peaking phase or even as mid-week workouts during a period of intense racing when one is not trying to build fitness but to race on what you’ve already built.
For more on the topic, see the studies linked to above. I found the Godfrey, et. al. review to be most helpful.?
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Tags: bike racing, cycling training, hormonal response, Human Growth Hormone, power, testosterone, weight lifting
