Tip: Don't Let Exercise Kill Testosterone Levels Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness EatingSex & HormonesSupplements Tip Don t Let Exercise Kill Testosterone Levels Stop exercise-induced drops in T with a tiny dose of this vitamin by TC Luoma April 28, 2017October 29, 2021 Tags Nutrition & Supplements, Testosterone Boosters, Testosterone Optimization, Tips Endurance Exercise Low T It's pretty straightforward: Endurance exercise reduces testosterone levels. Maybe it has to do with the oxidative stress caused by all that huffing and puffing, or maybe rising levels of cortisol put the kibosh on testosterone production. Or it could even have something to do with the balls being cement-mixered with every stride a runner takes and subsequently getting too damn hormonally punch drunk to produce any male hormone. Of course, lifters, too, seem to suffer from chronically low testosterone levels. Sure, all the articles in Men's Health and other simplistic pubs tell you that lifting raises testosterone levels, but that's just temporary. Soon after intense lifting, testosterone levels often free fall and no one is absolutely sure why that happens. In any event, Indian researchers discovered something that may potentially help endurance athletes and by extrapolation, lifters, too. A Low Copulatory Index Yikes The scientists had one group of rats swim to exhaustion on 15 consecutive days. A second group of rats did nothing. As you might guess, the testosterone levels of the exercising rats plummeted. So did their sperm count and "copulatory index" or desire to mate. But when given modest doses of Vitamin C just 30 minutes before they began swimming, the decrease in testosterone was appreciably less. Likewise, their sperm counts and desire to have rat sex improved, too. How To Use This Info Okay, rats aren't humans, but perhaps surprisingly, a lot of stuff that proves effective with rats ends up proving effective with humans. Besides, this experiment used surprisingly small doses of Vitamin C, so testing it on yourself would involve little downside, if any. The researchers used three doses of Vitamin C on the rats, with the highest dose working the best. The human-sized equivalent to this highest dose is about 480 mg, which is less than the average chewable Vitamin C tablet. If you want some cheap insurance against exercise-induced testosterone depletion (and a subsequent reduction in amorous intentions), chew a 500 mg. Vitamin C tablet about a half hour before running or lifting. Reference Vijayprasad S, et al, "Effect of vitamin C on male fertility in rats subjected to forced swimming stress." J Clin Diagn Res. 2014 Jul;8(7):HC05-8. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Diet & Fat Loss 5 Surprising Reasons You Blew Your Diet Diets don't fail. People do. Here's how to fix your nutrition, avoid the pitfalls, and succeed. Diet Strategy, Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements Shelby Starnes May 25 Supplements Leucine and Protein Synthesis Leucine is the key amino acid responsible for stimulating muscle protein synthesis. Here’s how to make it even better. BCAA, Bodybuilding, Nutrition & Supplements, Performance Proteins, Protein Tim Ziegenfuss, PhD January 26 Eating Tip Photo Shoot Ready in 21 Days A quick guide to peaking for a photo shoot... or any time you want look better with your clothes off. Bodybuilding, Losing Fat, Nutrition & Supplements, Tips Christian Thibaudeau July 26 Diet & Fat Loss Tip Understand the Law of Metabolic Demand Stop using the word "weight" and get smarter about calories. This will help. Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements, Tips Dr Jade Teta March 8