Leg and Glute Exercises to Boost Testosterone Levels

Nothing completes a physique better than thick and sculpted muscular legs. The teardrop quads, grainy defined hamstrings and a firm set of glutes.  They’re the biggest muscles in your body, and by extension, your biggest source of testosterone.

And this article will teach you how to take full advantage of them.

The Hormonal Benefits of Leg and Glute Exercises

Your legs and glutes are the strongest and largest muscle groups in your entire body. When you fully contract the leg and glute muscles, there is a huge ‘surge’ of testosterone into the bloodstream. This helps with whole body muscle growth, repair and development.

For example, if you’re doing a full body routine, perform leg exercises first. This will increase the amount of free flowing testosterone within the body and giving the rest of your body more available Testosterone to boost performance.

Isolation exercises like leg curls and extensions don’t cut it if you want the most T. Replace them with some real impact exercises such squats, lunges, swings, glute bridges and deadlifts.

These compound exercises are a lot better when it comes to flooding your body with muscle building hormones, as they recruit a higher number of muscle fibers. Interestingly research has shown that:

1. Exercises like jump squats double your testosterone levels when compared to using the bench press [1]
2. When you heavy squat, you release 10 times more human growth hormone – this is a powerful muscle builder and fat burning hormone.

The Best Leg and Glute Workout

The workout below is one of the best out there for building up your lower body strength and testosterone levels – don’t forget to concentrate on good ‘form’ before lifting heavy.

You can find the exercise descriptions below to use as coaching points for the whole work out. It works great for for leg days or a split routine with another muscle group e.g. back, shoulder, arms etc. The choice is yours, enjoy the burn, go heavy and when lifting the weights be very explosive!

Barbell Squats

• Place your hands on the barbell, a little wider than shoulder width apart
• Step under the barbell and place it behind your head, high up on your shoulders
• Keep shoulders pulled back and elbows pointing down
• Contract your abdominal and back muscles
• Start to slowly descend to where your thighs are parallel to the floor
• Your knees will move slightly forward yet remain in line over your feet
• Slowly return to the starting position
• Do not lock out your knees when you straighten
• Keep a constant tension on your thighs throughout the entire sets
• Inhale as you descend into the parallel squat
• Exhale on the return up.

Dumbbell Deadlifts

• Feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing out, hold dumbbells at side of body.
• Go down to squat position with deep hips
• Keep shoulder blades pinched, core tight and chest up
• Keep heels under hips, push through heels on upwards motion & thrust through the hips
• Keep shoulder blades pinched at all times.

Squat Jumps

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart
• Place hands at temples with elbows out to the side with your weight in the heels
• Push out your bottom as you lower your hips to 90 degrees from the floor
• Keep your knees above the ankles
• Power up through your quads and jump landing on your heels
• Keep your back straight and your core tight
• Exhale on the jump up, inhaling on the landing.

Kettlebell Swings

• Kick hips backwards to back of body to stretch hamstrings and engage glutes
• Grab KB out in front of feet with both hands
• The KB swing is a bending movement and not a squat
• Keep your chest up, hips just above knees & core tight
• Swing the KB with straight arms between your legs
• Your hip momentum should move the KB and not your arms.

Plyometric Lunges

• Start with hands on hips, chest up, shoulder back and  hip rotated under to producea 90 degree angle at the knees
• Front foot is planted flat on floor, back foot is never flat and is in contact with balls of feet
• When switching legs, keep your shoulders/pelvis stable and movement comes through the hips
• Your knees should never go over your toe line.

Bulgarian Split Squats

• Place one leg onto box with the opposite leg in contact with the floor
• Balance bodyweight over the opposite leg
• Squat downwards on your weight bearing leg until your upper quad is  parallel to ground
• Keep your core tight and engaged throughout whole motion of squat
• Drive body weight up through heels and repeat with opposite leg after 1 repetition.

Leg and Glutes Exercises Conclusion

Not training your legs and glutes will have a negative effect on your progress by limiting your overall amount of testosterone. Training them hard will is the key to faster results, bigger size and greater strength.

Using the above work out you will boost your testosterone levels, by recruiting a large number muscle fibers. This increases your muscle building potential throughout your whole body. Remember to be explosive in your training, and maintain solid form.

Boost your Testosterone Levels Even Further

Heavy compound movements aren’t the only thing you can do to boost your T-levels, diet is important too – and TestoFuel is a good place to start.

As an anabolic support complex, TestoFuel is packed full of all the top-performing natural nutrients that support testosterone production and optimizes your hormonal levels.

If you want to take your training one step further, this is exactly what you need.

References

[1] Volek JS, Kraemer WJ, Bush JA, Incledon T, Boetes M (1997) Testosterone and cortisol in relationship to dietary nutrients and resistance exercise. J Appl Physiol (1985) 82: 49–54