Muscle gain potential is proportional to testosterone levels which is why women are not as muscular as men. Yes you CAN increase your testosterone levels to gain more muscle. Its not easy like popping a pill but you can still do it!
Millions of dollars are made off from gullible people every year who buy supplements and herbal remedies that promise to increase testosterone levels. You know what, they are all a waste of money. If they do raise testosterone, its only a little and for such a short duration that is does not benefit muscle building at all. If these over the counter remedies worked at all then doctors would suggest them instead of TRT.
So if there is nothing you can take that raises your testosterone levels, how do you do it naturally? Easy! LIFT HEAVY WEIGHTS! Some powerlifters are fond of responding to every single question like “how do I get big arms?” with the response “do heavy squats!”. At first it sounds stupid but its not as stupid as it sounds.
Lifting heavy weights increases natural testosterone production and when your testosterone levels are higher, all muscles which are exercised, including arms, get bigger. So what is “lifting heavy”? Thats a really important question because it doesnt matter how much weight a curl-monkey curls, they will never be able to move enough weight to raise their testosterone levels. Why? Because the biceps are simply too small of a muscle to trigger the testosterone raising effects. Its gotta be big muscles and that means one thing – quads. Pecs are just not big enough. By my definition, “lifting heavy” means a minimum of 1.5x to 2x your bodyweight in the big lifts like deadlifts and squats. On exercises like leg press you have to increase that to 3-4x your body weight. Cheating only cheats you out of gains here. If you are doing quarter squats or nano-reps on the leg press, that does not count. Use a weight that lets to get the knee bent a minimum of 90 degrees.
One way the people who always respond to every question with “do heavy squats!” have it wrong is that there is nothing magical about squats. ANY exercise that has you lifting massive weight gives your entire body and CNS a workout and leaves you gasping for air at the end of the 8 reps – thats what it takes to increase the testosterone levels, not just the “magical” squat. Of course, I have zero research to back any of this up but I am willing to guess that a powerlifter doing three sets of 5 reps on squats would have their testosterone elevated just as much by doing 3 sets of 5 reps on a leg press machine.
For those curl-monkeys out there who read all this and say – “research please” – I say stop whining and start doing BIG quad exercises instead of looking for supplement shortcuts. Just because there is not research proving something does not mean that it is not true.