🔢 Max Testosterone – How Often Should I Workout In 2024?

Some time ago I wrote a really popular article called “4 Clinically Proven Ways To Increase Your Testosterone Levels, Naturally”

In that article, one of the things I discussed was the best way to increase your testosterone levels based on the type of workouts you do.

But to get to the point, I mentioned you should NOT do cardio, you should lift weights and do so only 3-4x weekly – never more.

Testosterone & Cortisol Correlation

Now, one question I got asked repeatedly was, “What if I workout 5-6x weekly, but just do one body every time? Will this still increase my testosterone or will it lower it?”

This is a good question and on paper, you would assume it works out the same. You can do your entire body in 3 workouts or 6 workouts – who cares, right?

Well, over and over again I’ve tested this theory on myself… as well as so many of my other athletes. And the fact is that working out with weights almost every day (5-6x weekly) actually causes a decrease in testosterone because it increases cortisol – your stress hormone.

And as cortisol goes up, testosterone goes down.

It’s All About Recovery…

Your muscles can recover very quickly – usually in about 48 hours.

Your joints, tendons, and ligaments take longer to recover … typically about 4-5 days or longer.

This is because your muscles have better blood flow than your tendons.

However, your nervous system (CNS) takes the LONGEST to recover – a week or longer.

Thus, working out daily can be fine for your muscles, but NOT for your nervous system (CNS)

So even though your biceps might be resting the entire week, your CNS never rests because it’s going to the gym daily and getting worn out.

Do this for a few weeks and slowly you overtrain, lose strength, your cortisol goes up and testosterone comes down.

Plus, when you’re only working out ONE body part at a time, you tend to push more and harder. Again, that’s fine for the muscle, but NOT for the CNS.

The Solution

However, if you want to workout more, you have a couple of options:

1. You workout 5-6x weekly, but do so for 2 weeks and then the 3rd week, do less by going only 3x weekly for a week. So more volume for 2 weeks, then lower volume for 1 week to allow your CNS to recover.
2. Make sure you take supplements to increase your testosterone while decreasing your stress hormones. Now you can do more and still protect your testosterone. This is how steroids work.