Vinero
Member
I've started weight-lifting this summer since I heard Ray Peat say in an interview that having massive muscles have some metabolic advantages. The first one is that muscles can burn fat at rest, which can help to burn any excess PUFA that you ingest, instead of storing it. The second is that muscles actually can produce Testosterone and together with the brain and skin can produce steroids. It seems there are two ways you can train the muscle.
1. Weight lifting which produces Testosterone. This means stimulating the muscle, but not causing fatigue or failure. Also known as stopping when you feel the burn. The burn in the muscle usually occurs after 10-12 reps. This is lactic acid and as we know is anti-metabolic and lowers thyroid function. Dropping the weight before lactic acid builds up avoids this anti-thyroid effect. Lifting like this produces Testosterone, I experience increased testosterone feelings when leaving the gym and the following day. My libido will be very high and I have strong-antidepressant effect. The closest feeling which resembles it is high dose Vitamin K2 which is also known to increase testosterone levels.
2. Weight lifting which produces lactic acid. Fatigue the muscle. Going beyond 12 reps and your muscles start to burn but you push through anyway until failure (15-20 reps). You will generate of a lot of lactic acid and get a huge pump inside your muscle. This lactic acid will produce growth hormone, cortisol and estrogen as a response. After my workout is finished I will feel very drained and my libido is low. I feel lousy and need some time to recover. Working out like this can make you hypothyroid. Your muscles do grow because of the high growth hormone and estrogen but a lot of it is water retention which will disappear when you stop working out for a while.
Obviously if you want to maintain high testosterone and thyroid levels option 1 is going to be better as a way of working out. I did grow a lot of muscle mass using option 2, but it also made me go hypothyroid and lowered my libido and perceived testosterone levels.
1. Weight lifting which produces Testosterone. This means stimulating the muscle, but not causing fatigue or failure. Also known as stopping when you feel the burn. The burn in the muscle usually occurs after 10-12 reps. This is lactic acid and as we know is anti-metabolic and lowers thyroid function. Dropping the weight before lactic acid builds up avoids this anti-thyroid effect. Lifting like this produces Testosterone, I experience increased testosterone feelings when leaving the gym and the following day. My libido will be very high and I have strong-antidepressant effect. The closest feeling which resembles it is high dose Vitamin K2 which is also known to increase testosterone levels.
2. Weight lifting which produces lactic acid. Fatigue the muscle. Going beyond 12 reps and your muscles start to burn but you push through anyway until failure (15-20 reps). You will generate of a lot of lactic acid and get a huge pump inside your muscle. This lactic acid will produce growth hormone, cortisol and estrogen as a response. After my workout is finished I will feel very drained and my libido is low. I feel lousy and need some time to recover. Working out like this can make you hypothyroid. Your muscles do grow because of the high growth hormone and estrogen but a lot of it is water retention which will disappear when you stop working out for a while.
Obviously if you want to maintain high testosterone and thyroid levels option 1 is going to be better as a way of working out. I did grow a lot of muscle mass using option 2, but it also made me go hypothyroid and lowered my libido and perceived testosterone levels.