Hormone Imbalance
Hormone replacement therapy is a unique hormone therapy process that is typically for those over 40 years of age. Over the years, the rise in HRT has gone up due to a variety of reasons, one of the reasons being the amount of nutrient deficient people in the US and thus influencing hormonal imbalance. For example, using birth control as a female can lead to hormone imbalance and estrogen dominance. Although not all can experience this, it is still possible.
It seems to be that the rise of hormonal imbalance or low testosterone seems to be linked to nutrient deficiency. People are eating calorie packed and high carb foods with little to no nutrients, which can trick the brain into thinking you’re getting nutrition when you’re not Some foods even have opioid binding peptides, foods such as casein in cow milk to wheat gluten:
In foods, opioid peptides are described as peptides that have an affinity for an opioid receptor and are able to exert opiate-like effects by affecting the nerve system and GI functions. Opioid peptides have been reported in hydrolysates from milk casein, wheat gluten, and blood hemoglobin. A tyrosine residue is usually found at the N-terminal end, and an aromatic residue is located in the third or fourth position. The first opioid peptides derived from food proteins were described in milk; β-lactorphin with sequence YGLF showed a decrease in the systolic blood pressure of 23 ± 4 mmHg after oral administration to SHRs. β-Casomorphins are casein-derived peptides very well characterized in literature that are involved in the regulation of gut functions, acting as antidiarrheal agents.
Their are 3 foods that activate your opioid receptors:
Dairy, casein
Soy
Gluten
Minerals and Heavy Metals
You’ll notice on nutrition labels ingredients, it reads “natural ingredients” or “natural flavors,” which for some may not seem like a big deal, but I suspect these “natural flavors” may be affecting one’s nutrient composition more than they realize. If you are feeding your body with nutrient deficient foods, then your body will too become nutrient deficient. Alongside that if you are not sleeping enough your testosterone can go to ZAP real quick!
A couple of of minerals you want to make sure you are getting to keep your testosterone high are:
Magnesium
Boron, responsible for freeing up testosterone
Zinc, also good for acne
Calcium
On the topic of heavy metals…which are chemical elements include
mercury (Hg)
cadmium (Cd)**
arsenic (As)
chromium (Cr)
thallium (Tl)
lead (Pb)**
Consuming high amounts of these heavy metals may decrease testosterone. Even dark chocolate, certain brands that is, have amounts of lead and cadmium. Below is a photo from the consumer report page. See pictures below.
Training
The easiest way for you to keep your testosterone as high as possible is to get into heavier weight training especially with compound movements. It’s consistently been shown through research that heavier training may maintain testosterone, naturally. Creating a structured workout plan can be easily broken up into a push/pull/legs regime/week - a 3 day split.
For example
Day 1 push
Squat
Bench
Incline bench
Sled push
Day 2 pull
Deadlifts, conventional or sumo
Heavy 1 arm rows
Romanian deadlifts
Pendlay rows
Pull ups
Sled pull
Day 3 legs
Squat
Larsen bench press
Glute thrust
Walking lunges with weight
Bulgarian split squats
Conditioning 2-3/week to start for 20-25 minutes each session with no more than 60 minutes/weight training session to start.
You can use a rate of perceived exertion scale (RPE) or a percentage scale (80% of 1 rep max i.e), or simply wing it. Hypertrophy training some days, and sub max effort the other days; this is a good option for beginners.
Weeks 1-4:
Compound exercise use a weight at 70% of what a max effort feels like, in reps of 6-8
Weeks 5-8:
Compound exercise use a weight at 80% of what a max effort feels like, in reps of 4-6
Weeks 9-12:
Compound exercise use a weight at 89-92% of what a max effort feels like, in reps of 2-3
Reassess see where you are and adjust accordingly to make more progress.
This is obviously a simple way to progress yourself, but simply you are adjusting your weight, each day and week to week with the intent of increasing the load over the weeks or becoming more efficient at the lighter loads or perfecting your execution of the exercises and not just mindlessly going through the motions. Over time your body will adapt to the loads.
It’s not until you become more advanced when the strategy needs more finesse behind it for progression.
For custom training and nutrition email espinozi.yelena@gmail.com.
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