Lifting weights is one of the best ways to strengthen your bones and muscles and promote growth in both your muscular strength and muscle mass. A committed weightlifting regimen can cause sweeping changes that affect both your physique, your health and even your mood. Part of this is the effects of exercise, but hormones can also play a factor.
Types of Hormones
There are two basic types of hormones: estrogen and testosterone. Estrogen is a female hormone that plays a role in the development of female characteristics, including sexual organs. Testosterone is a male hormone that influences the body and its male characteristics, such as body composition and aggression. Men have much more testosterone than estrogen and vice versa for women, but both genders have both hormones.
Effects of Muscle
Muscle is one of the body's locations where testosterone production occurs. Because of this, there is a direct relationship between the amount of muscle you have on your body and the amount of testosterone being produced. Your total testosterone levels can still be affected by age, gender and other factors, but if you are lifting weights and building muscle, you are also increasing your testosterone levels.
Benefits
Testosterone can be very beneficial to anyone adopting a regular lifting routine, or for individuals looking to build large amounts of muscle mass. Testosterone can heighten aggression and bolster strength, making it easier to perform lifting routines. The presence of testosterone also helps to encourage the growth of more muscle, which in turn can increase testosterone levels. In males, the increased testosterone can have benefits outside of lifting, such as improved sexual function and improved sleep.
Considerations
Weightlifting can still cause an increase in testosterone production in women, but the results are less pronounced. The main reason for this is that women have less testosterone in the body to begin with -- according to Bodybuilding.com, men have more than 16 times the testosterone that women have. Women will build muscle at a slower rate, but doing so will increase their testosterone. However, women who do not want to increase their testosterone levels and endure the effects of this change do not need to worry -- the changes in hormone levels through regular lifting are minor.
