Changing your posture can boost your testosterone
Updated: Feb 10, 2019
Testosterone is a hormone associated with dominant status, also defined as “alpha” when in a group.
In sports, it is one of the most important and wanted hormone.
Many athletes, professional and amateur, tried to boost this hormone in many ways:
specific training (e.g. weightlifting);
specific diet (e.g. omega-3);
specific foods (e.g. Greek hay);
specific booster (e.g. supplements);
doping (e.g. Delatestryl).
One important thing to think about this hormone is his natural production by our endocrinal system (especially in testicles and ovaries) that it appears to have his picks early morning.
Its antagonist is the Cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, which we produce under stress and uncomfortable situation. It is generated primarily in the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex. This hormone is essential for our metabolism and for protecting our vital organs, but an excess of Cortisol can be dangerous, entailing severe risks especially for bones and muscular tissues.
Another interesting aspect of these two hormones is that while Cortisol is associated with low social status, and relatively submissive behaviours, Testosterone is associated with dominant and status-manly behaviours (Minvaleev et al. 2004). In other words, we could say that the most dominant/outgoing people seem to have a high level of Testosterone while the more submissive/shy people seem to have a high level of Cortisol.
Recent evidence showed that it is possible to boost up our Testosterone and blow down our Cortisol levels, simply modifying our posture (Cuddy et al. 2015). As shown in the video below, by holding a correct position for 2 minutes you would be able to decrease your stress and feel better immediately (Carney et al. 2010; Cuddy et al. 2015).
Strike your pose then, as Dr Amy Cuddy suggests in this inspiring video:
References:
Minvaleev, R. S., Nozdrachev, A. D., Kir’yanova, V. V. and Ivanov, A. I., 2004. Postural Influences on the Hormone Level in Healthy Subjects: I. The Cobra Posture and Steroid Hormones. Human Physiology,30 (4), 452-456.
Cuddy, A., 2015. Strike a Power Pose—But Do It In Private (Vol. 186, pp. 80-80): Time Inc.
Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J. C. and Yap, A. J., 2010. Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance, 1363.
Cuddy, A. J. C., Wilmuth, C. A., Yap, A. J. and Carney, D. R., 2015. Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance. Journal of Applied Psychology,100 (4), 1286-1295.
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