Testosterone is one of the most important hormones in your body, regulating some unexpected things like body fat and red blood cells, along with the obvious stuff like improving sex drive and muscle mass.

Apart from age, there are many, many environmental factors that will also mess with your hormones, mostly in the chemical form like pesticides, crappy grooming products, plastic containers. The list goes on and on. T levels naturally start to decline on the other side of 30, and suddenly production methods become important.

Chopping wood raises testosterone levels more than playing soccer

Researchers studied the saliva of 63 male farmers in the depths of Bolivia and found that chopping trees while working increased T levels by nearly 50%. This increase was surprisingly higher than a similar sample of competitive male soccer players in Bolivia, suggesting that exercise alone might not be enough to raise your levels. Maybe these guys just really enjoy their work. Or maybe the results highlight the unique confidence associated with your role at work, especially working with your hands. That's just my 2 cents though, the researchers left us hanging as their reasoning for "why" were vague. Could just be that chopping wood is totally bad ass.

We're taking baby steps with this stuff in school and have just scratched the surface of androgenic hormones. This has been an introduction for me as well and at a good time I might add. I'm just shy of turning 30, and I don't exhibit any of the symptoms of low levels, but it's nearly impossible to avoid all the environmental factors that affect hormone production. This review was an important reminder for me to keep hormone levels in check, and a simple blood test can give you a huge insight. Hey, it could also explain why you're feeling so tired, or depressed, or weak, or fat.

I did some reading online and found this article to be useful if you need to raise your testosterone and don't want to take drugs. It's basically an outline to exercise, modify your diet, and reduce stress (like most other health plans should be).

Takeaway: Exercise is key when testosterone levels inevitably begin their decline. Think outside the box as many different types of movement will boost production. Better yet, chop the box in half and do the things that make you happy.