Performance Q&AThe big cycling questions answered by our team of expert coaches, nutritionists and riders
01 CAN BOOSTING TESTOSTERONE HELP ME DEFY AGEING?
In August of this year, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) confirmed that former Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman had been banned for four years for “taking possession of an order of 30 sachets of Testogel (testosterone gel)” at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in 2011. The lack of charging any riders smacks of throwing said doctor under the team bus, but that’s another feature for another time. For now, we’ve used Freeman as a high-profile, nefarious vehicle to highlight the performance potential of testosterone – and why the passage of time can see both testosterone and performance levels plummet. Let’s lift the lid on age-related decline and what you can do about it…
What is testosterone?
Testosterone is a hormone – a chemical messenger that’s secreted, in the case of men, from the testicles into the blood, which carries it to organs and tissues of the body to stimulate a number of functions, many of which are conducive to stronger cycling efforts. As a snapshot, testosterone preserves and increases lean muscle mass; improves cognitive function; increases bone density to help prevent conditions such as osteoporosis; and improves your ability to recover from a workout. Those are the headline benefits. But it’s also responsible for driving the process of creating red blood cells, which is clearly nectar in a sport where your muscles are demanding oxygen. And then there are performance boosts that tap into the psychological.
“Studies have suggested that testosterone contributes to behavioural adaptations driving greater voluntary effort. For instance, working harder during sessions,” says Dr Amy Vivien Wells, senior lecturer in exercise physiology at the University of Hertfordshire. “This is highlighted in a study linking pre-exercise salivary testosterone levels with self-selected resistance training workloads and performance in female netball players. Also, non-physical psychological
priming such as watching a video can positively influence pre-exercise testosterone levels and subsequent exercise performance.” So, watch a particularly passionate cha-cha-cha on Strictly Come Dancing and you’ll smash your next TT.
Age is more than a number
From around the age of 40 years old, testosterone levels can drop by around 1% each
