Research
Hormonal
Exercise intensity, rather than age, drives the magnitude of the acute hormonal response (testosterone, growth hormone) to exercise in females.
To maximize your hormonal response to exercise, focus on intensity (how hard you feel and your heart rate) rather than worrying about your age. If you push the intensity, your body responds with higher anabolic hormones, regardless of whether you are 20 or 60.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Pearson correlation coefficients from this study indicated that change in testosterone and change in growth hormone were significantly correlated to average exercise heart rate and RPE.
Why this rating
Correlational data within a study with small sample sizes per group.
Source
Hormonal Responses to Endurance and Resistance Exercise in Females Aged 19-69 Years
Jennifer L. Copeland et al. · The Journals of Gerontology Series A · 2002
DOI 10.1093/gerona/57.4.b158
crossover · n=30Cited 172×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- An acute bout of either endurance or resistance exercise significantly increases circulating levels of anabolic hormones (testosterone, estradiol, growth hormone) in females aged 19-69, regardless of chronological age.Good
- Resistance exercise specifically increases Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels, whereas endurance exercise does not significantly change DHEA in females.Good
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