Research
Hormonal
Acute post-exercise increases in systemic hormones (testosterone, GH, IGF-1) are not related to muscle hypertrophy following resistance training.
Stop worrying about how much your hormones spike after a workout. The acute rise in testosterone or growth hormone does not predict how much muscle you will gain. Focus on consistent training and recovery instead of trying to maximize hormonal spikes.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Post-exercise increases in circulating hormones are not related to hypertrophy following training.
Why this rating
Prospective study with a moderately-sized cohort (n=23) and rigorous hormonal/cytokine measurements.
Source
Muscular and Systemic Correlates of Resistance Training-Induced Muscle Hypertrophy
Cameron J. Mitchell et al. · PLoS ONE · 2013
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0078636
cohort · n=23Cited 183×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Intramuscular factors, specifically changes in Androgen Receptor (AR) protein content and p70S6K phosphorylation, are significant predictors of muscle hypertrophy, explaining more variance than systemic hormones.Good
- The acute post-exercise increase in Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is correlated with muscle hypertrophy, but it does not add predictive value beyond local muscle factors like AR and p70S6K.Good
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