How to Exercise for Strength Gains & Hormone Optimization | Dr. Duncan French
Dr. Duncan French, VP of Performance at the UFC Performance Institute, discusses resistance training for hormone optimization, strategic cold/heat therapies, and nutrition for performance. He shares protocols for increasing testosterone, enhancing skill development, and improving metabolic efficiency.
Deep Dive Analysis
17 Topic Outline
Dr. Duncan French's Background and Expertise
Mechanism of Exercise-Induced Testosterone & Growth Hormone Increase
Optimizing Resistance Training for Testosterone and Muscle Growth
Training Frequency and Combining Workout Goals
Impact of Stress and Arousal on Testosterone and Performance
Strategic Use of Cold Exposure for Mindset vs. Recovery
Principles of Skill Development and Motor Learning
Nutrition's Role in Preventing Brain Fog After Intense Training
Low-Carbohydrate vs. All-Macronutrient Diets for Performance
Ketones for Brain Energy and Offsetting Injury
Metabolic Efficiency and Needs-Based Eating Strategies
Duncan French's Career Path: Olympics, NCAA, and UFC
Unique Challenges and Value of MMA for Performance Science
Voluntary Control Over Arousal States in Elite Athletes
Heat Acclimation, Sweating, Heat Shock Proteins, and Sauna Use
Implementing Rotating Training Programs and Data Logging
Surprising Aspects of the UFC Performance Institute's Mission
6 Key Concepts
Mechanical Load
This refers to the actual weight or resistance used in an exercise, which is a primary driver for stimulating testosterone release and muscle adaptation. It's distinct from metabolic load, which is driven by volume.
Metabolic Load
This refers to the volume of work performed, such as total repetitions, which drives lactate production and creates a specific internal metabolic environment. It works in conjunction with mechanical load to influence testosterone release and muscle growth.
Adaptation Led Programming
This is a philosophical approach to training where all interventions, including diet, temperature exposure, and exercise, are consciously designed to drive specific physiological adaptations. It involves understanding the 'whens, whys, and whereofs' of changing stimulus to achieve desired outcomes.
Metabolic Efficiency
This concept involves training the body to preferentially use specific fuel sources (fats at lower intensities, carbohydrates at higher intensities) based on the exercise demand. It aims to prevent premature fatigue by ensuring carbohydrate stores are reserved for high-intensity efforts.
Needs-Based Eating
This dietary strategy involves consciously adjusting macronutrient intake, particularly carbohydrates, based on current exercise status and physical exertion levels. For example, increasing carbohydrates during high-intensity training periods and reducing them during periods of lower activity.
White Belt Mentality
This refers to maintaining a beginner's mindset, even with extensive experience, to remain open to learning and adapting. It emphasizes that continuous learning from athletes and new situations is crucial for professionals in high-performance sport.
10 Questions Answered
Resistance training increases testosterone through a stress response involving both mechanical and metabolic stress. This triggers a signaling cascade that influences the adrenal glands (in both men and women) and gonads (in men) to release testosterone and other androgens.
Testosterone release is best driven by both intensity (mechanical load) and volume (metabolic load), such as 6 sets of 10 repetitions at 80% of one-rep max with 2-minute rest periods. Growth hormone, however, is largely driven by intensity alone.
Yes, short-term stress and the associated sympathetic arousal (e.g., epinephrine release) can acutely increase testosterone and enhance physical performance. This pre-arousal response prepares the body for challenging physical exertion.
Yes, robust data suggests that cold exposure, such as ice baths, can dampen the mTOR pathway and other hypertrophic signaling pathways, potentially hindering muscle growth. Therefore, its use for recovery should be periodized and avoided during phases focused on muscle building.
Skill development sessions should be shorter and focused on quality over quantity. As soon as fatigue impacts the accuracy of movement, it's time to stop, as continued inaccurate repetitions can hinder motor learning.
Intense physical or cognitively demanding skill training can be mentally fatiguing due to the stress of the learning process and the energetic demands on the brain. Adequate carbohydrate fueling is crucial for both physical and mental performance and recovery.
Generally, pure ketogenic diets are not recommended for high-performance athletes in high-intensity intermittent sports like MMA, as these activities require carbohydrate fueling. However, a tactical approach involving a largely ketogenic diet with timed carbohydrate fueling around training sessions can be beneficial for metabolic efficiency.
Ketones can provide a sustained energy supply to the brain, particularly after events involving potential brain trauma, helping to offset some micro-damage and maintain brain function.
Heat acclimation is a process that typically requires about 14 sauna exposures to drive significant adaptations. This process should begin 8-10 weeks before a competition to allow the body to increase sweat rates and improve tolerance to heat.
Individuals should maintain a journal or log of their training, including objective data (loads, reps) and subjective feedback (mood, sleep, feelings). This helps in understanding how the body adapts and responds to different training stimuli.
23 Actionable Insights
1. Optimize Resistance Training for Anabolism
To maximize anabolic environments and muscle growth, perform resistance training with six sets of ten repetitions at about 80% of your one-repetition max, ensuring two minutes of rest between sets to drive metabolic stimulus. Adjust loads to sustain 10 repetitions per set.
2. Needs-Based Eating for Training
Practice needs-based eating by timing carbohydrate intake strategically around training sessions (pre, during, immediately post) to fuel high-intensity efforts. Maintain a largely reduced carbohydrate diet for the rest of the day to promote metabolic efficiency.
3. Implement Heat Acclimation Protocol
To improve heat tolerance and sweat rates, begin with 15 minutes of sauna exposure (around 200°F) and gradually increase to 30-45 minutes continuously. Aim for about 14 exposures over 8-10 weeks for significant adaptation.
4. Strategic Cold Exposure for Recovery
Use cold exposure strategically: avoid it during periods of high training load focused on muscle growth, as it can hinder hypertrophy and strength adaptations by dampening the mTOR pathway.
5. Quality Over Quantity in Skill Learning
For physical skill development, prioritize quality over quantity by keeping sessions shorter and stopping when fatigue impacts movement accuracy. This ensures the rehearsal of correct movement mechanics.
6. Embrace Adaptation-Led Programming
Adopt an ‘adaptation-led programming’ mindset, understanding that the body is highly plastic and will adapt to specific stimuli. Consciously change overload and stimulus across all training, nutrition, and recovery aspects to drive desired adaptations.
7. Be a Self-Aware Athlete
Become a ’thinking man’s athlete’ by consciously understanding your body’s state at all times. Use subjective feedback (mood, sleep, feelings) and objective training logs to interpret individual responses and optimize performance.
8. Master State Toggling
Develop the ability to toggle effectively between high-alert, focused states and calm, relaxed states. This skill is crucial for managing energy, preventing burnout, and sustaining high-quality performance over extended periods.
9. Leverage Acute Stress for Performance
Embrace and leverage acute stress, such as pre-workout arousal or anticipation of a challenging event, as it can increase testosterone and sympathetic arousal (epinephrine/adrenaline), leading to higher physical performance.
10. Ensure Proper Hydration & Electrolytes
Dissolve one packet of Element in 16-32 ounces of water first thing in the morning and during physical exercise to ensure proper hydration and adequate electrolytes (sodium, magnesium, potassium) for optimal brain and body function.
11. Supplement Vitamin D3K2
Supplement with Vitamin D3K2 as D3 is essential for brain and body health and K2 regulates cardiovascular function and calcium in the body.
12. Prioritize Metabolic Stress in Lifting
When lifting for muscle growth, prioritize metabolic stress by keeping rest periods around two minutes, rather than extending them to lift heavier. Shorter rests drive a more beneficial metabolic environment.
13. Intense Lifting Frequency
For challenging, high-intensity resistance training protocols like six sets of ten repetitions at 80% 1RM, aim for about two times a week to allow for adequate recovery and sustained progress.
14. Diversify Weekly Workouts
Beyond intensive muscle growth protocols, incorporate other workouts throughout the week with varying emphasis, such as higher volume (12-20 reps, lower intensity) or lower volume (higher intensity) to target different fitness outcomes like endurance or power.
15. Enhance Pre-Workout Arousal
Utilize pre-workout routines and music to enhance sympathetic arousal, as this prepares the body for challenging physical exertion and can lead to increased epinephrine/norepinephrine release and improved performance.
16. Adapt to Stressors Over Time
Understand that repeated exposure to the same stressor will lead to accommodation; the body adapts, so new or increased stressors are needed to continue driving adaptation and performance improvements.
17. Cold for Competition Recovery
During competition phases, when the goal is to maintain performance and technical execution rather than build muscle, use cold exposure as a recovery intervention to reduce inflammation and optimize the body.
18. Cognitive Engagement in Skill Learning
During skill learning sessions, engage consciously and cognitively, aiming for mental fatigue as much as physical. Complete engagement in the learning process is essential for effective motor skill acquisition.
19. Avoid Full Ketosis for High-Intensity Sport
For high-intensity, intermittent sports, avoid a completely ketogenic diet, as carbohydrate fueling is often required for optimal performance during high-intensity efforts.
20. Cycle Ketosis for Metabolic Efficiency
For general health or during periods of lower-intensity activity, consider cycling into ketosis to improve metabolic management and efficiency, teaching the body to preferentially use fats as fuel.
21. Train Metabolic Fuel Utilization
Actively train your body to preferentially use fat at lower exercise intensities and carbohydrates at higher intensities through diet and exercise manipulation. This prevents early fatigue and optimizes fuel availability.
22. Assess Interventions Over 12 Weeks
When trying a new training regimen, diet, or recovery intervention, commit to a 12-week period. This is generally sufficient to observe physiological adaptations, progression, or regression within the body.
23. Cultivate a Beginner’s Mindset
Cultivate a ‘white belt mentality’ or beginner’s mindset, continuously seeking to learn and adapt. New insights and understanding of human performance emerge daily, even with extensive experience.
5 Key Quotes
It's 90% medical, 90% mental, apart from the 60% that's physical.
Duncan French
The rest is often the consideration that's overlooked out there in general population and in many sporting environments. You know, that the rest is as important a programming variable as the load and the intensity, the load, the volume, etc.
Duncan French
The best athletes, the the true elite levels are the ones that can do it again and again and again on a daily basis and sustain a technical output for skill development therefore their skills can improve or physical development their physical attributes can improve so that ability to reproduce on a day-to-day basis falls into a recovery conversation.
Duncan French
As soon as fatigue is is influencing that repetition, it's time, it's time to stop and the best coaches understand that it's quality over quantity when it comes to skill acquisition.
Duncan French
Your body does not know the difference. It is a, you know, a primordial kind of physiological response that it's created over millions and millions of years and I think that that's that physiology is not changing and it's fixed in a particular way right now that it doesn't understand the difference between whether it's 6 by 10 doing a challenging workout over here, whether it's putting my hands on the hot cold, whether it's a lion stood in front of me or whatever, that epinephrine response from the level of the brain down to the whole signaling cascade is the same.
Duncan French
3 Protocols
Testosterone-Optimizing Resistance Training Protocol
Duncan French- Select a multi-joint, challenging exercise (e.g., back squat).
- Perform 6 sets of 10 repetitions.
- Use a load that is approximately 80% of your one-repetition maximum (1RM).
- Adjust the load during the workout if necessary to ensure 10 repetitions can be sustained per set.
- Rest for 2 minutes between sets.
Heat Acclimation Strategy
Duncan French- Start with 15 minutes of heat exposure (e.g., in a hot sauna at 200°F).
- Gradually increase the duration of exposure over time.
- Work up to continuous sessions of 30-45 minutes in the sauna.
- Aim for approximately 14 sauna exposures to drive significant adaptations.
- Begin this protocol 8-10 weeks before a competition or desired adaptation period.
Metabolic Efficiency & Needs-Based Eating Strategy
Duncan French- Consciously interpret your current exercise status and physical exertion levels.
- During periods of lower intensity work or rest, adopt a largely ketogenic or lower-carbohydrate diet to encourage fat utilization.
- During periods of high-intensity training, strategically fuel with carbohydrates immediately before, during, and immediately after training sessions.
- Return to a metabolically efficient, carbohydrate-reduced diet for the rest of the day (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner).