Built For Pressure
The Difference in Men & Women’s Biology and How Men’s Body’s Thrive Under Stress (Why Training Shouldn’t Be One-Size-Fits-All)
A lot of modern fitness is built on a quiet assumption: a good program is a good program—period. But physiology doesn’t work that way. Men and women can both get strong, lean, resilient, and athletic… yet the inputs that produce the best results often differ because the underlying biology differs.
One of the clearest examples comes from a fascinating field study on testosterone that looks nothing like a lab treadmill test:
The “Chopping Wood” Testosterone Study (and what it actually found)
Researchers studied Tsimane men (a forager-horticulturalist population in the Bolivian Amazon) and measured salivary testosterone before and after one hour of intense tree-chopping—the kind of work done to clear horticultural plots. Testosterone rose significantly after the work bout: about a 48.6% increase on average (from ~201.9 pg/mL to ~300.0 pg/mL).
What makes this even more interesting: the same research group had previously measured testosterone responses around competitive soccer in the same population, and soccer produced a smaller average increase (~30.1%). In a direct comparison, the testosterone increase during tree chopping was statistically larger than during soccer.
So yes—hard, purposeful manual labor can spike testosterone at least as much as (and in this case more than) competitive sport.
Why would chopping wood raise testosterone?
The authors discuss this in a way that’s more “biology” than “macho myth”:
Testosterone is not just a “status” hormone—it’s also tightly linked to effort, muscle function, and energetic demand. In other words, when the body anticipates or experiences a bout of intense, whole-body work, an acute testosterone rise may support performance and tissue-level energy use.
In this study, testosterone rose with tree-chopping even though average heart rate wasn’t strongly associated with the testosterone change, suggesting it’s not simply “the higher your heart rate, the higher your T.” It may be more about the type of work: heavy, forceful, repetitive, large-muscle, and meaningful.
There’s also an “ultimate” framing in related Tsimane work: when men succeed in high-effort provisioning activities, testosterone and cortisol can rise at the moment of success and remain elevated as they return home—pointing to a neuroendocrine system that responds to demand + outcome. Men’s body’s respond well to the pressure to provide.
This matters for coaching because it reframes “pressure.” For many men, the right dose of pressure is not harmful—it’s organizing: it can sharpen focus, improve mood, and build confidence because the nervous system finally has a clear job to do.
The bigger pattern: acute stress (done right) can be anabolic; chronic stress is not
Exercise is a stressor. The goal is not to avoid stress—it’s to apply a useful stress followed by enough recovery.
A meta-analysis of studies on men shows that physical exercise can acutely increase testosterone, though the size and duration of the change depend on factors like intensity, training status, time of day, and the specific protocol.
But here’s the key distinction:
Acute, time-boxed challenge → signal to adapt (build/repair)
Chronic, never-ending strain (poor sleep, overtraining, under-eating, constant work stress) → cortisol stays high, recovery suffers, and testosterone’s “benefits” can get blunted
There’s even classic work showing that high cortisol can interfere with testosterone’s influence on dominance/competitive behavior, highlighting that the testosterone story is always happening inside a broader stress physiology context.
So what kinds of “pressure” tend to work best for men?
Think: whole-body output, short-to-moderate duration, and obvious progress markers. “Chopping wood” is basically a perfect template: forceful, rhythmic, loaded, purposeful, and done in a finite window.
Here are practical, modern equivalents—organized by what they train:
1) Heavy strength work (high intent, not endless volume)
Low-to-moderate reps, heavier loads, longer rest
Big patterns: squat/hinge/push/pull/carry
This aligns with the reality that testosterone is a major driver of strength and hypertrophy signaling in men in response to resistance training.
Examples:
Trap bar deadlifts
Weighted pull-ups
Bench press / overhead press
Heavy rows
Farmer carries (more on those below)
2) Loaded carries (the closest gym version of “work”)
Carries are “honest stress”: they light up trunk, grip, gait, and conditioning without needing fancy programming.
Examples:
Farmer carry: 30–60 seconds, 4–8 rounds
Sandbag bear-hug carry
Sled drags (forward/backward)
3) Short, intense conditioning (not “grind cardio”)
Many men do well with conditioning that’s hard but brief—think sprint intervals, hill repeats, or heavy prowler pushes.
There’s research showing certain HIIT-style protocols can shift the testosterone/cortisol balance acutely (context matters, and results vary by population and protocol).
Examples:
10 x 15-second bike sprints (easy pedal between)
6–10 hill sprints (walk back recovery)
Prowler pushes: 6–10 hard trips of 15–25 meters
4) Competitive outlets (carefully dosed)
Competition can change testosterone and cortisol in both sexes; outcomes (win/lose), meaning, and “stakes” influence the response.
Examples:
Pickup basketball/soccer
Timed rowing intervals with a buddy
“Beat your last score” circuits (competition against self)
Why men and women often need different movement plans
This isn’t about capability—it’s about stress dosing and rhythm.
Men (on average) have higher baseline testosterone and greater lean mass, and many respond very well to intensity + recovery with clear performance targets.
Women (on average) have different endocrine dynamics (including cyclical variation), and many do best with training that accounts for total life stress, recovery capacity, and phase-based adjustments—especially around high-intensity volume, impact, and under-fueling.
So a smart model is:
Men: “Pressure exposure” as a primary tool (lift heavy, sprint short, carry loads)
Women: “Stress-smart progression” (still lift and sprint—just with more deliberate volume management, recovery, and cycle-aware planning)
So let’s start training according to biology.
References
Trumble BC, et al. Age-independent increases in male salivary testosterone during horticultural activity among Tsimane forager-farmers. Evolution and Human Behavior (2013).
UC Santa Barbara. Anthropologists study testosterone spikes in non-competitive activities (tree chopping vs soccer). (2013).
D’Andrea S, et al. Physical exercise acutely affects testosterone levels in men: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (2020).
Vingren JL, et al. Testosterone physiology in resistance exercise and training. (2010).
Jiménez M, et al. Effects of victory and defeat on testosterone and cortisol (sport competition evidence; both sexes). (2012).
Jiménez M, et al. Competition seriousness and level modulate testosterone and cortisol responses in soccer players. (2020).
University of Texas at Austin. Stress hormone (cortisol) can block testosterone’s effects in dominance/competition contexts. (2010).
Trumble BC, et al. Successful hunting increases testosterone and cortisol in a subsistence population. Proc. R. Soc. B (2014; PMC full text).