We touched upon exercise in How to Grow More Facial Hair, Part 1, but we wanted to expand on why staying active is so important to keeping yourself beard strong, and show you the best workouts to get the beard (and body) you want. If you’re already following our advice to eat healthy, hair growth-enhancing foods, then exercise is how you'll drill all those nutrients into your hair follicles, helping to create a magnificent face forest.
Read on for how to use exercise to your beard-growing advantage.
Remember to check out the other parts in this series!
Part 1: Fueling From the Inside Out
Part 2: Skincare and Facial Massage
Train Like a Beast
Exercise improves your metabolic rate and circulation, both of which are vital to keeping your weight normal and your body healthy. Since vitamins and food get to your hair and skin through your blood, improved blood circulation means your body can effectively carry these nutrients up to your hair follicles to stimulate hair growth.
The benefits of exercise are twofold: the act of exercise increases testosterone, while shedding excessive weight further boosts testosterone.
Best exercises to improve testosterone:
Short, intense exercise like lifting weights and HIIT (high-intensity interval training). Focus on the major muscle groups: legs, back, and chest. Legs are the most important to train because they are the largest muscle group.
Excellent strength training moves to boost testosterone include the squat, bench press, deadlift, and leg press.
HIIT workouts vary greatly in content, but they can be categorized into three types:
- Tabata – 20 seconds of work alternated with 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times for a total of four minutes.
- Power intervals – Used for cardio such as walking, swimming and running. 90 seconds of work alternated with 30 seconds of rest.
- Turbulence training – 8 reps of weight training alternated with 1-2 minutes of high intensity cardio. Repeated for up to 45 minutes.
Visit Men’s Health for more information on HIIT workouts as well as a couple of sample workouts.
Visit Bodybuilding.com for strength training workouts.
If you already know that super intense exercise is not going to make it into your regular routine, just choose an activity you like and do it every day. Any exercise is better than no exercise.
Working out reduces stress, improving your health and making it easier to rid yourself of toxins.
A Word on Stress
Cortisol (a hormone secreted in response to stress) reduces testosterone, and chronic stress means male hormone levels suffer.
Stress is a major cause of hair loss because it constricts blood vessels, causing the hair root to receive fewer nutrients.
Even if you’re pressed for time, you can still take small steps to manage stress, like using an app called Calm, which guides you through meditation. The Tabata HIIT intervals mentioned above are also fast and efficient ways to relax.
