How stress quietly moves your numbers
Through one hormone. Cortisol and testosterone pull in opposite directions, so when stress stays high, testosterone tends to come down.
This one is well established. In a controlled study, raising cortisol produced a rapid drop in testosterone, acting directly on the testes.[1] Short bursts are fine, that is your system doing its job. The problem is stress that never switches off, because the body keeps prioritising the stress response over almost everything else.
Here is the good news from the same line of research: the effect is largely reversible. Bring the pressure down and testosterone tends to recover. Stress is one of the few inputs where the repair moves as fast as the damage.
It is also the input men miss most, because it does not feel physical the way a hangover or a short night does. There is nothing to point at the next morning. Which is exactly why seeing it tracked is worth something.
The quiet inputs are the ones worth watching.
Stress is the fourth input The Climb tracks, and usually the one hiding in plain sight.
- Cumming DC, Quigley ME, Yen SSC. Acute suppression of circulating testosterone levels by cortisol in men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1983;57(3):671–673.
The Climb puts sleep, alcohol, training and stress in one place, so you can see how your own week adds up.
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