#33

Squats & your sex drive: Why every man needs to lift heavy on legs 🦵

I was at the gym last week and watched a guy do four sets of bicep curls, jump on the cable rope, smash the lat pulldown, walk past the squat rack TWICE, and head straight for the door.

You’ve seen this guy. In fact, you might even BE this guy.

Big chest, big arms with toothpick .legs that look like they belong to someone else entirely.

We’ve all skipped legs at some point. Training them hurts. Working out legs is one of those things that humble you, and nothing makes you feel weaker than walking down the stairs the morning after a heavy squat session.

But here’s the reality of what you need to do. If you’re not going heavy on legs at least once a week, you are leaving real progress on the table. And no, we’re not just talking about how your jeans fit.

This isn’t an aesthetic argument

The case for strong legs goes way beyond looking proportional in shorts. It comes down to what happens inside your body when you put a heavy bar on your back. Your legs and glutes contain the largest muscles in your body. When you train them hard, your entire system gets engaged to handle the stress. That triggers a chemical response that affects everything from your sex drive to your sleep to your mood.

The two hormones at the centre of this are:

• Testosterone
• Growth Hormone

These are the foundation of male vitality. They drive your strength, energy, libido, muscle growth, fat loss, recovery, and motivation. Heavy leg work is one of the most reliable ways a man can naturally keep them firing.

What the science actually shows

A widely cited study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology by Kraemer and colleagues followed two groups of men, one in their thirties and one in their sixties, through a 10-week heavy resistance programme built around the back squat. Both groups saw their squat strength and thigh muscle size go up and saw acute spikes in testosterone and growth hormone after their sessions.

The younger group had a stronger hormonal response, but the older men still benefited significantly. The point is simple. Heavy squats, regardless of age, trigger a meaningful endocrine response.

A separate study compared the same volume of work performed with the free-weight squat versus the leg press machine. Men doing free-weight squats had significantly higher post-workout testosterone and growth hormone than those on the machine.

Same muscles. Same effort. Bigger hormonal output.

Now I know you are thinking, what is the reason behind this? Well, the barbell squat forces you to stabilise, brace, and coordinate your whole body. The machine does some of that work for you. That extra demand is exactly what tells your body to release more of the hormones, and that is what makes the difference.

Why your sex drive is on the line

Testosterone has a strong and well-established relationship with libido in men. The Massachusetts Male Aging Study, which followed more than 1,600 men across 15 years, consistently found a significant correlation between testosterone levels and self-reported sexual desire.

The conversation goes something like this:

• Low testosterone = low libido, low energy, low drive
• Healthy testosterone = healthy desire, sharper focus, better recovery, more ambition

Now let’s be honest about the nuance. No single workout permanently raises your baseline testosterone overnight. That comes from a combination of muscle mass, low body fat, deep sleep, low chronic stress, and consistent heavy training over time.

But heavy compound leg work nudges every single one of those needles in the right direction at the same time.

Building more muscle, burning more fat, putting your body under productive stress, sleeping deeper and having better recovery supports you having a healthier hormonal profile. As a result, you function better as a man.

A story worth telling

I have a friend, let’s call him Marcus.

38 years old. Married with two kids. Runs his own business. Has been training consistently for over a decade.

About a year ago, Marcus tweaked his lower back on a heavy deadlift. Nothing serious, but enough to scare him. So he stopped squatting. Stopped deadlifting. Stopped going heavy on anything that involved his legs. He kept showing up to the gym, kept hitting upper body, did some cardio, threw in some light leg machines. But the heavy stuff? Off the table.

For about four months, he didn’t really notice anything. He was still training. Still in decent shape.

Then it crept in.

He felt flat. Tired by mid-afternoon. His sleep got worse. His mood dipped. He had no edge. His wife jokingly pointed out that his interest in the bedroom had dropped off a cliff.

He went to the doctor and got his bloods done and found out his testosterone was the lowest it had been in years. The doctor told him nothing was medically wrong, but to look hard at his lifestyle, his stress, his sleep, and his training.

Marcus went back to basics. He hired a coach. Fixed his form. And slowly, week by week, brought heavy squats and deadlifts back into his routine. Once a week. Just one heavy leg session.

Within 8 weeks, his energy was back. His sleep improved. His drive returned. He felt like himself again. Was heavy leg training the only factor? Of course not. But it was a critical missing piece, and acknowleding this allowed him to correct it.

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How to actually do this

You don’t need to chase a 200kg back squat to get the benefits. What you do need is to:

• Train legs at least once a week, ideally twice
• Hit one big compound lift per session: back squat, front squat, Bulgarian split squat or even deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts as they have similar benefits
• Train in a challenging rep range. Sets of 5 to 8 reps that genuinely test you. Not sets of 20 you could finish during a Netflix episode
• Get your form right BEFORE you load the bar. Ego lifting is how you end up like Marcus, sitting in the doctor’s office at 38
• Train hard, recover harder. Eat protein, sleep 7 plus hours, manage your stress

That’s it. No magic. No supplements. No secret routine.

Just heavy weight, big movements, consistent effort.

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The Man Daily Way

Heavy leg training is not optional.

It is one of the highest-leverage things a man can do for his body, his hormones, and his life.

Skip it, and you are choosing to leave testosterone, growth hormone, energy, libido, and longevity on the table.

• Lift heavy on legs at least once a week
• Prioritise compound movements with proper form
• Train hard, recover harder
• Trust the science, but feel the difference for yourself

Strong legs build strong men.

The proof is in the data, the mirror, and the bedroom.

That’s The Man Daily way