Have you ever wanted to read a book that systemically crushes – with scientific evidence – the biggest myths of the fitness & nutrition industry? That teaches you a sane easily doable way of constantly slashing the pounds without feeling “trapped” to stupid industry myths such as; “You have to eat six small meals a day to stoke the metabolic fire”?
 
Well, Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat claims to do so. The book is in short, a big research review of the literature behind things like how many meals a day do you have to eat to lose weight? How does fasting affect your muscle mass and metabolic rate? What are the hormonal changes that happen during fasting, overfeeding, starvation? What about supplements?
 
Those questions and many many more will be broken down with the author who holds a masters degree in nutrition, and actually worked in the supplements industry for quite some years before starting his entrepreneurial journey as an author…
 
…But the big question is, does Eat Stop Eat Work?
 
 
 

How Good is Eat Stop Eat?

On a personal level, I really like Eat Stop Eat, and I feel like it in a way actually shaped my dietary habits for the rest of my life. Allow me to explain.
 
In 2013, I spent a year in military. Every morning at ~5:30AM we were woken up, and 10 minutes later we were marching to the cafeteria for breakfast. This whole ordeal – the march, the organizing in the yard before heading in, the actual eating, organizing when we exited the building, and marching back to the unit – took roughly 1 hour each and every morning…
 
…After six months, when I got promoted to a squad leader (sub-sergeant in Finland) and new recruits entered the facilities, I was in a situation where it was no longer mandatory to go to the cafeteria under supervision of higher ranks. At this point I got a majestic idea. What if I didn’t eat breakfast? This way I would get 1 extra hour of sleep every morning!
 
Then it hit me. What happens to my muscle mass? Will my metabolic rate slow down? Breakfast has always been said to be the most important meal of the day, would it harm me to skip it?
 
Luckily, that’s when I did some research on the subject and eventually found Brad Pilon’s blog and through there I purchased the Eat Stop Eat PDF. The book itself which is jam-packed with easy-to-read science and study breakdowns allowed me to understand the real truth behind short-term fasting, skipping breakfast, and what would all this “intermittent fasting” be doing to my muscle mass and metabolic rate.
 
I don’t know how to really explain it, but in a nutshell, reading Eat Stop Eat gave me some sort of “relief” from the bullshit claims of the fitness & nutrition industry, and I now had the actual research to back-up and justify my habit of skipping breakfast and eating when I felt like it, not when some “fitness expert” told I had to.
 
 
The Pros:
The book is HEAVILY based on solid human research (339 citations) with quality studies and no cherry-picking
As a former fitness & supplement industry “behind the curtains” man, Pilon really knows how to crush the myths and marketing tactics
Even though the book is based on science, it’s still really easy to read and comprehend even if you’re not a nutritionist or a medical doctor
The book has its own chapter for the diets effect on testosterone levels – for men – this is hugely important knowledge to attain
If you ever wanted to know anything about intermittent fasting, it’s likely that you will find it in the Eat Stop Eat PDF
The info doesn’t just stop at the nutrition stuff, there are really good chapters about hormones, lifestyle, and exercise too

The Cons:
Bit too much emphasis on 24-hour weekly fasts, not much about other beneficial intermittent fasting types (16:8 or 20:4 for example)
The sales copy of the book is bit cheesy, at least when compared to what it was few years ago (doesn’t change the quality of the PDF)
After you purchase the main book, you will be pitched few add-on items, it can be intrusive, although you don’t have to buy them
Having a big impact on body composition (not much on weight loss), I would of have liked to see more info about macronutrient splits
 

A: In terms of the science, size, and price point, there’s really nothing that comes close to the value of the Eat Stop Eat program. It actually might just be the most comprehensive manual of “how to really lose weight”, and also a huge resource about all things related to intermittent fasting and even long-term fasting.
 
One e-book with a similar theme (intermittent fasting) that comes close is the Aggressive Fat Loss 2.0 by Greg O’Gallagher, but although AFL 2.0 is a fantastic program to follow that will also give guaranteed results, it doesn’t offer nearly as much content and scientific citations as Eat Stop Eat does. However, if you’re looking for a more faster read with clear-cut info on what to do and how to do it, then I would opt for AFL 2.0.
 
Then there’s also the “Warrior Diet” and the popular “5:2 Diet” which both have somewhat similar theme and ideas, but neither comes even close to Pilon’s work.
 
A: According to some doctors and also some personal stories of my readers, people with adrenal fatigue (ie. too low or abnormally cycled cortisol secretion from the adrenal glands) do not do well on diets that involve fasting (causes increased lethargy, and seems to worsen the symptoms). Other than that, people of all ages with no known adrenal issues seem to do really well on diets that involve short-term fasting. As you’ll learn from the research in the book, even diabetics do really well on this type of nutritional approach.
 
A: As I mentioned above, there are some options to buy add-ons after your purchase of the main book (which also includes a quickstart guide), some of these were: an audiobook version, email research review newsletter, etc. So they’re not necessarily bonuses since they increase the cost, but they do compliment the main program.
 
 
 

Conclusion

Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon – .
 
I was first thinking of giving Eat Stop Eat a 4 ½ star rating. However if you look at the cons, basically the only downfalls of the program are related to the sales page and upsell pushing, which doesn’t really take anything away from the quality of the main book.
 
Does it work? Worked for me, not that I always follow the Eat Stop Eat style fasting-feeding pattern, but I’ve taken a lot of the research and info from the book into my own nutrition, and for anyone who still believes the age old fit industry B.S, this book is a true eye opener.
 
Click Here to Read More about Eat Stop Eat  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Would you like to know what kind of damage you are doing to your body by sitting on your ass all day long? I mean that’s what most of us humans do, we’re constantly sitting. But did you know how this affects the muscles of your pelvic region, your blood flow, your posture, and even your stress levels and hormones?
 
According to Rick Kaselj’s ‘Unlock your Hip Flexors’ program, tight hip flexors (or psoas as is their right name) are extremely common, and will without a shade of doubt lead to poor posture, back pain, impaired circulation to the pelvic region & legs, sub-par range of motion during exercise, and even hormonal changes.
 
The question is, how much of this is true and does the program really help you unlock and release your tight psoas muscles?
 
 
 

How Good is ‘Unlock your Hip Flexors’ Really?

I don’t normally care that much about stuff that is related to stretching, and you might wonder what is this kind of review even doing in a natural T-optimization blog, so allow me to explain how I got into reading the program.
 
I used to be really athletic as a kid and had absolutely no problems with general mobility or any muscle pain, but when I got to around 15-years of age, I for some reason just started playing on the computer and Playstation A LOT.
 
So much so, that in a year my posture had gotten to a pretty bad state, so bad that my father decided it was a time for me to go see a physiotherapist, the kind physio-man then ran some tests on me and quickly concluded that I had something called “anterior pelvic tilt”, which means that my pelvis was tilted in to a “forward” position, causing my back to round and my ass to look like one of Donald Duck’s.
 
As you might guess, I was “prescribed” a set of stretches, and sent home. I did the stretches for few weeks, didn’t notice a difference, and then just stopped…
 
Few years after that, I got interested in bodybuilding and hitting the gym. I gained some mass, got pretty strong, and then at some point started noticing that my lower back was always pretty sore after working out legs and back, and that my range of motion wasn’t good enough on many important movements, which eventually got me into thinking that my “anterior pelvic tilt” was probably still causing problems. After all, I never really fixed it.
 
That’s when I decided to really take matters into my own hands and started doing research on what caused the problem and to fix it. This eventually led me into a conclusion that I had really tight hip flexors (as the physiotherapist had concluded too), and that I need to find a sustainable way to get them back to normal flexibility. Aaand that’s precisely when I found out the Unlock your Hip Flexors program.
 
 
The pros of the program:
The main PDF is 63-pages long and clearly explains the functions of the psoas and why it’s one of the most important muscles in the body
Includes static & dynamic stretches, mobility exercises, fascia stretches, muscle activation movements, core exercises, and PNF stretching
The program was simple enough to do daily, since it only consists of 10 clearly demonstrated steps and takes about ~10 minutes
It simply worked for me, and a big positive was that I didn’t just quit on it like I did on the physiotherapists routine
The program itself has a FaceBook following of over 250,000 people, indicating that it has worked for other people too
Unlock Your Hip Flexors is really cheap and comes with a no-questions asked 60 day money back guarantee
The author is a certified specialist in sports injuries
 
The cons of the program:
The claims that tight psoas will ruin your life and that you MUST unlock them are ridiculous, I lived just fine with them for years
After your purchase you will be pitched A LOT of add-ons including: 101 anti-aging foods, pain prevention for knees, shoulders, neck, etc
The claim that tight psoas will eventually increase the rate of fat storage in the body is fairly dumb and seems to be just a sales tactic
 
A: There are many many stretching programs – paid and free – on the internet and in book stores. Many of them only focus on static stretching and fail to properly explain the biomechanics of the actual muscle and why you should stretch it in correct ways. On this aspect, I’d say that Unlock your Hip Flexors is one of the best ones around.
 
A mobility program that is somewhat similar to this one is called Becoming a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kerry Starrett, it’s a really good book (perhaps even better), but more focused on athletes and covers a lot of more body parts than just the hip flexors. If you’re looking for a program that improves your full-body mobility and athletic performance, I would go for Starrett’s book. However if you’re more interested in specifically the muscles of the pelvic region, opt for Kaselj’s Unlock your Hip Flexors PDF.
 
A: As I mentioned above, there are a lot of options to buy add-ons after your purchase of the main book. However there are also two free items that come for free with the purchase of the actual program, they are: “the 7 day anti-inflammatory diet e-book” and “unlock your hamstrings manual”.
 
A: Obviously if you’re already very mobile and don’t sit a lot, then you probably don’t need to stretch your psoas and have no use for a program like this.
 
 
 

Conclusion

Unlock your Hip Flexors by Rick Kaselj – .
 
In my opinion the Unlock your Hip Flexors PDF deserves a rating of 4 stars. It’s a good solid program that will guarantee results for people who actually perform the movements, it’s also relatively cheap and comes with a full 60 day money back guarantee.
 
The reason why it doesn’t get full 5-stars is because of the ridiculous pushing of the add-on items after purchase (these could be all made into one more broad book). There’s also too many unproven claims about the benefits of well-stretched psoas that are probably just part of the sales tactics (they don’t really take anything away of the effectiveness of the actual program though).
 
Click Here to Read More about Unlock your Hip Flexors  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Paleo is all the rage right now, and has been for few years. Whether you’re part of the ‘movement’ or hate all dietary trends like this, you can’t escape the fact that the food recommendations related to the paleo diet are – for the most part – incredibly healthy choices in terms of overall health and hormonal function.
 
The Paleo Grubs Cookbook claims to be the best and also largest resource of recipes for anyone seeking to prepare foods that the caveman could of have eaten (as that is basically what paleo is all about). With its staggering 470 recipes (yes that’s right four hundred seventy) in 17 different categories and for different skill levels of the chef, it’s easy to say that the book is likely the largest installment of paleo recipes in one book…
 
…But is it any good and should you even care about paleo foods in the first place?
 
 
 

How Good is the Paleo Grubs Cookbook?

I generally hate it when some diet grows to near cult-like following, which is exactly what has happened with paleo, largely thanks to the website; Mark’s Daily Apple. Like in many “hip” things the paleo crowd sometimes makes reckless claims about the benefits, but surprisingly, there’s also many good aspects to the diet.
 
Paleo eating in a nutshell means that you’re consuming foods that would of have been available to the humans of the paleolithic era, an era which ended roughly ~11,000 years ago.
 
This meaning that the idea of the diet is basically to consume no grains, no – to very little – dairy products, no omega-6 laden seed & vegetable oils, and basically nothing that is heavily processed.
 
A diet like that is often claimed to; boost weight loss, cure and relief many autoimmune diseases, relieve constipation and bloating, help with cravings, reduce chronic inflammation, and be generally super-healthy.
 
To be completely honest, the claims of paleo diet increasing the rate of weight loss are ABSOLUTELY bullshit. There’s a mountain of evidence which shows very clearly that weight loss is – and will always be – all about the caloric intake. No matter how “clean” the diet, it never really makes a significant difference. Does it relieve autoimmune diseases then? It might, in cases which the disease is triggered by compounds found in grains, pesticides, man-made chemicals, or dairy products, though it’s not scientifically sound to claim that the paleo diet would cure any autoimmune diseases…
 
…Does it help with constipation? Maybe, depends on what “paleo” foods you eat and how your body reacts to them, this is highly specific. The chronic inflammation thing is relatively accurate, since when you reduce refined grains and omega-6 fatty acids from the diet, your system generally responds with lower amounts of inflammation biomarkers (study, study). And lastly, In terms of overall health and hormone function, paleo is very close to what I’d call “optimal”.
 

The paleo diet is no ‘magic-pill’ but it’s simply a pretty healthy way to eat with its high amount of whole foods and micronutrient dense food items.

 
Now what about the book? Well the book is a massive resource of recipes that’s one thing. 470 to be exact. With a quick glance thorough, all the recipes seem to be in-line with the “general paleo rules”. Some of the recipes do require talent in the kitchen, but bulk of the instructions are easily doable even if you’re not Masterchef material. The recipes seem to be incredibly tasty (I only tried the Shepherd’s pie and few of the slow-cooker recipes which were A+ IMHO), and visually very very pleasing. It’s likely that you will find the “paleo version” of your favorite foods in this book.
 
With the good there’s also some bad stuff. One of the biggest cons of the Paleo Grubs Cookbook is the fact that none of the recipes has its nutritional information listed (ie. calories, macronutrients, micronutrients). This is a massive let-down for people who count and track calories and macronutrients, aka. people who know how to lose or gain weight. Sure you can count them yourself from by combining the info from all of the isolated ingredients in the recipes, but seriously, if you write a fucking cookbook you should go the extra-mile to actually list the nutritional values.
 
The book also lacks any other content aside from the recipes. In fact that’s what the main cookbook seems to be all about. Recipes and recipes only (a lot of them though). It would of have been easy to add few pages of info about why paleo foods would be healthy? Little bit info about the authors, etc to the beginning, but for some reason there isn’t anything like that.
 
Pros:
With the purchase you will get plenty of bonuses (more about those below)
470 recipes in 17 categories means that you will not be at shortage of options
The cookbook comes with ClickBank’s full 60-day no questions asked money back guarantee.
The sales page & book won’t make any claims about weight loss, which is great since you need a calorie deficit to do that
The recipes use wholesome natural ingredients, which will improve health (at least for the people coming from “standard Western diet”)
If you’re interested in paleo or simply want to make food that is as “real” as possible, this cookbook is the last one you’ll ever need
 
Cons:
The low-carb ideology of paleo needs to die, our ancestors ate plenty of carbs and carbohydrates are essential for many bodily functions
With the book and bonuses you will get no info whatsoever about the benefits and possible negative effects of paleo
The recipes have no nutritional label or any info about calories, this is a massive con for a cookbook…
There’s some Paleo Grubs Autoimmune book attached after your purchase, it only lists part of the recipes from the main book…
 

A: The internet and bookstores are SATURATED with paleo cookbooks. It seems as if every single paleo-blogger or paleo-athlete, etc suddenly has their own cookbook. I mean is this the only thing they figure out to sell? Cookbooks and only cookbooks? Fine enough, from the vast seas of paleo recipe books, this one is easily the biggest and by far best of the ones I’ve seen.
 
A: If you don’t like paleo foods, why buy a paleo cookbook? If on the other hand you either like paleo and/or wholesome natural foods & recipes, then this is perhaps the best cookbook around (as long as you’re not looking for nutritional values).
 
A: Aside from the main cookbook which had the 470 recipes, you will also get the auto-immune version which has part of those same recipes, supposedly for the auto-immune disease people? You will also receive “paleo desserts” book with 45 recipes, “paleo slow-cooker” book with also 45 recipes, and additional meal plans for 10 weeks.
 
 
 

Conclusion

The Paleo Grubs Cookbook – .
 
This book is good, it has tasty recipes, they’re relatively simple and easy to make for the most part, and you will for sure find some great tasting “paleo versions” of your favorite foods in the cookbook. However, the Paleo Grubs seriously falls short on the fact that it does not have any nutritional values for any of the recipes. Seriously this stuff needs to be there…
 
…I suspect that the lack of nutritional info has something to do with the fact that many of the followers of the paleo movement actually believe that you don’t have to care about calories or macronutrients when eating wholesome natural foods. Unfortunately that ain’t the truth. Aside from that, I would recommend the Paleo Grubs Cookbook.
 
Click Here to Read More about The Cookbook  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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What if you would get a full nutrition & workout program with specific exercise videos and all from a guy who not only has a honors degree in kinesiology, but also finished 11th in the 2012 Mr. Olympia competition? I mean heck, the guys is really one of the top elite bodybuilders in the world.
 
According to Ben Pakulski’s MI40 Pdf and exercise videos, his program is the best way out there to stimulate muscle growth, and he claims to follow the teachings himself. Knowing by the fact that he is one of the world’s elite bodybuilders – and literally trains in a laboratory where he is hooked up to all kinds of machinery – I guess it’s somewhat safe to assume that ‘B-pak’ knows a thing or two about building muscle.
 
Pakulski’s MI40 (Mass Intentions 40) is very popular, and also well marketed, but does it really deliver the cookies?
 
 
 

How Good is Ben Pakulski’s MI40?

Let’s cut the crap and move straight on to the fact that obviously, Ben Pakulski – and anyone who competes at such high levels of pro bodybuilding – use HIGH doses of all kinds of anabolic steroids.
 
There’s not a shade of doubt about that. If you even for a split second think that the amount of muscle Pakman is holding would be attainable naturally, then you’re officially out of your fucking mind. It is not, and will never be attainable via natural means. If someone claims that in an effort to sell you a supplement, program, powder, shake, book, freaking yoga mat, or whatever, run.
 
Now obviously Pakulski himself can’t state the obvious fact that he uses a lot of PED’s, since this would cause all of his sponsors to instantly turn around and run away…
 
…However, Pakulski is smart enough to indirectly answer the question on anyones lips right at the beginning of the MI40 training manual, as he states:
 
 
The funny thing is that the only reason why I even started reading Pakulski’s stuff, is because I was watching this documentary from Netflix few months ago, one by the name of Generation Iron. And in the documentary was B-Pak, training in the lab of the University of Tampa, hooked to all kinds of testing devices and seeking for that “perfect muscle stimulation” for each movement.
 
Here’s a short clip about that;
 
 
Now as I said above, a guy that himself holds a honors degree in kinesiology, and trains with a professor in a lab of an University, MUST know a few tricks about building muscle. This eventually was the reason why I bought his MI40 program.
 
I was bit worried about just receiving a bunch of info that was filled with bro-science and supplement ads from Ben’s sponsor, but was actually surprised to see a very solid all-around bodybuilding program with good nutrition information, sensible training methods, and proper rest patterns too. Though there was a supplement manual in the bundle, it was not filled with ads and useless stuff. In fact the supplements recommended were the basic – known to work stuff – such as creatine, BCAAs, whey, casein, omega-3’s, vitamins, and minerals. And they weren’t even from the brand that sponsors PakMan (All Max Nutrition).
 
For an overall look of the program: The nutrition part was pretty good for the goal of building lean mass, with a medium-high protein intake from balanced sources and no omitting from fats or carbs. The timing of the macronutrients makes sense, and it’s something that I’ve done personally for a while even before seeing Ben’s recommendations; carbs mostly post-workout and in the evening, etc. There were also meal plans for various amounts of calories so even a dumb-dumb can get something out of the nutrition manual.
 
As for the training stuff, that’s where the program really shines. Ben focuses on four important principles; a) time under tension b) neurological overload c) proper range of motion d) increasing the muscular ‘torque’. The set-rep schemes are good – even for natural lifters – and every exercise is clearly demonstrated in videos and pictures, with included (printable) workout sheets and even a workout calendar.
 
The Pros:
The nutrition info is pretty solid for anyone looking to build lean muscle mass
Written by a real elite bodybuilder who also happens to have a kinesiology degree
Like all digital products sold through ClickBank, MI40 has a no-questions asked 60-day money back guarantee
The amount of highly specific and actionable information that you receive with the program is somewhat mind-blowing
Training videos are really clear and simple to follow and if you don’t have time to watch videos, they’re also demonstrated in pictures
There’s an audiofile where Ben shares his “secrets” that helped him build muscle (obviously doesn’t mention the PEDs though)
I’ve been into bodybuilding all my life, Its easy to say that anyone who follows the program with a slight calorie surplus, gets great results
 
The Cons:
The’7 day detox’ manual is useless, you don’t need any gimmicks to detoxify your body, you have a liver, gall bladder, and kidneys for that
Despite most of the program being based on scientifically sound principles, parts of the nutrition manual end up being pretty broscientific
“Twice the muscle in half the time” is misleading, I hope you don’t suck so much before the program that you get 2x results doing ‘MI40’
The 7-hours of video material, along with hundreds of pages of written content, is in my opinion too much for a workout program
Like in many digitally sold products, you will be pitched multiple add-ons after your purhcase, this can be bit intrusive
 
A: I guess there are thousands of workout programs that we could compare the MI40 program to, since the fitness industry publishes new ‘revolutionary secrets’ and workout PDFs and so forth on pretty much a daily basis. Based on everything I’ve seen so far, B-pak’s program has a solid place in top-5…
 
…Despite the fact that Ben’s on a whole lot of steroids, his workout and nutrition info is pretty solid and something that will work with natural lifters too, also it’s quite rare to see a bodybuilder at this high level actually sharing his nutrition and workout info in such great detail.
 
A: Obviously this kind of a workout routine is nowhere near suitable for beginners. If you’re completely new to bodybuilding, I would advise at least few months of basic full-body training while learning good form and getting to know your body. There’s really no reason to get into this kind of “advanced” and somewhat specific tempo-timing-tension hi-fi stuff before having a solid foundation of strength to work with.
 
A: As I mentioned above, there are some options to buy add-ons after your purchase of the main program, which in itself includes the following products:

• The main nutrition and training manuals
• The 7-day detox and 7-day primer manuals
• ~7-hours of exercise videos with Pakulski coaching Vince Del Monte
• About 1-hour long audio file where Ben explains some “secrets” and a bit about himself
• 21-days of arms manual
• 8 Meal plans for calorie ranges between 2500 to 5000 kcal
• The supplement stack manual
• Printable workout sheets
• “Shakes” manual

 
 
 

Conclusion

MI40 by Ben Pakulski – .
 
The MI40 program is pretty solid, and easily one of the better bodybuilding programs available on the internet. Still, there are few things that are not supported by sound science, such as the meal timing claims and few things about carbs & insulin…
 
Does it work? Yes. For intermediate to advanced lifters. For anyone who’s just a beginner, I would not try this kind of program yet. I have a solid training program myself that has yielded great results month after month, so I wasn’t looking to change anything when I got the book. However, after reading the manuals and watching most of the exercise videos, I actually ended up adding few exercises and incorporating a lot of the teachings into my own program.
 
Click Here to Read More about the MI40  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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As a frequent AM reader you are more than likely already aware that resistance training is a great tool in increasing testosterone levels. However, there’s always a group of people who claim that the increases in testosterone and/or reductions in the stress hormone cortisol, would be short-lived, and that exercise wouldn’t change your resting levels of the hormones by any significance.
 
It’s normal to assume that, since in many studies, the effects are usually monitored for a day or two, and in these kinds of studies there’s usually an increase or decrease in testosterone (depending bit on the type of exercise and subjects), and then after sometime the levels fall back close to the baseline…
 
…So no matter how much you train, your hormonal baseline stays put, and the exercise induced hormonal changes are just acute, right?
 

Well, that’s a big no – at least if you ask the Spanish researchers, who found out that in newbie trainees, 4 weeks of strength training results in a significant 40% boost in RESTING testosterone, and -24% drop in RESTING cortisol.

 

4-Week Resistance Training Program Results in 40% More T

In 2006, Andrada et al. from the University of Extremadura, had 20 male volunteers (average age 22) with no prior experience with strength training. All of the subjects were tested and medically examined, so that there was no possibility of performance enhancing drug use to screw up the results.
 
After the medical examination, each of the volunteers were given a 4-week sub maximal strength training routine, which was to be conducted on three days of the week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). All the sessions were to be conducted at 12pm, and the use of any nutritional supplement during the 4-week period was forbidden.
 
The resistance training routine itself consisted of 7 basic exercises in the following order:
 

• 10-15 minute warm-up
• bench press
• seated-pulley
• knee extension
• behind-neck press
• leg press
• bicep curls
• tricep pull-downs

 
NOTE: All of the exercises were done in 3 sets of 10 reps, with 3 min recovery in-between the sets, and with a weight that was 70-75% of the trainees one-rep max (1-RM).
 
After a month with the program above, the results speak for themselves: even though right after the excercise there was acute reductions in T (likely because resistance training makes muscle cells absorb more androgens from the blood, and as a result the testosterone level goes down for a while), there was a statistically significant 40% increase in resting testosterone, and a -24% decrease in resting cortisol (the primary stress hormone).
 

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Over these few past years, the popularity of intermittent fasting or ‘IF’ has exploded. Though the patterns of short-term fasting are thousands of years of old, the idea of “skipping meals” or pushing them for later has only surfaced in the fitness world few years ago. This has raised a lot of eyebrows in the fitness community, and also surfaced a ton of myths.
 
The common misconception about short-term, aka. intermittent fasting is that it would be just another fad-diet that soon goes away. The problem with that ideology is that IF was never a diet, it doesn’t tell you about foods to eat, nor about foods not to eat, or even about any macronutrient ratios.
 
Intermittent fasting can be done with maintenance calories, calorie deficit, or with a caloric surplus, you can do it even if you don’t track your caloric intake at all. That’s simply because intermittent fasting is all about meal timing. More specifically, about spending more time in a fasted state than we usually do.
 
There are many different popular patterns of IF, including;
 

— The LeanGains method from Martin Berkhan, which is basically 16:8 or 16-hours of the day in a fasted state (no calories, just water, black coffee, tea, etc) and 8-hours of the day in fed state (consume all your calories)
— Greg O’Gallagher’s fasting patterns that are seen in many of his KinoBody programs usually have a more relaxed approach to fasting (skip breakfast, push your first meal closer to noon/evening).
— Dave Asprey’s BulletProof Intermittent Fasting pattern tries to tell you that you’re in a fasted state after consuming a breakfast coffee with ~400 kcal worth of butter and MCT oil, the idea is a huge failure but the “butter coffee is so awesome” minions love it…
— Brad Pilon’s popular Eat Stop Eat method introduced us to the 24-hour fasts that are done 1-2 times per week while eating normally for the rest of the days
— Ori Hofmekler’s Warrior Diet introduced an approach of 20:4 with one massive meal per day

 
NOTE: After doing IF for roughly 3 years now, I can say that all of the patterns above – with he exception of the BulletProof method – do work. Whether you use one of those or craft your own is just a matter of preference. Just remember that true weight loss/gain always comes down to the caloric balance, not necessarily meal timing.
 
What about the common IF myths? Let’s check out some research to bust three of them:
 
 
 
 

1. Intermittent Fasting Lowers Testosterone

Because of the fact that you need to eat adequate amounts of macronutrients (protein, carbs fats), sufficient amount of micronutrients (vitamins & minerals), and good amount of calories for your body to produce testosterone, it makes a lot of sense that many myths pair short-term fasting with lowered testosterone levels.
 
If we look at the research, it’s true that longer fasts do lower testosterone levels. For instance one study found out that on the 3rd day of fasting, morning testosterone levels start to gradually decrease. Another study noted that 84-hour fast was also associated with lowered testosterone levels…
 
…Then there’s one study that went all extreme on the topic as the subjects fasted for 10 consecutive days, as to be expected T-levels started to decrease. However, only at the 9th day did the drop in testosterone become significant.
 
That’s right 9-days with no food. And get this, after the 10-days of fasting the subjects were allowed to eat again (only a mere 1,500kcal/day), and once ‘they re-feeded’ testosterone levels shot up and were notably higher than the baseline from where the men had started ten days earlier. The researchers suggest that this “rebound” effect is related to androgen sensitivity (receptors becoming more sensitive towards male hormones), and indeed this similar effect where the body becomes more responsive towards testosterone, has been noted in a Swedish fasting study in 1989.
 
Well that’s for longer fasts? What about intermittent fasting?
 
If we take a look at the studies in which the subjects really fasted in a short-term “IF style”, we see that during 21-days, short-term fasting does not lower T-levels by a bit, and that short-term fasts still trigger those positive effects in androgen-sensitivity.
 
 
 
 
 

2. IF Slows Down Metabolic Rate

“Eat at least six small-meals per day to stoke the metabolic fire”
 
the myth of meal-frequency doing ANYTHING to metabolic rate is one of the most prevalent in the fitness circles. We are constantly bombarded with these claims that in order for your body to not enter the dreaded “starvation mode”, you need to be eating a steady supply of meals thorough the day.
 
Nothing could be further from the truth. There’s an endless pile of research to support the fact that the amount of daily meals – when overall caloric intake is kept the same – does not affect the rate of your metabolism.
 
A meta-analysis of multiple studies on the topic, found out that when two eating habits are compared for their effects on 24-hour energy expenditure, it makes absolutely no difference whether you “nibble” the foods thorough the day, or “gorge” all of your calories in one sitting. Another review study scanned through 176 studies, to conclude that there is no relation with meal-frequency, metabolic rate, and weight loss.
 
One study actually put their subjects into a metabolic chamber for 36-hours to see what happens to resting metabolic rate when the subjects eat either 3 meals or 14 meals with the exact same overall caloric content. As to be expected, there were no significant differences in resting energy expenditure between the groups. However a slightly increased rate of metabolism was observed in the group that ate LESS frequently.
 
One study on fasting showed that it took 72-hours of complete fasting to achieve a measly 8% drop in metabolic rate. That’s your starvation mode right there, scary right? I wish I never have to experience anything that crazy. I mean 8% reduction after 72-hours of water-fasting? Sounds like complete metabolic annihilation to me…
 
 
 
 

3. Intermittent Fasting Breaks Muscle

Having a lot of muscle is a great thing, it makes you look awesome, it makes you strong, it has a positive impact on your metabolic rate, is super healthy, and it surely amps up your confidence.
 
Because of that, it’s understandable how many guys are downright scared to lose all of their gains if they don’t eat multiple small meals a day, hitting their protein targets with all of them.
 
If you ask any average gym-rat, what would happen to the body after 16-24 hours of fasting, the answer would be a resounding “muscle loss!”. Now what we have there is an OPINION and usually from someone who has NO EXPERIENCE in the topic of fasting. If we want to know the real facts behind that question, we obviously resort to scientific studies with an open mind, not to some bro with a broken one.
 
Let’s start from this 2009 study which showed that intermittent fasting – when compared to standard eating pattern – did not increase, nor decrease, muscle breakdown rate. In other words, it did not matter whether the subjects ate their calories thorough the day, or in a much smaller window.
 
Even more surprising research comes from these two studies, which showed that after 72-hours of water fasting, muscle breakdown rate DID NOT increase from the baseline, and protein synthesis DOES NOT slow down.
 
The point here is that even if you would fast for long periods of time or be on a very low-calorie diet for extended period of time, your muscle mass will not melt away, AS LONG AS YOU USE IT. Yes that’s right, as long as you do some form of regular resistance training, which actives muscle mass, it will not melt away.
 
This has been neatly shown in a 12-week study on both men and women when they were only eating ~800 kcal/day with ~80g’s of protein in their daily meals. When they exercised 3 times per week with free-weights they did not lose muscle mass (a group in the study that did not train with weights, but instead did some cardio, ended up losing a whopping 9lbs of muscle mass).
 
Another study with obese men as subjects had the guys going on with only 1,000 kcal/day for a grueling 16-weeks and get this; they lost an average of 20-pounds fat, with no muscle loss. Why? Because they trained with weights 3x per week. Similar muscle preserving results were also seen in women who were put on extremely low-calorie diet for the same amount of time (they also did resistance training).
 

This goes directly in to the face of the fearmongering fitness industry – who want to keep you believing that unless you guzzle down the protein shakes every 3 hours – your gains are goners forever.

 
But wait a second, if low-calorie dieting and even 72-hours of fasting don’t cause muscle loss, what does?
 
The answer is simple; inactivity. If you’re on a diet and you don’t use the muscle, it’s likely that you will end up losing some along with the fat. On all the studies above, the subjects were doing resistance training, but with those extreme deficits, if they wouldn’t have trained with weights, muscle loss would of have been inevitable. Have you ever noticed how bed-ridden people – even if they eat a lot – tend to lose a lot of muscle mass, especially in parts of the body that are casted? That’s the result of not using the muscle tissue, aka. the real cause of muscle loss.
 
There’s also another group of people who lose a lot of mass even if they exercise, and even if they stay active, and usually even if they eat a caloric surplus. That is, the people who stop using anabolic steroids after acquiring massive amounts of muscle on gear. When the body can’t meet the demand of anabolic hormones that used to come from an exogenous source (injections, gels, patches, oral steroids, etc) it gets to be really hard to “maintain the frame” naturally.
 
Bottom line: As long as you’re hitting the weights and/or not thinking about getting off of anabolic steroids after long-term use, there’s no reason to worry about muscle loss. Not if you’re fasting, and not even if you’re doing a low-calorie diet. It’s simply the inactivity and not using the lean tissue that “melts” it, and that has been proven by science, not by opinions of an average gym-rat.
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

If short-term fasting would cause muscle loss, reduced testosterone levels, or slow down the metabolic rate, I would of not have done it for the past 3 years or so.
 
It has been clearly proved in scientific research that as long as you do some sort of regular resistance training and are not a complete idiot when it comes to self-control, you will survive perfectly fine by fasting intermittently.
 
With that being said, if you disagree with any of the above or have any studies that challenge the ones presented above, please do link them in the comments section.
 
NOTE: A lot of the studies above were pulled from Brad Pilon’s fantastic book, Eat Stop Eat.

The post 3 Big Myths about Intermittent Fasting that Just Need to Die Already appeared first on Anabolic Men.

This might be a weird topic, but it’s a fact that you will likely increase your testosterone levels, while slashing estrogen, by changing your everyday personal care items (toothpaste, shampoos, soaps, deodorants, etc) to chemical-free and natural alternatives. This effect is largely due to lower exposure to endocrine disruptors.
 
That’s right, there can be an absolutely ridiculous amount of estrogen mimics and anti-androgenic endocrine system disrupting chemicals in your everyday convenience-store bought personal care items.
 
these include (but are not limited to);

• Parabens (methyl-, butyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, heptyl-, etc) which are preservatives used in nearly all kinds of cosmetics, such as; sun lotions, moisturizers, personal-lubricants, shampoos, shaving gels, toothpaste, and even as food additives. They’re classified as xenoestrogens, and can have a weak affinity to estrogen receptors in the body.
• Phthalates which are commonly used to make plastics more flexible, but they are also used as stabilizers and emulsifying agents in many personal care items. Increased urinary phthlate traces have been strongly correlated with decreased testosterone in men, women, and children.
• Benzophenones (BP-1, BP-2, BP-3…) which are permeability enhancing UV-stabilizers are used in a wide range of personal care items, but most commonly in sunscreens. Concerns have been raised of their effect in reducing the activity of enzymes needed in testosterone production. This has been studied for BP-1, BP-2, and BP-3.
• Triclosan and Triclocarban, both of which are antibacterial agents found in many antibacterial soaps, lotions, hand sanitizers, etc. Not only are they highly ineffective at reducing bacteria, they also have direct mechanism in lowering testicular testosterone production.

 
Those and many more man-made chemicals that can act as hormone disruptors, are generously used in the manufacturing process and as ingredients of many personal care items.
 
Not good thing considering that you’re constantly in touch with them on a daily basis, and your skin is very permeable to most of the chemicals applied. Since many of the endocrine disrupting chemicals are completely unnecessary for the consumer, it’s really easy to just change the brand and buy something that does not contain them.
 
Below are some brands & products that I recommend and use:

• Duke Cannon Big American Brick of Soap (only for bad-asses)
• Acure Organics Natural Shampoo (argan stem + oil)
• Himalaya Herbal Healthcare Neem & Pomegranate Toothpaste
• North Coast Organic All Natural Deodorant
• Lather & Wood’s Luxurious Sophisticated Mens Moisturizer for the Man’s Man
• Pacific Shaving Company All Natural Shaving Cream

 
That’s it, there’s no need to stretch this article any longer when it’s as simple as…

1. Get rid of the endocrine disruptor laden products
2. Replace them with natural T-safe alternatives
3. Enjoy less xenoestrogen & antiandrogen exposure, enjoy higher T-levels on a daily basis.

The post Personal Hygiene and Testosterone: How to Boost T-Levels with Natural Personal Care Products appeared first on Anabolic Men.

Dietary fiber is a generic term to refer to all plant-based dietary compounds that can’t be metabolized by the intestines. In short, it’s the ‘roughage’ that travels through your system intact. Looking pretty much the same as it enters your system (mouth), and as it exits the system (toilet).
 
By definition, fiber is either;

• Insoluble fiber, which is the kind that won’t dissolve to water
• Soluble fiber, which is the kind that does dissolve to water

 
Your body processes these fibers in multiple ways. For instance, certain soluble fibers can be converted into gelatin-like jelly, which is then converted into probiotics by the gut bacteria. And the kind of fiber that doesn’t get fermented, usually just acts as a bulking agent and pushes stuff out of the body on its way out (which is why high fiber intake can relieve constipation).
 
Certain fibers can also increase or decrease phytonutrient and micronutrient absorption from the foods we eat, and since some have claimed that dietary fiber can also modulate the rate at which the body removes steroid hormones, many have started believing that in order to improve your testosterone levels naturally, fibrous foods should be somewhat avoided, or generally fiber intake should be kept pretty low.
 
Does fiber intake really affect testosterone levels though? Let’s find out:
 
 
 
 

Fiber Intake and Testosterone Levels

Chances are that if you’ve been reading any of the ‘how to boost testosterone naturally’ articles online, you have already stumbled upon the claim that fiber lowers testosterone levels.
 
The claim is often “proven” by two human studies.
 
One where guys on a high-fat low-fiber diet had 13% higher free-T and 15% higher total-T with also significantly lower estrogen levels than guys who were put on a low-fat high-fiber diet with the same amount of calories.
 
And another one where a change from high-fat low-fiber diet to a low-fat high-fiber kind resulted in a 12% drop in total testosterone levels with also 10% decrease in free-testosterone and DHT fell by 9%.
 
It’s easy to draw all kinds of “fiber is bad for testosterone” conclusions from the above studies, but the fact is that on both studies the subjects had to cut their dietary fat intake to half when they increased the amount of fiber. This obviously screws up the results since its well-known that reducing fat intake results in lowered testosterone production and higher SHBG levels.
 
All the other kinds of studies that have examined fiber intake and testosterone levels, are studies comparing vegetarian/vegan diets to carnivore diets. This also makes the results inconclusive in terms of what is the effect of fiber solely, since plant-based diets come with significantly lower amounts of total dietary fat and are by definition correlated with lower testosterone levels (study, study).
 
Pretty much the only study that I managed to find that would of have looked the effects of fiber alone on hormones, is an in-vitro (test-tube) study which showed that various purified fibers were able to bind to steroid hormones in the following declining order of strength; flax -> wheat and oat brans -> corn brans -> oat hull. Theoretically this would support the claim that high-fiber intake increases the clearance rate of hormones, but since this is a study done inside test-tubes, who knows what happens inside the gut.
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

There isn’t any definitive proof to say that high-fiber intake would lower testosterone levels, since all the human studies on the topic are paired with low-fat intake or vegan/vegetarian test-subjects.
 
In one in-vitro study, purified and naturally occurring fibers were able to bind steroid hormones, which supports the claim that dietary fiber would increase the clearance rate of T, but then again this is a test-tube study and who knows what happens in living humans.
 
I would recommend sticking to the recommended ~30g fiber a day, while most of it coming from resistant starches, since they are the kind that your gut bacteria can most easily convert into probiotics.
 
NOTE: you can also supplement with raw potato starch, which is really high in resistant starches.

The post Dietary Fiber and Testosterone: A Legit T-Suppressant or Just a Bunch of Misunderstood Studies? appeared first on Anabolic Men.

Milk and many other dairy products have been under some heavy demonization recently. What used to be the favorite go-to health drink of both, the alt-med people and normal people, is suddenly seen as something that barely fits human consumption, and apparently now also destroys your health.
 
Like always, the truth isn’t as straight-forward as its presented and there are several positive – as well as negative – effects to dairy consumption.
 
The main component of most dairy products: whole cows milk, consists of;

• high-quality protein (micellar casein and whey)
• carbohydrates (lactose, glucose, and galactose)
• fatty-acids (saturated and monounsaturated)
• vitamins (A, B1, B2, B12, D, and choline)
• minerals (calcium, magnesium, and potassium)

Based solely on the macronutrient and micronutrient amounts and ratios, whole milk would be close to the ‘optimal food’ for anyone who’s goals include muscle gains and high testosterone levels.

 
However, with the good there is also some bad:
 
 
 
 

Dairy Products and Testosterone

Living my whole life in Finland – which is a country with World’s 2nd highest rate of dairy consumption – I’ve drank a lot of milk on a daily basis for the most part of my life, without ever even questioning about any of its health benefits.
 
In here, milk is considered a super drink, and if you dare say anything bad about it, prepare for a shit storm of epic proportions.
 
However, few months ago I started thinking about the effect of milk on testosterone levels. After all it comes out of a woman cows breasts, and is pretty high in mammalian estrogen.
 
Would this off-set the pro-testosterone effects of all the macronutrients, minerals and vitamins in dairy products? Could milk actually end up reducing testosterone?
 
Cows are kept pregnant for upwards of 300 days of the year, and most of the milk on the market comes from these pregnant cows (naturally, as that’s when they produce the most milk). The problem is that the amount of female sex hormones (estrogens) in milk increase when the cow is kept pregnant for longer periods of time. According to a bunch of Mongolian researchers, the milk of a cow that is at the late stages of pregnancy can contain up to 33 times more estrogen than that of non-pregnant cows.
 
Roughly 60 different hormones can be identified from cows milk (including the various estrogens and their metabolites which everyone are freaking out about, but also testosterone which we all love so much), and according to this study, drinking pregnant cows milk can account to a staggering 60-70% of our endogenous estrogen exposure. Not good news at all…
 
…To what extent does that affect your bodily levels of estrogen and testosterone?
 
According to a study published in 2012, milk contains high amounts of estrogens and their metabolites, however they’re almost fully inactivated by the liver and the gastrointestinal tract. Good news huh?…
 
…Well, not so fast. According to a Japanese study, drinking cows milk results in increased serum estrogen and progesterone levels, which suppresses GnRH secretion from the brain and results in lowered testosterone secretion in men and prepubertal boys during a 21-day study period.
 
Another study from Ganmaa et al. found out that when Mongolian kids switch their milk into the kind from US, their estrogen levels shoot up. This is likely caused by the difference in milk producing between the countries, in Mongolia cows are kept pregnant for much shorter duration during the lactation period.
 
Supporting the theory that it would be the exogenous hormones to blame for the possible T-lowering effects of dairy, are these two studies on milks effect on sperm health:
 

• In the first study, physically active men drank full-fat milk and their overall sperm quality significantly decreased
• In the second study, consumption of low-fat and skimmed milk increased sperm volume and mobility

 
Since the exogenous hormones in milk are fat-soluble, it would make sense that skim-milk would contain lower amounts of exogenous estrogens, and therefore have a ‘not so bad’ effect on sperm parameters and male hormones as full-fat milk does.
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

Is milk evil? Should you give it up in order to boost T and reduce estrogen? Well it all depends on how important your hormonal health is to you.
 
If you suffer from high estrogen levels, low T, and/or have man-boobs, it would make sense to reduce the amount of full-fat milk from pregnant-cows, perhaps all together or then switching to skimmed or low-fat alternatives from non-pregnant cows, which contain far less exogenous hormones (but still provide you with the beneficial proteins, calcium, and vitamin D).
 
As a big fan of the taste and nutritional content of milk, finding these studies was a huge disappointment to me. I still do drink milk and consume dairy products, but I recognize the scientific evidence and have cut down on the amount of milk and switched it to skimmed kind for lower intake of exogenous estrogens.
 
NOTE: With the above being said, I did drink full-fat milk for most of my life and turned out hormonally alright If you keep the big things in check (sleep, sex, exercise, macronutrient ratios, and good amount of vitamins & minerals) drinking full-fat milk from pregnant-cows is not going to ‘destroy’ you hormonally, (though that will be precisely what the fear-mongering alt-med community is now pushing with their new trending hashtag #DitchDairy…)

The post Milk and Testosterone: Do Dairy Products Increase or Decrease Testosterone Levels? appeared first on Anabolic Men.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the term stress means, but an explanation that comes rather close, goes something like this: “stress is the body’s principal method of reacting to a challenge”. To open up the term a bit more, this “reaction to challenge” can be divided into two categories.
 

 
So, short-term stress can be a good thing to have…
 
…Long-term stress on the other hand, why it’s so unhealthy? And how does it affect your hormonal health?
 
 
 
 

Long-Term Stress and Testosterone

There are two major reasons as to why chronic long-term stress hammers testosterone production.
 
Firstly, the principal stress steroid hormone; cortisol, which is released from the adrenal cortex during times of prolonged stress, has a direct testosterone suppressing effect inside the hypothalamus and testicular leydig cells.
 
Secondly, the synthesis of cortisol requires cholesterol, a molecule that is also needed in the biosynthesis of testosterone. When cortisol levels skyrocket during stress, more of this essential building block goes towards creating cortisol.
 

Obviously those are not the only reasons that can cause fucked-up T levels during prolonged stress. As a guy who battled with some serious work-related stress few years ago, I can guarantee you that increased alcohol consumption, messed up sleep quality, poor diet, lack of exercise, and depression can (and more than likely will) contribute to the stress induced reduction in testosterone.

The research on how long-term stress (both physical and mental) alters testosterone levels is rather cruel:
 

 
Bottom line: Chronic stress (be it physical or psychological) has a tendency to lower testosterone levels, and this suppressive effect is nearly always caused by elevated cortisol production.
 

How can you combat this chronically high stress then? Try some of the tricks below.

 
Meditation and relaxation exercises have been very effective at lowering cortisol and increasing testosterone levels in multiple human studies (study, study, study)
 
Just simply walking in nature (forest walking, hiking, etc), has been linked to significantly lowered cortisol levels in Japanese test subjects.
 
Adaptogenic herbs (Rhodiola Rosea, Ashwagandha, Shilajit, etc) have a really good track-record at lowering cortisol, while simultaneously increasing testosterone.
 
Vitamin C has been shown to reduce the secretion of cortisol during stress, and it also has the ability to relieve the damaging effects of the stress hormone.
 
Increased duration of sleep has a significant cortisol suppressing effect in stressed subjects. However, restful sleep is not always that easy to achieve during chronic stress.
 
Exercise is often recommended as a “stress-reliever” but it’s important to remember that high-intensity exercise can also skyrocket the already elevated cortisol levels. So stick to something light if you’re under chronic stress.
 
Just a simple posture-hack can increase testosterone levels by 20%, while lowering cortisol by -25%, in less than two minutes. This has been proven in a human study conducted by the Harvard University.
 
Carbohydrate consumption has been shown to significantly reduce cortisol levels (study, study, study), whereas low-carb dieters often have high serum cortisol. The take home message? Don’t eat low-carb when you’re under stress.
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

Chronic stress is a real testosterone killer, and if you’re under “real stress” (as in something that truly fucking crumbles you) I don’t even have to tell you that, you can feel it yourself.
 
As a guy who has been under that kind of stress few years ago, I know that it doesn’t help shit when someone just tells you to “stop thinking about it” or gives you some tips such as: “try to sleep more”, “exercise”, “drink more water”, etc…
 
…But just so you know, chronic stress really hammers your testosterone production, the quicker you can get rid of it, the better it is for your endocrine system. How you decide to do it, is completely up to you. And remember, this is all just advice

The post Stress and Testosterone: How Stress Chokeholds the Endocrine System and Few Ways to Combat This appeared first on Anabolic Men.

It was about time I make this article. After hundreds of specific posts about what affects your natural testosterone production and hormonal health, I had yet to compile it all into one easily accessible article that covered all the basics. The goal of this article is to get you closer to knowing most of what you need to know in order to optimize your natural testosterone production. It links out to hundreds of other more specific posts about various topics discussed, while it also references hundreds of different studies. A big resource sort of.
 

 
I’m sure you have seen the endless list of the benefits of optimal testosterone levels, which include (but are not limited to):
 

• increased ability to build lean mass
• improved rate of lipolysis, aka. fat loss
• improved mood, confidence, and motivation
• better erections, libido, and sexual performance
• increased desire for success, dominance, and power
• stronger bones, improved cardiovascular health
• increased body and facial hair growth…

 

…Since testosterone is literally the hormone that makes man a man, it’s safe to expect increased manly qualities in nearly every area of your life after increased testosterone levels. Not everything is controlled by testosterone obviously, but if you start looking at the studies, it’s pretty clear that from womb to tomb, this one hormone determines A LOT in a guy.

 
The guide is broken into 4 big sections; lifestyle, nutrition, training, and supplementation. The four sections hide inside multiple topics from sleep, to macronutrient splits, to testicular health, all the way into neuromuscular training, hypoxia, sleep, sex, walking…
 
…So, let’s get to it:
 
 
 

1. Sleep Deep and Sleep a Lot

Whether you choose to sleep four hours or eight hours, can mean a difference similar to night and day in your T production.
 
Partial sleep restriction lasting one-week (5h/night) in a laboratory setting has been shown to decrease overall 24-hour testosterone levels in healthy young men by ~15%.
 
On a study by Penev et al. the men who slept for ~4 hours had an average of 200-300 ng/dL testosterone levels in serum, whereas the guys who slept for ~8 hours had levels closer to 500-700 ng/dL.
 
A study from Gov et al. showed similar results. On 531 Chinese men, increased sleep time was highly correlated with higher total and -free testosterone levels. The researchers also calculated that each extra hour of sleep led to about 15% more testosterone.
 

 
 
 

2. Be Lean and Have Some Muscle Mass

You definitely don’t have to be light to increase your testosterone levels naturally, but you should be LEAN.
 
More specifically, your body fat percentage should be relatively low (something between 8-14%), if your goal is to get more T oozing through your veins.
 
Generally speaking – though there are some rare exceptions – the higher the fat percentage, the lower the testosterone (study, study, study, study). So in retrospect, the leaner you are, the more likely you are to have more testosterone rushing in your bloodstream. Increased amount of muscle mass also positively correlates with serum testosterone levels, so if you burn the fat and build the muscle, you’ll not only look shredded, but you can improve your hormonal health too.
 
Why being fat often leads to low testosterone levels? The full answer is likely much more complex than this, but what we do know is that increased fat-mass leads to increased aromatase enzyme activity, which in turn leads to more testosterone being converted to estrogen. Also, increased oxidative stress, metabolic syndrome, and poor insulin-sensitivity are some other major-players in obesity related low-T.
 
Good news are that you can easily increase testosterone levels just by losing weight, in particular losing the fat-mass, not muscle. Though it’s worth mentioning that there is a limit to your leanness where it start to negatively impact testosterone production; going below ~8% body fat starts to decrease thyroid activity, and because of that you’ll eventually have to start cutting your caloric intake too much, and both of those things will start zapping the life out of your androgens.
 
NOTE: The weight-loss industry is chock-full of some major league bullshit. This guide should help you in getting to know everything there is to know about losing fat in a sane muscle-preserving way.
 
 
 

3. Stress Less

More easily said than done huh? Well it doesn’t change the fact that stress more or less kills testosterone levels.
 
This happens because chronic stress results in chronically elevated cortisol levels – and cortisol being the body’s principal stress hormone – is a catabolic hormone that among many other things; suppresses testosterone levels.
 
…No don’t get me wrong here, we all need some cortisol. It gets us up in the morning and allows us as a species to walk with 2 feet, and without cortisol any kind of minor trauma would instantly bring you into full shock and kill you…
 

…However, if you are under physical or physiological stress that constantly “haunts” you, it’s likely that your cortisol levels are constantly high thorough the day.

 
That’s not good, since cortisol not only breaks down your muscle mass and causes oxidative damage in the body, but it’s also made from the same “raw material” (pregnenolone) as testosterone is, and high levels of cortisol can literally destroy your free testosterone molecules locally inside testicles and in the bloodstream. I’ve touched this subject before in here and here.
 
 
 

4. Lower your Endocrine Disruptor Exposure

The definition of endocrine disruptor is as follows; “Synthetic chemicals or natural substances that may alter the endocrine system (consisting of glands, hormones, and cellular receptors that control a body’s internal functions) and may cause developmental or reproductive disorders.”
 
Compounds that act as endocrine disruptors in the body are used generously in modern personal care items, plastics, preservatives, pesticides, and many many other appliances.
 
Out of the millions of chemicals used, most are relatively harmless. However there are some compounds that have been proven to disrupt hormone production and functions in the body.
 
these include (but are not limited to);

• Bisphenol A (BPA) which is a monomer used heavily in plastics and epoxy resins. Since BPA has a ‘hardening’ effect on plastics, its used generously in many industries,making BPA one of the most produced chemicals in the world. It also has hormone-like properties in the body and has been linked multiple times to low-testosterone and erectile dysfunction (study, study, study).
• Parabens (methyl-, butyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, heptyl-, etc) which are preservatives used in nearly all kinds of cosmetics, such as; sun lotions, moisturizers, personal-lubricants, shampoos, shaving gels, toothpaste, and even as food additives. They’re classified as xenoestrogens, and can have a weak affinity to estrogen receptors in the body.
• Phthalates which are commonly used to make plastics more flexible, but they are also used as stabilizers and emulsifying agents in many personal care items. Increased urinary phthlate traces have been strongly correlated with decreased testosterone in men, women, and children.
• Benzophenones (BP-1, BP-2, BP-3…) which are permeability enhancing UV-stabilizers are used in a wide range of personal care items, but most commonly in sunscreens. Concerns have been raised of their effect in reducing the activity of enzymes needed in testosterone production. This has been studied for BP-1, BP-2, and BP-3.
• Triclosan and Triclocarban, both of which are antibacterial agents found in many antibacterial soaps, lotions, hand sanitizers, etc. Not only are they highly ineffective at reducing bacteria, they also have direct mechanism in lowering testicular testosterone production.

 
How to reduce the exposure then? Well, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid all exposure in the modern World, but you can slash your exposure significantly by using a tap water filter, drinking from steel or glass cups and bottles, using natural personal-care items, and eating less canned foods. Grocery store receipts are also coated with BPA, so better not fiddle around with them too much.
 
 
 

5. Spark Up Your Sex Life

Admittedly one of the most satisfying ways to increase testosterone levels naturally is; sexual activity.
 
It’s not fully understood why this happens, but many studies have theorized that its an interplay with dominance, feeling of power, feeling of success, pheromones, dopamine, and interpersonal touch. For this reason it’s also likely that sex with an actual human instead of the palm of ones hand,would be a much better way to boost T.
 
Is there any research on increased sexual activity and testosterone levels? You bet there is.
 
A study of 44 men visiting a sex club actually showed that the guys who went there only to watch other people have sex, had an average increase of 11% in their testosterone levels, whereas the guys who went and actually had sex there noted an average increase of 72%. It’s also seen in couples that on the nights that there is “sexual activity”, testosterone levels are significantly higher than on the nights that they don’t have sex. One of the many findings in the Baltimore Longitudal Study on Aging was that in men over 60-years of age, those with higher level of sexual activity had significantly greater serum testosterone levels.
 
Much has been theorized about ejaculations and testosterone, and there seems to be this common misbelief that busting a nut would “drain” the body from testosterone (which fortunately isn’t the case). I recently wrote a more detailed article about the subject which can be found here.
 
 
 

6. Know the Side-Effects of Prescription Drugs

Healthcare is a business. A big business.
 
Chances are that if you visit a doctor – even without any known health issues – you’ll probably end up leaving with a prescription to some medication.
 
Therefore its not a coincidence – nor a surprise – to see that the largest pharmaceutical companies are raking in hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
 
In many cases, prescription drugs can prove to be vitally important to the patient. However, it’s also worth noting that in order for the pharmaceutical companies to make money – people have to be sick – and for some reason we are only treating the symptoms with more and more pills instead of actually focusing on the cause of the illness.
 
Though at the end of the day, your health is your own personal responsibility. Not the doctors. Not the governments. Yours.
 
With that being said, here’s some studies about prescription drugs that have side-effect of lowering testosterone levels (what ever you might do with this info is your decision);

• Corticosteroids
• Opiate-based painkillers
• Some beta-blockers and tranquilizers
• A type-2 diabetes drug called Sylfonylurea
• A blood pressure drug called Spironolactone
• Acid reducers such as; Tagamet, Cidemetidine, etc
• Hair-loss drugs such as Finasteride and Dutasteride
• Statins and other drugs that interfere with cholesterol synthesis
• Some anti-fungal drugs, such as the commonly used ketoconazole
• Many SSRIs (anti-depressants) are notorious for causing low sex-drive and also low-T

 
 
 

7. TestShock Program

Writing about natural testosterone optimization has been my job now for the past few years. Reading, learning, and researching info on hormones has been something I’ve done for ever since I was 15…
 
…As you can imagine, I have seen, read, bought, or sometimes straight up ignored hundreds of ‘T-boosting’ e-books, physical books, supplements, courses & programs, and even coaching. I get pitched some testosterone related products on a daily basis, since this site is currently the most visited ‘natural testosterone resource’, everyone wants their piece of the pie and their product to shine on the sidebar.
 

The problem is that I don’t want to promote bullshit in here, and that is exactly what 95% of the natural testosterone optimization programs and supplements are.

 
Not TestShock though. The moment I had read the first few pages of the book I knew that this was something different, something that aligns with the actual scientific evidence, and something that might truly be the ‘complete A-Z guide for natural testosterone optimization’.
 
Now I don’t want to over-hype the program, but if you like to read articles like the one you’re reading now, and you’re interested in natural T-enhancement, then you’re going to love all the 262-pages of Christopher Walker’s TestShock program.
 
 
 

8. Take a Look at Your Posture

According to an interesting study done by Cuddy et al. in Harvard University, your body language as well as postural changes can almost immediately impact your stress and steroid hormones.
 
In their research, the scientists wanted to know what happens to the bodily hormones when the subjects do either a set of ‘high-power poses’ (taking up more space, standing tall, hands on hips, dominant alpha stuff, etc) or ‘low-power poses’ (contractive behavior, closed limbs, taking less space, general insecure positions, etc).
 

Surprisingly, only in 2-minutes power-posing led to 20% increase in salivary testosterone levels, and -25% decrease in the stress hormone; cortisol. On the contrary, low-power posing led to a drop in T with accompanied rise in cortisol.

 
Here’s Cuddy herself talking about the topic and the study:

 
 
 

9. Money, Success, and Competition

I’m a big believer in the fact that making lots of honest money equals – at least in some form – happiness.
 
Not necessarily the fact that you can see the numbers in your bank account, but the fact that money (at least if you make it in your own terms) often equals total freedom.
 
Money also equals success in many fields, and can be a form of competition, or at least if not competitive, it generates the feeling that you’re “winning in life”.
 
Simply put, money is testosterone.
 
This study of young future-traders is a great example. In it, the traders noted higher testosterone levels on the days that they made above average profits. One young gun in the study ended up on a 6-day money streak and had 78% higher T-levels in serum as a result.
 
The results were likely caused by the fact that winning and success in almost any form of competition are both heavily correlated with increased testosterone levels (study, study, study, study), and what does a big pay day make you feel like? Winning of course. It doesn’t necessarily have to be money that generates the feeling of success. It can be sports, even watching sports, simply getting a list of tasks done, etc. Whatever makes you get the “genuine” feeling of being the boss and dominating your pursuits.
 
 
 

10. Testicular Health

Roughly 95% of the testosterone in your body is produced inside the leydig cells of the testicles…
 
…Because of this, it’s quite obvious that optimal testicular health and circulation would need to be one of the top priorities for all men.
 
For optimal testicular function, your balls actually need to be a tad bit cooler than the rest of the body, hence why they hang in a pouch outside of it. Because of this, sleeping naked, wearing loose boxers, and taking frequent cold showers can have a positive impact on your testosterone production.
 
Roughly 15-20% of men also develop a condition called “varicocele“, which is a thrombosis or “blockage” of some of the veins that lead to the gonads. Since varicoceles inhibit the normal blood flow to the leydig cells, they also inhibit the transportation of LH to its target, which causes your body to produce inadequate amounts of T. This is seen in many studies; men with varicoceles have significantly lower testosterone levels than control subjects, and when the blockage(s) are surgically removed, testosterone levels tend to increase significantly.
 
I guess some sort of testicular massage might also help in T production, though there isn’t (understandably) any research on that .
 
 
 

11. Check What you Smoke

Two of the most common things that people smoke are; tobacco and marijuana.
 
The question is, how do they affect testosterone levels? Or do they even?
 
Looking at the scientific evidence behind tobacco and testosterone, it’s actually something that increases natural testosterone and DHT levels (study, study).
 
This effect is likely caused by nicotine, which acts as aromatase enzyme inhibitor (turning less testosterone into estrogen) and also blocks the conversion from dihydrotestosterone into a weaker metabolite 3-alpha-diol…
 
…Then there’s also the metals and minerals in tobacco which can have androgenic effects, bottom line being that smokers tend to have bit higher T levels than non-smokers, even though smoking itself is not too healthy thing to do.
 
When it comes to cannabis, some studies say that the active ingredient (THC) can inhibit testicular enzymes needed in testosterone production and reduce T-levels, though the effects are reversible and not as significant as some people claim. In fact there have been few studies where smoking pot has not negatively impacted any hormones (study, study).
 
 
 

12. Alcohol in Excess is Not your T-Boosting Pal

Let’s just start of by saying that no, you don’t have to completely cut off alcohol from your life in order to naturally raise testosterone levels.
 
Is it beneficial for T? Not in the slightest, in fact it has multiple mechanisms for lowering androgens, but in all honesty its effects on T-levels have been wildly exaggerated.
 
Sure if you’re an alcoholic who slams booze to the point of passing out on nearly all days of the Week, you can be damn sure that it crushes your test production, but few drinks here and there do not have that significant of an effect…
 
…Though, the mechanisms of action are bit scary;
 

• The metabolization process of alcohol tends to reduce the amount of coenzyme NAD+, which is an essential part of the electron donoring process necessary for steroidogenesis.
• Alcohol can also increase the release of beta-opioid-endorphins from the brain and stimulate the hormone prolactin, both of which can negatively affect testosterone production.
• Oxidative damage increases thorough the body in response to alcohol consumption, this leading to localized reduction of testosterone in the gonads and also indirect reduction via increased cortisol levels.
• Chronically high intake of alcohol is notorious for its effects in increasing the aromatase enzyme, which converts testosterone into estrogen, causing a “feminized” effect in the male body.

 
How much do you have to drink to actually suppress test levels though?
 
The most damaging effects come from few rodent studies (study, study, study, study). One rat study in particular showed a staggering 50% reduction in testicular size after they were fed with a diet containing 5% of the calories from alcohol.
 
Rodents ain’t the only ones who see suppressed T-levels after alcohol ingestion. Heavy alcohol consumption has been linked to lowered testosterone levels in humans too (study, study, study, study). It’s also known that chronic alcoholics tend to have significantly lower levels of testosterone accompanied with significantly higher estrogen levels than their non-alcoholic peers (study, study, study)…
 
…Luckily enough, few studies have shown that low-moderate alcohol consumption isn’t that bad for male hormone production. Here an equivalent of ~2 glasses of red wine was associated with a mere 7% reduction in testosterone. In this one 0,5g/kg of alcohol actually slightly increased testosterone levels.
 

In the case of alcohol, the dose really does make the poison. Enjoying a few old fashioned’s or beers once in a while isn’t enough to chemically castrate you.

 
 
 

13. Caloric Intake Matters

In order to make your body produce adequate amounts of testosterone, you need to give it enough calories to fuel the processes necessary in hormone production.
 
If you’re constantly feeding your body with a big calorie deficit, your body actually starts shutting down the reproductive system and conserves energy for more vital processes needed for your survival.
 
It doesn’t even have to be a massive calorie deficit, a 7-year study compared men who restricted their calories (1350–2415 kcal/day) and ate very “clean” against sedentary subjects who ate a normal Western diet with higher caloric intake (2145-3537 kcal/day). Due to their restrictive caloric intake, the group of men that ate lower amounts of calories had 31% lower testosterone levels, despite the fact that they maintained a “clean diet” and practiced running on a regular basis.
 

For optimal T production, consider eating a slight calorie surplus or maintenance calories.

 
The catch-22 here is that if you’re fat (which lowers testosterone), you MUST be on a caloric deficit to lose the weight, and the deficit itself can end up reducing your T-levels. So should you remain fat and make sure that you’re not getting too few calories? Or should you consider losing the weight by eating a calorie deficit and then bumping your calories up to maintenance level after you’re lean?
 
The answer is the latter option obviously.
 
When you start eating more after your weight loss success, your hormone production quickly shoots up, and as you lean down, it’s going to jump up to much higher numbers than what it was on a caloric surplus when you were still fat. If you want to lose weight slowly without really hurting your T-levels in the process, consider a really small deficit of only -15%, which has been shown to have no significant negative impact on testosterone production.
 
 
 

14. Protein is Necessary but not in Huge Quantities

Protein is vitally important for muscle growth as well as also testosterone production.
 
We know that chronic protein malnutrition causes low testosterone levels, while it’s also scientifically proven that roughly 0.8g/lb of lean mass is somewhat the point of diminished returns when it comes to the optimal amount of protein for muscle gains.
 
The problem is that the bodybuilding sites and magazines preach everyone to eat super-high amounts of protein (remember that they also sell you the protein), and protein IN EXCESS is not only useless for your muscle building goals, but it can also significantly reduce testosterone levels.
 
A study by Anderson et al. shows that when the male subjects undergo 10-days on a high-protein low-carb diet, their free-testosterone levels will be 36% lower than what they would be on a high-carbohydrate low-protein diet. High-protein diets also caused significantly higher cortisol (stress hormone) levels and – as to be expected from lowered bioavailable T – increased SHBG levels. Caloric intake and the amount of dietary fat was kept the same during both diets.
 
Another study, this time on resistance trained men, showed that dose-dependent reductions in testosterone were caused by increased percentages of energy from protein as well as increased protein to carbohydrate ratio.
 
The bottom line is that yes, you do need protein for both testosterone and muscle gains, but no, you don’t need as much as the fitness industry claims. For the optimal amount in terms of T-production, a good starting point would be ~20-25% daily calories from protein. As well as getting the majority from animal sources since plant-based protein is inferior to animal sourced when it comes to big T.
 
 
 

15. Carbs and then More Carbs!

There’s some unfair demonization going on against carbohydrates now. Or actually it has been going on for quite some time…
 
…The low-carb people say things like;
 
“Carbs raise insulin, insulin makes you fat, which is simply why carbs make you fat”, or the classic “Humans don’t need carbohydrates brah”.
 
The fact of the matter is that it has been scientifically proven that weight-loss has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of carbohydrates or other macronutrient trickery. Heck, you can eat the shittiest sugary snacks for all of your meals and still lose weight as long as you’re in a state of caloric deficit. Guess why? Because that’s how the human body works.
 
In the past few years as the “paleo diet” has become a thing, their so called “experts” have been telling people that since the cavemen didn’t eat a lot of carbs, we shouldn’t either. The thing is that they had absolutely no evidence to back up their claims about paleolithic humans not eating carbs. Recent evidence actually suggests that cavemen ate plenty of them.
 
The biggest reason why no man should go on a low-carb diet, is the fact that they’re notorious for lowering testosterone levels, increasing the stress hormone cortisol, and messing up with your sleep.
 
As explained in the above subheading, Andersson et al. found out that when caloric intake and fat intake are kept the same, diet high in carbs and low in protein leads to 36% higher free-testosterone level and lower cortisol production when compared to one with high-protein low-carbs. The study by Volek et al. Found similar results, go low on carbs and testosterone takes a hit.
 
When two groups of men undergoing intensive cycling 3x/week eat a diet of either 30% energy from carbs or 60% energy from carbs, the group which eats less carbs will have significantly lower free-testosterone levels. Similar results have been seen in a study with both men and women as subjects.
 
In this study, exercising men who are put on a low-carb diet, notice significant increases in the stress hormone cortisol (needless to say this is not a good thing). The pulastion rate of GnRH (master hormone that starts the testosterone production process) also seems to be heavily dependent on glucose availibity.
 
As a general rule of thumb, I’ve always recommended ~40% of daily calories from carbohydrates. Mainly from low-fiber low-gluten sources, since gluten may increase prolactin levels (study, study) and there’s some – although not very conclusive – evidence against high-fiber diets. To make it simple, eat the bulk of your carbs from potatoes and rice.
 
 
 

16. Dietary Fat Does the Trick

I’d say that fat is the boss macronutrient for testosterone production.
 
There’s plenty of evidence suggesting that increased amount of energy from dietary fat, leads to increased serum testosterone levels (study, study, study, study).
 
However, the type of fat matters A LOT. Saturated fatty-acids (SFAs) and monounsaturated fatty-acids (MUFAs) correlate very positively with testosterone levels, whereas polyunsaturated fatty-acids (PUFAs) and trans-fats effectively suppress testosterone levels (study, study, study, study, study, study).
 

A crucial part that is often left out in many articles is the part of different types fats having different effects on your hormones.

 

 
Bottom line: Ideally you’d want to keep your dietary fat intake at somewhere close to ~40% of daily calories, while most of them coming from SFAs and MUFAs with limited amounts of PUFAs and trans fats. In case you’re scared about the effects this would have on your cardiovascular system, there’s very little to be afraid of, recent research has showed that the link between saturated fat & dietary cholesterol with heart problems was never really strong, and the older studies have been debunked multiple times in more recent trials.

 
 
 

17. About that Sugar

Much has been said about simple forms of sugar (table sugar, honey, etc) reducing testosterone levels, and previously I used to believe that consuming sugar would be really bad for testosterone levels…
 
…now I’m not so sure anymore. Of course yes, there’s the research which shows that right after ingesting sugar, testosterone levels will drop acutely (study, study), but it’s crucial to understand that the act of eating pretty much anything is able to lower testosterone levels ACUTELY (study, study, study).
 
There’s no research that I know of which would of have linked sugar intake to long-term reductions in testosterone. In fact, the studies on carbs being pro-testosterone and GnRH increasing its pulsation rate in high-glucose environments speak towards the fact that sugar, which is basically what all carbohydrates eventually convert into, is not that bad for testosterone levels. It might actually be relatively good to consume some sugar on a daily basis.
 
In my opinion, sugar has been unfairly demonized. It doesn’t make you fat as everyone and their dog claims, overeating anything does. Sure it’s not that filling, and it might be more addictive than many other foods, but it’s not some toxic poison that destroys you from the inside out as is often boldly stated in click-bait headlines. Dr Ray Peat’s info on sugar is something I highly recommend to everyone who still lives in sugarophobia.
 
 
 
 

18. Plant-Based Diets are Not the Way to Go

Sure, you can have high testosterone levels on vegan/vegetarian diets if you know what you’re doing, but is it the optimal type of diet for T-production? No.
 
When you ditch all animal protein and animal fat, you’re in a situation where it’s really hard to get a balanced intake of amino-acid’s, enough cholesterol, and enough saturated fat to fuel your body’s testosterone producing needs. On plant-based diets men tend to also eat too much PUFAs in comparision to SFAs and MUFAs, which can further fuck up testosterone production…
 
…Not to mention that it’s increasingly harder to consume your daily caloric needs from plant-based foods alone (not to say that this isn’t possible, it’s just much harder).
 
Factoring those in, its no surprise that many studies have linked plant-based diets to lower testosterone levels. For instance, in this 1989 study changing from meat-based diet to plant-based one resulted in a 26% reduction in free-testosterone levels. Another study did the same thing with 30 male subjects and saw a 36% reduction in total testosterone levels on plant-based diet. Multiple other studies have noted that plant-based diets can lead to higher SHBG levels resulting in lower free-T and thus lower bio-availibity of testosterone for the androgen receptors (study, study, study)…
 
…Though this isn’t always the case, in one study it was noted that after adjusting BMI, vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters don’t really differ much in terms of testosterone levels. In fact in that singular study the vegan group had 6% higher total testosterone levels than meat-eaters.
 
Which brings me to the point. You don’t necessarily have to crush your testosterone levels with vegan/vegetarian diets. If you can get in a good amount of calories, accompanied with some SFAs and MUFAs (coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, Macadimia nuts…), it’s likely that you can maintain high testosterone levels despite not eating any animal-products.
 
 
 

19. Organic Produce for More T?

In the case of eating organic foods for better testosterone production, it’s not about what you’re getting from the organically grown produce, but rather what you’re NOT getting from the conventional kind.
 
Specifically, I’m talking about pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and growth/fat-promoting hormone traces.
 

Sure, organic foods are more expensive, and surely you don’t HAVE to switch everything organic in order to maintain high-T, and yes not all pesticides are harmful…

 
…But some can be. In this study, the researchers screened 37 commonly used pesticides for their hormonal actions in-vitro, as many as 30 of them were antiandrogens. Another study tested multiple pesticides for their effects on the 5-alpha reductase enzyme and saw that many of them had a mechanism for blocking DHT synthesis.
 
In a large-scale American study, it was noted that 91% of the US test subjects had notable amounts of the insecticide; chlorpyrifos in their bodies. In another human study, TCPY (3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol) which is a metabolite of chlorpyrifos, was noted of having a dose-dependent testosterone lowering effect in multiple linear regression models. Several animal studies have also shown that chlorpyrifos has a significant testosterone lowering effect (study, study, study).
 
In isolated testicular leydig cells, one of the most widely used herbicides in the World; Glyphosate, had a direct testosterone lowering effect at normally occurring environmental dosages.
 
Two interesting studies from Denmark have showed that farmers who spray their crops with conventional pesticides experience lower sperm production and lowered sex hormones when compared to farmes who produce organic foods whom have higher sperm quality and higher sex hormone levels (study, study).
 
Many other pesticides such as organophosphates, Vinclozolin, PCBs, and Atrazine have been also linked to suppressed testosterone production.
 
NOTE: I’m not a fan of fear-mongering (think FoodBabe, Mercola, David Wolfe, NaturalNews), which is why I refrain from making any wacky tin-foil hat accusations about pesticide use. Indeed GMOs have saved thousands of lives in Africa, and in many cases there’s a legit reason to use crop-sprays, preservatives, and so forth. It’s always your personal decision whether you eat organic or conventional produce, or maybe you mix them up. The most important thing is that you read the evidence about them yourself instead of blindly following one expert with one specific stance, because in this subject, you’ll hear a bunch of bullshit from all-camps.
 
 
 

20. The Milk Controversy

In terms of its macronutrient composition (high quality micellar casein, fats from mainly SFAs and MUFAs, and some carbs) and micronutrient composition (A, B1, B2, B12, D, choline, calcium, magnesium, and potassium) one could easily assume that milk is a pro-testosterone drink.
 
However, if we look bit deeper, there’s a problem with milk, especially the full-fat kind.
 
It’s the amount of hormones, in particular the naturally occurring mammalian estrogens, and especially in countries like US where the cows are kept pregnant (this increasing estrone content by up to 33x) for over 300-days of the year.
 
As a big-fan of milk, I was not happy to find this Japanese study where drinking cows milk resulted in increased serum estrogen and progesterone levels, which suppressed GnRH secretion from the brain and thus lowered testosterone secretion in men and prepubertal boys during a 21-day study period.
 

Since the conjugated hormones are mostly in the fat portion of the milk, it seems that skimmed and low-fat milk would be a hormonally better option…

 
…And indeed there are two studies which support this theory;
 

• A study where physically active men drank full-fat milk and their overall sperm quality significantly decreased
• A study where consumption of low-fat and skimmed milk increased sperm volume and mobility

 
 
 

21. Cholesterol is the Building Block

There seems to be a correlation with the total amount of dietary cholesterol and testosterone levels – even though studies have also shown that the intake of cholesterol through nutrition doesn’t really do much to blood cholesterol levels in long-term.
 
An average sized male naturally synthesizes about 1-1,5g/day of cholesterol, while his body holds an additional amount of ~35 grams within cell membranes…
 
…It’s also known that the more cholesterol you consume through your diet, the less of it your body has to synthesize in liver, intestines, adrenal glands, and reproductive organs.
 
Bottom line is that all the steroid hormones are made from cholesterol, and even though your body naturally synthesis it on a daily basis – and controls the production accordingly to your dietary intake – increased dietary intake of cholesterol, as well as blood levels of HDL cholesterol, are still positively linked to increased serum testosterone levels. So eat some egg yolks and make sure to keep your blood HDL (the “good” cholesterol) high.
 
 
 

22. Choose Coffee Over Tea

Tea, especially the green kind, has been hailed as the supreme health drink for years…
 
…And surely enough there’s evidence that regular tea consumption can reduce your risk of certain cancers, offer slight protection from type-2 diabtes, and improve cardiovascular health. Some research even suggests that green tea consumption can aid in weight loss (although these effects are marginal at best and the green tea extracts sold as fat-burners are really not as effective as the producers claim).
 
Looking at tea from the hormonal point of view, it’s not so “supreme” after all;
 

• Tea is one of the foods with highest known fluoride content and fluoride in excess can significantly lower T-levels.
• When isolated leydig cells are exposed to green tea catechins (EGCG and EC), stimulated testosterone production drops significantly.
• Injecting rodents with green tea antioxidants ended up crushing testosterone levels by a whopping 70%!
• The catechins and tannins in various teas have a mechanism of blocking DHT synthesis via reducing 5-a enzyme (study, study).
• Adding increasingly bigger dosages of green tea to male rodents feed (human equivalents of 5 to 20 cups) caused dose-dependent reductions in testosterone between 25-78%.

 
I recommend choosing coffee instead, since not only does coffee taste better, it’s also pro-testosterone;
 

• 4mg/kg of caffeine taken 1-hour prior to exercise can increase T-levels by 12% in elite athletes.
• When infused into a chewing gum 240mg’s of caffeine was able to increase the exercise-induced testosterone boost by 14%
• In this study, pre-workout caffeine dosed at 200, 400, 600, and 800mg’s led to dose-dependent increases in testosterone
• Caffeine is known to be a non-selective PDE-inhibitor, reducing the breakdown rate of cAMP (a compound needed in T-synthesis)

 
 
 

23. Intermittent Fasting for Androgen Sensitivity

Did you know that you don’t have to stuff your face with food for every few hours in order to boost T and maintain optimal rates of muscle growth?
 
Despite the fact that the fitness industry tries to sell you the idea of multiple small meals being “optimal”, science has actually shown that meal frequency does nothing to metabolic rate, eating fewer meals does not burn away your muscle or make it harder to build that, and for a fact, short-term fasting does not lower your testosterone levels.
 
In fact there are few interesting studies which have shown that after a short-term fast, your androgen receptors become more sensitive towards testosterone than what they would be if you’d eat on a constant basis. Even after 10-days of water fasting, re-feeding shoots testosterone levels higher than what the baseline was in the beginning. (study, study)…
 

I personally don’t recommend long fasts, although they can be useful in dropping weight. Instead I fast intermittently until every evening and eat all my calories post-workout, therefore theoretically taking advantage of that post-fasting anabolism and increased androgen sensitivity right after tearing the muscles in the gym.

 
More about intermittent fasting can be found in this article.
 
 
 

24. Eat these T-Boosting Foods

Lets face it, some foods are just better than others when it comes to boosting testosterone levels.
 
Much of this comes down to things like; high micronutrient density, high amount of protective antioxidants, high SFA or MUFA with low PUFA/trans-fats, quality animal based muscle-meat and collagen protein, low-gluten starchy carb sources etc. In fact I do have an article with 30 testosterone boosting foods over here…
 
…But in case you’re looking for a condensed version with no additional ramblings, you can see one below:
 
 
 
 

25. Limit your Intake of These T-lowering Foodstuffs

There are of course also some testosterone lowering foods, and as much as I hate avoiding something or creating diets that are too restrictive, aka. prone to failure, certrain foodstuffs in high amounts just don’t fit the manly nutrition plant at all.
 
There’s definitely more than these, but this list is just for the ones with good amount of research to prove that. You can find a more detailed article with studies here.
 
Here’s the list in no particular order;
 
 
 
 

26. The Endless Soy Debate

Whether the consumption of soy products lowers testosterone levels or leaves the amount of androgens unchanged is a matter of massive debate online.
 
Soy contains these compounds called isoflavones (genistein, daidzein and glycitein) which act as phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) in the human body. They’re structurally similar to the principal female hormone, estrogen, and are believed to have similar effects in the body. Since high estrogen level in men are almost always a direct route to lowered testosterone levels, eating soy – which contains estrogenic compounds – is often blamed for lowering testosterone.
 
Studies on the topic are highly inconclusive though, and while many of them do show that soy lowers testosterone levels (study, study, study, study, study, study, study), others show no apparent change (study, study, study, study).
 
I personally do limit my soy consumption, not necessarily because of the research on its effects for testosterone, but because soy is also chock-full of “goitrogens”, which are compounds present in foods, medication, or chemicals, that disrupt the production of thyroid hormones by interfering with iodine uptake in the thyroid gland.
 

Since thyroid activity is crucial for your energy levels and overall health, I’m not going to stuff my face with soy when I know there’s plenty of research suggesting that it can negatively impact thyroid activity…

 
…Also soy tastes awful and I’m not a vegan/vegetarian, so what real reason would there be to even consume it?
 
 
 

27. Hydration is the Key

We all know how important water is for our cognitive function, exercise capacity, and overall bodily functions.
 
But many still take water as granted, and don’t drink nearly enough to really be in a good state of hydration. Even though it’s stupidly easy to just grab a steel bottle and fill it to the brim with the ever anabolic h2o.
 
During exercise the importance of drinking plenty of water is increased, since even mild dehydration will suppress the exercise induced rise in testosterone and growth hormone, while dehydration also increases cortisol secretion.
 
It has been shown in studies that even a mild 1-2% dehydration can significantly raise cortisol levels (study, study) and lower growth hormone secretion. One study by Volek et al. actually tested the effects between hydrated state, dehydration by 2,5%, and dehydration by 5% on their hormonal effects during exercise and saw that the less water the subjects drank, the higher their cortisol and lower their testosterone levels were.
 

 
 
 

28. Resistance Training Recommended

To upregulate androgen receptors in muscle tissue while also increasing testosterone levels both acutely and moving the baseline higher and higher can be best done with some form of resistance training.
 
There’s a mounting pile of evidence to suggest that resistance/strength training (basically lifting medium-heavy weights) can stimulate testosterone production in the short-term (study, study, study, study)…
 
…But also in the long-term by forcing the body to adapt into a new “normal” where your testosterone production is significantly higher even at rest mainly due to “forced” neuromuscular adaptations (study, study, study, study).
 
Resistance training is also generally very healthy, and it’s easily the best way for men to make your body look great, which amps up your confidence and can furthermore boost your T-levels due to those ‘feelings of success’ as explained in the subheading #9 of this article.
 
The idea is not just to “lift weights” in any manner that you can think of, but instead what you want to do for optimal hormonal response is to;
 

• lift heavy enough
• be explosive but still maintain form
• activate large amounts of muscle mass
• stimulate fast-twitch glycotic muscle fibers
• do all of this in a short-period of time
• rest properly.

 
All of the above pointers will be addressed more in detail in the below subheadings.
 
NOTE: There’s also a book coming out in the few following weeks by Chris Walker titled as the THOR-program and designed specifically for hormonal response training, ie. getting the biggest hormonal bang for your training buck. You can get the THOR here.
 
 
 

29. Do Some High Intensity Intervals

When it comes to “cardio” high intensity interval training (HIIT) fits a testosterone boosting routine like a nose to the head.
 
Consider adding 1-2 quick HIIT-sessions on top of your resistance training routine to maximize exercise induced hormonal adaptations.
 
Due to its explosive nature, short-duration, activation of fast-twitch muscle fibers, and increased production of lactic acid – without being “chronic” enough to cause prolonged increases in stress hormones – HIIT, aka. short bouts of intense exercise can cause sharp increases in total testosterone, free testosterone, DHEA, growth hormone, and dihydrotestosterone (study, study, study, study)
 
Some examples of this type of training are;
 

• regular sprinting
• hill & wind sprints
• circuit training
• playing hockey
• HIIT cycling

 
Here’s a great example of hill sprints that would be pretty great for hormonal response (courtesy of FitByGreen.com):

Bottom line: Basically any type of exercise where you can do quick 15-30 second all-out bouts of exercise in 2-8 intervals will work wonders for anabolic hormones and neuroendocrine adaptations. Instead of boring hours of steady-state cardio, consider crushing it with few all-out sprints for maximal hormonal gains.
 
 
 

30. Maintain Regular Physical Activity

Aside from lifting weights and sprinting your ass off, you should maintain some regular physical activity on a daily basis.
 
This includes things like walking, plowing the snow/mowing the lawn, chopping trees, and other sorts of recreational stuff.
 
Maybe a low-intensity hockey game with the lads? Some ball-games with the family? Anything that can be considered “active rest”.
 
There are even studies to show how effective regular physical activity is for T:
 
…A recent study from the Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition observed 41 obese and overweight male subject who were put on a lifestyle modification program lasting 12-weeks, consisting of varied amounts of physical activity (measured by a pedometer) and reduced caloric intake. The goal of the study was to determine which one had the biggest impact on testosterone levels; increased physical activity or reduced caloric intake and the resultant weight-loss? After the 12-weeks had passed, the researchers found out that it was the high physical activity – not so much the magnitude of the calorie deficit – which was the driving factor in the subjects rising T levels.
 
 
Of course walking isn’t the only physical activity that boosts T-levels, when sedentary subjects are compared against “active” subjects, the more physically active guys do have higher sperm counts and testosterone levels. Also its seen in studies that when sedentary men start some sort of physical activity and/or low-pace exercise routine, their T levels tend to go up as well (study, study, study)…
 
…Take something as woodcutting as an example, in Tsimane tribesmen, 1-hour of chopping trees led to 46.8% increase in testosterone.
 
 
 

31. Cardio Before Weights? Train in AM or PM?

The age old questions spanning around the fitness industry in relation to hormones and workout timing are;
 

— Should you train in the morning or evening for better testosterone levels?
— Should you hit the weights before cardio or the other way around?

 
The cardio question first. Sure, there are many opinions, but the actual evidence is suggesting that yes, cardio before weights is more ‘anabolic’.
 
In fact a study by Rosa et al. showed that the guys who hit cardio before weights had 7x higher post-workout testosterone levels than the guys who did cardio after weight training (due to ‘stimulus interference’ the researchers claim).
 
NOTE: Although the immediate post-exercise hormone alterations are not going to massively impact your physique or resting T-levels, its still good to have that 7x higher testosterone response once in a while huh?
 
When it comes to morning or evening training, it doesn’t really matter. Even though your T-levels are naturally highest in the morning, over long-term training increases testosterone levels in similar fashion regardless of the time of the day (study, study).
 
 
 

32. Lower the Amount of Endurance Training

I get that for some, dropping endurance training isn’t an option, maybe you compete in running or triathlon for example?
 
Though that doesn’t change the fact that endurance-type long steady state exercise is very good at lowering testosterone levels and causing chronically elevated cortisol response.
 
Research has shown that endurance cyclists and runners, but not swimmers, have significantly lower testosterone levels than sedentary controls. Furthermore male distance runners are known for having significantly lower than average testosterone levels (study, study, study, study, study).
 

It also goes without saying that your body will look quite weak and frail if you train mainly for endurance.

 
A much better option for those of us who don’t “need” to train for endurance, would be something like low-pace walking or hiking. Obviously resistance training and high-intensity intervals are the optimal way to train for T, but if you’re looking for a bit more lighter way to balance hormones, slowly walking with a small incline is actually much more beneficial for T and especially normal cortisol secretion than chronic endurance training.
 
 
 

33. Reverse Pyramid Training

Reverse pyramid training (RPT) is a set/rep pattern used in resistance exercise movements where you (after warming up) hit the heaviest weight on your first set and then reduce some of that weight and add more reps to the 2nd and possibly 3rd set. This pattern is used by such guys as: Greg O’Gallagher and Martin Berkhan.
 
It’s a very demanding type of training, but it allows you to lift heavy loads of weight in relatively short amount of time and you don’t have to tax your central nervous system with multi-set workouts that eventually just turn into grinding and spinning your wheels. It’s a very good fit for testosterone boosting workouts (which is why it will be one of the main themes in Christopher Walker’s THOR-program)
 
Basically reverse pyramid training comes down to first warming up, then hitting your first set with all-out effort of say for example 5-8 reps, then you rest for roughly 3-5 minutes and reduce the weight by 10% and do the same with 1-2 more reps than in the first set. If you want to do more sets, keep reducing the weight by ~10% and adding 1-2 reps. IMHO 2-3 sets is optimal (more than that is just unnecessary strain for the central nervous system).
 
Here’s an example of a RPT low-volume high-intensity back workout that I do personally;
 

• 4 reps of deadlifts -> Reduce weight by 10%, rest ~4 minutes and do 5-6 reps of the same movement.
• 5 reps of weighted wide-grip pull-ups -> Reduce the weight by 10%, rest ~4 minutes and do 7 reps of the same movement.
• 8 reps of weighted chin-ups -> Reduce weight by 10%, rest ~4 minutes and continue with 10 reps of the same movement.
• 6 reps of lat pulldowns with narrow handle -> Reduce weight by 10%, rest ~4 minutes and do 8 reps.

 
Aaand that’s it for the back, a total of 8 sets – which might seem like a ridiculously low amount of work – but when done correctly (1st set is really ALL OUT set) you’re actually going to be pretty done. Go ahead and give it a shot if you don’t believe my word
 
 
 

34. Neuromuscular Movements

Neuromuscular training (NM training) is something that Chris Walker introduced in the TestShock program.
 
In short its a type of weight/bodyweight training that maximizes the stimulus of the nervous system, leading to maximal stimulus of the neuroendocrine system, leading to increased testosterone production and androgen receptor upregulation.
 
The way to do this is by activating large amounts of muscle volume (how much muscle mass you activate), with high intensity (how explosive you are), under a performance treshold (avoiding the negative adaptations that come with increased glugocorticoid receptor upregulation and chronic cortisol elevations).
 
Since increased muscle activation is known to increase the testosterone and growth hormone response, you’ll often see people saying that in order to boost testosterone you have to squat, squat, deadlift, squat and then do some deadlifts. And sure enough deadlifts and squats are very good movements for size and increased muscle activation, but they fall short on intensity (explosiveness) not allowing you to maximize the activation of fast glycotic muscle fibers, and they also bring you more easily to the training treshold.
 
Some movements which actually can be used for NM training to maximize all the above factors are;
 

• weighted chin-ups and pull-ups
• weighted dips
• clean & jerk
• muscle-ups
• box jumps

 
Honestly, I’m not that good at explaining the principles of NM training, so lets hear it from the creator himself:
 

 
 
 

35. Avoid the Pitfalls of Overtraining

It seems to be in fashion now in the fitness circles to claim that overtraining would not exist. Sure, those guys claiming that are usually on steroids or don’t really know how to really work hard enough to really need recovery. Also their goal is rarely to maximize hormonal output.
 
If you workout with a reverse pyramid style doing neuromuscular movements and some HIIT cardio once in a while, you really can’t be lifting every day. You can try but eventually this will lead to sluggish progress and messed up hormonal response, which is exactly what were trying to avoid here.
 
In short, you want to workout 3-5 times a week with ALL OUT INTENSITY and then REST properly so that your muscles, endocrine system, and CNS are always primed for your next workout which will be slightly more intense/heavier.
 

Going to the gym with no energy and when you’re still recovering from the previous workouts does very little to your progress and only negatively affects the hormonal response.

 
Remember, constant progress is the key to gains and hormonal adaptations. In order to push for that increased testosterone response and to move your resting baseline higher and higher (creating the new “normal”) you have to get out of your comfort zone and constantly progress to heavier weights and higher intensities…
 
…A good example of this is a study where non-athletes experienced significantly higher testosterone levels after an intense lifting workout in comparison to elite athletes. For the sedentary subjects this was a huge step out of the comfort zone and forced the body to adapt to new training stimuli, resulting in hormonal adaptations, whereas for the elite athletes this was just “another workout” and the hormonal adaptations weren’t as strong.
 
Another study saw that after sedentary subjects started a resistance training routine, their baseline testosterone levels shot up by over 40% in just 4-weeks. Why? Likely because they had to get out of the comfort-zone and create a “new normal” to which their hormones had to adapt into.
 
That’s the idea behind constantly pushing yourself and getting to higher weights and better intensities as you get stronger and stronger, you’re slowly pushing the hormonal baseline up by forcing your body into using bigger workloads and heavier weights…
 

…If you overtrain, your lifts will start degrading and your CNS will be too taxed to actually make that constant progress, and that’s just one of the many reasons to avoid the pitfalls of training too much.

 
 
 

36. The THOR Program

Something that this whole natural testosterone optimization field has really been missing for years now is a specific training program with the goal of building the ultimate “masculine” body, while also focusing on maximizing the testosterone response of training.
 
Sure the TestShock program has its own training section, which is good and definitely delivers more than great results, but it also isn’t very detailed and it often spans variety of training related questions.
 
The THOR-program should be a definitive answer to most of them. It’s a completely training focused encyclopedia of how to EXACTLY train in a way that maximizes the amount of exercise induced long-term testosterone adaptations.
 
I’ve had a minor involvement in few of the topics of the book (which isn’t yet released), and for now I can say that it contains multiple new ideas which haven’t really been discussed and/or applied to “hormonal response training” yet. Sure it has all the evidence-based teachings that are already well-known in this field, but also a TON of new and somewhat revolutionary info.
 

All I can say is that the THOR-program is not your average “more squats and deadlifts bro!” kind of book.

 
 
 

37. Get a Quality Multivitamin

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to significantly increase your natural testosterone production, is by correcting all of your underlying micronutrient deficiencies.
 
In fact I would go as far as saying that the best “natural T-booster supplement” is in fact just a basic high-quality wide-spectrum multivitamin. Allow me to explain why…
 
…Even though many guys think they’re all topped up on all the necessary vitamins and minerals, they usually aren’t.
 
One study conducted by The Washington Council of Responsible Nutrition says:
 

“Large portions of the population had total usual intakes below the estimated average requirement for vitamins A (35%), C (31%), D (74%), and E (67%) as well as calcium (39%) and magnesium (46%). Only 0%, 8%, and 33% of the population had total usual intakes of potassium, choline, and vitamin K…”

 
When you start looking at how vitamin and mineral deficiencies affect your testosterone production, you’ll realize why its important to keep your body topped up on essential micronutrients;
 

 
 
 

38. Phosphatidylserine

Not much has been talked about phosphatidylserine (PS) as a testosterone booster, even though there’s some evidence that at least in exercising individuals, PS can reliably increase testosterone levels and suppress the exercise induced cortisol secretion.
 
Phosphatidylserine is actually a naturally occurring phospholipid complex present in all of the bodily cells. Its mainly a signaling molecule between cells and hormones, but may also have other functions, such as reducing the oxidative damage at the interior of cells.
 
Due to over 50% of the bodily PS being in neural tissue of the brain, many claims of phosphatidylserines “nootropic” or brain boosting benefits have been made. Surprisingly enough, there’s a good amount of evidence which suggests that PS supplementation can improve cognitive functions (study, study, study). In fact PS has an FDA granted ‘qualified health claim’ for prevention of cognitive decline in humans.
 
When it comes to testosterone, PS can improve athletic performance by reducing the exercise induced rise of oxidative stress (study, study, study). Furthermore, phosphatidylserine supplementation has a dose-dependent cortisol reducing and testosterone promoting effect in exercising subjects (study, study). In the latter study PS was able to improve the testosterone to cortisol ratio by 180% more in favor of increased T, aka. anabolism.
 

 
 
 

39. Bromelain

Bromelain is a pineapple extracted blend of ‘proteolytic enzymes’. More specifically, it’s a supplement containing bunch of enzymes that can break down the peptide chains between amino-acids (proteins), improving digestion and absorption.
 
You can get some by eating pineapples, since the stem part is loaded with protelytic enzymes, but if you’re not a big fan of eating pineapple stems, supplemental bromelain is also available.
 
Why bromelain for testosterone you ask? This is actually more for the guys who want to do endurance training, since bromelain can preserve T-levels during ‘strenuous’ endurance training, but allow me to quote one of my older articles;
 
 
 
 

40. Ashwagandha Roots

Ashwagandha (Withania Somnifera) is an Indian Herb, heavily used in their herbal medicine; Ayurveda.
 
When searching the internet, you can stumble upon some ridiculous claims about herbs, and ashwagandha is not an exception. Did you know that the name actually translates to “the smell of a horse”, and its claimed by some sort of shaman weirdos to actually give its user the power and virility of a horse. I call bullshit on that.
 
Even though there are those “herbal healers” who slowly smear the name of every single herbal compound, we can’t forget the fact that ashwagandha actually has A LOT of interesting Western medicine studies on its belt…
 
…Take a look at these for instance (copied from my older Ashwagandha article):
 
 
 
 

41. Forskolin

Forskolin is a general term for standardized extract of an Indian plant Coleus Forskohlii. You’ve probably heard about it, since its a very popular fat burner and often hyped up in the ridiculous Dr. Oz show.
 
Aside from the facts that Oz is a clown who only smears forskolin’s name and that its not really anything super awesome as a fat burner, forskolin can actually increase testosterone levels and can also upregulate androgen receptors.
 
Forskolin is well-known for increasing cAMP (cyclic adenosine monophoshpate) levels in human tissue, and cAMP works as a secondary messenger in the body, transporting biological signals between cells and hormones. cAMP stimulation is believed to be the main reason why forskolin is able to increase T-levels.
 
The herbal extract so reliably boosts cAMP and testosterone levels in cell-culture studies that scientists often use it as a “positive control” to stimulate testosterone production in isolated testicular cells.
 
When forskolin was tested for its hormonal effects in humans, 12-weeks of forskolin at 250mg/day was able to increase testosterone levels by 33% when compared to placebo.
 
You could also call forskolin a “testosterone utilizer”, since it increased the amount of active androgen receptors in this in-vitro study. The mechanism is as follows: Forskolin stimulates cAMP -> cAMP stimulates an enzyme called protein kinase A (PKA) -> PKA stimulates the upregulation of AR.
 
NOTE: When buying forskolin or coleus supplements, make sure its standardized to at least 20% active ingredient. Also don’t be bummed by the reviewers who say it doesn’t help with weight-loss, no supplement really does and the claims of forskolin doing that originate from the Dr. Oz show. We all know what kind of people buy supplements recommended by that fool (the nutcrackers).
 
 
 

42. Creatine

Creatine is – right after protein supplements – the most popular supplement used by bodybuilders and various athletes.
 
It’s a naturally occurring amino-acid, which has a monster amount of scientific studies proving its positive effects in strength output and lean mass gain.
 
Creatine works by increasing cellular ATP (adenosine triphosphate) levels. ATP is what cells use as energy, so basically you’re increasing the supply of energy for your cells when you ingest creatine. Logically this helps you perform better.
 

But did you know that creatine can also increase testosterone levels? Not only the exercise-induced T-levels but also your resting baseline.

 
As a side note for a study that tested creatine’s effect on cognitive abilities, the researchers found out that it also increased salivary testosterone levels. In athletes creatine has been noted to reliably increase T-levels, for instance; This 4-year study noted that in athletes who reported using creatine, a trend towards increased testosterone levels was noted…
 
…In swimmers testosterone levels and swim times can be improved with creatine supplementation. In overtrained men who practice resistance training, creatine maintains power output, free testosterone, and total testosterone levels. One study even found out that creatine supplementation in resistance trained males led to 17% higher baseline testosterone levels than what was seen in the placebo group which received sugar pills.
 
Creatine is also known for increasing DHT levels by up to 56% in young rugby players.
 
Bottom line: Creatine is a legit supplement for every athlete and gym-rat, since it increases strength output, reduces fatigue, and offers a slight boost to anabolic hormones. It’s also really cheap.
 
 
 

43. Probiotics

The definition of probiotics is as follows: “live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host”. In other words, probiotics are friendly bacteria most commonly used to improve gut health.
 
The idea of using probiotic bacteria for health was first coined in 1907 by a Russian researcher and Nobel laureate Élie Metchnikoff who had a novel idea of replacing the harmful gut microbes, with beneficial (probiotic) microbes, this essentially improving gut flora and overall health.
 
These bacteria naturally occur naturally in many fermented foods, such as: yogurt, kefir, kimichi, sauerkraut, kombucha, and sourdough, and can also be supplemented with, currently it isn’t known which one is the better delivery method – supplements or food – but common sense would suggest its the naturally occurring kind from fermented foods.
 
What does all of this have to do with testosterone though?
 
Well for one, our gut health is strongly correlated with testosterone production. People with poor gut flora are much more likely to suffer from micronutrient deficits and lower T-levels…
 
…But it doesn’t end there, some modern research has shown that some strains of probiotics can directly increase testosterone levels. Take this 2014 rat study for example, where a probiotic strain commonly found in yogurts (Lactobacillus reuterii) was able to significantly increase multiple parameters related to reproductive health. In fact, the addition of L. reuterii to male rodents feed resulted in;
 

• increased testosterone levels
• increased testicular size and weight
• increased markers of social domination
• prevention of age-related testicular shrinkage
• improved sperm quality, motility, and volume
• increased luteinizing and follicle stimulating hormone levels

 
This isn’t the only rat study with promising results, another one found similar results, the more the rodents were exposed to probiotics, the higher their testosterone was. One study also saw that a probiotic strain by the name of Clostridium scindens is able to directly convert cortisol into androgens inside the gut.
 
 
 

44. The Estrogen Flush Stack

High levels of estrogens (female sex hormones) are not that uncommon in male bodies these days.
 
In fact, numerous things in our daily lives can increase estrogen levels and the conversion from testosterone to estrogen (which happens via the aromatase enzyme).
 
These include (but are not limited to); being fat, using personal care products with xenoestrogens, drinking lots of alcohol, drinking lots of full-fat milk from pregnant-cows, microwaving plastics, and yes, some men just naturally convert more of their testosterone to estrogen, as they’re “high aromatizers”.
 
How can you combat this and balance your levels?
 
Obviously, being lean, using natural personal care items, drinking less alcohol, not using too much plastic products, and switching to skimmed-milk can work wonders, but there are also some supplements that can be used in estrogen removal (you do need some estrogen for joint health etc, use the stack below if you have too much of it).
 
These supplements include;
 

• Indole-3-Carbinol (IC3), which is a compound found in many cruciferous vegetables that helps the liver chelate estrogens and converts stronger estrogens into weaker metabolites, leading to lower estrogen levels in men and women subjects.
• Calcium-D-Glucarate, which is a naturally occurring fiber found primarily in the jelly skin of dark berries. CDG can help remove estrogens by increasing bodily detoxification, in fact, one study claims cDG to be as effective as Tamoxifen.
• Glucuronated-resveratrol, which is a polyphenol and slightly modified form of the reservatrol found in red grapes. Reservatrol is a very potent aromatase inhibitor (study, study), but it never had a good bio-availibity in the body. Glucuronated-resveratrol is better because of its superior bioavailibity.

 
 
 

45. Tongkat Ali

Tongkat Ali (Pasak Bumi, Eurycoma Longifolia) is a Malaysian herb with a massive reputation as a pro-erectile testosterone booster.
 
Some research suggests that it can lower SHBG levels, increase testosterone, block estrogen, and act as a powerful libido booster. Most of the studies are legit, but there’s also a bunch of studies and weird patents by a guy named Dr. Tambi, which are often cited, but are really hard to find online.
 
Taking a look at some of the research, we can see that there are several animal studies where Tongkat Ali has increased libido, erection quality, and even delayed ejaculations (study, study, study). In a test-tube study, Tongkat Ali has been shown to block estrogen similarly to Tamoxifen (popular synthetic estrogen blocker).
 
Looking at this patent application, there’s a citation where its claimed that Tongkat Ali works by stimulating the CYP17 enzyme in testicles. According to a rodent study, the active ingredients from the herb do make their way to the testicles, so it’s plausible that this mechanism could work.
 
The available human data is pretty interesting. In a study of 109 men, 300mg’s of Tongkat Ali for 12-weeks was able to improve semen mobility by 44% and volume by 18% when compared to placebo. According to a questionnaire that the subjects had to fill during the study, the Tongkat Ali group also noted significant improvements in libido and erection quality, sadly hormones weren’t measured in this trial.
 
The only study that tested hormonal effects, was this human study where “moderately stressed” subjects took 200mg’s of Tongkat Ali for 4-weeks. When compared to placebo, the TA group had 37% higher testosterone and 16% lower cortisol levels than the placebo group.
 
Bottom line: Tongkat Ali has some good research behind its back, would have even more so if that Dr. Tambi guy would publish his studies online. Also if you’re going to get a Tongkat Ali supplement, consider purchasing the original Malaysian 200:1 water extract.
 
 
 

46. Carnitine

L-Carnitine is a naturally occurring amino-acid (protein) found in meat. It’s usually used in supplemental form to either improve cognitive abilities or as a fat-burner.
 
Carnitine works by shuttling fat into the mitochondria for it to use as energy, this theoretically should improve your body’s ability to burn fat (although research on this isn’t too legit) and give your some extra energy.
 
The reason why carnitine is perfect for everyone interested in natural testosterone optimization, is that when carnitine shuttles the fat to the mitochondria, it also upregulates androgen receptor activity at the same time. This in turn leading to better androgen utilization by the body.
 
This effect has been shown in a study where 3-weeks of L-carnitine L-tartrate supplementation at 2g/day was able to significantly increase the amount of active androgen receptors in exercising human subjects. The researchers actually took muscle biopsies to be sure. In a previous study by the same researchers it was noted that even without exercise, carnitine is able to upregulate AR activity.
 
Since carnitine increases AR activity and also luteinizing hormone pulsation rate, it’s not a big surprise to see that it can very reliably increase sperm quality in human subjects (study, study, study, study).
 
Bottom line: If you want to maximize your tissue uptake of testosterone, consider adding carnitine to your supplement cabin. According to the studies you’ll get even more out of it if you exercise and take it immediately after training.
 
 
 

47. Royal Jelly

Royal Jelly (RJ) is an anabolic porridge like liquid extracted from the hypophranyx glands of the worker bees.
 
Its the RJ fed to a small larvae which eventually makes it grow 60x bigger and live for 40x longer than the other bees in the hive. Basically Royal jelly is the food that makes the queen bee become queen bee.
 
Royal jelly is a nutrient bomb containing pretty balanced ratio of carbs (15%), protein (12%), and fat (5%), while also supplying vitamins: B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, biotin, and folic acid. RJ also contains the minerals: calcium, copper, iron, phosphorus, potassium, silica, and sulfur.
 

Rest of the ‘anabolic goo’ contains naturally occurring hormones, nucleic acid, sugars, gamma globulin, and ~3% compounds still unidentified by modern day science.

 
What does it do to testosterone levels? Here’s a quote from my older RJ article:
 

 
 
 

48. Shilajit

Shilajit is a tar like resin collected from the deep rocks of Himalayan mountains.
 
No one seems to be entirely sure how it was formed, but I guess the most accurate theory is that it would be the end result of thousands of years worth of composed plant microbial metabolites, because of this its claimed that authentic shilajit can contain up to 85 minerals in their ionic form.
 
The research on shilajit is still in baby shoes, but one interesting study has been made about its effects on testosterone levels.
 
In the study, 60 infertile male subjects consumed 200mg/day of shilajit for a total of 90 days…
 
…After the three months had passed the shilajit treated group were found to have;
 

• 37% higher sperm quality
• 61% better sperm volume
• 17% better sperm motility
• 23% higher testosterone

 
NOTE: over 90% of the shilajit in the market is not authentic, and highly uneffective. True shilajit is always in its pure resin form and black.
 
 
 

49. Ginger Root

I think I mentioned ginger earlier in the nutrition part, but its worth to mention again as some might use it as a supplement too.
 
Ginger is generally hailed for its anti-inflammatory benefits, but its rare to hear anything about the fact that it can possibly increase testosterone levels.
 
Many animal studies have noted that ginger contains androgenic compounds, and could be used as an aphrodisiac in men (study, study, study). And yes, there is a human study on gingers effects for testosterone levels, which saw that an undisclosed amount of ginger administered daily for 90-days was able to increase LH (43%), FSH (17%), and testosterone (17%) levels in infertile men.
 

Whether ginger is able to do this on non-infertile men is a question we’re unable to answer yet, but due to its multiple health benefits and very low price, it’s not a big deal to try it out.

 
 
 

50. Horny Goat Weed

Horny goat weed (Epimedium) is a flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region of Asia.
 
For centuries, it has been used as a powerful aphrodisiac in Chinese medicine and due to its high levels of the compound called icariin, it might actually work to increase testosterone levels too.
 
Currently no human data exists, but many in-vitro and animal-studies have shown interesting effects with standardized icariin.
 
Here’s a quote from one of my older articles:
 
 
 
 

51. Mucuna Pruriens

Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean) is an Indian herb commonly consumed in their herbal medicine; Ayurveda, as an aphrodisiac. M. pruriens has been widely studied in Western medicine and it is currently used in many medications to relieve the effects of Parkinson’s disease.
 
One of the claims that you will almost instantly stumble upon in the internet, is that mucuna supplementation would be able increase testicular size, and due to its possible effect in boosting testosterone production, this claim might actually hold some water.
 
The reason why mucuna would work to boost the big T, is that its chock-full of a compound called L-Dopa (levadopa), which is a precursor to the hormone/neurotransmitter; dopamine. Since increased dopamine secretion is linked to increased testosterone production, one could easily imagine that M. pruriens could stimulate T-production.
 
According to a bunch of studies, this seems to happen in subjects who consume the herb:
 
 
 
 

52. Additional Resources for the Testosterone-Oriented

Since you made it down here, you must be pretty interested in natural testosterone optimization and no-BS evidence-based men’s health in general.
 
Even though this article is probably the best free resource for natural T-optimization, I have compiled below a bunch of additional resources for the four main categories…
 

…That is; lifestyle, nutrition, training, and supplementation advice which will help you become a superhuman (well at least kind of).

 
Bonus bad-ass resources;
 

• Testshock Program (the ultimate natural T-enhancement guide. Best in the market. Unbeatable).
• THOR-program (the complete guide for how to train to elicit the maximal testosterone response).
• Testosterone Fat-loss program (how to lose weight in a sane evidence-based way that maintains T-levels).
• Eat Stop Eat (everything you need to know about intermittent-fasting and fasting in general).
• Testosterone Podcast (a podcast hosted by me, Chris Walker, and Ian Lenny).
• Testosterone Meal Plans (tailored nutrition plans by the TestShock team).
• Examine.com (unbiased supplement research resource).
• Think and Grow Rich (book that every man needs to read).

 
 
 

The post 52 Evidence-Based Ways to Increase Testosterone Levels Naturally appeared first on Anabolic Men.

Huge part of boosting testosterone levels naturally comes down to nutrition. You want to eat a good amount of starchy carbs, good amount of the right type of fats, and low-medium amount of protein mainly from animal sources (both muscle-meat and collagen-proteins). On top of all, it’s ideal to get plenty of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) with the foods you eat.
 
To achieve those goals, I have gathered you these 5 mouth-watering recipes. Simple, delicious, and most importantly; recipes that nourish the bodily testosterone production.
 
Let’s get to it shall we?
 
 
 

1. Spicy Lamb Stew

This spicy lamb shank stew is super-easy to make and it’ll last for days. One of my ultimate T-boosting favorites. Look closely to the ingredient list and you’ll see that almost everything on it has a positive effect on testosterone production;
 

• 3 lbs of lamb shoulder meat, cubed
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 red bell peppers, chopped
• 2 tablespoons of ginger, ground
• 1½ tablespoons of cayenne pepper, ground
• 2 cups of beef stock
• 5 tomatoes, puréed
• 1 handful of fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon of pure sea salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper

 
Preparation:

— Add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a pan or high sided pot. Add the lamb meat cubes and cook for 6-8 minutes until the cubes are evenly brown on all sides. Put the meat into a bowl.

— Heat the same pan or high sided pot that you cooked the lamb cubes in, but this time put it to medium-high heat and add in the onions and bell peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add garlic and continue cooking for 1 more minute.

— Throw in the beef stock, lamb cubes, cayenne pepper, ginger, puréed tomatoes, and fresh parsley leaves. Bring the pan or pot to boil over high heat, then lower the heat to low and cook partially covered for 3 hours, or until the lamb is tender.

— Season with salt and pepper. Eat.

 
Why exactly is the lamb stew testosterone-friendly?

• Lamb meat is a good source of carnitine which is an amino-acid that increases androgen receptor density and sensitivity. There’s also saturated fat, cholesterol, high quality protein, zinc, several B vitamins, and CLA in lamb meat and all of which are linked to increased testosterone production.
• Olive oil consists mostly of monounsaturated fatty accids, which in this study were shown to be pro-testosterone. This study found out that olive oil converted cholesterol more easily into testosterone. And this study saw that healthy male subjects who switched to using olive oil as their main source of fat noted a 17% increase in their testosterone levels.
• Onions contain hefty amounts of quercetin and alliins, compounds that both are linked to increased T production. Moreover this study found out that feeding fresh onion juice to male rats more than tripled their serum testosterone levels.
• Garlic is also rich in alliins and quercetin, and it comes not as a surprise that few studies have found out its testosterone boosting effects, such as this and this study.
• Ginger increased testosterone levels by 17% in this human study, and it more than doubled testosterone levels in this rat study. This animal study also found out that it works similarly in diabetic rats.
• Cayenne pepper, at least according to this study, may have a testosterone boosting effect.
• Parsley contains a compound called apigening, which stimulates testosterone synthesis inside isolated leydig cells.

 
 
 

2. Guacamole

Who doesn’t love to dip everything in Guac? Nobody! This classic guacamole recipe combines all of the T-boosting goodness into the ultimate Mexican dipping experience. The ingredients speak for theirselves;
 

• 4 ripe Haas avocados
• 3 tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon)
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ cup diced red onion
• 1 large garlic clove (minced)
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1 diced tomato

 
Preparation;

— Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits. Scoop the flesh into a bowl. Add lemon juice, cayenne pepper, diced onions, garlic, salt, and tomatoes.

— Take a sharp knife and start dicing the avocado halfs into smaller pieces. Once done, mix well and you’re finished.

 
Why Guac is Pro-T?

• Avocados are loaded with testosterone boosting monounsaturated-fats (MUFAs), while also being a source of a bitter glycoside; oleuropein, which increased T levels by a staggering 250% in this rat study. Add in 20 dietary vitamins and minerals present in the flesh of an avocado. Many which your body uses and requires to produce testosterone: A, K2, C, B2, B5, B6, zinc, magnesium, and copper, and you have yourself one of the possibly best testosterone boosting ingredients as a base for this recipe.
• Cayenne pepper, Although not significant, there’s a study which suggests that the capsaicin in cayenne pepper can protect your testosterone levels from the stress of a calorie deficit.
• Garlic and onions both correlate heavily with increased T production in multiple animal studies (study, study, study, study, study).

 
 
 

3. Slow Cooker Swiss Steak

This recipe is courtesy of the Midnight Baker blog, it’s quite simple to made in a slow-cooker, and its chock-full of testosterone boosting ingredients;
 

• 6 beef blade steaks
• 8 oz white button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tbs fresh thyme, minced
• 1 ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 3/4 cup beef stock
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour
• 4 tbs olive oil
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
• salt & pepper to taste

 
Preparation;

— Heat a pan over medium heat. Add in 1 tbs olive oil and the mushroom slices. Cook until the mushrooms start to brown. Remove from pan and put into the slow cooker.

— Return the pan to medium heat and season the blade steaks with salt and pepper. Add 1 tbs of olive oil again and brown the steaks. Once browned, set them aside on a plate.

— Once again, return the pan to medium heat, this time add: 2 tbs olive oil, sliced onions, and ground cayenne pepper. Cook and stir for a minute, then add the sorghum flour and dry sherry into the mix. Cook again for a minute, then pour the contents of the pan into the crockpot.

— Add the blade steak slices on top of the mixture in crockpot, cover, and cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.

— After 6-8 hours, remove the steaks into a serving plate and cover with foil so that they stay warm. Meanwhile add the heavy cream and chopped parsley into the liquid still in the slow cooker. Heat for another 10 minutes to make a sauce. Pour the sauce on top of the blade steaks, and serve with mashed potatoes.

 
Here’s why the swiss steak boosts testosterone;

• Beef steak is easily the best source of animal protein you would want to eat on a high testosterone diet (here’s why).
• White button mushrooms are natural aromatase inhibitors, meaning that they inhibit the conversion from testosterone into estrogen (study, study, study).
• Onions have been linked to increased testosterone production in multiple animal studies (study, study, study, study).
• Cayenne pepper has a testosterone protecting effect in testicular leydig cells, that is, at least when you’re on a diet (study).
• Sorghum has a potent DHT boosting effect, which was noted in this in-vitro study.
• Olive oil is a great source of monounsaturated fatty acids, which are crucially important for healthy testosterone production (here’s why). Also, a study with young Moroccan men saw that 2 weeks of using olive oil as a main source of fat, increased testosterone levels by 20%.
• Heavy cream is a great source for saturated fat, a.k.a, the most testosterone friendly type of dietary fat (study, study, study, study).
• Parsley contains high amounts of a compound called apigening, which has been linked to significant increases in testosterone production, due to its stimulatory effect on testicular StAR protein (study).

 
 
 

4. The Men’s Salad

Salad doesn’t have to be a boring experience of rabbit foods. In fact you can whip up a hormonally nourishing health-bomb of a salad in few minutes with this recipe that includes;
 

• 3 cups leafy greens
• 2 eggs, boiled
• ½ cup blue cheese
• 5 slices bacon, crumbled
• 1 avocado
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil

 
Preparation;

— Cook the bacon, crumble into a cup. Boil the eggs and peel + slice them to your liking.

— Combine everything in a large bowl and now you have a salad.

 
Here’s why this salad is you high-testosterone fuel;

• If you use spinach as a lettuce base, it’s filled with natural nitrates that convert into nitric oxide inside of your body. This occurence will then increase your blood flow. Spinach is also filled with a natural steroid called ecdysterone, which is linked to elevated testosterone production.
• Eggs are packed with cholesterol, which is the direct precursor of testosterone and linked to elevated testosterone production in various studies. Eggs are also filled with choline, which helps your body to chelate (get rid off) estrogens.
• Blue cheese is filled with live bacteria, enzymes, and probiotics, and those are all linked to supreme health and elevated testosterone production.
• Bacon gives you some natural saturated fat which is the kind of fat that stimulates testosterone synthesis. Bacon will also give you hefty doses of testosterone boosting cholesterol.
• Avocado is jam-packed with mono-unsaturated fatty acids, which in this study increased testosterone production. Avocados also contain various T boosting vitamins such as: C, E, D, and K2.
• Olive oil will help your testicles to convert cholesterol more easily into testosterone. It also increased testosterone levels by 17% in this study. Olive oil also has a compound called Oleuropein which is shown to be anti-estrogenic in few in-vitro studies.

 
 
 

5. Max-Testo Burger

Every man needs a good burger once in a while. Heck, why not every day? If you make your own, using quality ingredients and T-boosting fats, this delicious recipe is far from “fast food”;
 

• 4 hamburger buns
• 1 lb beef, ground
• 4 bacon slices
• 4 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp himalayan or sea salt
• 1 tbsp ground pepper
• ½ red onion, sliced
• 4 white button mushrooms, chopped
• ½ cup blue cheese
• 4 slices cheddar cheese
• 1 cup mayo (olive oil base)
• 1 cup of lettuce

 
Preparation;

— Preheat a grill over high heat.

— In a bowl, mix the ground beef, mustard, salt, and pepper. Then shape the mixture into 4 evenly sized patties and grill for 5 minutes a side or until they’re roughly medium doneness. Then add the cheddar cheese slices on top of the patties and grill for 1 more minute.

— Throw the bacon slices, onion slices, and white button mushrooms into the grill or into a pan, grill/cook until they’re all evenly brown.

— Cut the buns in half and grill for 10 seconds the cut side facing down.

— Start assimilating the hamburger in the order you prefer.

— Eat.

 
Here’s the T-boosting magic behind these burgers;

• Ground beef is a good source for carnitine which is linked to increased androgen receptor density and sensitivity. Also meat eaters tend to have higher testosterone levels than the fellows who refuse to eat it.
• Bacon is an excellent source for testosterone boosting cholesterol and saturated fat.
• All kinds of onions are filled with quercetin and alliins, which both are linked to increased testosterone production. Few studies have also examined the effects that onions have on testosterone levels and found only positive correlations (study, study, study, study).
• Blue cheese is filled with probiotics, healthy bacteria, and live enzymes, all of which are linked to elevated testosterone levels.
• White button mushrooms have the ability to inhibit the aromatase enzyme. It’s an enzyme that converts testosterone molecules into estrogen molecules. Thus, blocking its activity will naturally increase your testosterone levels.

The post 5 Mouth-Watering Testosterone Boosting Recipes appeared first on Anabolic Men.

Forskolin is a labdane diterpene found in an Indian plant called Coleus Forskohlii. Dozens of studies have proven it to be a potent cAMP activator, while one human study found that forskolin increases testosterone. One study even found that the herb activates androgen receptors.
 
Forskolin is not that popular of a supplement for sure, and most commonly its used as a fat burner (not that effective IMHO), vasodilator, or to relieve glaucoma symptoms. However there’s one interesting benefit to Forskolin which everyone else seems to miss.
 
It has shown some very promising effects on male testosterone levels:
 
 
 
 

Forskolin as a Testosterone Booster

Like I said above, Forskolin as a supplement is not that popular, and it’s use as a testosterone booster is even less popular.
 
With that being said, there’s still some interesting studies about this fascinating diterpene…
 
…Firstly, Forskolin is well known to increase the levels of cAMP in cells and tissue (cAMP is a messenger that transports biological signals between cells and hormones). Increased cAMP levels should by all laws of common sense, increase the sensitivity, amount, and activity of hormones all over the body.
 
…Secondly, in this in vitro study, Forskolin was able to raise testosterone levels by almost 200% in isolated rat leydig cells. Many scientists use Forskolin as a “positive control” in cell studies because it has positive testosterone stimulating effect on testicular leydig cells.
 
…Thirdly, this study led by a scientist Michael P. Godard, had 30 obese male subjects who were divided into two groups, the Forskolin group and the placebo group.
 
The Forskolin group received 250 mg’s of 10% Forskolin extract twice a day for 12 weeks, and the placebo group obviously got a fake pill.
 
At the end of the 12 week period, the Forskolin group noted a 33% increase in testosterone when compared to placebo.
 
NOTE: The only downfall with Gorard’s study is the fact that it was funded by the company that manufactures a weight loss supplement called forslean, which contains forskolin as one of the active ingredients. However the study has since been peer-reviewed by several other researchers and it has been published in countless of high quality medical journals, meaning that the study should be pretty legit after all.
 
…Fourthly, in this in-vitro study, the researchers found out that forskolin is a potent activator of androgen receptors in multiple different human cells. This activation was likely due to the fact that forskolin increases cAMP, which then increases protein kinase A (PKA), which is an enzyme that regulates glycocen, sugar, and lipid metabolism inside the receptors. These results suggest that forskolin is not only a testosterone booster, but also a “testosterone utilizer”, as it activates the receptor sites in which testosterone molecules bind into.
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

There’s some interesting studies suggesting that Forskolin might be a potential testosterone booster, albeit more studies would be needed to validate that claim.
 
We should also remember that as Forskolin increases cAMP levels in the cells, it might also elevate other hormones, not only testosterone (in theory, you probably shouldn’t use anything that boost cAMP if you’re battling with high estrogen levels).
 
If you want to try Forskolin, this brand would probably be the best pick (it’s also similar to the one used in Gorard’s study).
 
NOTE: Some of you will probably ask this, so to save some time I’m answering the question here: Yes Forskolin should be cycled poperly because its a herbal compound.

The post Forskolin is a Potential Testosterone Booster, cAMP Activator, and Androgen Receptor Activator appeared first on Anabolic Men.

With over 200 articles about ways to boost testosterone in this blog, 262-pages of T-optimization in TestShock, and 52 evidence-based ways to increase testosterone just solely in this one article, I get a lot of questions about where exactly should a “natural T-boosting journey” be started.
 
The good news is that in order to significantly speed up your natural testosterone production, you don’t have to focus on hundreds of specific little things. In fact just focusing on 8 “big variables” is enough to make a MASSIVE difference in your endocrine health.
 
This post will be very short, as I’m just going to list the ten most important ways to optimize T-levels, with some additional links to further – more detailed – reading;
 

1. Get to (and stay at) 8-14% body fat
   • Prioritize this level of lean as your first and foremost goal (here’s how to get there).
   • Fat men have significantly lower testosterone levels than lean men and vice-versa.
   • Don’t get too lean though, getting to ‘extremely low’ body fat percentage starts slowing down all reproductive functions.
   • Having high amounts of fat, especially in the mid-section increases the aromatization from testosterone to estrogen.
2. Fix your underlying micronutrient deficiencies

• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are incredibly prevalent all-around the globe, even in developed countries.
• Nearly all of the essential micronutrients are responsible for some bodily mechanism necessary for testosterone synthesis.
• Normalizing levels of certain micronutrients like zinc and vitamin D can rapidly raise and restore low testosterone levels.

Start resistance training

• Lifting heavy objects is a really good way to stimulate testosterone production
• Neuromuscular movement patterns and doing explosive reps can furthermore stimulate testosterone production.
• Having high amounts of muscle mass is correlated with high testosterone levels.
• 3-4 workouts per week is plenty enough, and yes, overtraining does lower testosterone levels so don’t do that.

Consume enough calories

• Dieting with crazy calorie deficits and long-term calorie restriction will suppress testosterone production.
• Short-bouts of overfeeding are associated with higher testosterone levels, though only studied in women so far
• Losing weight with a calorie deficit of ~15% doesn’t lower T-levels. Even though its slower than crash dieting, this is ideal.
• If you don’t need to lose weight, eating maintenance calories or a slight surplus (if you’re looking to build muscle) is the way to go.

Get your macronutrients on track

• First realize that you DON’T want to omit from any macronutrient, be it protein, carbs, or fats. They’re all necessary for T.
• Consume roughly 40% of your daily calories from dietary fat, with most of them coming from SFAs and MUFAs.
• Roughly 20% of daily energy should come from protein. Animal sources are hormonally superior to plant-based proteins.
• The remaining 40% should be from carbohydrates. Potatoes and such.

Start sleeping more

• Partial sleep restriction in young university students leads to ~15% reduction in testosterone.
• Men sleeping about 4 hours have roughly half of the testosterone of the guys who sleep for ~8 hours.
• According to Japanese researchers, each extra hour of sleep should lead to ~15% higher testosterone levels thorough the day.

Kill stress

• Chronic stress leads to chronically elevated cortisol (stress hormone) levels.
• Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that breaks down muscle mass, increases visceral fat accumulation, and suppresses testosterone.
• There are ways to reduce stress and cortisol levels, such as; eating enough carbs, relaxation exercises, and some supplements.

Limit endocrine disruptor exposure

• Multiple modern pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides are antiandrogens.
• Man made chemicals such as phthlates, parabens, and Bisphenol A are potent at reducing testosterone levels.
• Tap-water contains a wide spectrum of potential endocrine disruptors. Easy fix is a simple water filter.

 
 Bottom line:  The 8 things above are the “big-hitters”, which when done right will without a shade of doubt significantly increase your testosterone production. Of course there are hundreds of more things that help here in AM blog and in the TestShock book, but before focusing on any minutia, consider getting the “core” stuff right first!

The post How to Create your Own Natural Testosterone Boosting Plan, aka. 8 Most Important Things to Focus on First appeared first on Anabolic Men.

If you type “the benefits of testosterone” to Google, you’ll find dozens of articles which list increased ability to burn fat as one of the main benefits of having high T levels…
 
…Does testosterone really do that though? And if so, why would it happen? Can guys with low T lose weight?
 
Hopefully you’ll get some answers out of this article:
 
 
 
 

How Testosterone Levels Affects Fat Loss

Considering the fact that you’re not on steroids, losing weight means that you MUST burn more energy (calories) than what you consume. In other words, you have to put yourself into a state of negative energy balance.
 
No matter what you’ve heard from the so called gurus and experts, weight loss always means that you have to feed your body less energy than what it burns, in this case your body has to tap into its own energy reserves to keep its functions running.
 
Science has – without a shade of doubt – proven multiple times that energy deficit is the only REAL way to lose weight, irregardless of macronutrient ratios, or insulin, glycaemic index, gluten, or any other fad-trick-claim-scam-hype that’s out there (study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study, study).
 
Heck, professor Mark Haub got so sick of the claims of calories-in vs. calories-out not being true, that he ate Twinkies, Doritos, Oreos and protein shakes for 2 months, while constantly being on a calorie deficit of ~800 kcal per day.
 
Guess what happened? He lost 27 pounds. Some clean-eating experts would argue that the amount of weight lost is not important, rather it is the amount of lost fat, so it’s important to mention that Mark’s body fat percentage also fell from 33.4% to 24.9%.
 
The point? You will lose weight as long as you feed your body less energy than it burns, even if you eat the most absolute junk. Yes, the human body is an “open system”, but still, you can’t really escape the laws of thermodynamics. Period.
 

So, does this mean that having high or low levels of testosterone makes no difference for the body’s ability to burn fat? Yes, and then, no.

 
As long as you’re in a state of negative energy balance, you will lose weight, irregardless of your testosterone levels. However, having high testosterone levels can still help you shed of the layers of fat faster with the following ways:
 

Higher levels of testosterone make it easier for your body to burn adipose tissue (fat), instead of muscle mass.
Increased T, boosts metabolic rate, which increases the energy burned, and thus creates a bigger calorie deficit.
Having high levels of testosterone in the blood stream, directly inhibits the creation of some new fat cells.

 
So, how big of a difference does testosterone really make? If we look at things from a natural perspective, fluctuating in-between the normal range of total testosterone (250-1200 ng/dL), a decrease from ~600 ng/dL to ~300 ng/dL (achieved with the administration of a GnRH antagonist drug), caused a staggering 36% increase in the fat mass of healthy human subjects.
 
So, bottom line is that testosterone fluctuating in the normal subphysiological ranges isn’t going to get you lean if you are on a caloric surplus (although it slightly increases metabolic rate), but high T will improve your body composition with increased lipolysis and prevention of new fat cell creation…
 
…Which in turn leads to the following two benefits:
 

• increased amount of lean mass gained, with lower amounts of fat mass gained on a caloric surplus
• increased amount of fat mass lost, with more lean mass preserved on a calorie deficit

The post Testosterone and Weight Loss: Does the Big T Really Help you Burn Fat? appeared first on Anabolic Men.

Have you ever wanted to read a book that systemically crushes – with scientific evidence – the biggest myths of the fitness & nutrition industry? That teaches you a sane easily doable way of constantly slashing the pounds without feeling “trapped” to stupid industry myths such as; “You have to eat six small meals a day to stoke the metabolic fire”?
 
Well, Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat claims to do so. The book is in short, a big research review of the literature behind things like how many meals a day do you have to eat to lose weight? How does fasting affect your muscle mass and metabolic rate? What are the hormonal changes that happen during fasting, overfeeding, starvation? What about supplements?
 
Those questions and many many more will be broken down with the author who holds a masters degree in nutrition, and actually worked in the supplements industry for quite some years before starting his entrepreneurial journey as an author…
 
…But the big question is, does Eat Stop Eat Work?
 
 
 

How Good is Eat Stop Eat?

On a personal level, I really like Eat Stop Eat, and I feel like it in a way actually shaped my dietary habits for the rest of my life. Allow me to explain.
 
In 2013, I spent a year in military. Every morning at ~5:30AM we were woken up, and 10 minutes later we were marching to the cafeteria for breakfast. This whole ordeal – the march, the organizing in the yard before heading in, the actual eating, organizing when we exited the building, and marching back to the unit – took roughly 1 hour each and every morning…
 
…After six months, when I got promoted to a squad leader (sub-sergeant in Finland) and new recruits entered the facilities, I was in a situation where it was no longer mandatory to go to the cafeteria under supervision of higher ranks. At this point I got a majestic idea. What if I didn’t eat breakfast? This way I would get 1 extra hour of sleep every morning!
 
Then it hit me. What happens to my muscle mass? Will my metabolic rate slow down? Breakfast has always been said to be the most important meal of the day, would it harm me to skip it?
 
Luckily, that’s when I did some research on the subject and eventually found Brad Pilon’s blog and through there I purchased the Eat Stop Eat PDF. The book itself which is jam-packed with easy-to-read science and study breakdowns allowed me to understand the real truth behind short-term fasting, skipping breakfast, and what would all this “intermittent fasting” be doing to my muscle mass and metabolic rate.
 
I don’t know how to really explain it, but in a nutshell, reading Eat Stop Eat gave me some sort of “relief” from the bullshit claims of the fitness & nutrition industry, and I now had the actual research to back-up and justify my habit of skipping breakfast and eating when I felt like it, not when some “fitness expert” told I had to.
 
 
The Pros:
The book is HEAVILY based on solid human research (339 citations) with quality studies and no cherry-picking
As a former fitness & supplement industry “behind the curtains” man, Pilon really knows how to crush the myths and marketing tactics
Even though the book is based on science, it’s still really easy to read and comprehend even if you’re not a nutritionist or a medical doctor
The book has its own chapter for the diets effect on testosterone levels – for men – this is hugely important knowledge to attain
If you ever wanted to know anything about intermittent fasting, it’s likely that you will find it in the Eat Stop Eat PDF
The info doesn’t just stop at the nutrition stuff, there are really good chapters about hormones, lifestyle, and exercise too

The Cons:
Bit too much emphasis on 24-hour weekly fasts, not much about other beneficial intermittent fasting types (16:8 or 20:4 for example)
The sales copy of the book is bit cheesy, at least when compared to what it was few years ago (doesn’t change the quality of the PDF)
After you purchase the main book, you will be pitched few add-on items, it can be intrusive, although you don’t have to buy them
Having a big impact on body composition (not much on weight loss), I would of have liked to see more info about macronutrient splits
 

A: In terms of the science, size, and price point, there’s really nothing that comes close to the value of the Eat Stop Eat program. It actually might just be the most comprehensive manual of “how to really lose weight”, and also a huge resource about all things related to intermittent fasting and even long-term fasting.
 
One e-book with a similar theme (intermittent fasting) that comes close is the Aggressive Fat Loss 2.0 by Greg O’Gallagher, but although AFL 2.0 is a fantastic program to follow that will also give guaranteed results, it doesn’t offer nearly as much content and scientific citations as Eat Stop Eat does. However, if you’re looking for a more faster read with clear-cut info on what to do and how to do it, then I would opt for AFL 2.0.
 
Then there’s also the “Warrior Diet” and the popular “5:2 Diet” which both have somewhat similar theme and ideas, but neither comes even close to Pilon’s work.
 
A: According to some doctors and also some personal stories of my readers, people with adrenal fatigue (ie. too low or abnormally cycled cortisol secretion from the adrenal glands) do not do well on diets that involve fasting (causes increased lethargy, and seems to worsen the symptoms). Other than that, people of all ages with no known adrenal issues seem to do really well on diets that involve short-term fasting. As you’ll learn from the research in the book, even diabetics do really well on this type of nutritional approach.
 
A: As I mentioned above, there are some options to buy add-ons after your purchase of the main book (which also includes a quickstart guide), some of these were: an audiobook version, email research review newsletter, etc. So they’re not necessarily bonuses since they increase the cost, but they do compliment the main program.
 
 
 

Conclusion

Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon – .
 
I was first thinking of giving Eat Stop Eat a 4 ½ star rating. However if you look at the cons, basically the only downfalls of the program are related to the sales page and upsell pushing, which doesn’t really take anything away from the quality of the main book.
 
Does it work? Worked for me, not that I always follow the Eat Stop Eat style fasting-feeding pattern, but I’ve taken a lot of the research and info from the book into my own nutrition, and for anyone who still believes the age old fit industry B.S, this book is a true eye opener.
 
Click Here to Read More about Eat Stop Eat  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The post Reviewing Brad Pilon’s ‘Eat Stop Eat’ appeared first on Anabolic Men.

The internet has been quite saturated with “ways to increase testosterone levels naturally” kind of articles, and after writing more than 250 articles on the subject, I know for a fact that this blog has most of the scientifically proven tricks already covered.
 
Well, today I have you a special trick of mine that hasn’t been discussed before, is heavily backed-up by research, and is a lot of fun when implemented successfully. Though I have to warn you that even if it might sound easy, it’s not (there’s a change of it backfiring and actually lowering your T!).
 
The weird trick? Sports betting, while also watching the games you have bet on. Weird much? Well, just read on:
 
 
 

Sports Betting and Testosterone

Ever since I was 12 years old, I have been a “sports bettor”. Being from Finland the hobby is relatively easy to start, since nearly all gas-stations, supermarkets, and kiosks have betting “stations” in them.
 
And now since smartphones and the internet have evolved, and live streaming has become a thing, I can hook up bets with my phone in just minutes, and watch me some MLB or NHL from my own couch…
 
…Which is great, since I have followed both leagues from a kid and I can easily make profit from them, which is crucial for this trick to work anyway.
 
So, what the hell does sports betting and watching the games have to do with testosterone production!?
 

• According to a human study from the University of Utah, men who watch their favorite sports team compete – and win – experience the same type of testosterone surges as the players themselves, whereas the losing sides actually ends up with lower testosterone levels. This study was done using soccer as an example, and the men watched the game via TV. The researchers point out that for these changes to occur, the win (or loss) has to be MEANINGLESS for the viewer.
• Unless the team you’re watching is from your home town, you can add “meaning” to the game with sports betting. And even if the team is your “own”, the end result will still become more meaningful if there’s money on the line. This should then make the surge (or drop) in hormones even more powerful.
• Making money itself, has been shown to increase testosterone levels. Take this study with young future traders as an example, the traders noticed significant increases in their testosterone levels on the days when they made above average profits. One future trader in the group got a 6 day streak of above average profits, and ended up having 78% more testosterone in his blood.

 
So that’s my formula and “theory” about how sports betting and watching the games can be used to raise testosterone levels. Just to recap, it goes like this:
 
— Watch your choice of sport.
— Add money on the line to make the end result more meaningful.
— Get a rush of success when you actually earn profits from the match.
 
Now like I said in the beginning, this is definitely not easy, and it can backfire by actually having the opposite effect on your hormones. This is, if your team loses, and you lose your bet. Even if you were to use this trick and win for the majority of time, there are still times when you experience some losses. The key is to win more than you lose. Earn more than you spend.
 
In the world of sports betting, that’s the hard part

The post My Super Weird Way of Raising Testosterone Levels Naturally while Watching Sports appeared first on Anabolic Men.

Pre-workout supplements or “boosters” are all the rage right now.
 
Just look around the bodybuilding supplement industry, and you can see all the new pre-workout buzz words tied around the ever so clever marketing tactics…
 

• “skin tearing pump”…
• “laser sharp focus”…
• “explosive strength”…

 
Just like most of the previously hyped up supplements, pre-workout boosters tend to be over-marketed, over-priced, and often under-providing…
 
…However, there are proven compounds that do work, and those are what we will be focusing on this article:
 
 
 
 

How Effective Are Pre-Workout Ingredients Anyway?

The term “pre-workout booster” loosely describes an over-the-counter nutritional supplement that can give you a boost before exercise, whether this is strength training, running, cycling, or whatever really…
 
…Most notably however, they are being pushed to gym-rats.
 
These pre-workout supplements are usually sweetened powders that contain various amounts of “clinically proven” (read: quite often unproven) vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, alkaloids, stimulants, or any other legally approved compounds that should, could, and in some cases will, improve your workout energy, mental clarity, and focus.
 
Another option is to buy these “pre-workout ingredients” separately in bulk powder or tablet form, if – for example – you would like to mix up your own pre-workout booster, using the ingredients you want, with the amounts that are suitable for your goals. Quite often this also allows you to leave off the propiety blends, binders, fillers, sweeteners, and colouring agents (this is the strategy I use personally, although I don’t recommend it, since it gets to be expensive as f@#k).
 

Whether your goal is to mix your own “booster”, purchase a ready-to-go mixture, or you just want to know if you even should use pre-workout supplements at all, here’s a list for you to see how effective the most common ingredients really are:

 

Caffeine

Notably the most popular “booster” out there is caffeine. It’s also – not that surprisingly – the main ingredient in multiple pre-workout supplements. You can get clinically effective dosages (150-800mg) from few cups of coffee, caffeine pills & powders, or simply through a pre-workout supplement.
 
Research suggests that caffeine:
 

• boosts muscle strength
• improves aerobic and anaerobic performance
• increases metabolic rate
• boosts focus and alertness
• can ward of “morning sickness”

 
Bottom line: Caffeine is safe, and highly effective for pre-workout needs. It will not magically help you add 10 lbs more to your lifts (though some people really claim BS like this), but it will give you a slight boost in performance and focus.
 
 

Creatine

After whey protein, creatine is probably the second most popular bodybuilding supplement of them all.
 
Unlike many other bodybuilding supplements which come and go without standing the test of time, creatine has actually been very solidly up there with protein supplements for tens of years.
 
Why? More than likely because there’s a TON of research backing up its effects in:
 

• increasing lean mass growth relative to placebo
• decreasing fatigue during resistance training
• boosting strength output

 
(examine.com has a great list showcasing hundreds of studies about the benefits of creatine supplementation for strength gains, more lean mass, and reduced fatigue (along with some other stuff).
 
Bottom line: Creatine could be added to the pre-workout supplement, and many brands sure have it, but in my opinion it’s not really needed before workouts, since you need to “saturate” your cells with creatine (often through a loading phase) before it really starts to have a noticeable effect. There’s no quick burst of energy or performance if you just guzzle it down before a workout. So yes, it’s highly effective, but it doesn’t really matter at what time you take it.
 
 

Betaine

Betaine or trimethylglycine (TMG) is identical to the amino acid; glycine, except for the fact that it has 3 methyl rings attached to it, hence the name: tri-methyl-glycine (supposedly the name betaine comes from the fact that the compound was first discovered from beetroots).
 
Because of the three methyl groups, betaine acts as a “methyl donor” in the body, and can thus donate methyl groups to other parts of the body, which in turn helps with the chelation of estrogen and homocysteine (these in turn possibly improving testosterone to estrogen ration more in favor of T, while also being cardioprotective).
 
But why do we often see betaine in pre-workout supplements?
 
Answer: Betaine is considered to be an “osmoregulator”, meaning that it would balance the water in cell membranes from becoming either too diluted or too concentrated, thus improving performance.
 
However, the studies on that claim are somewhat inconclusive (some showing improved exercise markers, some showing no change) and when its tested along side creatine (which has similar – though stronger – osmoregulative properties), it’s clearly not as effective.
 
Bottom line: there are some benefits to betaine supplementation due to its methyl donoring effects. However, the reasoning for its addition to pre-workout supplements is not standing on a very solid foundation when looking at the studies. I like to get my betaine from beets and spinach anyway, because with this, you get the added benefit of dietary nitrates, which can improve NO production and therefore vasodilation, and therefore; the “pump”
 
 

Taurine

Taurine is a semi-essential amino acid that comprises for about 0,1% of the weight of the human body. Human breast milk is relatively high in taurine (suggesting that it might be very important for the developement and normal growth). Taurine also comprises roughly 50% of the amino acids in cardiac tissue.
 
The name originates from the fact that it was first isolated from bull testicles (and no, don’t be stupid, the supplements are not isolated from there )…
 
Aside from being heavily used in energy drinks (Red Bull, etc…), taurine has some interesting testosterone boosting benefits that have so far been proven only on animals.
 
Why some pre-workout supps have it as an ingredient is not that clear to me, since the studies I’ve seen show it to be pretty inconclusive in improving exercise performance (study, study). The only real benefits of taurine supplementation (in my opinion) are: the possible T boosting effect (remember that this hasn’t been studied in humans yet), and the fact that one human study shows taurine to be fairly effective in increasing blood flow.
 
Bottom line: Aside from a slight increase in blood flow (better muscle pumps), taurine is likely not going to do much for your focus or workout performance.
 
 

Arginine

Arginine is one of the 20 most common amino acids present in nature, some rich food sources include: raw cacao, meat and poultry, egg yolks, and various nuts. It’s also one of the most popular ingredients in pre-workout supplements, and this is due to the claims of it improving nitric oxide production in the body, thus increasing blood flow, and improving the muscle “pump” effect (which would of course also improve the delivery of oxygen and nutrients into the muscle tissue).
 
Arginine is a direct precursor for the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), and in regards of nitric oxide production, vasodilation, and increased blood flow, there is good amount of evidence speaking in behalf of arginine supplementation.
 

• arginine has been shown to “restore” the natural NO production in subjects with heart problems
• arginine has been shown to improve exercise efficiency and exercise tolerance in healthy humans
• arginine raises nitric oxide levels in the body, resulting in lower blood pressure and increased blood flow (study, study, study)

 
Bottom line: Arginine is fairly effective at increasing blood flow, and this is likely because the human body uses arginine in the synthesis of nitric oxide, which is a compound that dilates blood vessels. It’s addition in pre-workout supplements is obviously not for nothing.
 
 

Citrulline

All the benefits of arginine, can be achieved with citrulline supplementation. That is, because the liver naturally converts it into arginine.
 
So, just like from arginine supplementation, citrulline will give you:
 

• increased NO production
• better blood flow and muscle pumps due to dilated vessels
• improved exercise efficiency and tolerance

 
What makes citrulline better than arginine, is the fact that citrulline supplementation is better at increasing plasma arginine levels than direct arginine supplementation itself is. And not only that but citrulline provides a much longer, steady elevations in plasma arginine, whereas arginine supplementation spikes the levels which then quickly fall back to normal.
 
Bottom line: citrulline is just like arginine, except better at increasing plasma arginine levels, and therefore more effective.
 
 

Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is slightly modified version of the amino acid; alanine. It’s a very common ingredient in pre-workout formulas, and when taken in excess (doses exceeding 5 grams), causes tingling all-around the body.
 
How beta-alanine works is simple. Once ingested, it quickly converts into a compound called carnosine, and carnosine then acts as an acid buffer in the body, promoting performance.
 
Beta-alanine has some interesting research behind it:
 

• beta-alanine can increase muscle endurance (study, study, study, study)
• beta-alanine can increase lean muscle mass growth relative to placebo (not much and probably caused by increased work load, not the actual compound)
• beta-alanine can effectively decrease the feelings of fatigue during exercise (study, study)

 
Bottom line: Beta-alanine should be somewhat effective for pre-workout needs. Most people who have used the compound tend to report that it gives a slight boost in higher rep ranges, and since its an acid buffer, that claim makes sense.
 
 

BCAAs

BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) are leucine, isoleucine, and valine. The name comes from their branch chained looking chemical structure, and these are the only three amino’s that go directly into the muscle, instead of being first metabolized in the liver. BCAAs also comprise roughly 25% of the muscle tissue and are considered to be the most important amino acids for protein synthesis.
 
Because of the fact that they go directly to the muscles after ingestion, BCAAs can be used in pre-workout and intra-workout supplements as a source of “energy for the muscle”.
 
I’m personally a huge fan of BCAAs, and this is because I train in a fasted state (meaning that I do not consume any food before my workouts). Because of the BCAAs that I sip during exercise, I can avoid muscle breakdown and give my body amino acids during the training, all while remaining in that fasted state since BCAAs are so low in calories.
 
I wouldn’t use BCAAs if I would eat before workouts, and this is because you can easily get plenty of BCAAs from everyday foods. Whey protein is 25% BCAAs, animal protein is roughly 18% BCAAs, dairy proteins have around 13%, and last (definitely also least) vegetable proteins (beans, legumes, nuts) have only 2-4% BCAAs.
 
Bottom line: If you’re doing intermittent fasting and working out on a fasted state, BCAAs are exceptionally useful, same would be true for vegans since plant-based protein sources are so low in BCAAs. However, for someone who eats normally all-around the day, BCAAs won’t do much. Not because they would be bad, or suck, or anything else, but simply because you already get plenty of BCAAs from the foods you eat before the workout (for example: 100 grams of chicken breast is enough to give you roughly 2x the average amount of leucine, isoleucine, and valine you’d get from a BCAA supplement).
 
 

Sodium Bicarbonate

Sodium bicarbonate, aka. baking soda, can be found in some pre-workout supplements in relatively small doses, but most brands tend to leave it out due to the facts that they either don’t know how effective it really is, and/or they are aware of the fact that it can cause gastrointestial distress in higher dosages (read: explosive diarrhea), so they choose to not include it.
 
However, if you start from lower dosages and find an amount that suits you, baking soda before exercise can have a very positive effect on your workout performance. This is because sodium bicarbonate is a natural pH-buffer, making your muscle cells more alkaline during workouts, which in turn increases oxygen uptake and therefore also performance and strength. Very similarly to beta-alanine, baking soda is an acid buffer.
 
I was completely unaware of how effective sodium bicarbonate really is, until I found multiple interesting articles about it on my favorite exercise science blog; Suppversity, including:
 

• How baking soda could significantly increase squat and bench press performance
• How baking soda improved speed and cellular adaption to HIIT
• How you could supercharge your creatine supplements with just a bit of baking soda

 
Bottom line: Baking soda is a true ergogenic aid and you should include it into your “pre-workout ritual”. Just work up to a comfortable dosage, the stuff loses all of its pre-workout magic if you take too much and end up shitting your pants while squatting.
 
 
 
 

Supplement Recommendations and Dosages

The possible combinations of creating your own “pre-workout” powder mixes are nearly endless, but what are the clinically effective dosages and most effective forms of the compounds above?
 
Also what if you don’t want to spend crazy amounts of money on isolated powders, what would be good options for ready-made pre-workout combinations?
 

And lastly, do you even need a pre-workout?

 
Let’s start from the scenario in which you’d want to get pure bulk powders of whatever the hell it is that you decide to use for your pre-workout needs (this is the expensive way), here’s a quick list of dosages and effective forms of each compound examined earlier in this article:
 

• Caffeine anhydrous (100-800mg)
• Creatine monohydrate (3-10g)
• Betaine anhydrous (1-3g)
• L-Taurine, free-form (500-3000mg)
• L-Arginine AKG (3-9g)
• L-Citrulline malate (1-8g)
• Beta-alanine, free-form (2-5g)
• BCAAs, instantized 2:1:1 ratio (6-12g)
• Baking Soda, any (start from 1 tsp, work upwards)

 
For the ready-made pre-workout powders on the market, these are my top 3 recommendations:
 
1. Rebellion by Brandon Carter
2. PreJym by Jim Stoppani
3. Legion Pulse by Mike Matthews
 

Lastly, let’s tackle the big question. Do you even need pre-workout supplements?

 
Answer: The truth is, that you don’t need them for building muscle. I can say with 100% confidence that you can build an amazingly aesthetic and strong body without any pre-workout supplements or compounds ingested ever. Don’t buy into the hype of the marketers.
 
Pre-workout supplements can help you focus a bit, they can help you squeeze out an extra rep here and there with lighter loads, and they can slightly increase your blood flow, “pump”, and so forth, and in these cases, pre-workout “boosters” DO work…
 
…Just never assume that you CAN’T build muscle without a pricey pre-workout combination, because you definitely CAN. These compounds are just a nudge towards your goals, you still have to do the work yourself, since there are NO. MAGIC. PILLS. at least in legal markets that is
 
Thank you for reading.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Pre-Workout Supplements appeared first on Anabolic Men.

THOR is the new training manual from my great friend Chris Walker. It’s the definitive “no stone left unturned” answer to the never ending amount of emails and questions about how exactly should you be training to ellicit the maximal testosterone response and long-term hormonal adaptations.
 
THOR as you might know was a viking god with the epic hammer (as an absolute fan of the TV series Vikings, this pleases me), but the name is also an acronym for Testosterone Hormonal Optimization Resistance Training.
 
Well does THOR work and what are my thoughts about the finished book? You can find that out below:
 
 
 
 

Closer Look at THOR

It’s not a secret that the author of the THOR-program, Christopher Walker is my good friend and a business partner. In fact we’ve been hosting the testosterone podcast lately and brainstorming testosterone optimization for a long time now.
 
However make no assumptions that this review would not be honest or objective, just like any of the previous reviews on AM, I will be pointing out the positives and negatives of the program. I respect integrity and make enough money already not to go as low as writing “fake” in-house reviews.
 

With that being said, let’s get to the meat and potatoes here shall we?

 
For months I had been discussing with Chris about how the whole natural testosterone optimization field was seriously lacking a specific training manual that would teach guys the optimal way to increase testosterone levels, while also maximizing the long-term hormonal training adaptations. Not only that but obviously you also want a training program that makes you strong and ripped.
 
You would think that something like this would of have existed before, but nope. For some odd reason nobody had really taken the time to figure out the research and come up with a program that would allow the trainee to maximize the hormonal response and slowly but steadily nudge the hormonal baseline higher and higher.
 
Well, now there is. The sole purpose of THOR is to teach the reader how to – exactly – stimulate your body produce the highest possible amount of natural hormones via training…
 
…More specifically the program will be answering the following many many times asked questions;
 

• What is neuromuscular training?
• How to activate more androgen receptors?
• Can resistance training increase baseline testosterone levels?
• How to maximize the short-term testosterone peaks of each and every workout?

 

 
The Pros:
Foreword has been written by yours truly ; )
As with all of Chris’s work, the emphasis is on solid research instead of opinions
It’s not that you would just get a routine, THOR has all the specifics of why to train this way clearly explained in the book
THOR program introduces some completely new ideas to testosterone specific training, such as; hypoxia and strategic fasting
The constant progress to heavier weights, along with good set/rep patterns and emphasis on proper rest, works well with natural lifters

The Cons:
The supplement section, although useful, is not necessary for most trainees
Newbie trainees might find themselves overly confused with an advanced program like this
Calculations like W (MVA * i) can be pretty difficult for some people (were for me too, after all I was a car mechanic before…)
It would help to have videos of the movements since some of them are not too well-known (I’ve heard that these are coming though)
 
Below are the insides of the THOR-program;

 

A: To be fair, Chris’s first book; TestShock, which is a more detailed look at the nuts and bolts of testosterone optimization in general had its own training section. However the exercise part of TS was directed more towards bodyweight movements, rather than “classic” resistance training. THOR should be seen as the massively updated version of that previously introduced training philosophy. Looking around the natural T-optimization field, THOR or TestShock would both be no-brainer purchases when compared to the vast amounts of “squats and deadlifts bruh” training guides.
 
Though if your goal is to solely focus on gaining muscle and size, then sure, many programs will work awesomely well if you’re dedicated enough to stick with them. Training manuals like the Mi40 from Ben Pakulski or Bigger Leaner Stronger from Mike Matthews will guarantee good results. It’s not that hard to make a program yourself for free, I’ve always done that. But if you’re looking for that hormone boost, it’s admittedly pretty hard to figure the teachings of THOR out by yourself.
 
A: Yes, absolute beginners to weight-lifting should probably build a solid base strength and knowledge of how to perform the key movements with a basic full-body program first. Jumping head first into an advanced routine like this would likely make you confused and eventually bummer down your motivation because you would always feel like you don’t really know how to do anything properly.
 
A: What you pay for is what you get, so after the purchase you’ll have the full THOR-program and access to all future updates. There are these cool tank tops available too but they are not exactly bonuses since you have to put a small amount of money into the table to actually get them.
 
 
 

Conclusion

THOR by Christopher Walker – .
 
I was first thinking of giving THOR a 5-star rating. However The lack of video material made me drop the rating to 4½-stars. If – and if I’m not completely wrong, there will – be instructional videos, THOR deserves a 5/5.
 
Does it work? This type of training does work, I could imagine no possible reason as to why this type of constant progress with proper movements would not result in rapid muscle growth and strength gains. Factor in the hormone optimization and you have what is possibly the best “overall” way to train for a natural lifter looking to maximize health, aesthetics, and strength at the same time.
 
Click Here to Read More about THOR  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The post Review: THOR Program by Chris Walker appeared first on Anabolic Men.

Generally speaking, natural testosterone optimization is pretty simple stuff. Eat right, train right, sleep well, make sure you’re not deficient in any micronutrients, and optimize certain lifestyle factors. Those in most cases will get you well covered.
 
But then again, there are still some extremely “weird” ways to raise testosterone production. Things that you don’t normally hear about, which however are still scientifically proven to work.
 
Here’s three of them for you:
 
 
 

1. Certain Pheromones

Pheromones are chemicals much like hormones, which humans subconsciously release into the air in response to triggers like sex, fight, joy, depression, angriness, and so forth.
 
There isn’t nearly as much research available for pheromones as there is for hormones, but atleast its known that when the scent or smell of the pheromones reaches another member of the same species, their inflammatory system, nervous system, and endocrine system will respond, activate, and in some cases makes the receiver alter their behavior.
 
The main pheromones identified are;
 

• Androstenone (released primarily by males)
• Androstenol (secreted primarily by women)
• Androstadienone (testosterone metabolite found in male sweat)
• Estratetraenol (estrogen metabolite found in female sweat)
• Copulins (pheromones released by the female sexual organs)

 
Unless you’re some “pick-up-artist” guy from the depths of internet, you probably haven’t ever tried those weird pheromone potions and sprays that are sold on various online merchants. And admittedly I have neither, since the whole idea of spraying some sweaty scent on me in hopes of getting laid or something sounds pretty damn ridiculous.
 

But that doesn’t change the fact that there’s actually research supporting the fact that certain copulins, when inhaled can significantly increase testosterone levels.

 
Firstly, when women watch a sad movie, then their tears are collected to a piece of cotton and placed under a mans nose (don’t ask me why they decided to test this), the male subjects salivary testosterone levels will drop. The researchers claim that this is caused by the pheromones in tears which have an inhibitory action on testosterone levels and sexual arousal.
 
Secondly, in a study of 100 young male subjects, 50 men were told to wear surgical masks moistened with copulins, whereas the other 50 wore a mask moistened with control (placebo) solution. Surprisingly enough the guys who wore the copulin masks noticed a 150% increase in salivary testosterone levels when compared to control fellows.
 
Like I said, this is some weird stuff, but apparently also highly effective.
 
 
 
 

2. Seven Day Abstinence

Some guys claim that refraining from ejaculations would “build up” testosterone in your body, and that busting a nut would “drain” the hormone pool.
 
However this doesn’t seem to be the case, as a bunch of studies have shown that pre- and post-ejaculation testosterone levels are not significantly different (study, study, study).
 
Even without the studies at hand, this “draining” effect would not make much sense. It’s known that testosterone is removed from the body mostly via urination, not by busting a nut.
 
Interestingly enough, one study has noted that 3-week abstinence led to a slight increase in testosterone levels, whereas a 3-month abstinence has been shown to suppress T.
 
 
Well what about the 7-day abstinence in the title of this subheading?
 
You might be surprised to hear that in a Japanese study – on the 7th day of abstinence – testosterone levels were found to spike up by 145% and then return back closer to the baseline on the following day.
 
Why this happens? Nobody seems to know. It might be an evolutionary cue to reproduce or something completely different, nobody seems to have a definitive answer.
 
 
 
 

3. Ten Day Water Fast

At first you might think that fasting would be horrible for testosterone levels, since you need fat, carbs, protein, and of course a decent amount of calories and micronutrients in order to keep your T producing engine booming.
 
But the results of studies on fasting have shown us that it takes about 3-days of fasting before testosterone levels start to drop by any significant manner, and not by a surprise this is also the point where metabolic rate finally starts going down (yes, it really takes up to 3-days of no food whatsoever before you get to the dreaded “starvation mode”).
 
What is also knows is that fasting (even the short-term kind) can make your body more sensitive towards testosterone…
 
…In fact up to 180% increases in responsiveness to T were noted in a Swedish short-term fasting study.
 

And that’s the key takeaway. Fasting on the long-term does reduce testosterone levels, but when you do “re-feed” again your body is actually more responsive towards androgens, which causes your receptors to not only uptake more of the good stuff, but also stimulates your body to produce more testosterone.

 
This brings us to the 10-day water fasting study at hand, which somewhat proves the ramblings above.
 
As you can see from the graph, in nearly all of the guys, fasting lowered testosterone levels, and the drop in T became more and more significant as days went by (although the reductions were not as huge as I was expecting to see)…
 
…However, once they re-feeded with a measly 1,500kcal/day after the fasting portion of the study, their testosterone levels absolutely skyrocketed and kept going higher and higher for the 5 day follow-up.
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

There you have it, some next-level whacko ways to boost T. Honestly the last one is the most interesting one and definitely something I was not expecting to see…
 
…I mean just check that one subject out, he goes from 800ng/dL to ~600 after fasting, and then skyrockets to 1600 ng/dL blasting through the reference ranges in the re-feeding part.
 
You can read more about these topics on my bigger post about pheromones, ejaculations and testosterone, and you can find everything fasting related from this book.

The post 3 Weird but Still Effective Tricks to Raise Natural Testosterone Levels appeared first on Anabolic Men.