214-736-9365
8 Tips To Increase Your Testosterone

8 Tips To Increase Your Testosterone

personal training client performing bicep curl

We lose a little testosterone as we age, and it’s reflected in a body that becomes a lot tougher to keep lean and mean than it was in our twenties.

Sure, you can take illegal or dangerous shortcuts with pills or injections from your local doctor or gym-rat dealer and grow your muscles at the expense of your … well you get the point. But what if there was a way to NATURALLY increase your testosterone without anything but POSITIVE side effects?

Alas, science has shown that there IS such a way. In fact, here are eight of them for you:

1. Run sprints instead of marathons. Yep, sorry to break it to you. I know everyone is disappointed that they need to quit marathon training now after learning this, but what can you do … science is science. When it comes to running, the manliest men go really fast, and then rest. Chronic long-distance endurance training actually limits testosterone. But sprinting increases it. Perhaps this begins to explain the look of the sprinter’s body vs the marathoners. You’ve watched the Olympics. Which one do you want to look like? Keep in mind, however, that running 100 meters at a marathoner’s pace will not yield the results you seek. If you are going to rely on sprints, you better actually sprint (and you may need to jog for a bit first for safety’s sake).

2. Lift heavy instead of lite. If your workout routine looks like your wife’s group exercise class, good luck getting a large testosterone boost. Once your joints are up to the task, you need to seriously overload those muscles. You’ll not only get stronger faster, you’ll also get leaner, in large part due to the nice testosterone increase that heavy lifting yields. So grab the bigger dumbbells and force yourself into failure at a lower rep. Sure, it’s going to take more focus and effort, but when you look in the mirror a month from now, you’ll be glad you put in the work (be sure to safely work your way up to heavy).

3. Allow yourself a little rest between sets. That’s some seriously good news, considering you are going to be lifting a lot heavier now, isn’t it? Researchers have found that enough rest to attack the next set allows for a better mind-muscle connection, fuller recruitment of muscle fibers, more intensity, and more testosterone release. But don’t get it twisted. 60-120 seconds of rest is more than enough. Getting distracted by talking on the phone or watching TV for 5 minutes yields quite a different result than pausing to reflect on what you just lifted, and gearing up to conquer another big hoist. In fact, even simply alternating muscles groups instead of complete rest can give much of the benefit.

4. Improve your stress response. Notice I didn’t say to eliminate stress in your life. That’s unrealistic. And even if it were possible, you’d then be a worthless bum. Instead, focus on how YOU interpret and respond to stress. The same events or circumstances can affect 2 people entirely differently. One person can fall apart while the other marches on strong. Why is that? Because one has learned how to handle it and one hasn’t. How you handle stress in your life will have a large impact on your testosterone levels. When things challenge you, reflect on your priorities and be thankful for what you have and what you have already achieved. Remind yourself of how you got through previous struggles and know that you will handle the current situation too. No need to freak out and lower testosterone.

5. Avoid estrogen-mimicking obesagens like soy, artificial flavors & colors, heated plastics, canned tomatoes, etc. I’ve talked about these before. Remember the men that actually grew breast tissue after working in the plastics factory for years? This stuff is serious. Eat real food, and you’ll avoid a lot of these pitfalls. Don’t live on microwavable meals in soft plastic containers. Don’t drink from water bottles left out in the sun. Buy your tomatoes in glass jars, not tin cans. And don’t try to lose weight with fake, hundred-calorie snacks filled with synthetic preservatives. Finally, though avoiding dairy milk can have its benefits, don’t replace it with estrogenic soy milk. At least step it up to almond, and organic almond milk isn’t a bad choice considering all the random companies jumping on that bandwagon now.

6. Train the large muscle groups of your legs. There are some photos floating around the internet that I suggest doing a search for if you want a good laugh. With statements like “friends don’t let friends skip leg day,” plastered over guys at the gym with massive chests and shoulders teetering on top of toothpick legs that would embarrass even your anorexic niece – they make a great point. For too long, guys obsessed with the size of their biceps have neglected the largest muscle surface area of the body – the legs. At the end of the day, if you want a massive testosterone boost, train (what should be) the most powerful part of your body – the lower half.

7. Lose estrogen-holding body fat. Yes, I know that’s kind of your goal with this whole testosterone increase thing, but hear me out. It goes both ways. If you exercise a bit more and eat a bit less, stimulating the shedding of body fat from your frame, you will lower your estrogen levels and make room for more testosterone. You see, bodyfat stores estrogen, and then estrogen calls for the storage of more bodyfat. It’s a terrible cycle of increasing softness. If you can man up (pardon the pun), grit your teeth, and force the beginning of change through good old self-discipline, it will help you get your hormones back on your side. Then it will get easier with time.

8. Get plenty of deep sleep. Easier said than done, right? In spite of your challenges to getting your 8 hours, here are some tips: focus on time in bed with eyes closed – the part you can control. Don’t stress about how well you are or aren’t sleeping. That just makes it worse. Keep a schedule for the brain to get used to, and keep the room dark and devoid of electronic devices (as much as possible). If you hate your mattress or pillow, don’t be afraid to spend money to change them. That’s one area where you will definitely get a return on investment when you get it right.

I Can’t, I Won’t

I Can’t, I Won’t

I can't and I won't

Those 2 phrases keep an unbelievable number of people from achieving their goals and dreams – be they small or big. It’s ridiculous how often I hear those words.

Let me tell you who I hear them from: losers, failures, & those stuck in the thick of mediocrity. What’s weird is that I often hear the phrase “I want” come out of the mouth of the same. Well, keep on wanting then, because you are never going to actually get as long as “I can’t” and “I won’t” continue to dominate your vocabulary & thought process.

Why not instead substitute “I haven’t yet” and “I’ll try it.” Those are the words of winners, of successful people, of those who have risen above mediocrity, and are living the “I want” of all those “I won’t-ers.”

No, you won’t do it right the first time, you won’t do it well the second time, and you might not even truly grasp it until the 7th time. But guess what, if you continue to learn from each failure, success is guaranteed to be waiting for you. Because at the end of the day, there is always a limit to the number of ways you can screw something up! :)

In the health & fitness industry, the stuff I hear holding people back sounds like this:

I can’t run. I won’t give up alcohol. I can’t do squats. I won’t record my diet. I can’t quit caffeine. I won’t do pushups. I can’t get off these medications. I won’t workout on days I work. I can’t drink that shake. I won’t get on that exercise ball. I can’t workout while traveling. I won’t make my kids eat that. I can’t not drink while entertaining clients. I won’t train at lunch. I can’t train at night. I won’t eat that. I can’t swallow this. I won’t change that because I’ve always done it this way. I can’t do that because no one else does. And the list goes on….

Take a moment to examine your vocabulary and censor it. Better yet, change your thought processes, and the vocabulary will take care of itself.

Ask yourself and be honest: are you an “I can’t” and “I won’t” kind of person? Or are you an “I haven’t yet” and “I’ll try it” kind of person? Who do you want to be? Isn’t it time to start becoming the person you want to be? You’ll never get there if you are of the “i can’t, i won’t” camp. Become a member of the other camp and you will quickly find ways to become exactly who you want to be. But it starts with how you think, and how you think is often evidenced by the words that come out of your mouth. Try this, ask someone who is around you often to point out every time you say something like “I can’t” or “I won’t.” If that mindset is a problem, you’ll quickly become aware of it and can proactively change it. You’ll be amazed at the opportunities to learn and improve that you’ve been missing because of your poor mindset. A whole new world opens up when you are willing to learn, willing to try, & willing to fail. Ultimately, those are the ingredients that make you willing to succeed!

Eliminate Excess Estrogen

Eliminate Excess Estrogen

Eliminate Excess Estrogen

Limit the estrogen. Now before you go calling me a sexist pig, lol, hear me out. Estrogen is a fat-promoting hormone. We all (including men) need a little bit of it to start the fat burning process. But after we get a healthy amount (a small amount for men, a little more for women), an excessive will only tell our bodies to store more fat. And indeed, there is a BIG problem of excess estrogen in our society.

Estrogen mimicking hormones are everywhere. It starts with soy. 93% of the soy consumed in the USA is now genetically modified. How much this affects our estrogen problem vs. organic unmodified soy is being debated. But make no mistake, this stuff can throw off your hormone balance. It can make both men and women much softer, in more ways than one.

Ditch the soy milk. Buy almond milk instead. And watch out for soybean oil, which likes to make its way into so many of your processed, packaged foods. Of course, you are staying away from those now after my other email, so no worries there, right?

Soy is not the end of it, unfortunately. Estrogen mimickers are in household cleaning products, soft plastics, and cosmetics too. Ironic, isn’t it? The things we are doing to look and feel better are actually making us worse. It may be worth the money to use non-toxic, all-natural cleaning products as well as cosmetics. And of course, avoid plastic surgery – when’s the last time anyone has actually looked better after that, anyway? You want hormones on your side when it comes to hitting your goals. Fighting them is no fun.

Cultivate a Metabolic Microbiome

Cultivate a Metabolic Microbiome

Instead of TAKING probiotics, GROW the good bacteria within your body. Did you know that research has shown that the “microbiome” within (and upon) you has a big effect on your metabolic rate? Perhaps you didn’t even understand how many non-human animals are living within and upon you … well buckle up for this one then: we have 10 TIMES MORE non-human cells in and on our bodies than we do human cells! Gross, huh? Well, that depends on your ratio of the good stuff to the bad stuff. Meaning, it’s only gross if your bad bacteria population gets too big. The good stuff, as it turns out, is TREMENDOUS for fat loss (and your skin and overall health)!

Cultivate a Metabolic Microbiome

Now, we weren’t designed to need to be popping probiotic pills every day. Instead, a healthy INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT automatically promotes the growth of good bacteria, as well as the death of the bad. The problem is this, the kinds of food we put IN our body, and the unhealthy stress we put ON our body, shift the internal environment to favoring the bad stuff, hurting our metabolism.

You see, it’s not all about reducing the QUANTITY of energy we consume by reducing our calories. It’s equally, if not MORE important, to increase the QUALITY of our foods in order to create a microbiome where good bacteria live, the kind that make our metabolic processes more efficient, and in turn, help us lose unwanted fat.

8 Ways You May be Damaging Your Hormones with Dietary Deficiencies & Excesses

8 Ways You May be Damaging Your Hormones with Dietary Deficiencies & Excesses

Our hormones are extremely powerful regulators of body size, weight, and strength. They even effect our energy, mood, motivation, and confidence. Though we can find ourselves blaming them for the way we eat, did you know that the way we eat actually effects our hormones?

Men could use more testosterone, the primary male hormone, to look and feel the way they desire. You would think women could use more estrogen, the primary female hormone, to do the same. However, it’s often the lesser-known progesterone that is in short supply. Stress is often a big culprit in these deficiencies for both sexes, but our diets are a major contributor to the hormonal imbalance.

Here’s some of the common ways we make an ideal body weight more difficult by sabotaging our hormones with harmful food choices.

1.) Too much sugar. As we continue to consume sugary drinks, snacks, and desserts, insulin is released from the pancreas to accomplish the task of rounding up our elevated blood glucose and carrying it off to storage. Interestingly, prolonged and repeated high insulin levels have been correlated with low testosterone levels, which will cause reduced metabolic rates in both men and women.

2.) Too little calories. Protocols like the HCG diet and other starvation routines damage hormonal balance severely, resulting in a sluggish metabolism. Though weight loss can be seen, it is never healthy and never permanent. Deficiencies can develop that can cause diseases even more serious than obesity. Recovering from these harmful fad diets can be a long and difficult road, as the body now fights to hang on to extra energy stores should something that crazy ever happen again.

Tired Man Suffering From Hormone Imbalance

3.) Too much caffeine/stimulants. A little bit of coffee or tea isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can have some health benefits. The danger, however, is that stimulants are extremely addictive, and reaching for an energy crutch can put you on a slippery slope to heavy consumption. Our adrenaline is supposed to be there for emergencies and moments that we need instant energy or power. Believing that we need it to sit at desks or behind computers is a harmful myth. When we artificially stimulate the release of adrenaline all day, every day, we elevate cortisol levels. This stress hormone interferes with proper testosterone production in men, and blocks progesterone production in women.

4.) Too little fat. This may sound surprising, but a diet too low in fat can actually cause you to gain body fat by decreasing your levels of valuable hormones. One study of a group of men, for example, showed a 12% reduction in testosterone after just 2 months of a very low-fat diet. Our sex hormones, which play a vital role in our body composition, are made from cholesterol produced in response to the fat in our diets. Again, testosterone is very important to women as well, even though the absolute amounts are smaller. Be sure to keep good fats like avocados, fish, flax, almonds, walnuts, and brazil nuts in your diet.

5.) Too much alcohol. Alcohol accelerates the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. Obviously, this is bad for men, but it’s terrible for women too, many of whom are already facing estrogen-dominance and would appreciate the fat-burning, muscle-shaping effects of testosterone. Alcohol also damages the liver, which plays a vital role in releasing hormones that maintain stable blood sugar levels. In this way, excess alcohol can put you on the path to constant sugar cravings and insulin resistance, which results in accumulation of body fat.

6.) Too little vitamin D. Our overreaction to the possibility of a cancer-producing sunburn has driven us indoors, and straight into Vitamin D deficiency. That’s unfortunate considering the research on the benefits of vitamin D is staggering. This vitamin is actually a precursor to a vital hormone involved in multiple cellular processes. Vitamin D has been shown to do everything from building strong bones to staving off depression. We now know that it’s involved in the regulation over 200 different genes. Furthermore, it promotes normal cell proliferation and helps inhibits the growth of cancer. Regarding our body composition, a vitamin D deficiency will disrupt testosterone and estrogen balance. At the same time, too little Vitamin D makes our insulin less effective, pushing the pancreas to produce even more in an attempt to reduce blood sugar by driving it into storage. Bottom line: get more Vitamin D through foods like low fat dairy, eggs (with the yolk), tuna, and beans. The easiest source, however, is still sunlight exposure.

7.) Too little zinc. This important mineral naturally increases testosterone in men, and is necessary to produce both estrogen and progesterone in women. Zinc also boosts the immune system, keeping every other function of your body running at full strength. Additionally, it aids the absorption of nutrients, supports the health of your liver, and helps your muscles make repairs. These 3 benefits combine to control the balance of your metabolic hormones (insulin and glucagon) as well. You can get more zinc by eating cabbage, peas, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, and squash seeds.

8.) Too much binging. Continually eating large amounts of food at once dulls our brain’s ability to receive the “I’m satisfied” signal from the hormone leptin – typically responsible for the feeling of food contentment. This condition is created in much the same way that too much sugar produces insulin resistance. In fact, it is now labeled leptin resistance to reflect the similar pathway. Simply put, we have repeatedly stuffed ourselves so much that we can no longer understand when we are full. We literally become deaf to leptin’s message. The result? The only hormone we can hear is leptin’s antagonist – ghrelin – the hormone that drives appetite. So we keep overeating, again and again, making it worse and worse. It’s a tough cycle to break, but incorporating the habit-recreation tricks we’ve learned, combined with tight accountability to change, will allow you to regain healthy leptin sensitivity.

How to Start Losing any Weight Gained During the Storms of 2020

How to Start Losing any Weight Gained During the Storms of 2020

1) Read & respect the gauges on the boat. It’s time to step on the scale, measure the impact, face the facts, confront reality, whatever you want to call it. You can no longer afford to ignore the negative health consequences of shutdowns and lockdowns, and the associated likely reduction of your routine physical activities and social interactions. Assess the damage and establish a baseline so you can measure progress from where you are, not where you think you may be. If you know for sure you’re the type that looking at scale could cause a downward emotional spiral into more harm, it’s fine to skip this step. But … the vast majority of folks will benefit from becoming acutely aware of where they are vs. where they want to be (even if it’s disappointing or disturbing at first glance), and consequently start to implement changes to correct it.  

2) Throw Jonah overboard … like now. In the Biblical story, Jonah knew he was the reason for the storm and requested that the others on the ship throw him out for their own good. All your remaining holiday cookies, desserts, candy, etc. are trying to tell you the same. Sure, they are more than fine to enjoy on Christmas but that was a week ago. It’s time to donate the wrapped items to the local food pantry. Perhaps surprise your neighbors with some of those sweet home-made gifts you received (careful not to give them to the same neighbor that gave them to you!), or just toss everything still left in the trash can and move on – the point is to remove them from your home to help yourself. (Don’t forget to throw out or give away any funky non-goal-serving snacks that may have snuck in while dealing with the strangeness of 2020 either). The longer they linger, the longer you’re going to suffer from the blood sugar swings, bloating, lethargy, & “sea sickness,” if you will.

boat in storm painting

3) Set your sails for the right direction. Go to the grocery store … on a full stomach, and with a list … and purchase healthy items that will build the body you want. Include ingredients for healthy meal prep, with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, clean and lean meats, and fibrous natural starches. Don’t forget to grab some quick and easy healthy snacks too. Life isn’t going to get less busy, so don’t lie to yourself about always have time to prepare. A quick trip to the pantry for a snack that is at least fairly healthy, even if not perfect, is almost always better than a quick trip to a fast-food drive through.

4) Create a “Captain’s Cabin” for yourself. If your fitness has been dependent on a gym, then your fitness has likely not gone well. With all the closings, restrictions, hours changes, pre-registration and other craziness at these facilities, you need to intentionally create your own space at home. It doesn’t have to be much; indeed, 6×6 feet will work just fine. But it needs to be yours – clear of kids’ toys and dog hair, with maybe a mat laid out, ideally filled with some natural light and a source of music. Teach the others in the “boat” that when you are in your “captain’s cabin,” you are NOT to be bothered – for all of 45 minutes a few times a week.

 5) Find your lighthouse & look to it for help. The storm of 2020 has been rough, and very dark at times. You need a source of brightness with which to sail. It will provide hope, clarity, and guidance. A lighthouse could be a mentor in front of you, sailing the same direction with both the same challenges and goals; or better yet, a coach who is extremely familiar with the wind and the waves of this sea of change – like a personal trainer or registered dietitian – perhaps even both! The point is to secure a definite direction and destination, with everything you need to get there, so you don’t remain lost at sea – especially if you’ve already started sinking. Remember, you CAN do this. You can correct your course and sail to success!

Of course, this is “preaching to the choir” for so many of our clients who have continued to work hard, avoid distractions, adapt to change, and make progress in spite of one of the weirdest years in recent history. But if you find you have drifted, I hope this quick list sparks a fresh focus.