How to Increase Testosterone Levels – For Free!

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I love my job.  Not to rub it in or anything, but on a daily basis I show up to work around 10 AM in shorts and sandals, get my lift on with the rest of the CP staff, and when our doors finally open for business around noon, I spend the rest of my day basically “hanging out” and coaching athletes while listening to Tiesto or Rage Against the Machine blare through the radio.

I mean, if you don’t think that’s awesome, than you need to take some awesome lessons.

However, all kidding aside, one of the best (and most rewarding) aspects of my job is the fact that, even though we as coaches oftentimes don’t realize it, we serve as pretty significant role models for our younger kids and athletes.

Case in point:  take yesterday where I had a conversation with one of our athletes – a Division I catcher, who’s coming off a pretty significant shoulder injury (dislocation while sliding back into first base).

Future Mike Piazza:  So uh, Tony – what do you think about this supplement called Cellucor P6 Extreme?

Me:  Based off the name alone, I think it’s dumb.

Future Mike Piazza:  But, the guy at GNC told me that it’s supposed to increase testosterone levels!11!1!11!!!!!

Me (giving the look of death):  You know what increases testosterone levels?  Squats and eggs!

Almost on cue, he looked at me with a quizzical look – sorta like what CP mascot – Tank – does every time you ask him if he wants a treat.

Anyways, even though I was being facetious with my squats and eggs comment, in reality, I kinda wasn’t.

While it can be debated until the cows comes home as to whether or not there’s any significant increase in t-levels during training, there’s no debating the fact that there IS a hormonal effect that stems from slapping some appreciable weight on a barbell, placing it on your back, and dominating it.

Moreover, while I know there are some that are going to shit a ketone when I say this, it’s well established in the research that diets high(er) in saturated fat (and thus cholesterol – GASP!!!!) have increased levels of testosterone as well.

In fact, in THIS study (yes, it’s an abstract.  And yes, you’re going to have to deal with it), it was shown that there was a direct relationship between dietary saturated fat intake and t-levels (as it relates to cholesterol.  Testosterone is made from cholesterol.  Ergo, eat your freakin eggs!).

And, taking it even a step further, we can look at something that CP intern – Tyler Simmons – and I were discussing yesterday:  Cortisol levels

Admittedly, what follows is a GROSS over-simplification of the process, as there are other intermediates that come into play; but simply put: cholesterol is essentially the “mother ship” when it comes to the body’s ability to make hormones.  Hormones make stuff happen.  Again, like I said, an over simplification.

Cholesterol is converted to Pregnenolone, which in turn can be directed to two distinct pathways to produce either cortisol or testosterone.

Unfortunately, there’s only a finite amount of Pregnenolone that the body can make everyday – due in part to how much cholesterol is available.  Now, this is important because, in a state or condition of chronic stress – you know, like when a athlete is coming off a significant injury, or doesn’t get enough sleep because he’s up late playing video games, etc –  Pregnenolone will “prefer” to enter the cortisol pathway, and since there’s only a finite amount of P to go around, testosterone gets the middle finger.

Watch THIS short video for a more thorough explanation.

So, in short, reducing cortisol levels, while often an afterthought, is reeeeeeally important in the grand scheme of things.  Going back to the athlete above, who knows what could happen.  Maybe if he started eating right (he is, now), put more weight on the bar (he’s injured, but we’re doing what we can), and stopped watching internet porn till two in the morning and actually got some sleep for once (maybe when pigs fly?), he’d realize that he could forego the lame supplement geared towards teenages that don’t know any better, save himself $79, and increase his T-levels for free – or, at least for a heckuva lot cheaper.

Did what you just read make your day? Ruin it? Either way, you should share it with your friends and/or comment below.

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Comments for This Entry

  • Joe

    watching internet porn, totally increases t-levels. Just shut it down by 11

    July 8, 2011 at 6:23 am | Reply to this comment

  • Damon

    Good post. Cortisol is definitely an overlooked factor when it comes to increasing muscle and decreasing body fat. It makes my day whenever I can get a kid to stop wasting money on useless supplements and focus on food, sleep, and getting stronger.

    July 8, 2011 at 7:18 am | Reply to this comment

  • Stephane

    Mahler does a lot of great stuff on this subject and speaks highly of the fact that managing Cortisol levels is really the first step to optimizing hormones. Managing not in the sense of taking the newest cortisol lowering supplement, but rather starting with managing life & lifestyle(job, relationships, sleep, nutrition etc...). Also, look at Tim Ferriss' newest book The Four Hour Body. Many of his protocols to prep for "doing the nasty" (through boosting t-levels) include eggs! Great stuff as usual Tony!

    July 8, 2011 at 7:27 am | Reply to this comment

  • Dean Somerset

    As an aside to the cortisol component, it's major site of production is in the adrenal glands, which operate along a pathway that directly links it to the thyroid, pituitary, hypothalamus and to a lesser extent the sex glands. The ACTH pathway shown in the video plays a big role on the thyroid, and high levels of thyroid hormone can cause an increase in cortisol output. By messing with your cortisol levels, you can actually decrease your basal metabolic rate significantly, impair your bodies ability to burn fat versus store it, and make you more prone to storing it regardless of diet, exercise, etc. A lot of over-ditance endurance athletes who have high stress, high anxiety and high mileage can burn out their thyroid from the stress and see some massive weight gain, sometimes making it very difficult to lose weight for years. This can also end females menstrual cycles, which means the body recognizes it's not healthy enough to support another life, and is breaking downf rom the inside out. Great points about the saturated fat and cholesterol, as I think a lot of people forget that basic sex hormones have a cholesterol ring bound to them, and without any in their blood stream, they're essentially a eunic. Kinda like Tony after moving in with his significant other ;-)

    July 8, 2011 at 7:36 am | Reply to this comment

  • Laura

    "In fact, in THIS study (yes, it’s an abstract. And yes, you’re going to have to deal with it), it was shown that there was an inverse relationship between dietary saturated fat intake and t-levels (as it relates to cholesterol. Testosterone is made from cholesterol. Ergo, eat your freakin eggs!)." I think the study suggests that there is a direct relationship, not an inverse relationship. Right?

    July 8, 2011 at 8:27 am | Reply to this comment

  • Nock

    Tony, Why is a college student worrying about his T-Level to begin with? That's one thing I'm having a hard time absorbing.

    July 8, 2011 at 8:34 am | Reply to this comment

  • Tony Gentilcore

    @ Laura - oops. thanks! I wrote this one in a rush this morning. Made the change. @ Dean: Brilliant my man, as always. In working with the various endurance athletes we have at CP, OVER-training (and increased cortisol levels) is something we always have to keep tabs on. Given that the vast majority of endurance athletes are type A, it's often an uphill battle to get them to realize that less, sometimes, can be more.

    July 8, 2011 at 8:43 am | Reply to this comment

  • Greg R

    Me: Based off the name alone, I think it's dumb. that was funny.

    July 8, 2011 at 9:26 am | Reply to this comment

  • Barry

    Joe's comment of "watching internet porn, totally increases t-levels. Just shut it down by 11" reminded me of a saying I heard 1,000 times from my college baseball coach when we were traveling and wanted to hit the bars in search of the elusive "hook up" and he is setting us a curfew -- "If you ain't gettin' it by 11:00, you ain't getting IT"! So true...on many different levels......

    July 8, 2011 at 10:50 am | Reply to this comment

  • Mike

    I live on a farm that raises chicken for eggs, so the picture above could have been taken of the inside of my fridge. Suffice it to say I've been enjoying the egg rant you've been on lately!

    July 8, 2011 at 11:35 am | Reply to this comment

  • hooch turner

    At the rate of $79, your boy clearly watches some really high-end internet porn

    July 9, 2011 at 1:04 pm | Reply to this comment

  • Warren G

    As a sleep deprived grad student, cortisol probably gets the best of me more often than not, and unfortunately I think I might be helping it's turnover rate. After a long day in class I usually need a kick in the pants in the form of stimulants to get me to the gym. While the "anti" billboards tell me that meth is readily available 'round these parts, I opt for more expensive and just as unregulated pre-workout supplements. I know that stimulants really just cause the release of stress hormones so am I actually hurting my gains? Do you tell your clients to avoid stimulants before workouts or is it just the chronic build-up of cortisol we should worry about?

    July 9, 2011 at 5:32 pm | Reply to this comment

  • Kellie

    Great article, Tony. As a figure competitor, I see how this can hold true for women as well. Many figure athletes suffer from hormonal imbalances due to extreme dieting and training. In fact, so many women waste the precious egg yolk by going all whites with their omelettes. Gasp! You will be happy to know that I buy 6 dozen eggs from the farmer each Saturday and enjoy every last one of them with my family... I eat about 3 dozen on my own each week. Eggs are also amazing for growth and development in children-- especially brain development. Pregnant women greatly benefits from a daily dose of eggs. It's now been decided. I'm starting an official egg fan club.

    July 14, 2011 at 7:07 am | Reply to this comment

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  • Alex - Anabolic Health

    Nice post Tony, glad to see someone with a proper understanding of testosterone and how to increase it naturally. However, there is some issues with the pregnenolone steal theory that I would like to discuss. What we see in chronic stress conditions and conditions of excess cortisol is a lack of progesterone. Progesterone is really the key to understanding stress conditions and low testosterone caused by stress. Progesterone regulates estrogen and the amount of testosterone you have converting into estrogen. Progesterone also have other effects like being a calming neurosteroid that affects GABA in your brain and also a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor, balancing DHT. What we see in chronic stress is excess progesterone converting into cortisol and thereby depleting progesterone. The body loses it’s ability to regulate estrogen and much of your testosterone will start being converted into estrogen, causing in turn low testosterone. So it is not the fact that in chronic stress you don’t have enough pregenenolone to make DHEA, and then make testosterone. Lower DHEA levels often show up in chronic stress too but still estrogen levels are high. It is that it shifts the whole balance of estrogen control in your body. You can try this yourself by using a Progesterone cream and monitoring both your estrogen and testosterone levels. It is a misconception that Progesterone is only a female hormone, it is crucial for males in different amounts. What you will see on your blood test is estradiol going down and testosterone going up when using progesterone cream, however make sure you keep you progesterone levels within 0.3-1.2 ng/ml . Most middle age or older guys does not have enough, but higher then normal are not good either. Hormones are all about balance.

    August 7, 2016 at 4:36 am | Reply to this comment

  • Alex - Anabolic Health

    Nice post Tony, glad to see someone with a proper understanding of testosterone and how to increase it naturally. However, there is some issues with the pregnenolone steal theory that I would like to discuss. What we see in chronic stress conditions and conditions of excess cortisol is a lack of progesterone. Progesterone is really the key to understanding stress conditions and low testosterone caused by stress. Progesterone regulates estrogen and the amount of testosterone you have converting into estrogen. Progesterone also have other effects like being a calming neurosteroid that affects GABA in your brain and also a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor, balancing DHT. What we see in chronic stress is excess progesterone converting into cortisol and thereby depleting progesterone. The body loses it’s ability to regulate estrogen and much of your testosterone will start being converted into estrogen, causing in turn low testosterone. So it is not the fact that in chronic stress you don’t have enough pregenenolone to make DHEA, and then make testosterone. Lower DHEA levels often show up in chronic stress too but still estrogen levels are high. It is that it shifts the whole balance of estrogen control in your body. You can try this yourself by using a Progesterone cream and monitoring both your estrogen and testosterone levels. It is a misconception that Progesterone is only a female hormone, it is crucial for males in different amounts. What you will see on your blood test is estradiol going down and testosterone going up when using progesterone cream, however make sure you keep you progesterone levels within 0.3-1.2 ng/ml . Most middle age or older guys does not have enough, but higher then normal are not good either. Hormones are all about balance.

    August 7, 2016 at 5:36 am | Reply to this comment

  • Eric Bullard

    There are ways on how we could increase testosterone naturally that doesn't need to be expensive. Some of those are food that is aphrodisiac and herbal remedies as well.

    September 3, 2018 at 4:53 am | Reply to this comment

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