What’s the Deal with Testosterone?

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Hey all!  The following is an excerpt from my latest eBook, Testoster-Own.  Go grab it now!

What’s the Deal with Testosterone?

A few years ago I was working out with a guy who was a fantastic athlete and overall human being.  Seriously, he was one of those people that just seemed to have a leg up in everything he did.  He always seemed to have more energy than me, was in a better mood than I was, got better results from his workouts than I did…  Hell, it seemed like he even rebounded from injuries faster than I did.

I’m sure you’ve probably met or known someone similar.  Someone who seemed to just be operating on a different level from everyone else.

So one day, while we were just hanging out, I asked him what his secret was.  Seriously!  I had gotten fed up with being outdone in just about everything, and I wanted to know if he was doing anything in particular.  I know he wasn’t on steroids or anything like that, but he definitely seemed to have an edge, even without them.

“Okay, so this is a weird question, but have you ever had your testosterone levels checked out?” he asked me.

I conceded that I hadn’t.  In fact, I hadn’t even thought about it.  He proceeded to tell me that he had gotten it done a while back, and found that his levels were a little low for a healthy twenty-something male.  He proceeded to alter his lifestyle, and his testosterone levels improved, as well as his whole life along with it.  I decided it was worth a shot.

So, I went to the doctor, and got some bloodwork done.  Sure enough, my free testosterone levels were below average for a guy my age.  Additionally, the doctor said, guys typically see their testosterone levels drop a bit after they become fathers, as I recently had done.  This had caused several shifts in my body and mood, including a twenty-five pound weight gain.  The doctor recommended a few lifestyle changes for me to begin instituting to see if they had any effect.

Well, me being who I am, I dove into the subject completely, looking up scientific studies, anecdotal evidence, personal experiences, and everything else I could find on the subject.  I began to implement these changes into my life, and saw a huge shift in my body, my mood, and my overall wellness.

Okay, so what’s the deal with testosterone?  First of all, a heads up: this book is going to be a little sexist.  Not because it’s going to discriminate or insult a particular gender, but if you were born with female parts, regardless of what you may identify as, your body isn’t going to naturally produce a significant amount of testosterone.  In fact, if the female body does produce abnormally large amounts of testosterone, it can actually cause some significant health challenges.  Does that mean this book is useless for women?  Hell no!  The advice and lifestyle guidelines given here are general good living rules, following them will improve women’s lives as well as men, they just aren’t going to boost your testosterone production.

First off, let’s talk about where you should be at, as far as how much testosterone you should have in your blood.  A healthy adult male should have 300 to 900 nanograms of testosterone per deciliter in their blood.  You can very easily find out your current testosterone levels by going to your doctor and asking to have bloodwork done with the interest of finding out your testosterone levels.  Should the results come back significantly below the recommended level, then you may want to discuss options with your doctor in addition to following the guides and methods in this book.  However, if you fall within the healthy range, then we’re just going to be looking to boost your testosterone levels naturally to upgrade your life!

Now, what does testosterone do for you, exactly?  Well, a lot, actually!  Testosterone is kind of a super-hormone for your body, boosting basically everything it does to some degree.  It helps keep your cardiovascular system strong and healthy.  This contributes to a lower rate of heart disease, better VO2 max levels, a stronger heart and lungs, and an overall higher quality circular system.  In addition to this, it actually boosts your red blood cell counts, which, in conjunction with your already enhanced cardiovascular system, will increase the rate at which oxygen gets carried to your muscles (among other great things.)

Your muscles also grow faster and stronger when you have higher testosterone levels.  This means you will get bigger faster (if you’re eating for it), stronger faster (if you’re lifting for it), and recover faster (good no matter what you’re doing.)  

In addition to this, higher testosterone levels also tend to coincide with lower body fat percentage.  With higher testosterone levels, your body doesn’t accumulate fat as quickly or as easily.  It also burns fat a lot quicker and easier, assuming you’re putting in the work for it, and eating properly.  As if all this were not enough, higher testosterone levels have also been associated with increased bone density, giving you a super-strong skeleton to support all that new muscle growth.

Beyond the physical, higher testosterone levels have a psychological and emotional effect, too.  Increasing your testosterone levels can raise your libido, which, oddly enough, can then increase your testosterone if you have a willing partner!  We’ll talk more about this nice little feedback loop later.  

Higher testosterone levels can also help to improve your overall mood, and mood stability.  Basically it gives you a higher, more stable emotional baseline.  Testosterone can also make you a more confident individual, though the previous effects are going to help to contribute to that anyway!

If I’m making testosterone sound like some kind of superpowered wonder-hormone, it’s because, for guys at least, it kind of is.  Now, it’s not a cure-all for everything that ails you.  A lot of these effects won’t really be seen or felt unless you’re putting the work in for them (exercise, proper diet, etc.)  Some, however, particularly the emotional and psychological effects, will be felt pretty quickly after you begin to utilize the methods in this book.  

Of course, the fewer methods you’re currently employing in your life already, the more dramatic the shift will be for you, but I can tell you that if you’ve spent most of your life on the lower end of testosterone levels, you’re going to be feeling like a freaking superhero by the time we’re done.

Are you interested in learning how to naturally boost your testosterone levels?  Go ahead and grab Testoster-own, now!

I’ll see you again on Thursday!  Live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace