The Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast

  When choosing exercises for neuromuscular training you want to use the exercises that have the greatest potential for stimulating a large amount of muscle tissue over a large range of motion at a relatively high intensity. The best types of exercises to choose are those that allow you to activate a large amount of muscle tissue without encountering a large amount of fatigue or being limited by the nervous system in another way. For this reason, a few types of exercises stand above the rest as being beneficial for our purposes on the TestShock program. Sprinting, explosive muscle ups and variations of the Olympic lifts are some of the best types of exercise for neuromular training. China’s Gold Medalist Weightlifter Lu Xiaojun Executing Olympic Snatches Taking each one of these individually, let’s look at Olympic lifting first.  The most important potential lifts to use from this category are the power versions of the classic lifts.  The power snatch, power clean, hang power snatch and hang power clean are the most important variations to use. If you have access to bumper plates these exercise can be made even more valuable as you will be able to drop the weight from the top of the lift.  This is beneficial as it allows you to stimulate a large portion of muscle fiber with the strong contraction required to move the weight explosively. Unlike the concentric portion of the lift your muscles do not incur a large amount of structural damage from these concentric contractions.  Not only will this mean these movements will interfere minimally with your regular strength training exercises, but you will be able to perform more repetitions without being limited by mechanical damage to the muscle. Step-by-step walkthrough on Olympic snatches The above walk through is a good example of the many variations on these lifts that come out of the classic lifts.  As you can see in the diagram, four distinct exercises are described: the squat snatch, power snatch, hang squat snatch and hang power snatch.  Of these four, the power snatch and hang power snatch, which do not require a catch in the full squat position, are the easiest to use for our purposes.  They do not require the long eccentric phase encountered while catching the weight in the full squat position. Similar to Olympic lifting variations, explosive calisthenics allow you to activate a large amount of muscle tissue at high levels of intensity.  There are many ways to perform calisthenics so that you can minimize the eccentric component if needed.  An example is the muscle up where you can explode through the top of the movement and then do a relatively quick, but still controlled, drop to the bottom of the movement. Unlike traditional upper body movements such as the bench press or dumbell row, the muscle up can be done much more explosively.  Where you have to perform a fairly controlled eccentric, or lowering portion of the rep, on bench presses or rows, the muscle up allows you to skip over a large part of this movement.  Unlike hypertrophy training where you might want to emphasize the eccentric, training for power is made more effective by minimizing the eccentric. There are many other exercises you can perform in this manner if your fitness is very advanced.  On youtube you can see videos of street calisthenics guys performing high intensity sets of flips, kip ups and muscle ups they combine into a neuromuscularly challenging routine. While these feats are beyond what the average guy is going to be able to perform, there is still room to work other less advanced explosive calisthenics exercises into your routine.  One of the simplest types of explosive exercises to incorporate is the box jump.  Box jumps provide many of the same benefits as the exercise previously mentioned while being easily scaled down for trainees with a relatively normal fitness level. The final type of exercise that lends itself well to neuromuscular training is sprinting.  For many of the previously mentioned reasons sprinting excels as a neuromuscular training exercise.  Sprinting has a relatively small eccentric component, interferes minimally with your upper body strength training when performed at reasonable volumes, and maximally recruits many of the body’s highest threshold motor units. Sprinting is one of the highest power activities the body is capable of performing.  If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense.  The human body with strong powerful legs and hips is nearly perfectly designed for maximum speed locomotion via the sprinting movement. Olympic Sprinter Usain Bolt, Doing What He Does Best Sprints allow you to maximally tax all three of your body’s metabolic systems the ATP-CP, Glycolytic and Oxidative systems.  When you are moving at maximal speeds, many of the more powerful upper body muscles are recruited.  Your nervous system is worked to its absolute max to continue maximally recruiting nearly every muscle in your body repeatedly. As you can see, all three of these exercises have quite a few similarities.  They all allow you to recruit a majority of the body’s major muscle, they allow you to get a large volume of work without being limited by fatigue, and they limit the amount of structural damage incurred to the muscles. While these types of exercise can be used for neuromuscular training, they do not have to be.  For example, by performing a muscle up with a very controlled lowering phase, the movement lends itself to building muscle.  Similarly, a controlled negative on Olympic variations like the push jerk turns a power exercise into a fantastic muscle builder. The important thing to keep in mind is that just because these types of exercise are some of the best for neuromuscular training does not mean that is all they can be used for.  Similarly, these are not the only types of exercises that can be used for neuromuscular training. Many traditional gym exercise, performed with an explosive concentric and a quick controlled eccentric become powerful neuromuscular training exercise.  In fact, this is the basic way that isolation lifts can be added to a program and is the foundation of my gym training protocol THOR The THOR manual explains not only how to perform regular gym exercises in a manner that maximally taxes the neuromuscular system, it explains the best way to perform more complex exercises such as muscle ups and sprints.  Finally, the manual provides powerful motivation in the way of specific goals for all of the most important neuromuscular lifts. If you want to learn more about the type of training I’m usually performing I would check out some of my earlier articles on neuromuscular training.  You can also check out some of Ali K’s articles over at AnabolicMen where he talks about how he would set up an article to boost testosterone.  I also have a primer I wrote on how to set up a calisthenics routine designed to enhance testosterone. The post Neuromuscular Exercise: How To Train Like An Athlete appeared first on TestShock™.

  It seems like people are getting more and more confused by the number of fitness and nutrition programs on the market. Getting in shape and improving performance isn’t new, but there are always improvements that can be made to traditional programs.  This is one of the reasons that people like to discuss all the details related to diet and training. This desire for new diet and training strategies creates a market for new products.  While this is good for variety sake, it creates a problem when people start to feel that they need a “cutting edge” program. All the new programs that are on the market begin to confuse people.  For example, one training guru might tell people to only do low reps.  The next guy might say that you need high reps.  While either of these might work in a specific context, it is easy to look at these conflicting recommendations and get confused. For this reason I feel that people need to focus less on the details and start to focus more on the principles of diet and training that are timeless.  If your waking up every day and measuring out exactly 2450 calories with the perfect ratio of carbs fat and protein, you might eventually burn yourself out. Some of the most important aspects of fitness can be had at little cost to your overall lifestyle.  For example, training with weights consistently and eating a balanced diet will get you most of the results you will ever be able to achieve as a natural trainee. If you feel that being exacting is the only way to make any gains you will loose out on the low cost benefits of fitness.  If your stretching yourself too thin you might not have the energy or focus you need to excel at everything you need to be doing in your life.  I use the example of measuring out all your food because it is a common practice that is not realistic for the majority of people that attempt it. Regardless of your specific fitness practice, if it is not sustainable you will not get the same level of results that your otherwise would. Another reason you might not want to focus on the minutia of diet and training is the potential stress you might be causing yourself.  It’s important to keep in mid that every other part of your diet and training you micromanage is another thing to potentially worry about. The last thing most people need when trying to get in shape is an additional issue that might potentially cause them stress. Focus on one specific goal rather than a specific tool. While it is important to have a plan, it is equally important to realize that your goals can be reached in a number of ways. So having a definite goal is important.  Coupling that definite goal with a flexible mindset toward tactics and implementation is equally important. When you are constantly evaluating every single variable your focus starts to split. This starts to make maintaining your lifestyle much more difficult. For example: When you have a battery powering one light bulb, it gives all of it’s energy to that one bulb. Add two more and it still works fine. If you where to add another five or six, you will notice the lights are much dimmer than if you only had one bulb. This is exactly how life can dim you down by focusing too much energy on too many things. You will start to feel like nothing is moving in the right direction.  For example, if you are trying to increase your weight on 10 different lifts simultaneously, you will feel like you are failing if you are only increasing on 3 or 4 of those lifts. Realistically those might be 3-4 of your main lifts and could indicate serious progress.  Unfortunately it looks pretty bad from the point of view you have created as you are not progressing on the majority of what you are tracking. Similarly, If you are trying to increase your ability to do a max effort back squat while trying to decrease your 5k time, these extremely disparate goals will most likely make achieving either one individually much more difficult.  This extremely split focus and subsequent lack of results might make you loose confidence in your ability to progress. In order to see true gains, and achieve your goals you need to make up your mind and decide what you want.  Once you choose a limited number of goals, the potential routes to get there are many.  Be flexible and test methods to discover a sustainable approach that you can commit to for the long term.  Let go of the idea of doing everything at once.   The post Minutia In The Fitness Industry appeared first on TestShock™.

  All Three Macros are Important Any discussion about carbohydrates needs to include some information about fats and proteins.  This is because the way your body reacts to any one of these macronutrients largely depends on the amounts of the other two in your diet. For example, when you increase carbohydrate levels in the diet your protein requirements tend to go down.  This is especially true in terms of maintaining muscle tissue.  When calories per day are kept at or above maintenance, high protein diets do little to further muscle growth. As calorie levels are lowered to below maintenance protein’s relative importance increases. At this point protein’s effectiveness at maintaining or increasing muscle tissue is greatly enhanced and the percentage of calories coming from protein can be increased. Another example of the interaction between the macronutrients is the interplay between carbohydrates and fats in the diet.  Generally, carbohydrates are a better energy source for high intensity activities.  This is because short to medium duration, relatively high intensity activity is fueled by glycogen. Glycogen is a stored form of carbohydrate that is found in the liver and muscles of the body.  It provides one of the main fuel sources for anaerobic activity, the others being creatine phosphate and adenosine triphosphate. Fat is generally a better fuel source for relatively low intensity activities like sitting, standing and walking.  Regardless of the preferred fuel source, fat or carbohydrate, the body relies on these two macronutrients to meet its energy needs. Three types of macronutrients: Carbs, Proteins, and fats You Don’t Want Protein Used For Energy The last thing the body wants to use for energy production is protein.  The reasons for this are numerous, but one of the main ones is the complexity of protein molecules themselves.  Protein molecules are difficult for the body to break down into a useable source of energy. However, when you cut out carbohydrates or fats from the diet, the body is forced to use some of its protein stores for energy.  While there are numerous places the body could get protein, organs, proteins used for enzyme production ect…., the body chooses a much less vital source for amino acids, namely the body’s muscle tissue. The reason the body chooses muscle tissue to break down is that skeletal muscle provides a massive supply of protein that is not needed for any immediately vital processes in the body.  The body can simply break down muscle tissue and replace it later when resources become available again.  In many unfortunate cases, the body simply never replaces these lost proteins. So not only will you have a less efficient source of energy to use, but you will potentially be breaking down your own muscle tissue when your carbohydrates and fats are kept too low.  What’s worse is that the enzymes involved in protein metabolism are upregulated while those involved in carbohydrate and fat metabolism are downregulated. This might sound good if you are obsessed with protein, but it’s not.  It means that you will have a hard time metabolising carbohydrates and fat when you do end up re-introducing them into your diet.  At this point you will have more difficulty than you otherwise would digesting and assimilating these sources of energy. Finally, you want to get all of your macronutrients in balance because the body has well defined uses for all three macronutrients.  As mentioned previously the body uses carbohydrates and fats for high and low intensity activities.  The third macronutrient, protein is used in the synthesis of enzymes and body tissues. Paradoxically, the importance of protein in the body’s essential processes is one of the main reasons carbohydrates and fats are so important.  Without these vital sources of energy, proteins cannot be used for those processes they are most suited for. You Really Do Want Carbs As you can see by now, it doesn’t make sense to neglect any of the macronutrients in the hope of getting more of the benefits of one over the other.  It’s important to work with the body and not against it.  In the same way that you dont want to be fighting against yourself with your goals, you dont want to be fighting against your body with your diet. The key to your diet on the TestShock program is to nourish the body.  The combination of both micronutrients and macronutrients, in the correct quantities, eaten consistently is what allows the body to optimize its hormonal production over time. Ultimately things like nourishing carbohydrates are going to give your body what it needs to be comfortable doing things like creating anabolic hormones such as testosterone.  With any hormones you are trying to “optimize” it’s important to keep in mind that things like high testosterone are not considered essential to the body. This is why you need to keep in mind the idea of working with your body whenever you are talking about maximizing your body or getting it to an ideal state.  Not only do carbohydrates allow the body to get energy quickly, but they can actually help the body to relax as well. Carbohydrates do this by causing the release of neurotransmitters such as serotonine.  Serotonine is sued by the body to help it relax and causes subjective feelings of wellbeing.  This is one of the main reasons people enjoy eating carbohydrates so much.  They like to feel good.  This makes sense, I mean who doesn’t like to eat carbs. The main sources you should be focusing on are nutrient dense vegetables and whole food starches such as sweet potatoes, yams, potatoes and rice.  You don’t need to concern yourself with things like being gluten free or avoiding wheat all the time. While it’s best to get your carbohydrates from the most easily digestible sources such as yams, there is no need to be obsessive.  As mentioned in the post “should I eat dessert?” Micromanaging your diet and becoming obsessive is counter productive. If you are insulin resistant or have some type of issue with processing glucose, the advice to not worry about what you are eating may not apply.  In this case you might have to experiment with lower glycemic load carbohydrates or periods of fasting. These types of specific circumstances are beyond the scope of the article.  Suffice to say, most people will not fall into this category and should regularly indulge in tasty carbohydrates.  One thing I have noticed over the years is that the guys I worked with who had the most problems were the ones restricting carbohydrates. The guys who were constantly on low carbohydrate or low calorie diets had the most problems maintaining testosterone levels and muscle mass.  Pretty much all my clients that complained of either of those symptoms were in one of those two camps.  Usually the guys that were eating enough were on high protein low carbohydrate diets. Over time this was just wrecking their endocrine systems.  So if you do not have a medical reason to be restricting carbohydrates I suggest eating between 30-50% of your calories from carbohydrates.  For most people I recommend a 20/40/40 macronutrient split with 20% of the calories coming from protein, 40% coming from fat and 40% coming from carbohydrate. As with most recommendations, I suggest using this as a starting point from which you can adjust based on your body.  Finally, if anything I wrote causes you to over analyze your diet, forget it and go back to the basics.  Agonizing over minutia will bring you no closer to your goals. And for more on your bodily needs head over to Testshock™ for more information. The post Straight to The Carbs: How Bread can Increase Testosterone! appeared first on TestShock™.

When asking yourself whether or not you should do cardio, you first need to decide what your main goal is.  For example, you may want to have a great physique and be capable of competing in a sport or doing some type of cardio based activity such as an obstacle course race.  If you have multiple goals, or competing in some type of sport is one of your main goals then cardio will probably have to be part of your program. If your number one goals is simply to have a great physique, then you do not need to do any specific cardiovascular training.  Nearly anyone that follows a strict diet and resistance training protocol should be able to reach their genetic potential in terms of muscle mass and leanness without using serious cardiovascular training. However, cardiovascular training has a number of unique benefits that can add quality to your life and assist you in maintaining overall health.  Arguably the best aspect of cardiovascular training is the maintenance and expansion of the capillary beads around your body.  Basically the smallest blood vessels in your body will expand to cover more of the muscle tissue in your body as you become more adapted to cardiovascular training. This enhanced peripheral circulation has a number of benefits including: better nutrient delivery t working muscles, increased ability to maintain body temperature during high intensity work, increased ability to deliver oxygen to working muscle tissue.  While these adaptations to cardiovascular based exercise will have little direct impact on your strength or power, they will increase your ability to tolerate and recover from demanding weight workouts. An increased ability to tolerate and recover from demanding workouts is one of the primary reasons people like CHP’s Alexa Viada encourage even competitive powerlifters to perform some type of cardiovascular exercise.  You can read more about his take on mixed training in the article Special Endurance Sport Considerations for Strength athletes.  Basically, you want to have muscles that have a good amount of peripheral circulation so that you can use those muscle for more then just low rep weight training. Alex Viada, 700 lb. squatter, Ironman Tri-Athlete and owner of Complete Human Performance Engaging in some type of endurance training, even at low intensities, ensures you have a greater level of peripheral circulation in most of your bodies muscle tissue.  This is important as the last thing most people want is to look fantastic but have a level of fitness comparable to a sedentary person.  Unfortunately this is a reality for many people who have built up nearly all of there muscle tissue while engaging in only a  small amount of sitting, standing and walking outside of their gym workouts. While sustained moderate to high intesity endurance training will be necessary to compete in a sport or obstacle course race it is not needed for anyone seeking to maintain fitness while enhancing their physique.  If you primarily want to look good and maintain your health into old age, your primary forms of cardio should be walking, sprinting or multi-directional movement. Walking is the first form of cardio and should be the base of your fitness for the majority of people reading this.  If you have no idea how much movement you are getting every day, you can simply purchase one of the various fitness trackers offered at nearly any major sporting goods store.  Any type of basic tracker such as a Fitbit will do the trick. A trend of walking 10,000 steps per day was started in the 90’s and popularized in japan and is frankly a pretty good start for most people.  This will get you totaling about 5 miles of movement per day. Studies have shown this is much closer to the amount of movement per day the human body was built to perform then the amount of movement the average person gets.  This is a great start for most people and will drastically increase the peripheral circulation for the untrained athlete. The next step is to do some type of sprinting.  For anyone that is relatively untrained this may take the form of running for 10-30 seconds.  For those of you who have a sufficient athletic background to perform proper sprints, you can start off with 50-200 meter sprints.  These can be performed from a jogging start or from a dead stop.  Keep in mind starting from a jog is going to be easier on the nervous system and muscle tissue so you may want to start with that. Make sure you build up to maximum effort.  For most people with warm up will happen in the form of a jog and then a few sub-maximal sprints.  For example, you could warm up with 70%, 80%, 90% before performing 4-5 sets of sprints at 95% of maximum effort.  You could then perform a short cool down jog. Finally, if you are new to sprinting you could start increasing your running speeds performing hill sprints.  Hill sprints force proper sprint mechanics and prevent the violently fast limb speeds that cause the majority of strains and muscle pulls during all out sprints.  You can then slowing work toward sprinting on flat ground by utilizing progressively less steep inclines to sprint on. Finally you can utilize a form of movement drills called multi-directional movement.  For this type of movement you will be performing repeated sets of movement in a number of directions while utilizing a number of different movement patterns.  For example you might run forward 40 yards before doing a side shuffle for 20 yards and then running backward to the start point.  These drills are going to be similar to the movement drills you see athletes performing in their warm ups.  Anyone who has played basketball or football should be intimately familiar with these types of drills. For an example of multi directional movement you can check out a bunch of kids performing these drills.  If they can do it, you can do it.  The point of these drills is to get the body used to changing directions so that you are better able to support your body during more extreme multi dimensional forms of movement.  This type of training goes a long way toward maintaining your athleticism, health, bone and connective tissue health into old age. If you are an athlete that needs to perform conditioning for your sport then there are an infinite number of different programs you could choose to pursue.  For the general fitness population seeking strength and health, walking and one workout utilizing sprints or multi directional movement per week should be plenty. For more information about the role of cardiovascular training and how it can be applied to a lifestyle geared toward increasing natural testosterone production check out the TestShock program.  If you want more specifics about how to structure a weight training program for maximal testosterone enhancement or how to implement sprint and multi-directional movement training, check out the THOR program. The post Cardiovascular Exercise: How To Make it Increase Testosterone! appeared first on TestShock™.

When most people first hear about adaptogens they are a little confused about what they do.  While it seems intuitive enough that they might help the body to adapt, the pathways they use to do this are a little bit unclear. In this article we are going to talk a little about what adaptogens are and how they can be used to enhance your results on the TestShock program or any other program you might be using.  So, according to wikipedia adaptogens do the following: “Adaptogens or adaptogenic substances, compounds, herbs[1] or practices[2] refer to the pharmacological concept[3] whereby administration results in stabilization of physiological processes and promotion of homeostasis, for example, decreased cellular sensitivity to stress.” This is not a bad place to start, but it is not entirely clear how these substances can improve your results from training.  Basically what adaptogens are going to do are improve your endocrine systems response to the stress of training.  Anything you do training wise is going to cause some type of stress on your body.  Your body responds to this stress by increasing or decreasing levels of various hormones in the body. One of the hormones released in response to stress that most people are familiar with is cortisol.  Many adaptogenic substances are labeled as cortisol managers for their ability to adapt their functioning to the stress the body is experiencing.  In studies, certain adaptogens have been shown to enhance the release of cortisol or suppress it based on the conditions the body is faced with. Many of the most popular adaptogens have been used for centuries in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine.  It is impotant to note that not all adaptogens are equally effective.  Many substances labeled as adaptogens have little to no clinical research backing up their effectiveness.  For this reason, you cannot assume that a substance will be effective simply because it is labeled as an adaptogen.  For example all of the following substances are listed for sale as adaptogens: American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), root[11] Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), root[12] Asian Ginseng (Panax ginseng), root[13] Cordyceps (Cordyceps sinensis), mushroom/mycelium Dang Shen (Codonopsis pilosula, C. tangshen), root Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosus), root/stem bark Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia), root/stem Holy Basil (Ocimum sanctum, O. gratissimum), herb Jiaogulan (Gynostemma pentaphyllum), herb Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra, G. uralensis), root Reishi (Ganoderma ludicum), mushroom/mycelium Rhaponticum (Rhaponticum carthamoides), root Rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea), root Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis), fruit/seed Shilajit (Asphaltum bitumen), pitch [14] The majority of the plants on the above list have only small amounts of clinical research to back up their effectiveness. In some cases their is literally no research showing that the substances are effective in mitigating the bodies negative responses to stress.  Notable exceptions are Ashwagandha, Shilajit, Ginseng and Rhodiola. Acording to Dr. Frank Lipman’s fantastic adaptogen resource at drfranklipman those three adaptogens do have the following wide rangin benefits:   Ginseng “For thousands of years, Asian Ginseng has been one of the most valued (and expensive) medicinal plants in the world. It’s believed to affect the body by influencing metabolism within individual cells, and it has been studied extensively for its ability to help the body withstand stress. Western herbalists say that it restores and strengthens the body’s immune response, promotes longevity, and enhances the growth of normal cells. Research indicates that it promotes a sense of well-being and may protect against some kinds of cancer.” – drfranklipman According to Examine Ginseng does the following: Natural form of Asian Ginseng There are many ginsengs in the family, but this is commonly referred to as the “true ginseng” Great for immunity, anxiety, and cognition Some research to suggest aid in testosterone, libido, and training Daily use of 200-400mg Erectile Dysfunction therapeutic use of up to 3g   Ashwagandha “Ashwagandha has been used for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine. Like Asian ginseng, ashwagandha is used to help increase vitality, energy, endurance and stamina, promote longevity, and strengthen the immune system. Today, herbalists often recommend it for people with high blood pressure, insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and impotence associated with anxiety or exhaustion. It enhances endocrine function, especially the thyroid and adrenals. Ayurvedic healers have long prescribed the herb to treat exhaustion brought on by both physical and mental strain.”  – drfranklipman According to Examine Ashwaganha does the following: Raw form of Ashwagandha Neuroprotection, anti cancer, anti anxiety, and great for virility A ton of research supporting it for its testosterone increasing, and cortisol decreasing properties Even works as an anti-anxiety compound in conjunction with alcohol Dosages: 300-500mg at a time, but you can go up to between 6,000-8,000mg a day safely – 8,000mg has been called “as effective as Valium” at inducing sleep in humans   Rhodiola Rosea “Rhodiola rosea acts like a hormone thermostat, especially as it pertains to cortisol, one of our main stress hormones. I believe that cortisol, which is secreted in sync with your circadian rhythms is usually, if not always, out of whack when you’re stressed out and exhausted. This means the cortisol level is either too high when it should be low or not high enough when we need more. Getting your cortisol back in rhythm when you’re compromised is crucial and Rhodiola literally helps balance the cortisol levels in your body, raising or lowering it as needed. That’s why this herb is particularly useful for treating my stressed out clients! What’s more, rhodiola has demonstrated a remarkable ability to support cellular energy metabolism. It positively affects brain function, depression, and heart health. In my experience, most patients who take rhodiola start feeling better within a few weeks to a month.” – drfranklipman According to Examine Rhodiola Rosea does the following: Rhodiola Rosea Reduces burnout fatigue also neuroprotective some evidence to suggest it is helpful in overcoming binge eating as well 300-680mg effective dosages, above 700mg is not necessary     Again, I mention specifics about these three as they are some of the most research backed adaptogens and ones I have been recommending and using for years.  For example you can view Ali K’s resource AnabolicMen for articles on these three adaptogens and tips for how they can be used along with the TestShock program. Rhodiola Rosea Balances High Cortisol and Could Work as a Testosterone Booster Ashwagandha and Testosterone: Potent Adaptogenic Testosterone Booster and Cortisol Suppressant Ginseng, One of the Most Studied Herbs With Testosterone and Nitric Oxide Boosting Benefits Needless to say, you cannot go wrong with those three compounds.  One of the other ones that is less frequently talked about is Phosphatidylserine (PS).  Dependng on who is marketing PS it is sold as an adaptogen or a nootropic.  This is because it can have profound effects on cognitive functioning and subjective measures of mood. Independent of it’s ability to affect mood, PS has the ability to help the body manage it’s secretion of cortisol. This is one of the reasons that PS is often marketed as a adaptogen or “cortisol manager” when sold along with other supplements.  There are many reasons that I often recommend PS.  A of the most common are that PS helps ransports molecules in and out of the bodies cells, it delivers signals to the interior of the cell membrane, it improves signaling between the cells and it protects the cell membranes from oxidative stress.  As you can see these functions fill the role of both a cognitive enhancer and an adaptogen. Finally, one of the other beneficial aspects of adaptogens is their ability to mitigate free radical damage in the body.  Free radicals are created by the varios metabolic processes the body undergoes when exercising and expending energy.  You can think of free radicals like little meteors that rip through perfectly good cells causing inflammation and damage in the body.  Adaptogens work to mitigate the inflammation and damage caused by those free radicals which reduces cellular aging and damage. To learn more about adaptogens in general I suggest you check out this article on recommended adaptogens or this article on naturally healing the endocrine system.  Both do a good job of explaining some of the clinical research that has been done in support of some of the more commonly used adaptogenic compounds.  If you want to shortcut all the research and take what I take on  nearly daily basis, you can take a look at some of the research behind the worlds most powerful adaptogenic, natural cognitive enhancer Cortigon. Hopefully you guys got some value out of this article.  Please leave any questions you have in the comments section of the post and I will be sure to address it in an upcomming video or podcast.  Alternatively you can check out the podcast Q&A section of the TestShock forum where we host a running discussion on your most important questions. The post Adaptogens Increase Testosterone? How & Why Do They Help? appeared first on TestShock™.

Good food is meant to be appreciated and enjoyed.  There is literally no diet that is worth it that will require you to completely abstain from eating any kind of dessert.  If anyone is telling you otherwise they are pulling one over on you.  The reason for those is that absolutes in diet or behavior create neurotic behavior. One of the aspects of the fitness industry I despise the most is its tendency to separate types of food and exercise into good and bad groups.  Realistically there are no good or bad foods or good or bad exercises, it is all context based.   That being said, there is a certain context where indulging in more calorie dense foods, as deserts tend to be, may be more or less useful. As with the discussion on cardio, what you need to keep are your goals.  If you goal is to get to 7% bodyfat and you are trying to work toward that by maintaining sub maintenance calories, adding a large amount of desert type foods to your diet is going to make it difficult to meet your calorie requirements while feeling satiated. Conversely, if you are trying to gain weight and you are struggling to meet your daily calorie requirements it makes no sense to eschew foods that could potentially help you to meet you calorie or macro requirements.  The area that people run into problems most frequently with dessert is not paying attention to their calories when they are eating them. If you are normally tracking calories or otherwise have a rough idea of the calorie requirements that are in the foods you are eating its important to stick to your system even when eating desserts.  To use a common example, if you are using MyFintessPal to track your foods normally, you would not give up tracking every time you eat a dessert.  If it is something you are making at home you would still figure out what is in the dessert. This works especially well if this is something you make often.  You can weigh or measure the ingredients the first time making it and then simple go off your previous measurements next time you make the same thing.  Of course you would have to be careful to make sure you are not changing the quantities significantly if you do go this route. Alternatively you can eat something that is packaged so that you know exactly what is in your dessert.  This makes it easier to get closer and closer to your calorie or macronutrient requirements over time. When you are eating out or are otherwise unable to now exactly what is in the dessert you are eating, it at least pays to have a rough idea of what the calorie and macro levels are of some of the ingredients.  One of the most common scenarios that sabotages dieter’s success is hidden fat or oil in desserts.  This is really a problem with baked goods or fried desserts. Who Knows what’s in this…..? Most people who have never spent time cooking desserts or compulsively looking at the ingredients on wrappers are unaware of how many hidden calories are in the oil used in baked goods or friend food.  Luckily for most of the compulsive people who lure around the fitness community this is not an issue.  After picking up a Little Debbie’s wrapper or two you can see that there are way more calories in things like doughnuts then you would expect from the size and taste. This discrepancy between the size and taste of a food and its calorie content has to do with the fats that are beaked into the bread or crust on some desserts.  This is not as much of an issue with candy or things like ice cream. However when you are talking about things like chocolate candy or cake where oils are cooked or baked into the dessert all bets are off.  in these instances it is best not to guess as you will probably be completely off. Other considerations for desserts are the ratio of fat to carbohydrate and the timing of eating the dessert.  For some desserts it will be worth it to figure out whether or not it is more carbohydrate based or fat based.  The reason for this is that you only have so many calories you can eat in one day.  If you are someone that need a bunch more fat or a bunch more carbohydrate to function well and get the most out of your workouts, it might be worth trying to find a dessert that better matches your needs. Finally, the timing of desserts can be an issue.  More calorie dense foods tend to make some people extremely sleepy.  If you have otherwise been on a strict diet, this becomes especially true.  Similar to how I recommend reserving at least some of your carbohydrates for night time, I would recommend reserving the majority of your dessert types foods for later.  If they don’t make you tired at all this is not a huge deal.  However, for the majority of people, dessert will make them relaxed and somewhat sedated.  This state obviously does not lend itself to getting work or other errands done. Remember, food is meant to be enjoyed.  The above is just a bit of advice that is meant to help you enjoy dessert while still progressing toward your goals.  Out of the many things you have to be worried about on a day to day basis, dessert should not be one of them.  Overall maintain about 80+% of your diet from whole micronutrient rich plant and animal foods including starch, meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, fish ect…. Once and a while throw in a dessert that you like and is useful to your goals.  Don’t stress about the rest of the details if they are causing you to become anxious or neurotic about your food.  Overall, this is much more important then the details anyway.   The post Should You Eat Dessert? The Amazingly Fat Truth appeared first on TestShock™.

In Episode 11 of The daily Dose podcast Chris Ali and Ian discuss some of the basics about sleep such as the dangers of not getting enough sleep and how many hours you need every night.  Chris discusses why your body needs to go through a full circadian cycle and what this means for people who pride themselves on not getting sleep.  Chis and Ali talk about why the body uses the circadian cycle and how it relates to sleep and wake time.  The guys then go over the main issue that fitness conscious guys face when they are trying to get more sleep.  Chris discusses what he does with his clients to ensure they are sleeping more and the #1 change you can make to get results immediately.  The guys then discuss why people believe that eating carbs at night is bad and why this is a particularly damaging myth. In the Second part of episode 11, Chris Ali and Ian Discuss the affects of low calories on your ability to train and sleep.  Chris and Ali discuss the difference between long terms starvation diets and dieting for a few weeks at a time.  Chris discusses what happens to guys who are recovering their testosterone levels after getting off TRT or recovering from chronically low testosterone.  They then discuss what happens to guys that do not develop their neuromuscular conditioning or train primarily for aerobic conditioning.  Chris discusses some of the training he used to do in college when he was a competitive tri-athlete.  Chris then gives recommendations for a regular sprint workout. In the third part of the Testosterone Daily Dose podcast episode 11 Chris Ali and Ian discuss what the benefits of sleep tracking are and some of the common methods of measuring sleep.  Ian discusses some of the results that researchers have found when looking into the effectiveness of sleep tracking devices.  Ali then talks about his experience using a sleep tracking app on his phone and what he did to test this device.  Ali says he drank a ton of alcohol to test whether or not it would register on his sleep tracker.  Chris then proposes that the guys conduct and alcoholic sleep study in Thailand.  Finally the guys go over some of their favorite supplements that they use for sleep.  Chris talks about Phenibut and how it was developed for Russian Cosmonauts. Show Notes: [00:44] Sleep tracking for higher testosterone [01:45] The importance of bringing awareness to any habit you want to change [02:30] Ali discusses his experience with sleep trackers [03:05] Ali talks about getting drunk to see if sleep trackers actually work [04:01] Ali tells us what “a lot of alcohol” is in Finland [04:30] Ian discusses how some devices claim to track stages of sleep [06:17] Chris asks anyone who has experience with sleep apps to comment on the post or in the forum [07:05] Ali talks about how he did not get deep sleep when he was drinking even though he felt like he had gotten sleep [08:20] Chris talks about tracking sleep and where guys in the forum can post their results [09:30] The guys talking about taking phosphatidylserine to assist in sleeping [10:05] Ali talks about starting a thread to see who can get the most restless sleep [11:00] Chris mentions a state of sleep called alpha sleep where you barely know you are sleeping [12:27] Chris talks about how you can achieve alpha brain waves during relaxing activities or meditation [13:04] Chris discusses students working at the Duke sleep research center and his experiences learning about sleep studies [14:10] Ian discusses the Zeo sleep monitor and Ali talks about how important sleep is [15:30] The lack of sleep products and why people are not more interested in sleep [18:00] Chris talks about how getting a better mattress was a game changer for his sleeping habits [19:00] Tuft&Needle mattress company and hacker news [21:00] Ross, TjMaxx and Sears and why you should get yourself a good pillow [22:00] Ali talks about using nature sounds like frogs and waves to help you sleep [23:40] Chris talks about taking the sleep study to Thailand and broadcasting from Thailand [26:30] Supplements that people can use to get better sleep [27:30] Ali discusses his favorite supplement for assisting in sleeping [30:00] Chris mentions LiftMode Phenibut for assisting with sleep The post Testosterone Podcast Episode 11. Part 3: Sleep Tracking For Increased Testosterone appeared first on TestShock™.

In Episode 11 of The daily Dose podcast Chris Ali and Ian discuss some of the basics about sleep such as the dangers of not getting enough sleep and how many hours you need every night.  Chris discusses why your body needs to go through a full circadian cycle and what this means for people who pride themselves on not getting sleep.  Chis and Ali talk about why the body uses the circadian cycle and how it relates to sleep and wake time.  The guys then go over the main issue that fitness conscious guys face when they are trying to get more sleep.  Chris discusses what he does with his clients to ensure they are sleeping more and the #1 change you can make to get results immediately.  The guys then discuss why people believe that eating carbs at night is bad and why this is a particularly damaging myth. In the Second part of episode 11, Chris Ali and Ian Discuss the affects of low calories on your ability to train and sleep.  Chris and Ali discuss the difference between long terms starvation diets and dieting for a few weeks at a time.  Chris discusses what happens to guys who are recovering their testosterone levels after getting off TRT or recovering from chronically low testosterone.  They then discuss what happens to guys that do not develop their neuromuscular conditioning or train primarily for aerobic conditioning.  Chris discusses some of the training he used to do in college when he was a competitive tri-athlete.  Chris then gives recommendations for a regular sprint workout. In the third part of the Testosterone Daily Dose podcast episode 11 Chris Ali and Ian discuss what the benefits of sleep tracking are and some of the common methods of measuring sleep.  Ian discusses some of the results that researchers have found when looking into the effectiveness of sleep tracking devices.  Ali then talks about his experience using a sleep tracking app on his phone and what he did to test this device.  Ali says he drank a ton of alcohol to test whether or not it would register on his sleep tracker.  Chris then proposes that the guys conduct and alcoholic sleep study in Thailand.  Finally the guys go over some of their favorite supplements that they use for sleep.  Chris talks about Phenibut and how it was developed for Russian Cosmonauts. Show Notes: [00:30] What happened to guys on starvation diets when they get a bunch of calories after dieting [01:45] Ali talks about the difference between a diet and long term starvation [02:50] Ian talks about how chronically low calories can kill your ability to produce power [03:35] Chris discusses his days training for aerobic conditioning and what it does to your speed and power [05:16] What happens to guys who are on TRT or are trying to recover their testosterone [05:45] How neuromuscular training can improve your sleep [06:40] Recommendations for sets and reps for sprint workouts [07:40] Chris Ali and Ian discuss the difference between HIIT, intervals and true sprints [10:30] Ho you should feel when you are really pushing yourself during neuromuscular training [11:06] Ali discusses the importance of continued progression in your neuromuscular training [12:10] Ali discusses how you can use figure skating for neuromuscular training The post Testosterone Podcast Episode 11. Part 2: Starvation Diets and Neuromuscular Training Don’t Mix appeared first on TestShock™.

In Episode 11 of The daily Dose podcast Chris Ali and Ian discuss some of the basics about sleep such as the dangers of not getting enough sleep and how many hours you need every night.  Chris discusses why your body needs to go through a full circadian cycle and what this means for people who pride themselves on not getting sleep.  Chis and Ali talk about why the body uses the circadian cycle and how it relates to sleep and wake time.  The guys then go over the main issue that fitness conscious guys face when they are trying to get more sleep.  Chris discusses what he does with his clients to ensure they are sleeping more and the #1 change you can make to get results immediately.  The guys then discuss why people believe that eating carbs at night is bad and why this is a particularly damaging myth. In the Second part of episode 11, Chris Ali and Ian Discuss the affects of low calories on your ability to train and sleep.  Chris and Ali discuss the difference between long terms starvation diets and dieting for a few weeks at a time.  Chris discusses what happens to guys who are recovering their testosterone levels after getting off TRT or recovering from chronically low testosterone.  They then discuss what happens to guys that do not develop their neuromuscular conditioning or train primarily for aerobic conditioning.  Chris discusses some of the training he used to do in college when he was a competitive tri-athlete.  Chris then gives recommendations for a regular sprint workout. In the third part of the Testosterone Daily Dose podcast episode 11 Chris Ali and Ian discuss what the benefits of sleep tracking are and some of the common methods of measuring sleep.  Ian discusses some of the results that researchers have found when looking into the effectiveness of sleep tracking devices.  Ali then talks about his experience using a sleep tracking app on his phone and what he did to test this device.  Ali says he drank a ton of alcohol to test whether or not it would register on his sleep tracker.  Chris then proposes that the guys conduct and alcoholic sleep study in Thailand.  Finally the guys go over some of their favorite supplements that they use for sleep.  Chris talks about Phenibut and how it was developed for Russian Cosmonauts. Show Notes: [01:19] Introduction and Topics [02:24] How many hours of sleep do you need per night [04:00] Can you oversleep and how many hours does that take? [05:39] The foundation of sleep and circadian cycles [07:40] What you can do to improve your sleep now and entrainment [09:18] How not being on a regular sleep schedule can make you hungrier and throw your hormones off [10:40] Setting up your sleeping environment for entrainment or getting on a schedule [11:20] Chris’s favorite mineral water that beats Pellegrino mineral water [12:23] Chris and Ian still are discussing Mineral waters from the States and Ali looks bored [13:42] Mineral water Cont…… [14:10] What you can do with your diet to improve your sleep [15:10] What Chris does with clients to get them to sleep [16:30] How your body deals with large amounts of carbohydrates at night The post Testosterone Podcast Episode 11. Part 1: What You Can Do To Improve Sleep appeared first on TestShock™.

In this episode of The Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Chris Ali and Ian discuss how the body changes over time to adapt to different types of exercise.  The guys discuss why certain types of training are more appropriate for the male physique from a genetic point of view.  Chris discusses how certain muscle groups that are associated with the “Perfect Male Physique” actually respond better to resistance training in male test subjects.  Ian also brings up an article that discusses how sprint speed is related to the appearance of the physique complying with the golden ratio. The guys also discuss why it is not good to focus on tactics over principles.  Chris discusses how sticking to a specific protocol or group of tactics will limit your progress.  Ali brings up some of the arguments he has seen from strict Paleo adherents claiming that nearly anything is Paleo.  Ali gives an example of a time when he believed that sugar was absolutely bad and how his understanding of nutrition has changed over time.  Finally the guys talk about future blog topics and Ian reminds everyone to check out the AnabolicMen survey. Show Notes: [00:05] The way your body adapts to progression and changing hormone levels [01:45] High volume leg training can inhibit recovery of the rest of the body [03:10] The golden ratio and how the body is designed to look good following the classic adage “form follows function” [04:00] Social neuroscience what influences behavioral biases and what looks good to other people [05:00] Androgen receptors do not increase in density as much in men in the lower body as in the upper body following resistance training [06:10] Why you don’t need heavy leg training more then once a week [07:50] Barry Ross and support for minimizing volume on the leg training [09:15] Ali mentions that lower body training can be a sensitive subject for many people [10:20] Breaking through mental barriers of conformity with the Glute Kickback [12:02] THOR program takes many useful tactics from many exercise systems and uses them with the TestShock principles [12:50] Ali discusses Paleo and how strict adherents to the Paleo principles justify everything as being Paleo [14:20] How people develop a world view around their principles [16:00] Why you should be agnostic toward specific systems and build your worldview on principles [16:35] Chris and Ian discuss fruitarians and the conversation gets way off topic [18:05] Ali talks about how he has benefited from keeping an open mind and not placing tactics first [20:15] Chris discusses future topics for the podcast and what people can expect for blog topics [22:40] Ali talks about how important it is to consider the context of a study by talking about different instances where sugar can be detrimental and beneficial     The post Testosterone Podcast Episode 10 Part 2: How You Body Adapts To Changing Hormones appeared first on TestShock™.

In this episode of The Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast, Chris Ali and Ian discuss the type  of training you should be doing to maximize testosterone and the hormonal output from training. The guys discuss the many benefits of neuromuscular training and why it needs to be performed below the fatigue threshold.  This is a concept […] The post Testosterone Podcast Episode 10 Part 1 – Hormonal Response to Training appeared first on TestShock™.

In this episode of the Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast, Chris, Ali and Ian discuss ways that you can apply the Testshock principles to other program.  Many programs focus on very minute details of what to eat, when to eat it, how many sets and reps to do of what exercises ect…. The TestShock program relies […] The post Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Episode 9: Applying Testshock Principles To Other Programs appeared first on TestShock™.

  In this episode of the daily dose podcast, Chris, Ali and Ian discuss the importance of relaxation for natural testosterone enhancement.  Following the last episode where Chris talked about the results of his micronutrient analysis, the guys discuss reasons Chris might have sympathetic dominance. The guys then launch into a full blown analysis of […] The post Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Episode 8: The Importance of Relaxation appeared first on TestShock™.

In this episode Chris, Ali and Ian discuss the different insights that a detailed micronutrient analysis can give you about the functioning of your body.  After Chris’s first analysis he learned that he has what is known as sympathetic dominance.  Apparently Chris has too many business ideas running around in his head because he is […] The post Daily Dose Podcast Episode 7: Micronutrient Analysis appeared first on TestShock™.

In this episode of the Daily Dose Podcast Chris Ali and Ian discuss the best natural ways to reduce stress.  They talk specifically about the stress hormone cortisol and how it it increased and decreased.  The guys talk about why cortisol is produced and what you can do to decrease its production through alterations to […] The post Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Episode 6: Naturally Reducing Stress appeared first on TestShock™.

In this Episode Chris, Ali and Ian are joined by Greg O’Gallagher of Kinobody.  Greg comes on to give the audience some specific recommendations as far as cardio and training for fat loss and muscle gain.  Together Chris and Greg outline how they feel is the best way to train to maintain high testosterone and […] The post Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Episode 5: Walking appeared first on TestShock™.

In this episode of the daily dose podcast, Chris Ali and Ian discuss the types of fats you should be including in your diet.  They discuss the difference between polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fats as well as which types have been shown to enhance testosterone production.  They then go over some of the common foods […] The post Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Episode 4: What Type of Fats For Testosterone Production appeared first on TestShock™.

Episode 3 of the daily dose podcast. In this episode Chris, Ali and Ian discuss the 3 biggest mistakes mistakes guys make that is killing their testosterone.  The first issue they discuss is why you don’t need as much protein as you think you do.  They talk about macronutirnet balance and where guys go wrong […] The post Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Episode 3: The 3 Biggest Things Guys do That Lower Testosterone appeared first on TestShock™.

      Worlds #1 Testosterone Podcast episode 2, Chris, Ali and Ian discuss 5 of the most powerful testosterone enhancement supplements.  These 5 supplements were chosen due to the large amount of research that has been done of their affects.  Most of the supplements listed have been tested in trained and sedentary populations making […] The post Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast Episode 2: “Boss Medicine” The Most Powerful Supplements (that actually work) appeared first on TestShock™.

  Christopher Walker -Neuroscientist and testosterone enhancement expert discusses what you can expect from the daily dose podcast as well as the Testshock community.  In this episode he has members of the Testshock team including Anabolicmen creator Ali Kuoppala on to discuss the latest in testosterone enhancement.  Chris also discloses details regarding the testosterone 100 […] The post The Testosterone Daily Dose Podcast: Welcome & 100 Day Challenge Announcement! appeared first on TestShock™.