Four Simple Ways to Boost Your Testosterone
Ideas for Competitiveness without Doping
For many years, I have observed an icky side of elite sports: doping. The story of Zane Robertson, caught taking EPO (erythropoietin), has been especially saddening. He is a fierce competitor and has been perhaps New Zealand's greatest male marathoner.
That has led me to wonder, how can someone boost his performance naturally and rival dopers?
Perhaps in another post I will address blood quality and EPO. However, for two reasons, testosterone is particularly relevant: (1) it is closely tied to athletic performance, and (2) it has been declining in males in recent decades. Beyond heightening male characteristics, superior performance from testosterone rests on greater muscle growth, red-blood-cell production, and aggression.
Even if you are not concerned about sports performance, consider these symptoms of low testosterone, as reported by Medical News Today: reduced sexual desire (especially in females), erectile dysfunction, smaller testes, lower fertility, reduced bone mass, decreased energy and motivation, depression, reduced memory and concentration, increased fat, and disrupted sleep.
To make matters worse, economist Peter St Onge notes that low-testosterone men vote for socialism. A Claremont Graduate University researcher has even shown that testosterone shots shift Democrat men red and improve their mood. Perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger was right when he labeled Democrat males as “girly men.”
Here are four tips to boost your performance and avoid that fate.
1. Eliminate most alcohol.
A small amount of alcohol, perhaps one or two servings per week, appears to be relatively benign (although even that is up for debate) and probably good for your social life. For simplicity and to protect my brain health, I stopped drinking entirely when I turned 35. For myriad reasons, backed by ample evidence, heavy drinkers have lower testosterone, both in the short and long run.
These days, you can get excellent nonalcoholic beers from the likes of Athletic Brewing. I enjoy Virgil's zero-sugar root beer and cream sodas or Reed’s extra-strength ginger beer. Another healthy and widely available alternative is naturally delicious coconut water.
2. Lift weights.
While I recommend at least two devoted sessions per week, anything is better than nothing. Beyond conventional weights, high-intensity interval training and group circuit training are useful. These also make sense for when you need a break from heavy lifting, which should not be done consistently all year round.
Minimal-dose bodyweight exercises, as promoted by sports scientist James Nuzzo, also have a positive effect and can be particularly useful when on the road. He estimates that “about 80 percent of people do not meet the recommended guidelines for participation in muscle-strengthening activities.… a substantial proportion, about 58 percent, do not participate in any muscle-strengthening activities.”
If you do not know where to start, my weight-training bible is The New Power Program (2001) by Michael Colgan. I got to meet him up on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, about 20 years ago at one of his training camps, and he was a man ahead of his time. You can also hire Niki Veldman of the Raintree Athletic Club in Fort Collins, Colorado. Whether you are local or not, she is available as a personal trainer and focuses specifically on weights for endurance athletes.
3. Distill your water.
One of the chief reasons for declining testosterone levels appears to be endocrine disruptors in food, packaging, and water, as detailed in Nobody Wants You Healthy (2022) by Mark Richards. Contaminants in water supplies are endless. Most large US cities and even supposedly enlightened towns, like the one I live in, pollute water by deliberately adding toxins such as hydrofluorosilicic acid and sodium fluorosilicate. Evidence continues to mount, even from governmental sources, that fluoridation lowers testosterone and intelligence. Keep that garbage out of your body.
Ideally, distill your drinking water and store it in glass or stainless-steel containers, for the purest water possible and no leaking bisphenol A (BPA) from plastics. BPA is another endocrine disruptor.
I first read about the merits of distillation in Optimum Sports Nutrition (1993) by Michael Colgan and bought my own Mini Classic CT Distiller in 2021. I have not looked back and now partner with Pure Water, which manufactures the distillers in Nebraska, so you can get a 5 percent discount with the FERG coupon code. If you prefer a cheaper made-in-China option, I recommend the Megahome Countertop.
4. Take superfood supplements.
Unfortunately, the modern diet tends to include a ton of processed and sugar-laden food that has lost much of its goodness. I will write more on broader nutritional ideas in forthcoming posts. However, disciplined supplementation that addresses declining testosterone, especially among adult men, makes sense.
Here are a few of the most well-established supplements for increasing testosterone, although admittedly the experimental research tends to come from animal trials (or trials with just men). The following do not come with any guarantees from me, and I do not pretend to be your physician. I have linked to what I deem to be reputable brands, and please buy through these links to support this publication.
If you want to start with just one or two of these, I would go with fenugreek and/or ginger root, since they are the most affordable.
The deer velvet, supplied by Mountain Red, comes all the way from the South Island of my native New Zealand. Use the FERG coupon code for 5 percent off and free shipping when you buy a six-pack.
Please be careful when choosing cod liver oil. Although it offers many benefits beyond testosterone, some fisheries are polluted, and the contaminants show up in the oil. Nordic Naturals harvests its oil from the Arctic, which one hopes is cleaner, and the company emphasizes purification and testing. Garden of Life also has a great-tasting one from Iceland.
Also, the processing matters. Fermented cod liver oil from Alaska, offered by Green Pasture, seeks to retain the goodness, but the taste is too much for most people. That is why I linked above to the capsules. For more bang for the buck, go with the value-size bottles. The FERG coupon codes applies to Green Pasture products as well.
If you are especially concerned about your testosterone level or just want to know where you stand and monitor changes, you can test this easily at the likes of Any Lab Test Now or AthleteBloodTest.com. There are also convenient at-home tests available on Amazon.com, including an affordable one by Everywell.
Please share your own ideas and experiences below. Have specific protocols worked for you? Did simply more rest help? That is another one that should go without saying.
Fergus Hodgson is a Lydiard Foundation Level II endurance coach and former New Zealand under-20 rower and collegiate scholarship athlete. Follow him on X, YouTube, and Substack.
A physician friend shared this feedback:
"Low testosterone causes all the symptoms you have enumerated. Any type of interval training will boost testosterone, as will reaching sexual climax: more by having satisfactory sex than by masturbation. It is important to understand causes of low testosterone—they are categorised as primary and secondary—to know when a healthy diet and having sexual climax are the indicated treatment."