Mental health and testosterone

In the era of gender equality, talking about testosterone influence to the male psychology may be a bad idea. On the other hand- testosterone research studies about its impact on behavior in men are booming like never before.
It plays a significant role in the etiology of depression and anxiety1.
In simple words- less testosterone means higher depression and anxiety rates in a population of males.
Another study on mice has demonstrated that testosterone reduces anxiety in a clear dose-dependent manner. The more testosterone- the lesser is the anxiety (at least in mice) 2.

Read on, by the end of this article; you will find out how testosterone controls behavior and emotions of males throughout their life.

Sex drive

The well-known testosterone effect has been extensively documented throughout a number of studies over the past decades. In 1992, research about testosterone effects on the sexual behavior of a man with erection problems perfectly depicted short-term effects of increased testosterone levels. According to the findings, it increases the frequency of sexual activity and ejaculation3.
Although it’s 25 years old, scientific community often cites this paper today.
While evaluating testosterone effects on the mood, a study published in 2004, stated that increased hormone level, even after only one shot increases libido4.

Fatigue

Low testosterone level may be the cause of chronic fatigue! The first symptom that vanishes after its substitution in patients with hypogonadism is fatigue. Hypogonadism is a condition in which the body cannot “achieve” the normal level of testosterone- simply, there is not enough of it. Patients report increased energy, better mood and better tolerance of physical activity after boosting the hormone level. Hypogonadism is not the only cause of low testosterone. Over time, as the aging processes take place, the levels of a “men hormone” constantly drop. When does it start its decline? After the age of 30!

Cognitive function test, memory, and learning5

The male brain fed with enough testosterone is a proactive brain. Several studies have provided evidence for a link between its levels and spatial/general cognitive function. These effects are particularly apparent in men with low levels of testosterone (after boosting the levels, improvements take place). An experiment on rats in the maze has proved that animals with higher levels of testosterone found the exit faster. In addition, the group with increased hormone level learned and memorized the labyrinth much quicker so they could easily find the exit every time.

Depression

The activation of androgenic receptors in the brain increase the levels of serotonin and dopamine. In simple words, the males brain centers that trigger good mood are packed with androgen (testosterone) receptors. Once activated, these receptors cause serotonin and dopamine increase which, altogether, results in better mood and the subside of depression symptoms. The effects of the hormone on depression are particularly measurable in elderly.

Diabetes type 2 (DMT2)

A number of studies found the link between the risk of developing DMT2 and low testosterone level. The analysis of a group of men aged 53-88 years with untreated diabetes compared to the age-matching group of men with a normal blood sugar level (individuals who do not have diabetes) revealed that lower levels of testosterone are associated with the presence of diabetes5. For some, this may seem like a random- illogical finding, but keep in mind that testosterone functions in the body go far beyond it’s well- known effects on sex drive.

Social hierarchy

Testosterone fuels the traditional aspects of a male personality. Males with high-level confidence almost always have a high level of testosterone in the blood. Protectiveness and competitiveness are another characteristics of males with elevated testosterone level. Altogether, these ensure survival and success in the fast and stressful tempo of living. When the stress hormones kick in (which happens to all of us almost every day), high testosterone will give you enough strength to walk into the mindset of an assertive person5.

Reader’s takeaway

Testosterone shapes the mind of a man throughout his entire life. Its levels start to drop after the age of 30. This causes a subtle but in the long run devastating effects on the mood, behavior, and sexuality. Also, low level of testosterone is a risk factor for diabetes type 2, a decrease of bone mineralization and many other health conditions. The cause of testosterone decline in aging men is not deterioration of body’s ability to synthesize it. The cause is decrease of the signals that stimulate its production. The booster can bring back testosterone levels by increasing stimulation signals. This mechanism ensures bypassing side effects of excessive testosterone supplementation.
1. McHenry, J., Carrier, N., Hull, E., & Kabbaj, M. (2014). Sex Differences in Anxiety and Depression: Role of Testosterone. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 35(1), 42–57.
2. Aikey J. L., Nyby J. G., Anmuth D. M., James P. J. (2002). Testosterone rapidly reduces anxiety in male house mice (Mus musculus). Horm. Behav. 42, 448–460.
3. Anderson RA, Bancroft J, Wu FCW 1992 The effects of exogenous testosterone on sexuality and mood of normal men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 75:1503–1507
4. Daryl B. O’Connor, John Archer, Frederick C. W. Wu; Effects of Testosterone on Mood, Aggression, and Sexual Behavior in Young Men: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Cross-Over Study, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 89, Issue 6, 1 June 2004, Pages 2837–2845
5. Testosterone and Aging: Clinical Research Directions. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Assessing the Need for Clinical Trials of Testosterone Replacement Therapy; Liverman CT, Blazer DG, editors. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004.

Mental health and testosterone
In the era of gender equality, talking about testosterone influence to the male psychology may be a bad idea. On the other hand- testosterone research studies about its impact on behavior in men are booming like never before.
It plays a significant role in the etiology of depression and anxiety1. In simple words- less testosterone means higher depression and anxiety rates in a population of males.
Another study on mice has demonstrated that testosterone reduces anxiety in a clear dose-dependent manner. The more testosterone- the lesser is the anxiety (at least in mice)2.
Read on, by the end of this article; you will find out how testosterone controls behavior and emotions of males throughout their life.

Sex drive
The well-known testosterone effect has been extensively documented throughout a number of studies over the past decades. In 1992, research about testosterone effects on the sexual behavior of a man with erection problems perfectly depicted short-term effects of increased testosterone levels. According to the findings, it increases the frequency of sexual activity and ejaculation3. Although it’s 25 years old, scientific community often cites this paper today.
While evaluating testosterone effects on the mood, a study published in 2004, stated that increased hormone level, even after only one shot increases libido4.

Fatigue
Low testosterone level may be the cause of chronic fatigue! The first symptom that vanishes after its substitution in patients with hypogonadism is fatigue. Hypogonadism is a condition in which the body cannot “achieve” the normal level of testosterone- simply, there is not enough of it. Patients report increased energy, better mood and better tolerance of physical activity after boosting the hormone level. Hypogonadism is not the only cause of low testosterone. Over time, as the aging processes take place, the levels of a “men hormone” constantly drop. When does it start its decline? After the age of 30!
Cognitive function test, memory, and learning5
The male brain fed with enough testosterone is a proactive brain. Several studies have provided evidence for a link between its levels and spatial/general cognitive function. These effects are particularly apparent in men with low levels of testosterone (after boosting the levels, improvements take place). An experiment on rats in the maze has proved that animals with higher levels of testosterone found the exit faster. In addition, the group with increased hormone level learned and memorized the labyrinth much quicker so they could easily find the exit every time.
Depression
The activation of androgenic receptors in the brain increase the levels of serotonin and dopamine. In simple words, the males brain centers that trigger good mood are packed with androgen (testosterone) receptors. Once activated, these receptors cause serotonin and dopamine increase which, altogether, results in better mood and the subside of depression symptoms. The effects of the hormone on depression are particularly measurable in elderly.
Diabetes type 2 (DMT2)
A number of studies found the link between the risk of developing DMT2 and low testosterone level. The analysis of a group of men aged 53-88 years with untreated diabetes compared to the age-matching group of men with a normal blood sugar level (individuals who do not have diabetes) revealed that lower levels of testosterone are associated with the presence of diabetes5. For some, this may seem like a random- illogical finding, but keep in mind that testosterone functions in the body go far beyond it’s well- known effects on sex drive.
Social hierarchy
Testosterone fuels the traditional aspects of a male personality. Males with high-level confidence almost always have a high level of testosterone in the blood. Protectiveness and competitiveness are another characteristics of males with elevated testosterone level. Altogether, these ensure survival and success in the fast and stressful tempo of living. When the stress hormones kick in (which happens to all of us almost every day), high testosterone will give you enough strength to walk into the mindset of an assertive person5.
Reader’s takeaway
Testosterone shapes the mind of a man throughout his entire life. Its levels start to drop after the age of 30. This causes a subtle but in the long run devastating effects on the mood, behavior, and sexuality. Also, low level of testosterone is a risk factor for diabetes type 2, a decrease of bone mineralization and many other health conditions. The cause of testosterone decline in aging men is not deterioration of body’s ability to synthesize it. The cause is decrease of the signals that stimulate its production. The booster can bring back testosterone levels by increasing stimulation signals. This mechanism ensures bypassing side effects of excessive testosterone supplementation.
References:
1. McHenry, J., Carrier, N., Hull, E., & Kabbaj, M. (2014). Sex Differences in Anxiety and Depression: Role of Testosterone. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 35(1), 42–57.
2. Aikey J. L., Nyby J. G., Anmuth D. M., James P. J. (2002). Testosterone rapidly reduces anxiety in male house mice (Mus musculus). Horm. Behav. 42, 448–460.
3. Anderson RA, Bancroft J, Wu FCW 1992 The effects of exogenous testosterone on sexuality and mood of normal men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 75:1503–1507
4. Daryl B. O’Connor, John Archer, Frederick C. W. Wu; Effects of Testosterone on Mood, Aggression, and Sexual Behavior in Young Men: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Cross-Over Study, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 89, Issue 6, 1 June 2004, Pages 2837–2845
5. Testosterone and Aging: Clinical Research Directions. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Assessing the Need for Clinical Trials of Testosterone Replacement Therapy; Liverman CT, Blazer DG, editors. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004.


Tips to Increase Testosterone Levels

Tips to Increase Testosterone Levels

It’s no secret that testosterone one they key hormones behind looking and feeling our best. It’s associated with lower levels of fat mass, high quantities of muscle and increased physical performance.

 

Yet, many men actually have much lower testosterone levels than what’s optimal or even considered healthy. In fact, around 1 in 40 men over the age of 30 have low testosterone levels, affecting around 4 to 5 million men in the U.S. alone. The natural healthy range is generally defined as being between 400ng/dl (nanograms per decilitre) to 800ng/dl with anything below 300ng/dl being considered ‘low’. Just some of the symptoms that low testosterone can cause are poor sleep, increased fat storage, muscle breakdown, decreased motivation, depression, reduced sexual libido, infertility, and much more. Therefore, not only can low testosterone affect the way you look, but the way you feel, too.

 

What’s the cause?  And can we increase testosterone levels? Well, there are actually a variety of reasons why our testosterone might decline. The most prevalent reason is age. Once we get past thirty our natural testosterone levels start to decline. According to a 2010 paper, between 19 and 39 percent of men over the age of 45 have low levels of this important hormone.

 

The other big influencer is the way we live. Under exercising and overeating dramatically affect the response and production of our hormones. Not only eating too much food but eating the wrong foods is an easy way to lower your health in a number of ways. The modern western diet is based around convenience opposed to nutrition which means that there’s a high amount of processed food.

 

Thankfully, this also means there’s an easy way to raise our testosterone back to normal or take it even higher. First, make sure that you’re getting enough physical activity each week. 3-4 45-60 minute sessions per week is enough. Strength training has been shown to have a greater impact on raising testosterone than cardo, so it’s wise to make sure a majority of your time is spent resistance training. In terms of your diet, try to follow the 80/20 rule. This is where 80% of your intake is natural, whole and unprocessed food whilst saving 20% for some less-nutritious indulgences.

 

Lastly, you can also try including some testosterone boosting supplements. Supplements such as d-aspartic acid, vitamin D, Tribulus Terrestris, fenugreek, DHEA, and ashwagandha have all been associated with naturally increasing testosterone levels.

 

Testosterone is strongly linked to many aspects of our health and therefore, it really all comes down to common sense. Things we tend to think are unhealthy for us usually are.


CrossFit Challenge Day 8 – My first high score

 

General – Thoughts and what I’ve been up to

From memory

CrossFit got cancelled in the morning due to some emergency

Wakeup time: 5:30AM
Sleep duration: 7H
How am I feeling: Refreshed and super motivated

Today’s program:

 

The workout

Warmup 4x

Back Squat 6-8 Reps (60-70% Max Rep)

20 Seconds Rest

Kettlebell Swings 15 reps

1 minute rest

Strict Pull-ups 6-8 Reps

1 minute rest

REPEAT

WOD

Teams of four – RELAY

Burpee Box Jump Overs

Food and Drinks

Overall

A paragraph summary of food, drinks and supplements

Drinks

Water: 1.5L
Coffee: 2 Cups
Green Tea: 0
Other: Coconut water 500ml

Food

Pre-workout:
Post-Workout:
Breakfast: Sausage + Mushrooms +  2 Eggs
Snack #1: Protein Shake
Snack #2: 3x small whipped yogurts
Lunch: Prawns and potatoes in olive oil + olives
Dinner: Large salad + ½ avocado + coconut butter and grass-fed butter

Supplements

Vitamin D
BCAA
Protein Shake


CrossFit Challenge Day 7 – London Never Sleeps

 

General – Thoughts and what I’ve been up to

I lost Day 4, 5, 6,7 ,8 data, due to a computer crash. Fortunately I didn’t lose the videos.

I am re-writing today’s plan based on my memory J

I will use material such as photos and videos taken on the day to put something together.

Wakeup time: 5:00AM
Sleep duration: 4-5H
How am I feeling: Tired

Today’s program:

Todays Workout

 

Functional Movements

Good mornings

Renegade rows

Turkish get-ups (first half)

WOD – AMRAP

Shoulder to overhead press 5 Reps
Box Jumps 10 Reps
Kettlebell Swings 15x

Tips for Turkish Get Ups

Food and Drinks

Overall

Drinks

Can’t really remember, just writing an average daily consumption

Water: 2L
Coffee: 1 Cup
Green Tea: 2 Cups
Other: Coconut Water 300 ML

Food

Pre-workout: Probiotics + Banana
Post-Workout: Protein Shake
Breakfast: 2 Eggs + Potatoes + asparagus + mushrooms
Lunch:
Dinner:

Supplements

Vitamin D

Protein Shake

 

 


CrossFit Challenge Day 3 – Active rest day

 

General – Thoughts and what I’ve been up to

Wakeup time: 7:00AM
Sleep duration: 7H
How am I feeling: Refreshed

Today’s program:

ACTIVE REST DAY

30 minutes of mobility
15 minutes of meditation
Long Hike

 

My Workout Of the Day (WOD)

NONE

Food and Drinks

Overall

I am still away from home on Day 3. Couldn’t get my hands on breakfast till a bit later during the day.

Drinks

Water: 1L
Coffee: 3 Cups
Green Tea: 2 Cups
Other: Coconut Water 1L

Food

Snack #1:  2x KitKat bars + some sort of patisserie  J

Brunch: 3x Duck eggs, asparagus, mushrooms, ½ avocado, leaf salad, tomatoes, cucumbers

Snack #2: 50g mixed raw nuts

Lunch: little roast duck left over from last night

Snack #3: 50g mixed raw nuts

Dinner: Salmon + salad

Supplements

NONE

Conclusion

I feel great and look forward to tomorrow morning’s WOD

 


CrossFit Challenge – Day 2

General – Thoughts and what I’ve been up to

Wakeup time: 5:30 AM
Sleep duration: 6 Hours
How am I feeling: I don’t want to get out of bed! Why am I doing this!
On waking up, I felt a bit nauseous, I am think it was because of the late protein shake intake! J

All feedback are more than welcome. I am constantly looking to improve!

The video format will change during the challenge. I might do like a whole day vlog format and some more planning. Each article / video at its current state is taking a few hours to edit etc. I am hoping the process will speed up once I have some sort of system in place.

 

Today’s program:

Arrived at the gym a bit earlier and performed some basic mobility training.

I didn’t perform very well compared to other team members. To be exact, I came last! J But I felt so great after finishing the workout! I know it sounds a bit corny, but I felt I was ready to face any obstacle in my path at work.

This is one reason I prefer to do a WOD in the morning. Just puts you in a very positive mind-set for the whole day.

 

My CrossFit Workout Of the Day (WOD)


The first workout was all about gymnastics.

In gymnastics you ask the question: How do I move my own body through space and time?
It’s all about manipulating your own body through space and time as oppose to weight lifting where you would move an outside weight through space and time!

Gymnastics

Each movement should take between 30-45 seconds. (Max 2 minute window)

  • L-sit hold (Hold 5 seconds, rest, then repeat)
  • Handstand hold against the wall 35-60 seconds

Repeat for 12 minutes (Should give you 3 rounds of 2 minutes of each workout)

WOD – 4 rounds

  • 14 alternating dumbbell ground to overhead or dumbbell snatches
  • 14 v-ups
  • 400 meter sprint

Repeat 4 times for TIME – 25 minute cap

Tips

L-sit hold – Get into a nice upright position (using a pair of box jump, chair or 3x plates on either side of you) Push your bum back, raise your feet as high as you can and hold it (This will set your abs on fire!)

Handstand holds (How to do wall-climbs and handstand holds – CrossFit Style)

How to do alternating dumbbell ground to overhead 

How to do dumbbell snatches

Learning how to do push-ups / Chin-ups for the first time

Food and Drinks

Overall

I was away for dinner / breakfast. By the time I arrived at my destination my only option was a takeaway. (Well, could had gone to a supermarket!)

 

Drinks

Water: 1.5 L
Coffee: 1 Cup
Green Tea: 4 Cups
Other: –

Food

Pre-workout: None
Post-Workout: Handful of blueberries
Breakfast: 3x large eggs, sweet potatoes, coconut butter, spinach
Snack #1: ½ avocado
Brunch: Protein shake
Octopus (100g), sweet potatoes, handful of olives, broccolis, cauliflower and baby carrots, all mixed in virgin olive oil with a squeeze of fresh lemon, washed down with coconut water with added cinnamon
Snack #2: Yogurt with chocolate chips! (This is not at all healthy! But was nice J )
Snack #3: handful of blueberries + carrot sticks (raw)
Dinner: Take-away Roast Duck + mussels + roast vegetables + tiny amount of white rice with coconut milk

Supplements

  1. Vitamin D
  2. Protein shake: Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass (I use half the scoop on each serving only. as it has too much carbs in it)

Conclusion

I understand the protein shake I am taking at the moment is not exactly paleo, but I did mention on Day 1, that I am doing some variety of paleo.

I will measure my heart rate at further sessions, where possible.

 

 


CrossFit Challenge – Day 1

Challenge Structure

Workouts

Due to the holiday season, we have skipped the 1st day (Monday) in our 1st week. Thus the first week should be like this:

Monday: Active Rest
Tuesday: Training
Wednesday: Training
Thursday: Active Rest
Friday: Training
Saturday: Training
Sunday: Active rest day

Read More


Interviewing Ben Greenfield, high performance athlete and the author of Beyond Training

 

It was such a pleasure interviewing Ben Greenfield at the BioHack Summit in London, with Vy from High Achiever Diets.

Here is a summary of our interview with Ben Greenfield, who is amongst the top 100 most influential individual in the fitness industry and a New York Times best seller author. Check out his amazing book, beyond training!

What would you say is one key Bio-Hack any athlete could do to increase performance?

Get extremely resilient to cold temperatures because it shocked me at world champions to see how many people dropped off, had to stop, didn’t finish or got severely slowed down from a simple cold water plunge at the top of the mountain there, that frankly was not that big of a deal. The human nervous system should handle swimming through a cold pool at top of the mountain and getting off and running. It’s not that hard, it’s just that we are broken and nervous system are broken too. And if you expose yourself to cold every day for 5 or 10 minutes that’s all it takes.

How do you get used to or get comfortable in the cold?

Here is where we take a deeper diver. If you are just using cold to calm your nervous system that’s not enough. There are literally dozens of way that you can increase vagal nerve tone. Meditation prayer, breath work, gargling, music, UV light, UV Read More


Finding time for fitness – Part 1

I talk about time management often here. The truth is, with the correct time management you will be surprised how much you can do in a day!

With time management comes success and discipline.

Before you start time management, you need to monitor your daily habits. You can do this by timing each of your activities. This can be done using a stopwatch or an apps. aTimeLogger is my favorite, which can keep track of your activities.

Monitor your daily habits and doing so you may be surprised how much time you are wasting! One of my clients was shocked to discover she was wasting up to 10 hours a day on trivial things. This was someone who always complained she has no time to exercise.

Here are some of the typical activities that you may be spending more time on than you think:

TV: Most people will switch on the TV to “relax” for a “bit” or catch up on a specific program. Most likely you will spend more time on the TV that originally planned and you won’t even realise this has become a habit. TV is a perfect distraction machine. You are very likely to watch a random program that follows after your intended program. And if it is news, or a documentary, you fool yourself into thinking you are becoming educated by watching the program, and it is necessary.

Things to time using your stopwatch or App include:

  • Shower and bath durations
  • Social media browsing
  • WhatsApp and other messaging services
  • TV / Netflix and other online streaming websites
  • YouTube and other video sharing websites
  • Sleep
  • Cooking and eating
  • Cleaning
  • Commuting
  • Emails
  • News
  • Shopping

Monitor and write down the duration of these activities for a week. After you have some data, try to find a way to cut down the time spent on each activity.

Unfortunately, this could seem very hard at fist. It is most likely that the excess time spent on all the above activities has already become a habit.

Set yourself new daily rituals. Don’t try to get rid off all your bad habits at once. Start with spending 5 minutes less on each activity and cut down daily.

If self-control is hard for you, switch off your Internet access few hours a day to avoid wasting time on social media. Read a book instead or exercise. You can download and print our offline workout guides.

Remember, always plan your day ahead. Set your rituals, set the time you will workout tomorrow and change can happen. You need to be consistent.

Good luck

If you found this article useful, please share it so that someone else can benefit.


No time to train? Leonardo Da Vinci did!

No time to train? Are you busy?

How often have you heard “I don’t have time for…”, or have you used it yourself?

Do you think Leonardo Da Vinci ever said it? Probably not. Yet days have not been getting any shorter.
We all have, and always have had, 24 hours in a day.
Time is not important, it’s what you do with it that counts.
Just 20 minutes a day is enough to maintain a fit and healthy body

Can you say with hand on heart that you honestly don’t have time to set aside 20 minutes in a day?

Just a glance at your YouTube history will prove you a liar.
Have a look at your Facebook log. Also take a look at your WhatsApp / SnapChat history.

You know the culprits
If you really want to exercise, you will find a way. If you don’t really want to, you’ll find excuses. Have a look at the Excuse Blanket.

We are all naturally lazy. Don’t be ashamed of it. We all take the easy road, it’s part of our nature.

People who say “I don’t have time for fitness”, would probably, on analysing their reality of the situation, would see that they are deluding themselves.
With a little honest introspection, they would come to see that the excuses they make is just that, excuses. Their excuses become a blanket to hide under when the exercise monster arrives.

Have you ever said to yourself one of these things:

But it will take 30 minutes to get to the gym?
But it will take about 30 minutes to just drive to the gym!
But the gym is expensive and I am trying to save money!
But it’s not just the workout, you will need to eat after the workout, you will need to take a shower and you need to change your clothes 3 times!

My response to the contents of your excuse blanket is, don’t go to the gym.
You can do high intensity exercises home. You don’t need any equipment.

The shower and eating excuses are very silly. Don’t you have to take a shower and eat regardless of exercising?

With the right nutrition and constant training your recovery times will reduce dramatically. So if this is your issue, the only way it can get fixed, is by training more.

Running is also free! Well, almost! All you need are a pair of trainers. I’m sure most people can afford a basic pair of trainers. I do recommend investing in a good pair if you can afford it.

Some people have an intricately woven excuse blanket. If you don’t have one click here to buy one

Next time you tell yourself you’ve got no time, think like Leonardo Da Vinci. Like everyone else, you will have 20 minutes to spare.
You need to make sure that you invest in your body, because it is the best investment you will ever make.
Stay fit.
Sam