The body recomposition protocol I use with men over 35 sits on a slow 200-300 kcal deficit, a protein floor of 1.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, and three strength sessions a week. It is unglamorous. It works almost every time it is actually run. The number I track is waist circumference, not bodyweight. Bodyweight […]
Author Archives: Ron Males
Quick Review: Shilajit Cautiously positive with one significant caveat: sourcing quality is the entire ballgame with shilajit, and most of what’s sold doesn’t clear the bar. If you’re buying standardized PrimaVie extract from a brand that provides a Certificate of Analysis, the evidence for modest T and mitochondrial benefits in healthy men is reasonably solid. […]
The 6-12-25 Method is the centerpiece of every training program I run with clients at PowerandBulk.com, and the structural ancestor of the protocol is older than the commercial fitness industry. The rep-scheme logic traces back to Soviet-era strength and physical culture methodology – specifically the use of descending-intensity tri-sets to produce a single training stimulus […]
Quick Review: Fadogia Agrestis Not a blanket no, but a cautious conditional. Fadogia appears to stimulate LH and raise testosterone in animal models, and some human self-reports are consistent with that mechanism. The problem is the animal toxicity data at high doses – testicular toxicity at extended high doses in rodent studies – and a […]
The majority of ingredient studies cited by testosterone booster brands were conducted on elderly men, hypogonadal men, vitamin-deficient populations, or rats. These results do not transfer to a healthy 35-year-old with normal T. Tribulus terrestris is the clearest example: multiple studies showing T increases were in men starting from severely low baselines. In men with […]
The decade-by-decade testosterone decline number you have probably read – roughly 1% to 2% per year after age 30 – is based on population averages that include men with diabetes, sleep apnea, obesity, and untreated hypothyroidism. The men I have actually worked with who address those variables do not lose T at that rate. They […]
The reference range on your lab report is not “what healthy looks like.” It is the central 95% of the values from whoever the lab tested to calibrate the assay – which includes plenty of men with obesity, diabetes, sleep apnea, alcohol overuse, and untreated thyroid problems. The bottom of the range is “still in […]
Across my client work the single most reliable training intervention for raising testosterone is loaded compound work – specifically heavy squats and deadlifts. No supplement, no protocol component, no other training style produces the same consistency of acute and chronic hormonal response. The mechanism is well documented. Heavy multi-joint movements recruit massive muscle mass, produce […]
If you’re deficient in zinc, vitamin D3, or magnesium, fixing that deficiency will move your bloodwork more reliably than any herbal stack you can buy – I’ve watched this play out across hundreds of clients since 2009. Most men eating a modern diet are low in at least two of these three – even men […]
For no reason other than the fact that I get asked about it constantly – and because half the explanations floating around the internet are either oversimplified or just wrong – I want to walk through IGF-1 signaling the way I actually think about it when I’m working with a client. This is going to […]
Supplements work as additions to a functioning hormonal system. They can’t override active suppression. Fix suppressors first, add to what’s working second. Undiagnosed sleep apnea is the most common suppressor I find that men haven’t accounted for. “I sleep seven hours” is not the same as “I sleep well.” Alcohol at 4-6 drinks per week […]
Total testosterone is the number almost every man fixates on. It is also the number that most consistently misleads. Free testosterone and SHBG together tell the actual story – I have had clients with 720 ng/dL total T who felt terrible, and clients with 480 who felt fine once we saw where their free T […]
This is the tier list I would give a client in the first session if I had to summarize a decade of watching supplements work or fail in real bloodwork. It is not a ranking of marketing claims. It is a ranking of what has consistently produced measurable change in my client base versus what […]