Cistanche tubulosa has the most credible mechanism of the three compounds covered here — specific echinacoside and acteoside content that appears to support LH signaling. The sourcing problem is real and largely unsolved. Cordyceps militaris is not the same as sinensis, and most products don’t tell you which you’re buying. The athletic performance data for […]
Author Archives: Ron Males
Cholesterol is the literal raw material your body uses to manufacture testosterone. The pregnenolone pathway that feeds the entire steroidogenesis cascade – testosterone, DHT, estradiol, DHEA, cortisol – starts with cholesterol. Drive cholesterol too low and you cap the supply chain for every steroid hormone your body produces. The men I have seen with the […]
The single most reliable testosterone intervention I have seen in 200+ clients is fat loss in the 20-pound range. Not supplements. Not TRT. Not exotic peptides. Twenty pounds of fat, lost slowly, with strength training preserved. The mechanism is aromatase. Adipose tissue is an endocrine organ. The more body fat a man carries, particularly visceral […]
Most men in their thirties and forties have IGF-1 levels in the bottom third of the reference range, and almost every one of them has been told by their doctor that this is “normal for your age.” It is not normal in the sense of “healthy and expected.” It is common because almost every man […]
Industrial seed oils – soybean, corn, canola, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed – now make up roughly 20% of total caloric intake for the average American adult. A century ago that number was effectively zero. The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in the typical American diet has gone from roughly 1:1 to 20:1 or higher in the same […]
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 […]
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 […]