13 Ways to Naturally Boost Your Test repost

[Power-Quest]

Credit goes to, Newport Surfer for the original poster of this.http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=461291

This was posted in the supp section but thought a lot of the over 35 crowd would find this good info.

The normal level of testosterone in your bloodstream is between 350 and 1,000 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dl). Like combable hair, those quantities silently start to wane around age 40. You lose about 1 percent a year -- a harmless decline in the short term, but a cause of obesity, brittle bones, muscle loss and impotence by the time you reach your 60s -- if you live that long. Testosterone levels in the low range (a blood serum score below 350 ng/dl) may increase your chances of dying of a heart attack.

It's not just an old man's problem, either. Men in their 30s and 40s also fall prey to low testosterone counts. It's a disorder called hypogonadism, and it can be caused by an undescended testicle, a testicular injury, a pituitary gland disorder or even prescription drugs. It usually goes undiagnosed until a man hits his doctor with a telltale complaint: "I can't get an erection."

"If you have reduced levels of sexual desire, have your testosterone level checked immediately," says Dr. Allen Seftel, a urologist at Case Western Reserve University Hospitals of Cleveland. You can replenish your testosterone stores with injections, gels, pills or patches, but these medical treatments are no panacea: Side effects include acne, high cholesterol, shrunken testicles and liver damage. Further, don't take supplements like DHEA or androstenedione to boost testosterone; they might increase your risks of prostate cancer and heart disease.

"For men with borderline testosterone scores, I advise them to try to raise their levels through exercise and weight loss before going on testosterone therapy," says Dr. Goldberg. And it might pay to start young. "Since your testosterone declines at a steady rate, it's conceivable that raising your hormone levels naturally in your 20s and 30s could help you maintain higher levels later on," he says. Either way, the reward can be a stronger physique and better bedroom sessions than you'd otherwise deserve. Below are 13 tips designed to get your juice up -- safely.

#1 Get Rid of the Flopping Belly

Or you'll grow a pair of fetching breasts to complement it. Carrying excess body fat elevates your estrogen levels, and that may cause your testosterone levels to sink, says Joseph Zmuda, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh. Louie Anderson is proof enough of this. Two or three extra pounds won't cause this hormonal shift; it really occurs once you're 30 percent over your ideal body weight. "Unfortunately, that's pretty common now," says Dr. Dobs.

#2 But Lose Only One Pound a Week

When you want to trim down quickly, you probably starve yourself while exercising like a madman. One of the many reasons this stops working in your 30s, when your natural testosterone levels start dropping, is pretty simple: Cutting your calorie intake by more than 15 percent makes your brain think you're starving, so it shuts down testosterone production to wait out the famine. "There's no need to reproduce if you're starving," explains Thomas Incledon of Human Performance Specialists in Plantation, Fla. Ironically, this dive in circulating testosterone stops you from burning body fat efficiently, so you're actually thwarting your hard efforts to melt that tire off your gut.

#3 Skip the Atkins Fad

Research suggests that eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet can cramp your testosterone levels. High amounts of dietary protein in your blood can eventually lower the amount of testosterone produced in your testes, says Incledon, who observed this relationship in a Penn State study of 12 healthy, athletic men.

Your protein intake should be about 16 percent of your daily calories, Incledon says. So, if you're the average 170-pound man who eats 2,900 calories a day, you should eat about 140 grams of protein daily, which is about the amount in two chicken breasts and a 6-ounce can of tuna.

#4 Have Morning Sex

German scientists found that simply having an erection causes your circulating testosterone to rise significantly -- and having one in the morning can goose your natural post-dawn testosterone surge. It's a sure bet you'll burn a little fat, too.

#5 Stick With Tough Exercises

To beef up your testosterone levels, the bulk of your workout should involve "compound" weight-lifting exercises that train several large muscle groups, and not just one or two smaller muscles. For example, studies have shown that doing squats, bench presses or back rows increases testosterone more than doing biceps curls or triceps pushdowns, even though the effort may seem the same. This is why doing squats could help you build bigger biceps.

#6 Make Nuts Your Midnight Snack

Nuts are good for your nuts. Research has found that men who ate diets rich in monounsaturated fat -- the kind found in peanuts -- had the highest testosterone levels. "It's not known why this occurs, but some scientists believe that monounsaturated fats have a direct effect on the testes," says Incledon. Nuts, olive oil, canola oil and peanut butter are good sources of monounsaturated fat.

#7 Squeeze Out Five Repetitions per Set

Throwing around 5-pound dumbbells won't help you effect a rise in testosterone. Start off by using a heavy weight that you can lift only five times. That weight is about 85 percent of your one-repetition maximum. A Finnish study found that this workload produced the greatest boosts in testosterone.

#8 Do Three Sets of Each Weight-Lifting Movement

Researchers at Penn State determined that this fosters greater increases in testosterone than just one or two sets. Rest a full minute between sets, so you can regain enough strength to continue lifting at least 70 percent of your one-rep maximum during the second and third sets.

#9 Rest Harder Than You Work Out

If you overtrain -- meaning you don't allow your body to recuperate adequately between training sessions -- your circulating testosterone levels can plunge by as much as 40 percent, according to a study at the University of North Carolina. The symptoms of overtraining are hard to miss: irritability, insomnia, muscle shrinkage, joining the Reform Party. To avoid overtraining, make sure you sleep a full eight hours at night, and never stress the same muscles with weight-lifting movements two days in a row.

#10 Drive Home Sober

To maintain a healthy testosterone count -- and titanium erections -- cut yourself off after three drinks. "Binge drinking will kill your testosterone levels," warns Incledon. Alcohol affects the endocrine system, causing your testes to stop producing the male hormone. That's one reason drinking often causes you to go limp at the moment of truth.

#11 Have a Sandwich at 3 p.m.

As any sensible woman knows, the way to put hair on a man's chest is to fill his stomach. Your body needs a ready supply of calories to make testosterone, so regularly skipping meals or going for long stretches without eating can cause your levels of the hormone to plummet. Then again, that's probably the warden's plan.

#12 Buy the Fried Tortilla Chips

If you want to raise your testosterone score, eat a diet that includes about 30 percent fat, and not much less. Your body needs dietary fat to produce testosterone, so eating like a vegetarian aerobics instructor will cause your testosterone levels to sink drastically. This is bad, unless you actually are a vegetarian aerobics instructor.

13# Stop Surfing for Porn at 2 a.m.

Sleeping less than seven to eight hours a night can screw up your circadian rhythm. That's why it's no wonder your testosterone levels are higher in the morning after a good night's sleep. So if your work or social schedule keeps you stooped in perpetual jet lag, don't be surprised if you stop craving sex. At least that'll make it easier to stay out of bed.


Credit: Ron Geraci, Men's Health, December 25, 2000

[Power-Quest]

We have discovered seven strategies to not only boost your testosterone and growth hormone levels, but also put "X" in sex and in this report we'll cover three of them. Our staffer Sam Fields and his report on testosterone made our group dig some more. What we found was nothing short of amazing.

In side of each man live a muscle-bound ape who can lift mountains in the weight room, please a dozen women at a time, then sleep like a bear during its hibernation for 8 hours and be ready to do it all again the next day.

The research is in and we've found that the right foods can jack up your testosterone and growth-hormone levels while also shutting down estrogen production in men. If you're not feeling as "manly" as you used to, and you have more than your fair share of days when you just feel plain weak, most likely your anabolic hormones are lying dormant.

Testosterone is the currency of a young and viril man and with it comes lean muscles and erections of iron. Growth hormone (GH) on the other hand, strengthens connective tissue, meaning stronger tendons and a boost in power and muscle mass. Even better, GH seeds up muscle repair, jump-starts your immune system and improves skin elasticity for a tighter, younger, firmer looking physique.

What you eat, how you eat it and what you supplement your food with can bring to the forefront that "animal" inside of you. In this report, we give you seven keys to making it happen.

PROTEIN
It's no secret that protein builds muscle, but the type of protein you choose can be very important. Protein that comes from whey or egg hydrolysates can increase anabolic-hormone levels.

Hydrolysates are predigested proteins rich in dipeptides (two amino acids joined together) and tripeptides (three joined together). Dipeptides and tripeptides can escape digestion and go directly to the liver where they increase production of the powerful anabolic hormone insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1).

As a result, hydrolysates do a better job of building muscle than whole proteins or free-form amino acids so be sure to look for these when you purchase protein supplements.

VEGETABLES

Fat, it turns out, is not only ugly but also a threat to your manhood because it's rich in aromatase, an enzyme that turns testosterone into various estrogens.

Just to make clear, so that all of us are on the same page:
estrogens=female hormone

To boost your masculinity and enhance your body's normal disease-fighting ability, eat more broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. A recent study showed these veggies to be rich in indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a phyto-chemical known to turn "bad" estrogens (which shut down testosterone production) into good ones which help to restore it's production. Fact:bad estrogens were cut in half when seven healthy men took 500 milligrams of I3C a day for a week.

Jon Michnovicz, M.d., Ph.D, from Rockefeller University Hospital stated "we have strong evidence to suggest that indole-3-carbinol is active; it's doing the right things to the body's hormone system and it's doing them in a safe and gentle way".

What does this mean to you? Aim for two servings a day of the various cruciferous vegetables which include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, cress, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, bak choy, radishes, turnip greens and watercress. If you can't handle these, 300mg of another supplement diindolylmethane (also called DIM or diindolin) which is derived from I3C does much the same thing.

MEAT
Although science doesn't know why, evidence suggests that eating meat boosts testosterone levels. In one study, two groups of men pumped iron for 12 weeks; one group ate a vegetarian diet and the other a meat diet. Strength improved by the same amount in both groups, but only the meat eating group enjoyed marked fat loss and muscle gain. If you decide to eat meat to bulk up, avoid fatty red meat, pork and lamb which are loaded with saturated fat and instead choose fish, poultry or lean cuts of beef.

Jim Shaw
Better Sex Research Staff
4Men

[Ronboski]

Thanks for the info!
Good post.

[A.FreeRadical]

Interesting. Thanks.

*
A.FreeRadical

[SoMdHunter]

I'll be sure to show the wife item #4 on the 1st post.

[Overload]

Does #4 have the same affect if you're alone? Wife's away on business

[BigJack]

Excellent post!!!!!

[JTrain306]

Your protein intake should be about 16 percent of your daily calories, Incledon says. So, if you're the average 170-pound man who eats 2,900 calories a day, you should eat about 140 grams of protein daily, which is about the amount in two chicken breasts and a 6-ounce can of tuna.

This may be a little low for most people - I'd say at least 1g protein per lb/bodyweight. Different levels for different people though, listen to your own body first and foremost.