Libido can rise and fall. A healthy sex life is a significant part of a healthy relationship. If it feels like you’re settling or like you’re unsatisfied, there’s help. At the end of the lifestyle factors you can try there is testing. Get assessed if lifestyle changes don’t help. Bioidentical hormones or natural herbs, depending on your preference, may be choices you want to consider.
Below are 10 natural ways to boost testosterone, and it may help you too ladies. We produce less of it and at a lower strength than men but it’s equally important to us. We need it for the bedroom and boardroom, as well as for maintaining lean muscle.
Lift Heavy
Men respond quickly and easily, relative to women, to resistance training, The key to optimizing testosterone is to lift heavy, fatigue at about 10 reps or less, and train volume. By volume, I don’t mean hours, I mean quality. Using major muscle-focused lifts, build up to doing 10 x 10 for instance. Squats, chest press, rows, and lunges, are compound lifts involving several muscles. Don’t waste your time focused on your biceps and triceps or the middle deltoid.
Do Intervals
Long cardio may be what a man who has low testosterone gravitates toward. One sign of low testosterone is body fat around the belly and chest. But 90 minutes of cardio is not going to do good for your testosterone. Short interval training sessions do. Two or three (work up to that) killer interval sessions a week is better than lots of cardio.
Eliminate Estrogen-Rich Foods and Toxins
Soy is not a man’s best friend. Both men and women are subject to soy’s endocrine disruption. That is, if you’re storing fat in the chest, aka man-boobs, give up soy and start looking for it hiding on labels. You can swear you don’t eat sushi or tofu but it’s in most commercial salad dressings and many processed food (which you should eliminate anyway). Sugar and alcohol (which metabolizes as sugar) are not your friend. Alcohol is a romance killer for so many reasons. It’s not just that you think your jokes are funny when they’re really not funny. You lose sleep. You can’t be Mr Romance sleep deprived.
Eat Protein
Lean protein helps to boost testosterone and create an anabolic, or muscle-building environment. All that points back to more interest and more satisfaction with intimacy. Lean proteins also help boost several of the nutrients below that help in the production of testosterone. Eating more protein by default may help eliminate any junk food that is inhibiting your testosterone production. Shoot for 25-35 grams of protein at each of three meals (4-6 oz of salmon, chicken, beef, etc).
Get Sleep
Your body needs rest to repair and rebuild. Growth hormone, testosterone both increase and cortisol decreases when your body is functioning optimally. Sleep is a crucial part of that. Adequate sleep decreases overall stress on your body which helps your case.
Check Zinc
If you increase your consumption of animal proteins, by default you’ll be getting zinc. Oysters are notoriously high in zinc and a known aphrodisiac. They aren’t necessary though if you’re otherwise getting in high quality (not processed, grass-fed, organic) protein.
Check Vitamin D
Most Americans are deficient in D. Get sunlight for 15 minutes a day if possible but if you’re in a dark and gloomy climate or have too little daylight hours in winter when it’s possible, consider supplementing.
Check Magnesium
Magnesium also boosts testosterone production. The “headache” is real and helped by magnesium. Get a minimal amount from a multi but consider additional and that’s usually on a to tolerance level. Check with ย your physician to see if you’re getting enough or might be deficient. Tolerance level is usually indicated by stools. Lose stools, you’ve gone beyond tolerance.
Get Selenium
Again a commonly deficient micronutrient. One way of getting adequate selenium is eating a small handful of Brazil nuts. Not everyone’s favorite, but if you can tolerate them, sub them for your afternoon almonds.
Consider DHEA
This precursor hormone is necessary for the production and function of testosterone, as well as estrogen, and progesterone. If it’s low it can be a contributing cause to low testosterone. Check with your physician to test DHEA or testosterone levels and see what your options are after you’ve cleaned up your diet and exercise in a way that promotes testosterone health.
Make all the lifestyle changes and then check back in with your sex life. Chances are if you both feel better about yourselves you’ll feel better about each other too.
Meanwhile though, make sure that if you’re comparing your physical relationship to it’s early stages, you’re also adding in some of the things that were present in the early stages. Mystery, surprise, dressing to impress, touch, all things that didn’t take an effort then that you might have to pay a little attention to now but still work.
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Nice article and some great suggestions.
Don’t forget that healthy fats are super important for hormone production and healthy testosterone levels. Aim for fats from meats, eggs, avocadoes, fatty fish, butter, olive oil and plenty of nuts. It will make a big difference in your testosterone levels.
Good tip Alex. Provided an individual has tested whether eggs work for them or not as they can be a food intolerance for many – the others definitely fall into the category of Omega 3 fats we want to increase for so many reasons.
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Please let me know. Cheers
Thanks for asking. Of course. Tell me a little about your group.