Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. I’m not a health expert, fitness coach, or dietician. I am a regular guy who has overhauled his own health and fitness, in his 40’s, by applying everything I could find on natural ways to improve testosterone. These articles are ALL of my notes, translated to plain English, at zero cost. If you like this article series, you can follow me on Instagram for more related content — @mengredients.

PART 3: EXERCISE

When it comes to exercising for a hormonal response, I was surprised to see that I had to exercise less and make rest and recovery the priority. I was shocked that I could get lean with more heavy weightlifting and less cardio, as adding lean muscle increases metabolic rate (speeds up metabolism). But remember, exercise is stress — it’s “acute stress,” but it’s still stress. So, it’s a game of exercising efficiently, to get the benefits without making it so stressful that your body triggers a stress response.

A lot of people overdo it with cardio, as we think of it as the fat burning part of working out, and go at it hard when we decide to “get back in shape.” However, extended, steady-state cardio like running, cycling, etc. will tend to trigger a stress response. Remember, stress has a lot to do with poor body composition (stores fat, breaks down muscle). A glaring example of this is if you compare the physiques of distance runners versus sprinters. Distance runners tend to have very little muscle mass, whereas sprinters tend to be very muscular and lean. This is to do with the catabolic (breaking down) nature of endurance training — medium intensity over a longer period, compared to the anabolic (building up) nature of sprints — explosive, high intensity over shorter intervals with longer periods of rest and recovery.

I’m not knocking endurance training but guys dealing with high stress should be aware of the cortisol aspect of it. Many endurance athletes train, eat, and recover properly and get a lot of joy out of endurance exercise, but guys with low testosterone looking to get back in shape don’t realize there’s a cortisol-raising component to it. Former professional endurance athlete Ben Greenfield talks about this often on his Ben Greenfield Life podcast.

So, I replaced running ~3 miles every other day with walking daily — aiming for about 10,000+ steps per day. I also mix in hill sprints — when I come to a hill on my walks, I’ll run up it as fast as I possibly can. I only do this 2 or 3 days a week because it’s intense. I would not try mixing in hill sprints, though, until you’re warmed up well. I also worked up to my hill sprints by doing 5–8 second sprints one week (running at my absolute top speed for 5–8 seconds, and walking the rest of the hill), 6–9 second sprints the following week, and so on up to sprinting all the way up. Sprinting is huge for testosterone because it’s explosive movements that recruit nearly all the skeletal muscle tissue in your body simultaneously, over very short duration.

Walking is also great for testosterone because it’s low intensity (low stress, and even stress reducing), lowers inflammation, and it gets lymph fluid in motion. Lymph helps rid your body of toxins and bacteria, but can only circulate by contracting your muscles, aka moving your body, as there’s no heart-like organ to pump lymph fluid. This is why being sedentary is one of the most detrimental things to health, by allowing a buildup of toxins. So, just getting off your ass and moving more will help.

My actual workout routine, outside of walking and hill sprints: I lift weights 3 days per week, using primarily compound lifts (lifts that use multiple joints — deadlifts, squats, lunges, dips, pull-ups, rows, push-ups, bench press, push press, etc.). I’ll usually do about a 10-minute warm up by jumping rope for a few minutes, followed by a medium intensity full body circuit like air squats, maybe jumping jacks, burpees, some shoulder / rotator cuff dumbbell movements, etc. Then I get into the actual lifts and exercises. I only do about 3 exercises per workout and aim to get 6 sets of 10 repetitions (you do 1 squat, that’s 1 repetition or “rep,” if you do 10 squats in a row, that’s 1 set of 10 reps). I’ll rest for about 2 minutes between each set.

This style of training is known as “Straight Sets” where you do the same weight and reps in each set, but ensure the weight is heavy enough to where you’re absolutely gassed by the time you get to the last reps of your 6th set. My full workout routine is below, but as an example of one workout: Squats for 6 sets of 10 reps with 2 minutes rest between each set, followed by Dips for 6 sets of 10 reps with 2 minutes rest between sets, followed by Pull-ups for 6 sets of 10 reps with 2 minutes rest between sets. As you can see, rest and recovery is a focus with 36 min of rest time and roughly 18 minutes of intense exercise.

NOTE: When life stress is high, I switch from Straight Sets to Reverse Pyramid Training (RPT). The Strait Sets protocol can take an hour or so, and too much volume if dealing with extra stress. I learned about the 6 sets of 10 reps being most effective for testosterone response from Dr. Duncan French, Vice President of Performance at UFC. However, when I first started this endeavor, I used the RPT protocol that I learned about from Christopher Walker’s book, “The THOR Program.” With RPT I only do 3 sets (instead of 6), but start with a very heavy weight where I can only get 4–6 reps. Then decrease the weight by about 10% and (while resting about 90sec) and do another set aiming for 6–8 reps. Then decrease the weight again by about 10% (while resting about 90sec) and do another set aiming for 8–10 reps. Once I complete these 3 sets, I move onto the next exercise. As you can imagine, at just 3 sets of 3 exercises, this is pretty time efficient. It’s still quite intense at very heavy weight, but takes the volume down and frees up more time in my day.

Whether I’m doing Straight Sets or RPT, I use what’s called “Progressive Overload,” which is an absolute must for results. This means I make each workout a little harder than the last time I did the same workout or exercise, signaling to my body that I will need more and more strength, which requires more testosterone to build more lean muscle mass. Again, hormones don’t have eyes and ears, so think of exercise as a way to send your hormones signals to respond to. I’ll give some examples of Progressive Overload in my actual workout plan below, but I usually aim to add 5 more pounds to the weight I’m lifting compared to last time, or I’ll aim for a couple more reps. For example, if I did 6 sets of 10 squats at 325 lbs this week, next week I’ll start my squats at 330 lbs and try to get 6 sets of 10 reps at 330lbs. Or, if that 6 sets of 10 at 325 lbs was too tough (maybe I only got 7 or 8 reps on my last sets), I may keep 325 lbs the following week, focus on form and go for 11 or 12 reps instead of 10. But I always make sure my last rep on my last set is the absolute last good rep I have in the tank. Take your first few weeks to figure out the weight and reps you can do. If you pick a weight and maybe only get 6 or 7 reps on your last set, then stick with that weight until you get your full 6 sets of 10 reps, then look to increase the weight the next time.

Progressive Overload helps ensure results through hormonal signaling (cues you give your hormones as to an ongoing need for more and more strength), and also helps from a discipline and self-accountability perspective. However, the weight and reps can’t continue increasing in perpetuity. If I plateau on the amount of weight for multiple consecutive weeks, I switch up my program and work different lifts to help strengthen various stabilizer muscles that may be the culprit.

Note — I always make sure that the last rep of my last set is the absolute last rep I can do with good form. If I’m aiming for 10 but get to 10 and realize I can keep going, I will, until the last rep I can physically do — with good form. As such, I take my last set to what’s known as “failure,” meaning I have no more good reps left in me unless I cheat, or rest and recover. You should be pulling or pushing with everything you’ve got and feel absolutely gassed after your final set of an exercise. If you stop, knowing you could have done even one more rep, then you’re signaling to your hormones that your current limits are fine, but you need to be pushing your limits to progress from where you are. No complacency! I have literally walked into my house, from my garage gym, to find my wife double checking our life insurance policy because of the amount of loud grunting I do when I lift — you need to lift very, VERY hard, again, always with good form and proper breathing (exhale on the exertion part of the movement).

So, why compound lifts? We’re often encouraged to isolate one muscle / group at a time to get muscle size, shape, and definition (“hypertrophy”) — bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, leg extensions and leg curls, shoulder shrugs, calf raises, etc. and we’re encouraged to do body part splits — “chest day” etc. But we’re generally discouraged from doing compound lifts for reasons like injury. There’s some truth to that, so again, I aim for optimal form, work with weight that I can handle well in the target rep range to mitigate cheating (most injuries occur from breaking proper form to cheat), and I also don’t do more technical olympic lifts like cleans or snatches, which involve more coordination and ligament strain than I care to try at my age. But there are real hormonal reasons older guys need to do compound lifts. Here’s how I understand it:

• From a stress perspective, it’s like sprints, simultaneously and explosively recruiting more muscle tissue over a short duration of time, followed by ample rest to ensure you don’t develop a stress hormone response.

• Note “explosive” is a relative term. I just aim to push / pull extremely hard and at a controlled speed on the exertion part of a lift (like the standing up part of a squat) and I go careful and controlled on the eccentric part of the exercise (the lowering portion of a squat). Going too fast on either part can cause injury, so I just make sure it’s all controlled movement but faster on the exertion.

• For men, the larger muscle groups involved in most compound lifts, like the thighs, butt, back, and traps/shoulder area have a high density of receptor sites (like microscopic parking spaces) for the testosterone molecule, and so you signal to your body to produce more testosterone by working these muscles that have such a high testosterone demand.

Also I workout fasted, only if my stress is at bay. I skip breakfast and workout closer to noon, because toward the end of a fast is when growth hormone is highest, which helps with things like losing fat, protecting lean muscle, muscle growth, bone density, ligaments, etc. And yes, I fully acknowledge there’s a strength and performance tradeoff in working out fasted versus fed, which I’m fine with, as I simply view it as my baseline/actual strength. Sure, I could lift heavier if I ate something before, but working out fasted helps to measure truer progress, versus having my progress potentially affected by variables like what or how long ago I ate before working out, and so on. So, doing every workout fasted, I know my strength improvements over last time are likely real strength improvements and not some additional energy benefit from a meal.

MY [CURRENT] FULL WORKOUT PLAN:

• Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are essentially “rest” days where my only exercise is low intensity walking, but I’ll do hill sprints on 2 of the days, and on Saturdays I like to go on hikes with my family and spend time outdoors, yardwork, housework, etc. I’m active, but “resting” from heavy weight training.

• Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday I’ll do the following strength training program for about 8–10 weeks with Progressive Overload, such that my Sunday workout should run about 5lb more on each lift than the previous Sunday, or more reps than previous Sunday. Same (adding pounds or reps) for the Tuesday workout vs prior Tuesday, and same for the Thursday workout vs previous Thursday, each week.

SUNDAY:

• Warmup — Jump rope (~2–3min), circuit of 10 air squats, 10 front arm raises, 10 lateral arm raises, 10 overhead press — I do this circuit 3 times in a row, relatively fast, and I use 5 lb dumbbells or plates.

• Hex Bar Deadlift (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets Using the hex bar, also called a “trap bar,” helps avoid back injury by keeping my arms and weight distributed at my sides rather than out in front of me. It’s also important for me to start each workout with the most physically demanding exercise when I’m most energized to help avoid injury and mitigate cheating on these movements.

• Incline Dumbbell Press (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets.

• Dumbbell Bench Rows (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets.

TUESDAY:

• Warmup — Walk at a fairly brisk pace to the gym (~4 blocks from my office). There I do a circuit of 10 air squats, 10 front arm raises, 10 lateral arm raises, 10 overhead press — I do this circuit 3 times in a row, relatively fast and I use 5 lb dumbbells or plates.

• Barbell Overhead Press (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets

• Bent Over Barbell Rows (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets

• Dumbbell Flyes (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets

THURSDAY:

• Warmup — Same as Tuesday.

• Squats (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets

• Weighted Dips (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets

• Weighted Pull Ups (+5lbs heavier than last week) — 6 sets of 10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets

I’ll sometimes do “finishers,” if a workout feels a little off. Maybe I couldn’t complete a full 10 reps on one or a few sets, or if the workout felt a little easy, or if I just feel like I’ve got some gas in the tank and want to push myself a little harder. Some finishers I’ll typically add are:

• Farmer carries — Carry heavy dumbbells for ~100 steps, 2–3 sets

• Handstand pushups — As many reps as I can get, 2–3 sets

• Planks — As long as I can, 2–3 sets

• Walk backwards on an inclined treadmill — for as long as I can, 2–3 sets

• Heavy kettlebell swings — As many reps as I can, 2–3 sets

• Toes to bar — As many reps as I can, 2–3 sets

• Dead hangs — As long as possible, 2–3 sets

• Wall sits — As long as possible, 2–3 sets

Outside of walking / sprinting and heavy weightlifting, I also do a 10–15-minute full body stretching routine before bed nightly. I mentioned it previously in the context of sleep support, but I should also point out that there are a couple of other reasons for this:

• We’re encouraged to stretch prior to working out, but from what I’ve read this can lead to injury and it’s instead better to warm up prior to working out and stretch at some point after.

• Stretching helps to stretch out the outermost layer of the muscle called the fascia, which is like a tight casing around the muscle itself and stretching this out helps create more room for the muscle to grow. And, during sleep is when your body does most of its tissue repair, and tissue repair is where the small muscle tears incurred during exercise are healed with new and more muscle tissue — growth. I didn’t even realize I was doing this, as I was mostly stretching to help with my flexibility and mobility, until I learned about Dante Trudel’s (who, full disclosure, is now my employer) DC Training protocol. Dante’s trained many champion bodybuilders and is known for helping people break plateaus and put on a lot of muscle mass very quickly. Part of his DC Training protocol calls for “extreme stretching” where you stretch the muscle fascia by stretching with loaded resistance. For example, laying on a bench holding 2 fairly heavy dumbbells out at your sides will stretch the chest muscles while simultaneously loading the muscle with resistance.

Lastly, I should add that, all of the changes I made to optimize my testosterone started giving me more and more energy. So, I also look for ways to leverage that additional energy and signal to my body to keep it going (“use it or lose it!”) by finding ways to make regular everyday things more physically challenging — these are small things that add up:

• I park farther away from the office or stores on errands.

• I’ll take the stairs over the elevator or escalator.

• I use a standing desk at work and stand the whole day without sitting except in meetings.

• I will, time-permitting, use hand tools over power tools when doing house and yard work.

• I’ll go out and pull some weeds — squatting down low is great for knee and hip mobility.