2782: How to Naturally Boost Testosterone

Summary

Mind Pump Episode 2782: How to Naturally Boost Testosterone

Date: January 29, 2026
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Mind Pump crew dives deep into evidence-based, practical strategies to naturally boost testosterone levels. Dispelling “biohacking” myths and unnecessary supplements, Sal, Adam, and Justin break down the root causes of low testosterone, the science behind its natural elevation, and what does and doesn’t work, with a focus on overall health and sustainable habits.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Declining Testosterone Trends

• Men’s testosterone levels have dropped over the last six to seven decades, raising health concerns even in young men.
• Many men want alternatives to prescription testosterone therapy (TRT).
• Sal: “We have good data on natural ways to raise your testosterone.” (03:05)

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2. Exercise: The Most Potent Stimulus—But With Nuance ([04:23–12:35])

• Appropriate Strength Training Raises Testosterone
  • Acute spike of around 30% following strength training; long-term increase about 10%.
  • Compound movements—Squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and rows—are most effective.
• Volume and Recovery are Key
  • Overtraining lowers testosterone; those with low T are more susceptible to overdoing it.
  • Adam: “There’s a bit of a delicate dance… the application of exercise, i.e. intensity and volume, in order to reap these benefits.” (06:49)
  • For men with lower T, err on the side of less volume and intensity:
    • Example: One big lift (squat or deadlift), 3–4 sets, can be enough and beneficial. (07:40–07:54)
    • MAPS 15 program (focused on minimal, compound movements) recommended. (08:53)
  • Consistency and adequate recovery matter more than going hard. (09:16)
  • Sal: "If your total testosterone is at 400, with your current amount of androgen receptors, if you suddenly doubled your androgen receptors, you could effectively feel like you have twice as much testosterone.” (11:09)
• Improves Symptoms Even Before Blood Markers Change
  • Strength training improves libido, mood, cognition, sleep, motivation, and resilience independently of T increases. (12:35)
  • “Strength training directly combats [low T symptoms]...without an increase in testosterone, strength training raises libido.” —Justin (11:59)

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3. Sleep: The Testosterone Multiplier ([12:35–17:17])

• Good Sleep = 15–20% Higher Testosterone. Poor Sleep = Up to 50% Lower
• Adam: “I can see a difference between [sleep quality scores] 60, 70, and 80. To be able to increase that by just a little bit makes a big difference.” (16:12)
• Key Sleep Habits:
  • Consistent bedtime/wake time
  • Limiting electronics pre-bed
  • Reducing caffeine consumption
  • Sleeping in total darkness
  • These quickly (within a week) impact T levels
• Story: One client’s T doubled after sleep improved from 4–5 hours to more; from 350 to 700 ng/dL. (15:17)

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4. Micronutrients & Essential Supplements ([17:17–24:46])

• Vitamin D:
  • 70% of men are insufficient (not deficient).
  • Supplementation (2000 IU) shown to raise T by ~20%.
  • Darker skin increases risk; sunlight exposure may not be enough.
  • Sal’s anecdote: His fit, outdoorsy Sicilian dad still had low vitamin D and symptoms. (20:01)
  • Mega-dosing (e.g., once weekly) is safe due to vitamin D’s fat solubility. (19:00–19:41)
  • Take with K2 for best absorption. (21:56)
• Zinc:
  • 15% of men insufficient.
  • Deficiency reduces T by 20–75%.
  • Supplementing can dramatically boost symptoms like libido. (22:29)
  • ZMA (Zinc, Magnesium Aspartate) was popularized for this reason. (22:30)
• Magnesium:
  • 50% are deficient.
  • T may be 20% lower as a result.
  • Also critical for sleep and anxiety. (23:16)
  • Adam: “Taking magnesium every single night was, was for me [a game changer].” (23:16)
• Stacking Deficiencies: Many men may be insufficient in all three—D, zinc, magnesium—leading to much lower T levels. (23:52)

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5. Herbal & “Exotic” Evidence-Based Options ([24:46–26:49])

• Fenugreek:
  • In studies, boosts T by 10–20%, especially in resistance-trained men. (24:26)
  • Notable for raising sperm count (fertility).
• Ashwagandha:
  • Robust data for a 15% increase in T—plus anti-stress, recovery, cognitive, and sleep benefits. (25:01)
  • Sal’s ER doctor friend: Noticed sharper cognition and gym performance with ashwagandha. (25:01–25:56)
• Shilajit:
  • Preliminary evidence for a 20–25% T increase. (25:56)
• Tongkat Ali:
  • Can normalize T in low-T men; boosts libido even if T doesn’t change. (26:08–26:20)
  • Adam: “I noticed it, and then it leveled out.” (26:05)
• Red Light Therapy:
  • Evidence for T increase but requires equipment; more expensive than other options. (26:31–26:49)

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6. Who Should Consider These Interventions First? ([26:49–28:23])

• Always check these “big rocks” before considering testosterone replacement therapy.
• Adam: “Check most of these boxes, if not all, before you go right to testosterone therapy—especially young men.” (27:06)
• For older individuals or those with history of steroid use, TRT may be necessary—but try these steps first.
• Justin: “Majority of people watching right now who have these symptoms, we’ll see pretty significant improvements if they did this for 30 to 60 days.” (28:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sal: “Strength training does that, that really significantly changes things. So it’s the number of testosterone… but you’ll feel like it went up a lot.” (11:09)
• Adam: “There’s a bit of a delicate dance with the application of exercise… Err on the side of low.” (06:49, 09:46)
• Justin: “You may think to yourself, ‘I got all these symptoms of low testosterone…’ No, in fact, you probably need less volume.” (08:40)
• On Sleep:
  • Adam: “I can see a difference between 60, 70, and 80 [sleep scores]. It just feels so different.” (16:12)
  • Sal: “It’s not just about total sleep. It’s about the quality of [deep and REM sleep].” (15:02)
• On Vitamin D: “Most of us don’t get enough. The darker your skin, the more likely you are to not have enough vitamin D.” —Sal (18:48)
• On Herbal Supplements:
  • Sal: “Ashwagandha has other effects as well... recovery, adapts to stress, boosts testosterone... it helps your body deal with stress.” (25:24)
  • Adam: “Tongkat Ali... [I] noticed it, then it leveled out.” (26:05)
• Final Advice:
  • Adam: “Try this first before you go right to hormone therapy.” (28:23)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Timestamp | |-------------------------------------|:-------------:| | Episode Theme & Background | 03:05 | | Exercise for Testosterone: Science | 04:23–12:35 | | Sleep’s Impact | 12:35–17:17 | | Essential Nutrient Deficiencies | 17:17–24:46 | | Herbal/“Exotic” Interventions | 24:46–26:49 | | When to Seek TRT vs. Natural | 26:49–28:23 |

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Actionable Recommendations How to Boost Testosterone (Summary List)

• Strength training: Low to moderate volume, compound lifts, focus on recovery
• Prioritize sleep: Consistent routines, cut electronics/caffeine, focus on deep & REM
• Essential nutrients: Ensure sufficiency in Vitamin D, zinc, magnesium
• Herbals/adaptogens: Consider ashwagandha, fenugreek, shilajit, and tongkat ali if above foundations are addressed
• Try these for 30–60 days before considering TRT

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Resources Mentioned

• Free Testosterone Guide: mindpumpmedia.com/testosterone-guide
• MAPS 15 and other MAPS programs: mapsjanuary.com (discount info in episode)
• Mind Pump Instagram: @mindpumpmedia

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Bottom Line:
Before turning to medical testosterone therapy, tune your lifestyle—training, sleep, nutrition—for the biggest, safest, time-tested boosts in testosterone and overall well-being. “Majority of people… will see pretty significant improvements…if they did this for 30–60 days.” —Justin (28:23)

Transcript

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Mind Pump. Mind Pump.

[Sal Destefano]

With your hosts Sal Destefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews, you just found the.

[Justin Andrews]

Most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode we talk about how you can boost your testosterone levels naturally. This is all data backed information. So if you want your testosterone levels to go up, you want less symptoms of low testosterone, you're going to want to tune in now. This episode is brought to you by Crisp Power. These are high protein pretzels. Each bag 26 to 28 grams of protein. It's a small bag, you guys. It's delicious. It's vegan. The flavors are incredible. They have cheddar, flaming crunch, cinnamon crunch, everything. Bagel flavor, sesame, sea salt. Look, it's hard to hit your protein targets and it's important to do so. High protein diet builds more muscle, burns more body fat and it's more satiety producing. The problem is high protein snacks are hard to come by and when you find them, they don't taste good. Crisp power is different. They're pretzels. They're delicious. Snack on them. Hit your protein targets with crisp power. And by the way, if you go through our link, you'll get 10% off. Go to crisppower.com that's C-R-I-S-P-O-W-E-R.com and the code for the discount is MINDPUMP10. Go check them out. By the way, with this episode, we have a free guide that can help you with your testosterone. It's free. Go to mindpumpmedia.com testosterone guide. We also have a sale on four maps workout programs. They're all 50% off. Maps, starter maps, transform maps, anabolic and maps performance half off. Go to maps january.com and then use the code newyear50 for the discount. All right, real quick.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

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[Justin Andrews]

For the last six or seven decades, it's been well documented that men's testosterone levels across the board have been slowly, slowly getting lower. So a lot of men are wondering, how do I raise my testosterone? I don't want to go on testosterone replacement therapy. Are there ways I can raise it naturally? And the answer to that is yes. We have good data on natural ways to raise your testosterone. We're going to talk about those today. Let's go.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

Yes, you can.

[Adam Schaefer]

This feels like the prescription that you gave me when I went through this whole process.

[Justin Andrews]

Totally.

[Adam Schaefer]

You remember how long ago that was now? Do you have any idea what that was? It was. It's been good. Seven years. Six. Seven years. Right.

[Justin Andrews]

And it definitely helped, but you were coming from a whole different place.

[Adam Schaefer]

I was, but it was. It was such a good experience. Not good as, like, it was like I liked it or anything like that. Good as in, like, to be able to communicate and talk more about this. Because I was coming from a place of, like, I was. I was dialed in. I was ready for someone like you to be like, all right, do all these things. And then. And so as we go through this list, I remember, like, you having me stack all these supplements and do this regimen. And you ordered them, it looks like top to bottom. I was going to tell you to do it in reverse so you could save the best for last. Because I feel like all the other things I was doing and I'm like, I noticed a little bit from this. But the main one's. The first one.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, that one was the one that just moved the needle more than anything.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes. Exercise. So exercise in general. Now, there's a big caveat here. So it's like an asterisk. Okay.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

If you Apply exercise improperly, it will lower your testosterone. And what do I mean by improperly doing too much? So oftentimes, sometimes with fitness fanatics, you'll see men with low testosterone and the reason why their testosterone is low is they're chronically overtrained. They just push their bodies constantly. They don't give themselves a break. They're constantly training at this kind of sprint level, not doing what's appropriate, but rather doing what they can pretty much tolerate. And this will lower your testosterone. So when we're talking about exercise and we're going to talk specifically about strength training, there is an appropriate dose. If you do the appropriate dose. The data on strength training for testosterone is pretty awesome. So here's what you see. I'll quote the data first and we can talk about our experiences. There's an acute spike in testosterone from the application of strength training. So acute is just kind of the short term boost of testosterone. So the way testosterone production in men works is it's these spikes throughout the day. It typically spikes in the morning. It's typically when you have the highest amounts of testosterone. So it's not like this constant level of testosterone, but these ups and downs and you kind of get this average and exercise will add an additional spike of testosterone and studies will show about 30%. It's a pretty big jump.

[Adam Schaefer]

That's a big jump.

[Justin Andrews]

It's just an acute. Now when you look at strength training, that's the best way to do this. Then when you look into strength training, the exercises that do this best are the big compound lifts. The king of spicy testosterone. Testosterone. Excuse me, Squats. Squats raises testosterone, deadlifts raise testosterone. Overhead presses rows like all those compound lifts. Excuse me, do the best job of doing this, but strength training will raise testosterone, will spike it acutely. And then over time, what you see is about a 10% increase. Doesn't sound like a lot, but there's definitely more to the story.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. I want to share more about the, the right dose here and why that's easier said than done. When you have low testosterone a lot of times, other symptoms you'll see are not the best of rest, not the best of recovery and other stressors in your life due to this too. So it's kind of like this loop.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And, and so there, it's a, there's a, there's a bit of a delicate day. At least this was my experience. There's a bit of a delicate dance with the, the application of exercise, I. E. Intensity and, and volume that you do in Order to reap these benefits. Because you say a study like that and you can't help but go like, okay, you know, you're a 200 or less like testosterone. Let's just say, is your reading clinically low? Yeah, clinically low. Okay. And you hear, oh, this gives you a 30% boost. And they go train. So I'm gonna go hit the gym pretty hard. You hit the gym really hard, and you're already kind of low. Then you end up overdoing it. Then you don't get very good sleep, Then you don't recover, and then you get in this kind of worse. What I had found, I remember reducing it all the way down to just one major lift.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep.

[Adam Schaefer]

Like, I would just squatter deadlift in an. In a. Like for three to four sets. And. And that one, that one. That one thing would. Would produce the best feeling. And then it was. Wasn't overdoing it to where I felt like I could recover from it.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. To really paint this clearly, if you're. If you have symptoms of low, test now. Adam gave a number that's clinically low. Okay. But most men listening to this, I mean, if you're clinically low, like below even what your GP would say you need to be, then. Then you can apply all these things. And you might probably also need supplementation. But a lot of men are just kind of low. They're in the range like a 400, 350. They feel the symptoms of low testosterone. If you're feeling symptoms of low testosterone and your testosterone is lower than it should be for you, your. Your risk of overtraining is higher. Okay. In other words, you may think to yourself, oh, man, I got all these symptoms of low testosterone. I have low libido, low drive.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

It doesn't take much to. To really.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

Get.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

Get aggravated.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right. And you're like, I don't feel good. This definitely feels like low testosterone. So I'm gonna go raise it. I'm gonna go beat myself up. I'm gonna go really hammer myself in the gym. No, in fact, you can pro. If. If this is you, you need less volume.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yep.

[Justin Andrews]

Than a man with good testosterone levels. Because what. What they would consider appropriate would be over training for you because your testosterone is low. The program that we have that would be appropriate for someone like this would be like maps 15. Yeah, maps 15, which is two lifts a day, would be a really good testosterone boosting strength training program. Because the volume's low. It's compound lift focused. It's probably the Most appropriate.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

Well, that's why there might be a little bit of a misconception. And when you think about trying to raise your testosterone, like I'm going to hit the big lifts, you know, and I'm going to get after it. But you also have to recover and you got to be able to regenerate and be able to perform again. You know, it's about the consistency of it as well. So you have to factor that in.

[Adam Schaefer]

And this is what I meant by it's this delicate dance because. And why I went all the way down to saying even one lift is because you would rather lean on not a lot or on the low side.

[Justin Andrews]

Err on the side of low. Yes, yes.

[Adam Schaefer]

And you keep going up because if you, if you, if you err on the side of too much, then it affects the, it just, it makes it worse.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

And so maybe something that wasn't even that much volume or that much intensity ends up now impacting sleep, which then impacts recovery, which then impacts the next time you go to training again, which then impacts testosterone.

[Justin Andrews]

To go from no strength training to a little bit of strength training, you'll probably get a boost in testosterone. To go from no strength training to too much. You'll actually make your testosterone worse. Yes. So that's why you want to play that game and be safe with it. Now the 10% long term rise in testosterone that we show in data, you might think is not that much. So cool. My total Testosterone is at 400. Cool. I'm gonna go up to 4, 440. Like what's the big deal? That's not the whole story, strength training, because it, the, the adaptation from strength training is building muscle and strength. You get an increase. And here's what you reliably see in the studies on strength training is an increase in what is what are called androgen receptors. Okay, so androgen receptors are what testosterone attach to. So although it's not this simple, I'm just gonna kind of create a scenario or paint a picture to kind of explain this. If your total testosterone, let's say, was at 400, with your current amount of androgen receptors, if you suddenly doubled your androgen receptors, you could effectively feel like you have twice as much testosterone. Okay. So long as there's enough testosterone to dock on those receptors, you suddenly feel like I got way more testosterone. That's what strength training does, that really significantly changes things. So it's the number of testosterone. When you go measure, it will go up a little bit, but you'll Feel like it went up a lot. If you do this right because of the, the reliable increase in androgen receptors, you build muscle and strength, your androgen receptors have increased. That's like a fact.

[Adam Schaefer]

I'm glad you cleared that up because when you put it up, the numbers at the 30, 30% acute, I was like, yeah, you feel that?

[Justin Andrews]

You went squat. You felt it?

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

You feel.

[Adam Schaefer]

And, and I've described that before. I would have guessed it's higher than 10% long term. But that makes more sense to me than it's just like. So it's not just the, the total number that you're going to see go up 10%. In addition to that, more androgen receptors, which just basically means I can utilize the same test. Even if I had the same testosterone, but more androgen receptors, I'm utilizing more of it, therefore I would feel it more.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right. Here's the other thing too about proper exercise is when you look at the, the negative effects of or, or what people would say are symptoms of low testosterone, strength training directly combats those. Okay, so without an increase in testosterone, strength training raises libido. So I have low libido from low testosterone. I'm strength trained, my libido goes up. That's great depression. This is also a common side effect of low testosterone. Strength training improves depression, it improves anxiety, it gets you to sleep better and it makes you more resilient as productivity.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

Drive, all those things.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes, motivation. So it will raise androgen receptor density, which is phenomenal. You want that. It'll raise your testosterone a little bit. That's great also. But it also directly, because exercise does this, when you apply it properly, it directly combats those symptoms of low testosterone. So of all the ones we're talking about here, exercise is going to be covers the basics. It's going to be one of the best ones to make you feel the best. Okay, next up is sleep. So here's what we find with sleep. If you don't have good sleep, and I mean good, not like, yeah, I get by. But like optimal sleep, you reliable, your testosterone will reliably be 15 to 20% lower. If you have really bad sleep, probably 50%. I've seen, I've had clients who've raised their testosterone dramatically just from improving their sleep, just from a dramatic improvement.

[Adam Schaefer]

This is where I like tools. I'm curious what Doug would say too, because I know he's tracked sleep like I have with like his aura ring and stuff like that. And then I know you've done it Without. There's a. There's a clear difference. And I'm watching this very closely right now. In fact, huge win the other day. I had my first three 80s in a row. I've never had that many 80s in a row before. And because I'm tracking. So it's such a significant difference on what I feel like the difference between. And I'm using Oura ring as my base. Right. So I think, what's more. Just like we talk about body fat percentage more than I think aura ring matters. It's more like getting an idea of your trend, your trend, your baseline. For me. 60s. I'm like, groggy. I don't feel good. I can feel 70. I feel pretty good. I could train this and that, but I don't feel great. 80 plus. I feel. Oh, my.

[Justin Andrews]

Totally different.

[Adam Schaefer]

Totally different. Like the. All. All three of those. Have you. Have you been able to connect the dots like that for yourself? Because you've tracked sleep, so.

[Sal Destefano]

So, yeah, absolutely. I mean, Obviously anything below 70 is horrible for me.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

80S typically is great. But another thing I'm looking at is deep sleep and REM sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yes.

[Sal Destefano]

And a day I don't get enough deep sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

I can really tell, I think, in order for you. So you've scored 90 before, right? I have, yeah. So I. I don't even think you can score at 80 unless you get a decent amount of deep and REM. I think the score will knock you because I've had times where I'm. I've. I've slept for 8, 9 hours. But then my deep in my ram are very good and it'll score me down in the 70s because I don't get enough deep in REM.

[Sal Destefano]

For example, today I think I was in 81 and my REM sleep, I think, was a bit down.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah.

[Sal Destefano]

So. So they will. There is some adjustment for that. But, yeah, it's not just about total sleep. It's about the quality of.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. And that's. The scoring goes off of that. So what you've seen 90s though, right?

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah, I have.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it's like a significant difference.

[Sal Destefano]

I mean, I can tell. I feel so good.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. I had a client once who was really good about tracking things. He was a new father and he was very involved with his kids. So he already had two kids, had a new baby, and he got checked because he had all these symptoms. He wasn't feeling good. And I'm like, it's probably your sleep. But whatever. He went and got tested. I don't remember what his number was, it was like 350. And we fixed his sleep. We prioritized the sleep. And you know how it is when you first have a kid. You're, you know, seven hours is a lot of sleep. When you have a new baby, typically you're getting like four or five hours if you're lucky.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it's broken.

[Justin Andrews]

And it's broken. Right. He went from whatever his number was, it was like 350 to like 7. It doubled 700. So people listening to this, when people think, oh, I need to fix my sleep, it's typically people with terrible sleep. A lot of us just don't have optimal sleep. Those are the people you'll see a 15 increase if you have terrible sleep. You fix that, you could. You're going to see a big boost.

[Adam Schaefer]

And that was my point of kind of bringing up my story. Like, I can see a difference between 60, 70 and 80. I've never even seen 90, so I don't even know what 90 feels like. But it's like. And I've been trying and I've been tracking this for the last month and a half with as low as 40s. So I've got a really good idea of like, man, it just feels so different to hit that. So you're right. Even somebody who. See when you're. If you're somebody who lands again, I'm just using these arbitrary numbers. But let's say you. The 70 range, which you say you feel terrible there, 70, I feel pretty good at 70s. Like, I don't feel great, but I feel pretty good. Like, to, to be able to increase that by just a little bit makes a big difference. And it's like that just shows you the power of sleep. I'm technically not even in the most optimal 90 range. And I can still see a significant difference.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, the, the big rocks for sleep for most people are, number one, don't be on electronics right before bed. Go to bed at the same time every night, wake up at the same time every day. You don't want to jet lag yourself every Monday because you go to bed so late. Fridays, try to sleep in, try to sleep in, then start over. That messes your sleep up. And then stimulant use. So caffeine, caffeine makes a huge. By the way, caffeine impacts everybody's sleep. So some people more than others. But when you look at the studies of even people who have caffeine just in the morning and not that much, when they eliminate their sleep improves. So stimulant like caffeine, most commonly used drug in the world. It does affect your sleep. And so if this is you and you got bad sleep, check your caffeine use, try to eliminate it or reduce it, maybe slowly reduce it, because it can be nasty coming off right away. Get off electronics an hour before bed, go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, you will notice within a week of a difference. And your testosterone responds very quickly to improve sleep. So within a week you should see some changes. Now we're going to get into essential nutrients. Now this one's interesting because essential nutrient deficiencies are relatively common, certain ones, and insufficiency is very common. So you have deficiency and then you have not optimal. Okay. Vitamin D is one of those. Like to be actually deficient in vitamin D, you've got some pretty bad symptoms. You feel like garbage, you're clinically depressed, you got bone pain, you'll probably go to the doctor at some point. Eventually they'll figure this out. But 70% of men are insufficient. So 70% of men don't get enough vitamin D. They're not deficient, but they're not optimal. Here's what the data shows. When men supplement with 2000ius of vitamin D, the people that we're talking about right here, you'll see a 20% increase in testosterone. Boom. Easy vitamin D. Super cheap, super inexpensive supplement. Most of us don't get enough. And by the way, the darker your skin, the more likely you are to not have enough vitamin D. It's actually quite common, especially if you're African American or Mediterranean.

[Adam Schaefer]

Like, like, I am also, also useful to know that you could, you could kind of like mega dose it. And if you don't, if you're not good with every single day. I did not know that until not that long ago.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah, it's that soluble. You can do one big capsule. Yeah. Once, once a week.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah. So that, that was helpful for me because I had it and I'm like, I need to be consistent with this. I'm always kind of low on my vitamin D. And then I was told that, oh my God, you could, you could totally. If you missed three, four days in a row, you can take three of those at once. And I'm like, I didn't realize I could do that. And that's helpful for someone like me who has a really hard time with being consistent with that.

[Justin Andrews]

I do a 50,000 IU capsule once every, you know, 12 days or 14 days, something like that. You could do. It's Fat soluble.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

So you don't have to take it on a daily basis.

[Adam Schaefer]

Much easier than.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

This is an elusive one, though, to. Because I think people, it. They think exposure to the sun sometimes is really going to cover the bases until you supplement. And you're like, oh, my God. You feel a huge difference too. So. And a lot of people, like, they're. They work indoors. And so it's like, you know, you're not really factoring your lifestyle's change substantially.

[Justin Andrews]

I. I love using my dad as an example because if you. If I had to guess that he had a vitamin, I would have never guessed he had a vitamin D deficient. Never, by the way. He wasn't insufficient. He was deficient. That's me and my dad now. We're Sicilian sources. He's olive skin. Our skin's olive. But he was outside all the time. My dad is not inside, you guys. He's got a garden. He's Sicilian, so he's got a garden he's proud of. He's always outside. His skin is dark for me in the sun all the time. He's always out there. He had all these weird symptoms. He was weak. He had bone pain. He wasn't feeling good. They couldn't figure out what's going on. Finally, he did a vitamin D test. They're like, oh, deficiency. Started supplementing. I don't remember what they were giving him. 10,000 IUs a day or something. And within days he was like, this is amazing.

[Adam Schaefer]

I wonder if he's an example of my theory that I think I've shared with you before on what I think happened to me too, which is that I was in the sun so much when I. All the way up until I was 20, and I still was an outside person, but nowhere near what I was from like 0 to 20.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

And then all of a sudden I was in fluorescent lights and because him and I can handle so much more sun, used to being out in the sun for 10 hours a day type of deal. And then all of a sudden going to five hours a day. It was such a significant difference. Almost like my body was adapted to being on the hill.

[Justin Andrews]

I think it's really more your Hispanic background. When you look at people. African Americans, for example. 90%. 90% Hispanics up there also. Yeah, so. Yeah, so. And what they're showing now in other data is it's a good idea just to take it.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

Yeah.

[Justin Andrews]

It's actually quite rare for people to take vitamin D and have too much.

[Adam Schaefer]

And finding that just 60% of people are deficient, right?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. So 70% are insufficient. Deficiency. Lower than that, but insufficient. You just. You still don't. You still feel it. You just don't feel it. It's a cheap supplement that you could take. So it's a big one. Again, if it's deficient, your testosterone's in the tank. If you're insufficient, It's a good 20%, maybe higher, lower than it could be, and it's an easy fix.

[Adam Schaefer]

Now, what's the. Remind me of the purpose, too, of always taking it with K2?

[Justin Andrews]

K2 helps your body absorb it better. They work better together.

[Adam Schaefer]

Okay. So you should take that with K2 also.

[Justin Andrews]

So next up is zinc. 15% of men are insufficient in zinc. Now, zinc. Okay, here's a big one. There's a range of studies. Some studies show that not having enough zinc will lower your testosterone by 75%. Other studies, 20%. So zinc is a big one. In fact, some guys. So I know people. My cousin's like this. My cousin started supplementing with zinc, magnesium, aspartate, zma. Remember that? Supplementary.

[Adam Schaefer]

He got famous for that reason, right?

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. And he had a big. He's like, it's huge difference. He's like, dude, my libido's through the roof.

[Adam Schaefer]

Is that the BALCO guy that created that? It is a BALCO guy, right? That was he. He became famous because of that supplement.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

And it was so popular because so many people were deficient in it, and it made such an impact, those three together.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right. And zinc is, again, another cheap supplement that you could supplement with. And again, 15% insufficient. So that's a. You know, more than one out of 10 men would benefit from taking. And if this is you, you could test it out, see if you feel the difference. Yeah. Next up, magnesium. 50% deficiency, not insufficient, deficient. That's a very, very common deficiency. And that can result in 20%.

[Adam Schaefer]

Also, one of the side effects, too, is sleep.

[Justin Andrews]

Oh, yeah. Anxiety. So not being able to sleep.

[Adam Schaefer]

So that was. This was a. I mean, this is. I mean, how. Part of how we fell in love with. I mean, using Ned way back when was like, I remember starting to take that product, and what a difference just. Just make. Taking magnesium every single night was. Was for me. And so again. And all this stuff is. Could be this massive loop. If you're low testosterone, you're low magnesium and vitamin D, you're also training. You don't think you're training that crazy hard, but you're training a lot. It's like, it's just this crazy loop where you're not getting good sleep, you're not recovering, you're over.

[Justin Andrews]

Well, also look at it this way. You might not be insufficient in D, but you might be in zinc or you might be in magnesium or, or you might be in all three.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

All three.

[Justin Andrews]

There's probably a category of guys out there that guaranteed is deficient in all three of those. So you're looking at severely lower testosterone levels just from basic cheap nutrients. These are very inexpensive supplements. These are not exotic supplements. Everybody you can take that'll make a difference. And then there's the exotic stuff that's out there, right? The herbs and compounds out there that have been shown to raise testosterone. So fenugreek is one of them. Fenugreek has been shown to raise testosterone about 10 to 20% in resistance trained men. What you actually see with fenugreek, by the way, this is the only one.

[Adam Schaefer]

I don't think you put me on.

[Justin Andrews]

No, I didn't because I had you taken some other ones. But fenugreek will raise your sperm count as well. It's actually a good fertility supplement. Ashwagandha, this is my favorite one of all of the adaptogen based herbs that are out there. This one has the most data to support it. So. And we're going to name a couple other ones, but Ashwagandha's data is really good, really good data. You see a 15% increase in testosterone if you're really stressed out, even better. Ashwagandha has other effects as well though. So it doesn't just raise testosterone, it helps with recovery, it helps your body adapt to stress. When I'm working, I just had a friend of mine, I have a friend of mine who's an ER doctor. And so his schedule is like, he'll work three, three days a week. But they're like, you know, overnight he's not getting crazy, he's getting terrible sleep. Then he comes home, tries to recover and he's like, man, every time I train, every time I work out, I can't do much. I feel like I'm just fried. He's been doing this for, he's my age now, so he's been doing this for a little while. And so I said, I think taking adaptogen, it'll just help your body deal with stress. And I talked to him two weeks later. He's like, dude, that he's all, first, he's a doctor. So as I looked up the data that goes really supported, I know that Was that supported? I'm surprised doctors don't know about this. I started taking this. He's like, man, I noticed a big difference. He's like, I'm like, I can push harder in the gym. I'm sharper my cognitive function. It's like, it helps your body deal with stress, but it does raise testosterone. Shilajit is another one. In some studies. This one doesn't have a ton of studies, but there's some studies that do show 20 to 25% increase in testosterone. And then Tongkat Ali. This one's interesting.

[Adam Schaefer]

You had this. You had me on this one.

[Justin Andrews]

I did.

[Adam Schaefer]

And my opinion on it was I noticed it, and then it leveled out.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah. So here's what you noticed. Libido. Tongkat Ali will normalize testosterone in men who have low testosterone, but it also, regardless of testosterone, seems to be a libido boost.

[Adam Schaefer]

Oh, goat weed.

[Justin Andrews]

Yes. Yeah. So. So here you are. You're, you know, your. Your. Your libido's low because testosterone's like, whatever. You'll get a boost in libido even if it doesn't raise testosterone.

[Adam Schaefer]

Yeah, yeah, I would. Honorable mention. Red light therapy.

[Justin Andrews]

Red light therapy. Red light therapy is a good one. Yeah. That one's got some really good evidence on raising testosterone. Requires you buy a panel. Yeah. Use that daily.

[Adam Schaefer]

Of all the things, one of the more expensive, but also some of the most amazing results as far as what I've seen people and now I've seen.

[Justin Andrews]

Men post their blood work, doing a lot of this stuff, and you see some great results. Men are able to get their testosterone from the low end to the high end just from doing the things that we listen to.

[Mind Pump Announcer]

Sometimes it's one of those deficiencies that really makes a massive impact.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Well, I think this is such an important conversation because more and more today, we are seeing low testosterone in young men. And I think it's so important that you. You check the most of these boxes, if not all these boxes, before you go right to testosterone therapy.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

Especially young men.

[Justin Andrews]

Yeah.

[Adam Schaefer]

I mean, different story. If you're 45, 50 years old and over time have come down here, then understandable. But. And. But even then, I mean, I think it's wise to go through and check all these boxes, because enough times now, I've seen a client fix one, two, or three of these things, and it make the difference.

[Justin Andrews]

That's right.

[Adam Schaefer]

And so if you can do that without having to go on therapy, that is the most ideal way. Now you will have some people, especially older people that will do all these things and like have a similar situation or like in my case messed around with, you know, steroids when I was in my early 20s and then competed with it and then tried to come out. And it's just like my body at that point was so used to taking exogenous testosterone that it was like, yeah, we're, we're not coming back. And so then it makes sense for someone like that. But I mean, try this first before you go right to hormone.

[Justin Andrews]

I would say majority of people watching right now who have these symptoms, we'll see pretty significant improvements. It'll make a difference if they did this for 30 to 60 days for sure. Now we have a guide, we have a testosterone guide that breaks this down, plus more with more details. It's totally free, so you can download it. Go to mindpumpmedia.com testosterone guide. Get yourself the free Boost Testosterone guide. You can also find us on Instagram mindpump Media. We'll see you there.

[Sal Destefano]

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB super [e-mail] the RGB Super Bundle includes Maps, Anabolic Maps, Performance and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos. The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free [e-mail] if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.