Ready for some controversy?
You can think your way into higher testosterone levels.
A primary role of testosterone is to make effort feel good (read that multiple times so it sinks in). Yes, you have other benefits, but the primary role of this hormone is to make life better.
If we enjoy what we're doing, if we enjoy our work, our training, even our struggles, we can have a positive impact on testosterone.
It's the opting out of fear, worry, and stress, which all increase cortisol and prolactin, both of which have negative impacts on testosterone, but also on our desire to do difficult things.
Seems easy: change how you see struggle, and you boost testosterone, which in turn helps you see struggle in a positive light.
But, we all know, it ain't that easy. It takes work. It takes practice.
It takes doing difficult things, willingly, because you know they're good for you.
This is how we have to live.
We have to be the guy who wants to work extra hours...
...Who wants to go for that run, lift those weights, hop in that cold shower even though it sucks, simply because that's the best way to live.
Over time (key, it doesn't happen right away), you begin to see and fully understand the value of these difficult things based on how they make you feel.
You see results, often in the mirror, in the bank account, whatever.
I just got back from a run, for example.
A run I did not want to go on.
There was literally no part of me that wanted to do it. But I knew it was something I had set out to do today, so I went.
What happened?
I began to love the pain. I ended up having my best run of the year.
This isn't just empty hype.
This is how these hormones work.
When we feel and see things with a stressful tone, our body reacts by releasing stress hormones that negatively impact cortisol.
When we see challenges and love them, we get excited by them, we love the pain, our body response by releasing testosterone.
Our body has two choices with the cholesterol we have in our system...
a) convert it into cortisol (stress hormones)
b) convert it into testosterone (anabolic hormones)
Much of that 'choice' is guided by how we perceive effort.
Do we love it?
Or do we hate it?
Finally, you can see this in the real world.
High testosterone guys tend to be in better shape, they tend to be more driven, they tend to be more competitive (in that they see challenges not struggle).
These are choices.
So, do the choices precede the testosterone, or does the testosterone precede the choice?
The answer is, somewhat, both. It's a cycle. But you can kick the cycle off by seeing challenges and getting excited about them rather than getting stressed by them.
Competitiveness is work, play, competition, in the pursuit of victory, without worrying about failure or fearing failure.
Michael Jordan is a great example, Kobe Bryant, too. They've both said how they don't fear failure. You do the work, you either make the shot or you don't, you still have to take the shot, and if you miss, so what? You're back the next day doing the work as well.
This is the love of competition, not the fear of an outcome.
This is the 'ancient' mind trick to boost testosterone.
Men Are Evolved to Be High Testosterone
He who loves challenges, who loves the thrill of doing the difficult, who enjoys the pain of training, of hunting, of living, lives best. He survives and thrives. He lives well, spreads his genes.
Nature, or God, or both, are interesting, beautiful, even.
We have internal rewards, hormonal rewards, when we do the right thing. We get releases of dopamine and testosterone when we pursue the difficult, when we go for the run, hunt the animal, get the animal, when we have sex vs when we watch sex, which helps us live better in the future.
To love effort is to love life.
It's to love the pursuit of the difficult. But also doing things that are good for us, even though they're difficult, for the simple fact that they're good for us.
Winning is good for us. Whether it's in business, in a game, in a race, in a run against our previous best time. Winning is good, and its pursuit is good, and we get rewarded for loving that pursuit without worrying about whether or not we're get it.
It's the love of practice, of the actual race, the building, struggling, trying, failing, and finally succeeding, that sees us live a good life, and along the way we're rewarded hormonally for that pursuit.
In the end, it's about living well...
We're set up internally to reap rewards for doing the right, difficult thing.
Nothing good comes from laziness, nothing. There's no self-development in it, there's no growth because of it. Even in failure, however, we become better men by doing the right and difficult thing.
It turns out, it's also how you do it, that matters.
Don't worry about failure. Don't wish challenges didn't exist. Don't fear the negative outcome, don't doubt whether or not you can do it or you can't, just do it. Just compete.
Just get better.
Supplements actually help, too
These internal rewards can actually be pushed a bit with supplements. You can start the process of boosting testosterone while you're busy competing by adding the right supplements to your routine.
Supplements like tongkat ali, which is in a full dose in Man Greens, which has been shown in multiple studies to have a solid 200-400ng/dl increase in testosterone.
Zinc and D3 (Man Boost, Man D3) have also been shown to boost testosterone.
And KSM-66 (Man Greens) has as well, with the added benefit of also reducing stress hormones, which combat testosterone and make you pull back on that loving of effort that we've talked about thus far.
Take a look at our fully dosed, optimal supplements for testosterone levels here, and support your quest not only to have high testosterone, but to live a great freakin life...
