There's this moment about halfway through my conversation with Melanie where I'm explaining how low testosterone doesn't just make you tired, it makes you want to disappear entirely, and I watch her face change as she connects the dots between stress, overwhelm, and what's happening hormonally in men's bodies. That's when I knew we were onto something important here.
The big theme running through this conversation is that testosterone isn't just about gym bros and aggression. It's actually your anti-stress hormone. When you have healthy T levels, you feel capable of responding to life. When it's low, you get that paralysis, that "I'm gonna go eat a pizza and hide" feeling. I've been there.
We went through some practical ways to boost it naturally. Sunlight on your chest for 20 minutes. Full body strength training, not just bicep curls. Getting real sleep, at least eight hours. Managing stress through things like men's groups and time away from your partner. Crossing things off lists, which sounds simple but actually works. Even just sitting with your spine erect sends signals to your body.
One thing that really stood out in this conversation is the relationship piece. When you're touching your partner all day, you're increasing oxytocin and decreasing testosterone. This is part of why sex was so hot when you first met and then shifts after you move in together. It's not that something's wrong. It's biology. This is why spending time with other men matters. Every time I go on a men's retreat, about four or five hours in, my whole nervous system drops. There's no one to impress, nobody needs anything from me. I just relax. And that brings down stress, which increases testosterone.
The other thing we touched on is leadership. Being at the front of the room literally spikes your testosterone. Start a men's group. Lead something in your life. It creates momentum and puts you in that role, which your body responds to.
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Jason Lange: You know, in my mind, so much of testosterone is just right. It's. It's related deeply to momentum, to movement, to penetration of the world and. And what we want to create. So crossing things off a list is just. It's movement. And once we start moving on one thing, it's almost always easier to do another.
Melanie Curtin: Hi, guys. Welcome back to another episode. Fan favorite with Jason Lange. Welcome back to the podcast, Jason.
Jason Lange: Excited to be back if we can.
Melanie Curtin: Have you on the podcast 100 times before we complete this podcast. I am here with Jason today to talk about five ways to boost your testosterone levels. And I just want to emphasize that neither Jason nor I are physicians, but I did want to do this episode for a number of reasons, including the fact that some of the men that we work with are struggling with depression. Some are on medication for that. If there's anyone out there, you're not alone. And I've been doing some research on this. And lotus testosterone can affect you emotionally. So I think we're gonna talk a little bit about associations we have with testosterone. But I just wanted to briefly share that I really want to help men, and this is an easy win in terms of you can really change your life, boosting your testosterone levels both emotionally and physically. So I just wanted to say that I looked at some research that linked depression with low testosterone, and, you know, that can show up as, like, irritability, decreased sex drive, fatigue, just feeling tired all the time, all that stuff. So it's pretty exciting what you can do when you do boost this.
Jason Lange: Absolutely.
Melanie Curtin: And then I thought we would also just briefly touch on, like, what. What are the good parts of it? Like, what's the. What are the positives? So just as A review from 8th Grade Science, testosterone is a sex hormone, and it regulates things like your sex drive, right? So your libido. So as you increase it, your libido goes up, but it also does things like bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass, and strength. So there's a lot of really good things. And in preparation of this episode, I did a bunch of research, and we're gonna talk about one man's experience of doubling his testosterone in 90 days. Now, to be fair, this guy had just come off, like, a stressful month at work, and we're gonna talk about how stress hormones can basically lower testosterone. So it wasn't like he was just starting from scratch, but a lot of us are starting from a stressful place. So there you go. But there was also something I read about a guy who was describing the experience that he had in a low testosterone state, a healthy testosterone state and an elevated testosterone state. Yeah. Because I think we have this concept of, like. Well, I'm wondering, like, for you, Jason, like, what is your association with elevated levels of testosterone?
Jason Lange: I've never done any, like, blood testing to actually kind of know my testosterone levels. I definitely know. It's something that, as I age, I am more conscious of. I can feel it now in my late 30s in a way that was not present for me earlier. Particularly when it plummets.
Melanie Curtin: Your sex drive or the testosterone?
Jason Lange: Testosterone. When my testosterone plummets, my sex drive plummets and I get very tired.
Melanie Curtin: Yes.
Jason Lange: I can feel when it happens during the day now.
Melanie Curtin: Interesting.
Jason Lange: Yeah. Which that was never present before. Yeah.
Melanie Curtin: I was reading also that after age 30, a man's testosterone drops roughly 1% per year. But I want to emphasize that it doesn't have to. That's not an inevitability. That's if you don't really have your attention on it. So it does start to decline after 30, but it doesn't have to be that way. And there's a lot that you can do about it.
Jason Lange: So part of why we're here. Yeah.
Melanie Curtin: So quickly back to that guy, though. The point was that he said in the healthy range of testosterone, he was energized, he was motivated, he had a sex drive. You know, all those good things. Low was what we talked about. Like moody, irritable, lethargic. Lethargic. Exactly. And then the spiky one, the, like, elevated, aggressive, stuff like that. So we're going for the healthy range. Right. But I think I would generally say, given the research I've done, that most men nowadays. Not all. Most are more dealing with lowered rates. Absolutely right. So what we want to do is get them up. And I think if you get your testosterone levels up, you're probably going to be getting them into the healthy range rather than going too far.
Jason Lange: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's pretty hard to get to those overt levels unless you're taking supplements, like doing some of the things that, you know, we've seen cause that kind of aggression. You know, old bodybuilding and steroids and those kinds of things.
Melanie Curtin: Exactly.
Jason Lange: Which we don't want you guys doing. There's easier ways to get fit.
Melanie Curtin: Yes. And so we're gonna jump right in. So we have five easy ways for you to boost your testosterone, and they're natural. We're not gonna go over any steroid supplements in this episode. Maybe there's a place for them elsewhere but not here. First one's pretty simple. It has to do with your diet. So this guy that doubled his testosterone, essentially, he did a lot for breakfast and lunch, and then he just kind of ate whatever his family was eating for dinner. But really what you want to be eating is natural foods that are high in saturated fats. So coconut oil, butter. He talked about eggs a lot. Like, what if Rocky ate raw eggs? Raw eggs, yeah. And it was funny because it was like, there's a reason that that's a trope, because it does actually help your testosterone levels. And he was eating a lot of avocado, coconut oil, stuff like that. And I thought it was interesting. He was like, you know, you would think that lots and lots of eggs, because I think he ate eggs every single day, would lead to elevated levels of cholesterol, but it did not. He had his tested before and after, and it didn't impact his cholesterol. So if you're eating healthy overall, totally healthy fats.
Jason Lange: I'm sure at some point someone will do an article about the many causes of low testosterone in men. But part of it is the great nutritional lie of the 80s of low fat, of, hey, a low fat carby chip is better for you than coconut oil, a fatty piece of meat or butter, which they. Now, you know, this is very heated in the nutritional world right now, but there's some pretty strong cases being made for ingesting saturated fat does not actually increase your saturated fat. And that the. The demonization of fats was done for various different reasons. But point being, you know, when you look at. With a lot of this stuff is kind of what makes sense. And, you know, I think a lot of the evolutionary dietary stuff does make sense in terms of, like, how did we mostly eat for a long time and particularly men. Right. We'd go out on hunts.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: You'd kill an animal. You'd eat all the fatty pieces of it.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: The fatty liver.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: All the organs inside. That was the stuff that we really lived off of. Even more than, you know, the chicken breast.
Melanie Curtin: Yep.
Jason Lange: And we learned to survive off that.
Melanie Curtin: Yep.
Jason Lange: So I trust that stuff very much. And as someone who eats mostly keto, it definitely works for me.
Melanie Curtin: I was gonna say, I think, Jason, you're like a. Like a poster child for this kind of diet, because you eat. You eat a lot of meat and eggs and coconut oil. I mean, that's basically what you live off of. And I'm curious, have you noticed your energy levels go up since that.
Jason Lange: Yeah, when I eat a. When I Eat low carb, high fat. It's not even so much my energy levels go up, it's just that they're very stable.
Melanie Curtin: So less spiky.
Jason Lange: It's not the up and down roller coaster, it's just, okay, I'm up.
Melanie Curtin: Cool.
Jason Lange: And now I'm going to bed. It's like that simple. It's that kind of energy.
Melanie Curtin: Okay, so healthy diet, especially fats. And that includes nuts. Good, healthy nuts. And like you said, Jason, I did see some research about eating meat is good for testosterone and vegetarian and low fat diets are not. So just throwing that out there for what it's worth. Okay, next one is getting vitamin D. So this was a really interesting thing that I didn't know, but vitamin D3 is actually not a vitamin and it's actually a hormone. And it's really important because it regulates things in our bodies that we need, including the. I'm again, not a scientist, but the energy around hope. I don't know if you've ever experienced this. I'm sure our listeners have, but you get despondent and you feel more hopeless when the sun isn't out. Especially if you live in somewhere like the Pacific Northwest or places where you've been indoors for months and months and months. You start to just feel lethargic down. You know, all this stuff. It's bright seasonal affect disorder. So vitamin D3. Not a vitamin, but you can take it like a vitamin. So we're gonna talk about two easy ways. One is. Yeah, supplementing it. You wanna be taking about between 3 to 4000 IU of vitamin D3. Just basically go to supermarket and buy vitamin D3. It'll tell you how much to take.
Jason Lange: Yeah.
Melanie Curtin: Or, and, or what can you do?
Jason Lange: Yeah. So the favorite one I tell my men that I learned from a research study in a book is sunlight. And 20 minutes of direct sunlight exposure to your chest as a man will increase your testosterone levels.
Melanie Curtin: Yes.
Jason Lange: So literally going outside into the sun, taking your shirt off and letting your chest be blasted by the sun's rays.
Melanie Curtin: Play beach volleyball, go hiking, take your shirt off, direct sunlight to your chest. You want it to be about 20 minutes a day.
Jason Lange: Yeah.
Melanie Curtin: Or more.
Jason Lange: 20 minutes a day has shown just that. Has shown to increase your testosterone levels.
Melanie Curtin: Yes.
Jason Lange: So it's a very powerful, very practical one. You know, we live in la, so we're blessed here that I can go on a hike pretty much anytime and yeah, totally. Just take off my shirt and. No, I'm getting a little vitamin D. Yeah. And I almost. I do Always feel better.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah, always feel better really is a thing. And I. I was just speaking to someone lately about the. What are the light lamps in the winter?
Jason Lange: Like, the blue light lamps?
Melanie Curtin: I don't know if it was blue light. It was specifically for vitamin D. It was to combat seasonal affect disorder, but it really did. This guy was like, this transformed my winters. It really did. So just to encourage you, because I think. I'm sure there are other listeners that are like me that are like, does that really work? Is that really a thing?
Jason Lange: It works.
Melanie Curtin: It really works. Especially if you live somewhere with winter or. I mean, it's summer now, but people will listen to this whenever.
Jason Lange: I mean, we're built to be in the sun.
Melanie Curtin: We're really built to be in the sun. We really are. So if you can't get it, definitely get the supplement and. And. Or do both.
Jason Lange: Absolutely.
Melanie Curtin: Okay, next one is exercise. So there are two specific exercises that we're going to cover that boost your testosterone. The first one is. Well, actually, why don't you do the first one? I'll do the second one. You should do the lifting one.
Jason Lange: Yeah, yeah.
Melanie Curtin: Strength training, lifting heavy things, which, by the way, also sexy to women.
Jason Lange: Lift and move heavy things using your whole body. So that's, you know, it's probably most popularized these days by CrossFit. But the idea, even the idea that I was raised with, and a lot of people were raised with, of, like, go into the gym and do a bicep curl is less. It's less a thing. Now, bodybuilders do that to build specific mass in very specific places, but we don't need to actually do that. It's not very effective.
Melanie Curtin: And it doesn't boost your testosterone as much as what you're about to talk about.
Jason Lange: Instead, it's complex whole body movements where you're using your core and lifting and moving heavy shit. So, you know, this is. This is kind of popularized in the. I think, the competitions they have where you're, like, moving farm stuff.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: Like you're actually using your body functionally. You know, for those of us Rocky fans, as he trains in Rocky 4, he's doing full body strength training using his whole core, pulling sleds, carrying barrels, all that kind of stuff, which in the gym you can do squats, deadlifts, rows, you know, kind of hatchet chop moves. All those things that engage kettlebells, engage your full body, are gonna stimulate those muscles in that explosive way which releases human growth hormone and testosterone and actually causes your body to grow.
Melanie Curtin: Yes. So tldr is do squats, do deadlifts. Like if you're only gonna do a few exercises, those are the ones that you want to do. And from what I was reading, it was saying don't go to failure every set. Only do, only go to failure on the last set. You don't want to over train. That's not gonna, that's not gonna help boost your testosterone. You kind of just want to train, basically.
Jason Lange: Yeah. You wanna, as my old trainer used to say, you wanna lift hard and like go to failure, but you actually wanna leave your workout feeling more energized. You are about to collapse on the floor, you've over trained.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: But if you're like, wow, I feel good. I feel juiced. Right. Literally like we feel juiced and pumped. That's a good level. So you want to kind of go to fatigue on that last set, but you don't want to overdo it.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. And in terms of cardio, if you are basically the suggestion of what will boost testosterone is high intensity. So instead of going for a 30 minute jog doing 10, 30 second sprints. So what you want to be doing is I like to do wind sprints as an up a hill. So. Or you could do stadium. So running upstairs. When I'm traveling, sometimes I'll do that in hotels because they'll have a big, big stairwell. So you want to be doing like 30 to 60 second bursts of really high intensity cardio and then rest between those rather than longer sustained jogs.
Jason Lange: Yep. Yeah. The idea is, you know, high intensity is the cure, is the, is the key. And it's actually they've shown way more effective than most cardio for all kinds of. For cardiovascular health too.
Melanie Curtin: It's also more effective for weight loss.
Jason Lange: Yeah. And weight loss, it's just very, very good for your body and it's not nearly as tedious.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so the next one is, I think this is number four. Is that right? Yeah, number four. Again, some of these aren't gonna sound sexy, but the rates, basically the five major tips that we're giving you are the biggest. What is it called? Like biggest jumps. Right. So this is gonna lift your Testosterone by like 10 or 15%. Not a little bit, like quite a bit. This one is get more sleep. Get better sleep. Get more sleep, get better sleep. So more sleep. Pretty fucking obvious. There was a University of Chicago study that found that young men who got less than five hours a night for one week had lower testosterone than when they started. And the drop was again large, 10 to 15%. That was one week. So sleep deprivation over time, really bad for you for a number of reasons, including testosterone. And so you really want to be getting, you know, what, like seven to eight to nine to ten hours.
Jason Lange: At least ten hours of sleep. Yeah. There's a great new book that just came out. I think it's why we sleep. And if you read it, you will. You will actually get scared shitless. Where they, they go into the, the research about how bad for you sustained lack of sleep is. It's as dangerous as, like, smoking.
Melanie Curtin: I think it's more dangerous than smoking.
Jason Lange: Yeah, all kinds of things. And they think it's actually what contributes to heart disease in a lot of men is they just don't sleep enough in life. So getting more sleep, which there's all kinds of great ways to do, you know, just off the top of my head, black out your bedroom, turn off all the LEDs, all those little blue lights on your computer, they wake you up. Your skin, your skin gets the signal. Hey, stay awake. Don't fall to asleep. So sleep in a dark room. And then kind of looping back to supplements, I can say I have been very effectively taking magnesium before. I go to bed now and I sleep much deeper. Yeah, Much, much deeper.
Melanie Curtin: I want to give another shout out to magnesium because I was in the research, I was doing that, that came up. We're going to talk about supplements a little later on, but that was one of them that kept coming up. So that's sort of a double whammy, right? You get better sleep if you take it before and you want to take, I think, 30 minutes before bed. So you want to take it 30 minutes before bed. It will give you better quality sleep. It will also help in general with your testosterone.
Jason Lange: It's so good.
Melanie Curtin: Win, win. And just another shout out to sleep is that your body, your male, masculine body makes nearly all the testosterone it needs for the day while you are sleeping. Okay. And that increased level of testosterone that you get overnight is part of why you get morning wood. And the thing, what I read was that if you're not getting morning wood on a consistent basis, you might have lower testosterone. So that's like an easy, right? It's kind of an easy, like, gauge of where you're at in it. And then, yes, just for the quality sleep, exposure to blue light is a big deal. Your, your phone screen and your computer screen.
Jason Lange: Turn on night shift. If you have an Apple product, have an Apple product.
Melanie Curtin: You can turn on night shift. There's also a flux F dot Lux Flux. You can install that on your laptop. And it will basically make your screen orange at night. So you set what time you go to sleep. Like, you go to sleep at 11pm It'll start to get orange around 7, I think.
Jason Lange: Kind of mimics the sunlight.
Melanie Curtin: Mimics. Yeah, it mimics your circadian rhythms. I have not found a way to do that with my iPhone. So I don't know if Apple has like a Flux. I know that you can do it for the browser on your iPhone, but a lot of times you're not on the browser.
Jason Lange: Yeah. As long as you have iOS 12. Now there's night Shift. We can activate it on your phone. It's great. I was one of the many people that bitched at Apple for, like, two years. Hey, you gotta install Night Shift.
Melanie Curtin: I appreciate that because it's kind of a big deal.
Jason Lange: It's a huge deal.
Melanie Curtin: It's a huge deal. So thanks, Jason. Thanks.
Jason Lange: And with that, try not to watch TV right before bed. Yeah. You know, if you're really dedicated, you can buy blue blocking glasses so you can watch your tv.
Melanie Curtin: But what about watching TV with flux?
Jason Lange: Flux will help. Yeah. The point being just trying to remove that blue light.
Melanie Curtin: Right.
Jason Lange: Because otherwise your skin, your eyeballs are all taking that as a signal to stay awake.
Melanie Curtin: So you can watch, say, Netflix on your laptop with Flux.
Jason Lange: Yeah.
Melanie Curtin: But not your tv.
Jason Lange: That's way better.
Melanie Curtin: That's blue light.
Jason Lange: Exactly.
Melanie Curtin: Cool. All right, number five final one before we get to bonuses is manage stress. This is a big deal because cortisol, your stress hormone, not so good for the balance. So what they found is that when cortisol levels are high, testosterone levels are low. But what's cool is that the opposite is true. So when testosterone levels are high, cortisol levels are low. So this is another bonus one. The guy that doubled his testosterone, his strategy for this one was meditating for 20 minutes a day. Deep breathing exercises, actually doing them. And when he started feeling stressed, getting up and going for a walk. Just that. Just getting up and going for a walk. I know that helps me. And bonus, if you get up and go for a walk in the sun.
Jason Lange: Yeah, you're getting some sun.
Melanie Curtin: Take your shirt off. No, just kidding. I mean, if you can. If you're, like, in a crowded street, I don't know, you can maybe work that out. But the other thing to know is that just to know is that stress can build resilience. So your attitude about the stress is also important. And I'm gonna end up writing an article for Inc. About this. But basically they did this study where they showed there were a bunch of managers that were going through a merger and everybody was stressed. They showed one group of managers a video about just general, like, stress management. And the other one, they showed a video about resilience, meaning stress can. There's something called post traumatic growth. So we've heard of post traumatic, like trauma, ptsd, post traumatic stress disorder. But there's also something called post traumatic growth, which is that you go through something stressful and you learn and grow from it. And just the knowledge that that is possible had these managers happier and with lower levels of cortisol. So that's just something to know, is that you can grow from stress.
Jason Lange: That's exactly what happens with strength training. You're stressing your muscles and you're stimulating them to grow.
Melanie Curtin: Exactly.
Jason Lange: And you have that Right. Attitude for work in general. Right. Generally, as long as you're well enough resourced, a certain amount of stress is great for your system because it means you're at your edge. And particularly as men, we grow at our edge.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. And that's the thing too, about the study I was looking at, because they asked the managers in preparation for this, they said, what are like three times you've grown the most in life? And everyone wrote about stressful circumstances like moving, getting a promotion, having a child. The big things in our lives where we grow are usually stressful.
Jason Lange: Right.
Melanie Curtin: But it doesn't have to be bad. Right.
Jason Lange: The problem is overstress and chronic stress. Yeah, chronic stress. When you're not well enough resourced, that's the damaging thing. But. But you do want a certain amount of stress in life. Good stress. That means your system is being stimulated.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. Okay, so those are the five main tips. Those are the biggest. What are they called? Like. Yeah, exactly. Like you're going to get the most out of those. And then we have some fun bonus ones for like, random things that we added that we have researched these things. There is science behind everything that we're saying. The first one is. Yeah, avoid soy. Yes. It's a thing. Yes. Avoid soy. Don't heat food in plastics. Like, this is all sort of the same. What you're trying to do is avoid xenoestrogens. They're called xenoestrogens and other tea lowering chemicals. So you just kind of don't want. You want to limit your soy intake, meaning tofu.
Jason Lange: Soy's not super good for you.
Melanie Curtin: It's not that good for you. So if you can. You really want to avoid tofu.
Jason Lange: Totally. And these xenoestrogens, I mean they're, it's, it's a crisis, right? They're kind of in everything around everything these days. And for us men, it lowers our testosterone. And for women, you know, there's a lot of research and studying. It's why girls keep having their periods earlier and earlier and earlier because there's just so much testosterone or, sorry, estrogen flowing through all these chemicals and stuff. So eating organic, that, that was one way to, to help kind of avoid some of this.
Melanie Curtin: Yes. Pesticides and hormones used in our food can. They basically imitate estrogens in our body. So if you can eat organic, do so in every possible moment and try to find the meat. So if you're gonna start eating more meat or milk, get cows that haven't been treated with a ton of hormones. Yes, if the hormones are in the cows, they're gonna be in you.
Jason Lange: Totally. You want grass fed? Grass finished?
Melanie Curtin: Grass fed. Oh, that's a good one. Grass finished. Yeah.
Jason Lange: That's the newest thing.
Melanie Curtin: That's the newest thing.
Jason Lange: Yeah. Right. The idea is you want an animal that' around naturally crazing.
Melanie Curtin: Uh huh. Also your bath products. So a lot of bath products contain parabens which have xenoestrogen. So yes, you have to become a hippie if you're super committed to this. You want paraben free shit, so it's on every fucking bottle. Like paraben free is a pretty big deal right now. So you can find like grandpa's pine tar soap was one. You can still find masculine shit that doesn't have parabens, all Tom's products and blah blah, blah. Okay, next bonus one, the list one.
Jason Lange: Yeah, cross things off a list. So a lot of guys will probably get this in the sense of it just feels good when we cross shit off a list. And there's actual research that shows that, that when we have a list of things and we cross them off, it comes with a little boost in testosterone. Like, oh, getting things done, motion, movement. So it's a, it's a great tool to actually set up your day with these little lists. And instead of having like an endless kind of amorphous, I have to get these things done today. Like breaking things down into some discrete activities and then just crossing them off, you know, it's one of the reasons with the guys we work with, we teach them certain morning practices. Like start your day with this. Because if the first thing you do in your day is something you have on a list to do, you immediately create that cycle and you know, in my mind, so much of testosterone is just right. It's related deeply to momentum, to movement, to penetration of the world and what we want to create. So crossing things off a list is just. It's movement. And once we start moving on one thing, it's almost always easier to do another thing. It's that getting started piece that's so hard. So you create these little, little hacks, like creating a list. Like, here's three things I have to do before noon.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: Oh, there's one. Hey, that felt good. Oh, there's two. That felt good.
Melanie Curtin: By the way, you can write down things you've done. Like, I remember it was today or yesterday. I wrote down feed myself and then crossed it off because it was a thing I did. Like, I cooked myself food and it's important and I fed myself and it felt good. Crossing that off. Not gonna lie.
Jason Lange: That's great.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. Next bonus one is spend time with other men. Spend time with other dudes.
Melanie Curtin: Yes. And the research that we do have around oxytocin is that has been factually proven that when you're in a relationship and you're getting lots and lots and lots of touch.
Jason Lange: Yes.
Melanie Curtin: That spikes your oxytocin, which is a bonding hormone.
Jason Lange: Totally.
Melanie Curtin: And it's a calming hormone.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: And there's something that happens in my nervous system which just drops in a good way. I relax, where it's like, wow, okay. I. I don't have to do anything, really. And I think that brings down stress, which increases testosterone as well.
Melanie Curtin: Yes. Also sports. So I read some interesting shit about sports. Yes. Both watching and playing sports. For some reason, there appears to be more studies around watching sports than playing sports. But anyway, watching sports will increase your testosterone. That's pretty consistent both in women and men, by the way. Increases testosterone levels. However, if you're rooting for a team and it's your team and they lose, you kind of lose the testosterone. So it's a little risky in terms of, like, a consistent practice you can do to, you know, elevate your testosterone. Like, it kind of works because it's gonna elevate, but if you're putting a lot of risk. Yeah, you're right.
Jason Lange: Yeah. Ever been in, like, London? When an English team loses, it's literally like the whole city is depressed.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: It's intense. Yeah. Like, all the men just don't. There's just heads down. And it's also why there's a lot of babies. Whenever some city's championship is made, guys testosterone spike and sleep with their partners and wives. Jason Lange: Is there anything you'll have better sex. Your testosterone will go up. More sex. And after us men have sex, we like to sleep, so you'll sleep better. It's just, it just keeps cycling up and up and up. All right.
Melanie Curtin: Is there anything else that we want to cover in terms of testosterone?
Jason Lange: One thing I can say, which is an interesting thing around testosterone, another thing, I'm remembering that a, a teacher I saw speak once had to presence was leadership. So actually being a leader increases your testosterone. And so there's some nature nurture thing here where there's some arguments about, oh, do all leaders just naturally have higher testosterone? And that's why they become leaders, which there's probably some case for. But there's also research that shows that just by being the one at the front of the room, your testosterone level goes up.
Melanie Curtin: Oh, interesting.
Jason Lange: So as being a leader of a community or a group or a business group or whatnot, that comes with some responsibility because suddenly. Right. We've. A lot of us men have probably had that experience. We're suddenly in your leadership position and women are coming towards you and asking you questions. And it's. Some of it's just the testosterone, so it's something to be aware of and it's a great reason to lead some stuff in your life.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: Start a men's group. Start. Start art groups. Start any kind of group. Like just be the leader. It creates that momentum, gives you something you can check off a list, and it puts you at the front of the room, which is again, gonna spike your testosterone.
Melanie Curtin: I like that. I also am reminded of the power poses. So you guys have probably seen the TED talk by Dr. Amy Cuddy around power poses. That is another interesting research study because of that relationship between testosterone and cortisol. So what they found was that even if you're really nervous before a date, if you go to the bathroom and you strike one of these power poses, which you can Google if you haven't heard of them, but it's like the wonder woman stance or like man spreading. Right. Have you heard of this? Like when you're on the subway, you, like, you spread your legs out and you can bring your shoulders back and you take up all this space. Yeah, apparently. Interestingly, if you look at groups of salespeople, the people that are in that kind of pose are making more sales. And I think it's because of this, because as your testosterone rises, your cortisol drops. So not only are you more confident, but you're less stressed.
Jason Lange: Totally.
Melanie Curtin: So you really want to be, you know, like, if you're going to do one of these leadership things, go do some power poses before you get up on the stage.
Jason Lange: Do some squats first.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: Do some, some power poses.
Melanie Curtin: You know, strike that stance, pull your shoulders back, take a deep breath, you know, get into your body and you will.
Jason Lange: You'll rock it out and you'll rock it out. And, you know, that's probably one of the takeaways to just realize is that testosterone is our anti stress hormone in some sense. Right. So when we have testosterone in our system, we feel capable of responding to whatever's happening.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah.
Jason Lange: Too much and we can get too aggressive for sure. But when you have that healthy balance, it's what helps you just be resilient and deal with what's happening. Right. It's that. That experience of, oh, this didn't go the way I wanted it to, and, okay, I'm just gonna deal with it. Yeah, right. Where you just. You just move forward and you figure it out versus, you know, when you're in more that low T place, which I've certainly been in, it's more like paralysis. It's. I can't move. I don't. I feel tired. I don't even know what I want to do. That feels scary. I'm gonna go eat a pizza, and.
Melanie Curtin: Then I'm gonna go play video games because I can't figure out what to do now.
Jason Lange: Exactly.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. That's. That was a big part of why I want to do this episode, because I think we. I think we have vilified testosterone in a way in our culture, and we only associate it with violence and aggression. But the truth is way more on the other side that it really can help with motivation, mood levels in men. It's. It's really quite a.
Jason Lange: And getting moving. Yes, Just getting moving. So, you know, a lot of the guys we work with and a lot of men in general. Right. Have approach anxiety. I'm out somewhere and I see a beautiful woman, and, oh, wait, I can't talk to her. Anxiety testosterone is one of the things that will let you literally get you across the room.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah, it's.
Jason Lange: It's that simple. Like, oh, my God. Oh. She might not say, I don't know how she'll respond, but I'm moving anyway. It's just that boost again. It's just that momentum to get you moving.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. And not to make this too long, but that was one that we discussed too, before the call was because part of the program that we run for men, we have the men do morning practices, and some of them are sitting practices. And when you sit with an erect spine.
Jason Lange: Yes. Sitting still, spine erect is also shown to increase your testosterone. So it's no wonder that men have been spending thousands and thousands of years alone in caves, sitting, spine erect, in stillness. Another right. Double whammy for Helps you manage stress. And it's literally that posture is sending certain signals to your body and increases your testosterone.
Melanie Curtin: So meditation.
Jason Lange: So good.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. Okay, cool. And so we reference. We also just referenced. Our program for men is called Pillars of Presence. And if you're interested in that, you can go to Jason's site, which is.
Jason Lange: Evolutionary Men slash dear Men and you'll. You'll see a special message just for you listeners.
Melanie Curtin: Yeah. And if that goes to the presentation. Right.
Jason Lange: Yeah. You'll be able to register. Watch the webinar.
Melanie Curtin: The webinar is really good. If there's any guys out there that kind of want to go deeper and you're interested, you should really watch it. It's free. There's no, like. What's the word? Like obligation or anything. I really. I would recommend that.
Jason Lange: Totally.
Melanie Curtin: And then if you. Yeah. If you're interested in Pleaser in bed, that's pleaseranbet.com okay, thanks. That wraps up another episode of Dear Men. Thank you for listening. If you want to reach out, we would love to hear from you. We're on Instagram and Twitter, Earmen Podcast. That's Earmen Podcast or Facebook. We have a group, Dear Men Podcast. We also have an email address, dearmen podcastmail.com if you want to join the Big Sexy Data Set, the community of people who regularly respond to the surveys that we talk about on this podcast, just email us at that address, dearmen podcastmail.com and we will set you up. Have a sexy day. K.
