Also recently it has been discovered that the optimal amount of sleep is between 6-8 hours a night. Oversleeping actually has much the SAME effect as undersleeping. I personally feel my best and most energized after 7 hours of sleep. Obviously there are times when you will need more sleep for whatever reason but in general this is the correct amount of sleep humans were designed for.

Also with exercising, use low reps/medium sets (5×5) and do mostly compound movements, just like stated in this study but also try to keep your rest period as short as possible (definitely no longer than three minutes and the shorter the better). That is if your trying to too increase tesosterone (http://www.trulyhuge.com/weighttrainingandtestosterone.htm). As a side note lactic acid actually causes the release of growth hormone which is another strong anabolic hormone (http://www.fromskinnytomuscular.com/lactic-acid-help-gain-weight-naturally.html). Lactic acid is what causes that burning sensation when you exercise, so you should also do higher reps/lower sets (20×2) on some days at the gym, once again have a short as break as possible. Also the more intense the workout the more of these hormones released and never stay longer than 45 minutes at the gym, these hormones begin to decrease at that time. So go hard for that time then get out.

As a side note it is pretty easy to get enough fat and protein on a vegetarian diet e.g. nuts, avocados and more nuts. You still may not have the same amount of testosterone but I imagine you can get reasonably close. I believe everybody should take a high quality vitamin supplement no matter what there diet is, if you go to http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/multi.html you will find they have a huge range of mulit-vitamins (I personally think optimum opti-men is the best). Also mens declining testosterone levels also may have a link to our increased consumption of processed foods… so stick to whole unprocessed foods wherever it is possible. Make sure you get plenty of water as well, many people are dehydrated and don’t even know it!!!

Also still on diet it has worked best for me if I eat mainly carbohydrates and a little protein at the beginning of the day (oats, honey and milk) and by the end of the day I am eating mostly fat and a little protein (steak or fish and snacking on nuts), this is because night time is when we get our biggest spike of anabolic hormones which require fat to be made. Just so you know being overweight decreases testosterone and one of the quickest ways to put on fat is to eat carbs and fat AT THE SAME TIME. Also I am not so sure about the advice of not eating a few hours before you go to bed, think about those few hours plus the 7 or so hours you are asleep = no food = starving = muscle break down. Before I go to bed I actually have a slow absorption protein shake (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/opt/cas.html, which is another great optimum product), a raw egg and mix it in with milk.

nicky_hansard@hotmail.com

I don’t want to increase erectile dysfunction!