Lately, I've been getting a lot of emails and some mention during casual conversation about a few things related to fitness. Rage Pit being an nutrition and training site for extreme athletes is dedicated to helping it's viewers/readers get the information they need to be successful. In this article I will focus on five things that seem to be coming up a lot and hopefully help many of you before any of these things become a problem, and maybe help those currently experiencing the same problem.

I'm a Man with Low Testosterone Scientists have found that once a person reaches the age of 25 their testosterone begins to decline top about age 45 where test levels average at about ½ of what they where. Testosterone, helps to build muscle, as well as manage mood, sexual drive, energy, and more. Test Management seems to be coming up in conversation a lot now that I am reaching into my 30s. I'm not sure why people like bringing this up to me... but on the bright side, there are solutions to this problem that may be easier, and less expensive than you think. Disclaimer: One should always seek their doctor's professional opinion about solutions to possible threatening conditions. In most, and I mean more than 99% of cases, low testosterone is not life threatening, but may be the sign of other serious conditions. Tests from your doctor can help you figure out what is wrong exactly, but I would suggest telling your doctor you would like to go a natural route where there is less likely to be complications and less likely to accrue additional health problems.

In most instances, when a man thinks he has low test, the majority of people around him will coerce him into thinking testosterone shots are the way to go. As shown in many cases of similar treatments, dependency and adverse reactions to such a solution can be damaging. What I would suggest is looking into more natural methods of Test-Boosting, including making changes to your diet. Think about it. You're body uses the food you take in to create chemicals in your body that it can use to run the body's many processes. If there is a discrepancy in your diet, or your body's intake requirements have changed due to aging or fitness levels, adjusting your food is important to help balance out your body and not just balance out your Test.

There are a number of diet plans available to help you balance out your testosterone, many of which center around taking in a balance of poly and mono-unsaturated fat, as well as other important substrates. This also including taking in red meat, which contains saturated fat. There are a number of articles online that mention saturated and unsaturated fat, especially that found in nuts, avocados, and red meat, can help increase testosterone levels, although I can't seem to find the research they seem to quote nor do they supply this information. Keep in mind that taking in too much fat won't help you balance out your test faster, or boost it beyond normal levels, at least not immediately, however, there is still the danger of taking in too much saturated fat and increasing your LDL cholesterol... which is bad. Eating foods such as nuts, can help raise HDL which helps to reduce LDL, so balancing out your fat intake is important.

Training wise, research has shown that heavy lifting exercises, such as bench presses, squat, and dead lifts, help trigger the body to produce more testosterone. Other exercises, such as bicep curls, even with heavy weight do not seem to trigger the same response. Also note that prolonged periods of endurance training absent of weight training, will also reduce testosterone levels. Regardless of whether you are an marathon runner, or a weekend warrior, do some resistance training to help keep your body strong, but also try to lift heavy (not for beginners) at least once a week to helps keep test levels up.

I Workout Really Hard but I Can't Seem to Put on Muscle

This is where a lot of guys like to blame their testosterone level for their lack of muscle building. When in fact it could just be your diet and exercise intensity. Before you go to the doctor to request “Legal Testosterone Enhancement Drugs” you should try to do it naturally and fix your mistakes. Below is a list of common mistakes that cause people to be “Hard Gainers”:

1. not eating enough- if you don't eat enough lean meats, and balance your carbohydrate levels, you are not going to put on muscle. Eating 15 grams of protein and 30 grams of carbs before resistance training, and 30-50 grams of protein with around 100 grams carbs no later than 20 minutes after you workout is crucial. If you don't- you will fail.
2. Doing too much cardio or doing it at the wrong time- Too much cardio reduces your available energy and hormone levels for increasing muscle. If you are trying to lose weight, you can do both at the same time but you will have to plan out cardio sessions separate from resistance training by at least 4 hours. Doing cardio in the morning seems to be a great way to lose weight, but its also the point in time during the day when you have the least amount of available amino acids and glycogen in your system. Doing cardio in the morning could be stifling your muscle gains more than you think.
3. Not lifting heavy enough- just lifting or just lifting heavy alone will not guarantee success. Professionals use cycles roughly 4-8 weeks in duration, where they change their workout routines to follow closely to the routines of their body. This will include have a base training cycle of 4-8 weeks, then a peak cycle of anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks. During the peak cycle, they will lift differently and often much heavier. Each body part gets it own heavy day while at the same time, the other body parts are being worked, but not to heavy weight.

Weight-loss is a tough subject to crack for most people. As a matter of fact I've written a book about it called “Weight Off My Back” where I discuss how I lost over 150lbs myself. Many times during my personal weight loss mission, I seemed to reach an extent of my weight-loss ability even though a lot of fat remained on my body. The first time I plateaued was after I had lost about 75lbs. No matter how many times during the day I worked out, I wouldn't lose any weight. I know now that my issue was my diet, however, I inadvertently broke through this plateau when I got the flu for which I lost another 20lbs. During the time I was sick, I learned more about nutrition, and once I was better I altered my diet to reflect what I had learned. I got down to 230lbs pretty quick after that. My biggest problem was the amount of carbs I was taking in. I didn't fully understand at the time that although I was getting my fiber intake, I was taking in too many carbs to continue to lose weight. Replacing pasta with vegetables (broccoli, spinach, ect.) helped me manage my carbohydrate into much better and continue to lose weight. Lately, I've been hearing people mention hormones as being part of the reason they are having trouble losing weight. In few instances this can be true, and other instances, it might be a very miniscule portion of the problem.

As you may have noticed in this article, I have tackled three seemly unrelated problems people have in health and fitness, all of which seem to be revolving around hormones such as testosterone production, and in the end found natural dietary solutions for all three problems. It's not guaranteed that this article will help you 100% with any of the aforementioned circumstances, but they can help you reduce your need for “modern medicine” that is prone to inflicting more damage than what it claims to fix.