Playing to Win - 042 - The Truth About Testosterone & Aging w⧸ @VigorousSteve

00:00:00.000 You can definitely do that while we're live.

00:00:02.080 All right, we're live.

00:00:03.200 What's up, guys?

00:00:04.380 So we've got an episode tonight.

00:00:05.720 This is going to be a fun one because a lot of guys ask me what I watch on YouTube.

00:00:10.020 And, you know, people think all I do is sit around watching Red Pill shit.

00:00:12.860 And I really don't.

00:00:13.440 I mean, I don't even have time to watch my friends' channels, you know, that I collab with on Rule Zero and a bunch of other different things.

00:00:21.640 But I've been subscribed to Vigorous Steve probably for a good six months.

00:00:26.500 I think ever since you're around like 10,000 or 12,000 subs.

00:00:28.980 It's a very small channel.

00:00:30.000 So his knowledge and the way he covers stuff around bodybuilding, bodybuilding pharmacology, even like nutrition, nutraceuticals that you should use for longevity.

00:00:40.940 He even talked about personal experience with fatty liver disease, and he had to kind of cure that himself.

00:00:46.800 So there's a lot to cover tonight.

00:00:49.000 There's really a lot of interesting topics.

00:00:50.940 I hope you guys enjoy this.

00:00:52.560 Let me just read his bio intro.

00:00:54.400 So Steve is a retired bodybuilding contest prep coach who has guided competitive physique athletes worldwide.

00:01:00.460 After years of one-on-one coaching, he decided to share his expertise on YouTube to help a larger group of men and women and spread awareness about safer practices regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

00:01:12.040 The Vigorous Steve YouTube channel discusses everything from nutrition training, health, supplementation, mental health, the athlete's mindset, and the use of PEDs, the intricate nuances that need to take place to ensure health and longevity, both short-term and long-term.

00:01:27.860 Steve's been bodybuilding for 20 years, of which 11 were drug-free bodybuilding.

00:01:31.360 For the last 10, he's experimented with various pharmacology, ranging from hormone replacement therapy, that's TRT basically, to full-blown bodybuilding cycles.

00:01:40.680 He actively shares his personal experience and those of clients publicly on YouTube to better the community and drive the fitness industry forward.

00:01:48.500 Welcome, Steve.

00:01:50.640 Thanks so much for having me, Rich.

00:01:51.880 It's an honor and a pleasure to be on your show.

00:01:54.160 I've been watching your content here and there, and it's always very enjoyable to watch to give you a little bit of a unique perspective regarding entrepreneurship and women and cars here and there.

00:02:04.760 It's fun to talk with somebody that you're following and then get to have a little bit of a discussion going on.

00:02:12.080 Of course, we're both running a little bit of hormone replacement.

00:02:15.720 Yeah, sometimes a little bit, sometimes a little bit plus.

00:02:18.660 Yeah, hormone replacement plus.

00:02:20.520 I always call it the TRT for bodybuilders.

00:02:23.020 Yeah.

00:02:23.680 And that's a little bit more than a general hormone replacement therapy doctor is willing to describe.

00:02:28.820 But, well, there's always self-prescription involved when you start to hormonize.

00:02:34.080 So, you've been on TRT for a while, correct?

00:02:37.320 Since about 42 or 43.

00:02:39.420 But I'll be honest with you, I actually pulled this off my bookshelf earlier because you'll probably recognize it.

00:02:44.100 I don't know if that's something that's involved for you.

00:02:46.400 That's an old one.

00:02:47.200 25 odd years ago, I was basically reading about this stuff in my 20s when I was contemplating using PEDs as a younger guy.

00:02:55.940 But I was always pretty, like, ripped and had an easy way to throw on muscle.

00:03:05.100 Here, let me see if I can, I think I can pull these up while we're broadcasting.

00:03:08.240 Okay.

00:03:08.560 I can pull it up on the screen because I have one or two here that I have in a folder.

00:03:11.500 But I never really had a hard time putting on muscle and staying lean.

00:03:18.580 So, you figured you didn't need it until you actually needed it clinically.

00:03:22.680 Here it is.

00:03:23.240 All right.

00:03:23.840 Yeah.

00:03:24.240 So, here I can show all you guys some, like, before and after pictures because I don't usually share these too often.

00:03:29.320 So, it's going to come up on my screen and cooperate.

00:03:31.540 It's perfect Instagram content.

00:03:33.400 You know, the before and after 10-year challenge.

00:03:35.980 Yeah.

00:03:36.340 Figures it doesn't work right now when you're trying to pull it up.

00:03:38.360 It won't load.

00:03:38.820 Yeah.

00:03:39.660 You're in Thailand, though, right?

00:03:41.960 Yeah.

00:03:42.740 It's 7 o'clock in the morning.

00:03:44.420 You're originally from, I think you're Dutch.

00:03:46.720 You're from Holland?

00:03:47.340 Yes, that's correct.

00:03:48.320 I'm from Holland.

00:03:49.340 And I decided to move here.

00:03:51.540 Well, I've been here permanent now for the last eight years.

00:03:54.800 But I've been coming here since 2006.

00:03:57.780 A friend of mine invited me.

00:03:59.520 I've been going back and forth.

00:04:00.840 You know, at first I was still employed as a business consultant.

00:04:03.520 And then, you know, this YouTube thing and this bodybuilding coaching thing really started to take off.

00:04:09.460 And then when I was self-employed, I was able to move here because most of my work is online.

00:04:14.320 I noticed on your Twitter because I tagged you when I promoted this just before I went live that you mentioned that you talked about at the time when you created your Twitter stuff around lifestyle in Thailand.

00:04:30.060 And there's quite a few guys that I don't know personally but have heard of and, you know, like you included that have chosen to set up residency there.

00:04:39.060 Like, what's it like living there as a Westerner, like a white male?

00:04:42.820 It's great.

00:04:43.120 Well, right now it's not so great because we're in lockdown.

00:04:47.000 So all the good things about Thailand are not accessible, like, you know, plentiful restaurants and going to the gym, even though I can't go to the gym because I get a little bit of a VIP treatment.

00:04:57.660 So I can go to a gym that's technically closed.

00:05:01.860 So before the lockdown, right, there's a lot of freedom here.

00:05:05.960 And in Holland, a lot of things close early.

00:05:09.480 There's not so much selection regarding things to do.

00:05:11.720 And here, the selection is limitless, basically.

00:05:15.260 And the weather is considerably better year-round, too, I bet.

00:05:18.120 Yeah, the weather is considerably better.

00:05:20.260 The women are a lot more friendly, more easygoing, easier to get in touch with.

00:05:24.540 So that was one of the driving forces to move here when I was 25, 26.

00:05:30.040 It's easier to get in touch with people.

00:05:31.840 Like, in Holland, I felt that people are very, very cold.

00:05:34.260 Not easy to get in touch, whether that's the men or the women.

00:05:38.100 And when you're a bodybuilder, you get a little bit stigmatized, a little bit stereotyped.

00:05:42.780 And I didn't feel that here.

00:05:44.080 I felt at home for the first time in my life.

00:05:46.420 So then the exodus starts to happen.

00:05:49.280 You know, after 25 years of life, you go to another country and you feel at home, which is weird.

00:05:56.200 There's another guy I came across, Tony Huge.

00:05:59.220 I've seen him talk to Leo.

00:06:00.960 And, like, it sounds like he lives more of the player life.

00:06:03.800 Like, he's just got, like, this rotation of women.

00:06:05.740 And he's like, yeah, it's just awesome, great, and all that sort of thing.

00:06:08.660 You're married, though, right?

00:06:09.480 Like, you've managed to...

00:06:10.780 I'm married.

00:06:11.300 The M word.

00:06:12.420 I'm not sure if it's allowed on this channel.

00:06:14.140 No, no, it's allowed.

00:06:14.940 Hey, you know, it's fair game.

00:06:16.040 I mean, like, I tell guys to do whatever they want.

00:06:18.120 Like, marriage in the West is a bad idea.

00:06:19.700 And I've talked about that many times.

00:06:20.860 I'm sure you've seen that.

00:06:21.700 So, well, maybe we can talk about that in that cast, too.

00:06:24.800 But, like, here, let me just go back to the original point that I was talking about with, like, putting on muscle.

00:06:28.140 Because I found that picture and it popped up.

00:06:30.780 But this one here is about...

00:06:33.280 I'm going to say I was 29, 30-ish there.

00:06:37.620 And this is about 41 or so.

00:06:39.820 Now, this is pre-TRT, okay?

00:06:42.180 Right.

00:06:42.720 Right.

00:06:43.640 Didn't really change much.

00:06:44.840 So, I never really had a hard time, you know, like, putting on muscle and, like, you know, keeping it.

00:06:49.180 But I always had that interest in performance-enhancing drugs.

00:06:53.320 Because I...

00:06:54.180 If I'm being honest, I probably had...

00:06:57.180 They called it bigorexia when I came across it in muscle media magazines, you know, with Bill Phillips and stuff like that.

00:07:02.620 And it's like, you know, you never feel like you're big enough.

00:07:05.000 You know, it's like, you know, you bench, you know, three, three and a half plates.

00:07:08.680 You squat three, you know, three or four plates.

00:07:10.640 And you're like, you know, you want to get to five or six.

00:07:12.180 And you see those guys in a magazine.

00:07:13.500 You just keep pushing and pushing.

00:07:14.840 And you can never achieve the size that comes with the strength.

00:07:17.880 So, you kind of, like, have this mental image in your mind that you should be bigger.

00:07:21.960 But there's a cost associated with that, isn't there?

00:07:26.360 Like, you know, it does a number on your bones, you know, your joints, your ligaments, your organs.

00:07:31.980 Yeah, your whole body.

00:07:32.500 Your whole body, really.

00:07:33.700 Like, the bodybuilding, what you see in the magazines, that's just a picture.

00:07:37.060 And it doesn't represent what's going on internally.

00:07:40.620 So, that's why we...

00:07:41.560 Like, in the beginning, people started using steroids for bodybuilding.

00:07:44.580 Like, because there was only bodybuilding.

00:07:46.120 Hormone replacement therapy didn't really exist unless it was, like, real clinical androgen deficiency.

00:07:52.300 And then people didn't go to puberty and that kind of stuff.

00:07:55.740 And most of the steroids that were designed were designed for other medical purposes.

00:07:59.580 And sarcopenia, muscle-wasting disease, bone mineralization issues, and mastron was even used to help mitigate breast cancer in women.

00:08:10.400 So, that's a steroid being prescribed to women.

00:08:12.740 Now, the bodybuilding world started adapting that.

00:08:15.720 And then, of course, developed phenomenal physiques with that.

00:08:18.540 But a lot of people use dosages that are way higher than are medically prescribed.

00:08:24.420 And, like, for the TRT guys, we have a little bit of an image that steroids are going to give this physique that we see in the magazine or on Instagram or on YouTube.

00:08:34.260 Yeah.

00:08:34.460 Which, in reality, is not the case because the pharmacology involved to be a bodybuilder is far and far and far higher than what we do for well-being, anti-aging, right?

00:08:44.920 To have a little bit stable serum concentrations of your testosterone, estrogen, and get more productivity out of it.

00:08:51.340 So, there's a big difference.

00:08:53.880 And if you want to be a bodybuilder, well, you're going to have to bump up the dosages far beyond hormone replacement.

00:08:59.960 Yeah.

00:09:00.340 You started out as a natural bodybuilder.

00:09:02.760 When did you just start, you know, experimenting with PEDs?

00:09:06.140 When I was 26.

00:09:07.320 So, I started bodybuilding when I was 15.

00:09:09.900 And, honestly, I did not respond so well.

00:09:12.800 I'll be the first one to say it.

00:09:14.000 Like, my pictures did not look as good as yours.

00:09:16.280 I was trying to make career, like, business came first.

00:09:19.540 And then, I would put bodybuilding second.

00:09:21.020 So, I would do the meals.

00:09:22.400 I would do the training.

00:09:23.600 But I was not living like a full-time bodybuilder where everything revolved around training and eating.

00:09:28.020 And maximizing that avenue.

00:09:30.620 Because, well, up until social media, there was no real money in it.

00:09:34.980 Yeah.

00:09:35.220 Well, there's still not a lot of money in it today unless you have a large audience, right?

00:09:39.840 Well, you'll be surprised.

00:09:42.640 Like, some guys are really banking on it.

00:09:44.600 Really?

00:09:45.340 Yeah.

00:09:45.960 Yeah.

00:09:46.200 Through social media, of course.

00:09:47.480 Because, like, if you're just localized and you're a personal trainer, you're not really banking.

00:09:52.040 But through social media with all the discount codes and offering services, coaching, consultations, and e-books.

00:09:59.120 And there's a decent amount of money to be made.

00:10:01.720 Okay.

00:10:02.040 But when I started and when you started, there was no social media to promote your avenue.

00:10:07.720 So, I never really thought about taking steroids because I was happy with how I looked.

00:10:13.800 I mean, for the business world, I was already too big, right?

00:10:16.460 Being a natural was saying too big.

00:10:18.740 And then, when that business thing kind of fell apart due to the economic crisis in 2008, 2009, that's when I decided, you know what?

00:10:27.900 Bodybuilding is my passion.

00:10:28.960 I'm going to see what the fuss is all about.

00:10:30.520 And I started with a cycle.

00:10:32.420 But that was after 11 years of drug-free bodybuilding.

00:10:36.360 And, like, what did you do for a cycle at that time to, like, enter into the competing world?

00:10:40.940 250 tests per week, which was half of what was generally recommended online.

00:10:47.780 They recommend 500 tests and the animal kickstart.

00:10:50.520 I just made a video about that.

00:10:51.980 Yeah.

00:10:52.220 It will be online shortly.

00:10:54.100 And it didn't really make much sense to me because you saw a lot of these cycle logs on the steroid forums.

00:11:00.480 And people would get a ton of side effects within week five or six.

00:11:05.020 And so, I figured, you know what?

00:11:06.120 I'm going to start low.

00:11:07.080 Like, at that time, hormone replacement therapy was already present.

00:11:10.940 So, I just started with a little bit higher than hormone replacement.

00:11:14.120 And I had good results.

00:11:16.320 And is that something that you run year-round?

00:11:18.140 Or is it like you'll use it to try to, you know, build a physique, compete, you know, do a photo shoot.

00:11:22.260 And you kind of taper it back to, like, HRT levels, like a therapeutic dose to try to keep you at a consistent level?

00:11:29.440 So, at that time, I ran a cycle for 16 weeks because plastic and cruising wasn't really understood.

00:11:34.060 And I had coming down to a lower dose.

00:11:36.760 It wasn't really popularized yet.

00:11:38.460 We were talking about 10 years ago.

00:11:40.500 I'm 37 now.

00:11:42.400 And so, I did my cycle.

00:11:44.180 I came off.

00:11:44.820 I did post-cycle therapy.

00:11:46.360 Is this...

00:11:46.780 And then I traveled to...

00:11:48.240 No, that's a recent picture.

00:11:49.960 Oh, that's recent.

00:11:50.560 So, that's like after...

00:11:51.480 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:52.400 No, nobody looks like this on their first cycle.

00:11:54.560 Yeah, I was trying to scroll through here because there was one in here where you just look like a huge tank.

00:11:58.680 I mean, like, you know, here, you got the shoulders like boulders, right?

00:12:04.520 Yeah.

00:12:05.080 Yeah, here was still a pretty saucy.

00:12:07.400 Yeah.

00:12:08.640 So, there's some around my Instagram.

00:12:10.480 There's some old picture.

00:12:11.640 Yeah.

00:12:12.440 Yeah, but like...

00:12:13.080 These were all over a year ago.

00:12:13.840 Always big.

00:12:14.660 Like, always a big dude.

00:12:16.060 What's your height and weight normally?

00:12:18.900 Right.

00:12:19.580 I'm 5'9", so that's 174, 75 centimeters.

00:12:23.520 Okay.

00:12:23.780 And I think the heaviest I got to was like 255 pounds, 115 kilos.

00:12:28.580 Wow.

00:12:29.580 That's a lot of muscle for that height.

00:12:32.880 Yeah, yeah.

00:12:33.700 And the weird thing is like when you're that big, you don't see how big you are.

00:12:37.360 You still think you're too small.

00:12:39.040 No, you're huge.

00:12:39.480 Because you're actively trying to chase that.

00:12:41.900 And then you see a picture next to a normal individual.

00:12:44.580 Yeah.

00:12:45.100 And you're like, man, I don't realize how...

00:12:47.580 Really?

00:12:48.640 Because you're always comparing yourself to other bodybuilders.

00:12:51.100 Yeah.

00:12:51.360 Like, that's where the big erexia and a little bit of the curse comes into play.

00:12:54.680 Because you surround yourself in that little niche, little circle of astronomically huge dudes.

00:12:59.960 Yeah.

00:13:00.120 And you always think you're the smallest.

00:13:01.660 Yeah, yeah.

00:13:02.140 That's where the abuse comes into play.

00:13:04.580 So, right, I took some time off.

00:13:07.380 I did another post-psychotherapy recently to resolve that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,

00:13:12.400 which came from the lifestyle.

00:13:14.380 And now that's completely resolved.

00:13:15.340 How did you get that?

00:13:15.520 Like, talk about that.

00:13:16.860 Because you went off all PEDs, everything, changed your diet completely.

00:13:20.940 Like, I was following your updates when you were doing that.

00:13:23.660 Okay.

00:13:23.860 Like, you lost a lot of weight and muscles, you know, not as much muscle as you'd think.

00:13:30.500 But, I mean, a lot of it came back.

00:13:31.540 But, I mean, you also started doing things like icing your balls and trying to, like,

00:13:34.780 kickstart your own testosterone production, which it looked like you're quite successful.

00:13:39.900 Like, one of the questions a lot of people ask me whenever I start leaning into, like,

00:13:42.800 TRT conversations, I'm by no means a research expert.

00:13:47.140 Like, I lean on guys like you and Jay Campbell and a few other people that I look towards,

00:13:52.280 plus the literature that I've read.

00:13:54.100 But, I mean, like, it seemed like it was pretty easy for you to kickstart your own testosterone

00:13:57.860 production to healthy levels, right?

00:14:00.320 Yeah.

00:14:00.760 Yeah.

00:14:01.060 I mean, listen, I didn't need it medically.

00:14:03.080 When I was 26, my testosterone was around 650 nanograms per deciliter.

00:14:07.180 So, that's middle, middle of the reference range.

00:14:09.380 And I think I could have gotten it higher with the information that I have nowadays, right?

00:14:13.140 I learned a lot more since the age of 26.

00:14:16.240 So, when I decided to come off after blasting and cruising and, you know, you do a bodybuilder

00:14:20.840 cycle, you go back to hormone replacement to clean out, get healthy, do a bodybuilder

00:14:24.880 cycle again.

00:14:25.500 And I did that for about eight years straight.

00:14:27.740 Now, this lifestyle, the high foods, right?

00:14:31.920 Taking health supplements, never really giving your body a break from steroids, ultimately

00:14:38.460 gave me non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

00:14:40.460 And I think that I have a genetic predisposition for it because-

00:14:44.740 What is that, if you can define it for the viewer so they know what that is?

00:14:48.240 The non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?

00:14:49.920 Yeah.

00:14:50.640 Yeah.

00:14:51.000 So, that's buildup of fat within the liver.

00:14:54.100 Now, naturally, there is fat present in the liver.

00:14:57.180 That's normal.

00:14:57.880 You have about three, four, five percent fat in the liver.

00:15:00.980 I mean, it's an organ and most organs have a little bit of fat that's totally healthy.

00:15:04.620 But as fat builds up over time, you develop a disease called non-alcoholic fatty liver

00:15:11.340 disease.

00:15:11.720 You have alcoholic fatty liver disease that's induced by alcohol that later leads into steatosis

00:15:17.280 and fibrosis.

00:15:19.120 And so, that's very difficult to resolve.

00:15:21.060 So, when it's non-alcoholic, it's a result of diet, lifestyle.

00:15:24.360 Did PEDs, you know, contribute to the damage to your liver?

00:15:27.940 Yes.

00:15:28.640 It did.

00:15:28.980 But not in the direct sense.

00:15:31.360 It's more that because I didn't come off.

00:15:33.640 So, I didn't really come off, off, not even hormone replacement.

00:15:37.040 Okay.

00:15:38.300 Because when you have super physiological amounts of testosterone, so that's higher than natural

00:15:42.200 production, your stem cells in the liver are not able to restore the amount of hepatocytes,

00:15:48.980 which are the liver cells, to have a healthy liver again.

00:15:53.220 So, some people go down to hormone replacement therapy, like true hormone replacement therapy,

00:15:58.660 being 100, 125 milligrams of testosterone per week, which I could have done, right?

00:16:03.340 I could have done to real hormone replacement therapy and then resolve the issue.

00:16:07.200 But I figured, okay, I'm not going to be a bodybuilder.

00:16:09.680 I'm not going to eat so much.

00:16:11.040 And I took these steroids for bodybuilding.

00:16:13.340 So, why not recover and see if I can get my fertility, my testosterone levels, and all

00:16:18.700 that stuff back?

00:16:19.820 Because again, I may be proof to myself that I need it medically, which I don't, and because

00:16:24.840 my testosterone came back with all the efforts that I put into it.

00:16:28.240 So, that was icing the testicles.

00:16:30.600 And right, as silly as it sounds, it's, you put an ice pack and wrapped in a towel 20 minutes

00:16:35.740 around your testicles three times per day.

00:16:37.740 And it helps with fertility and testosterone production.

00:16:41.320 It sounds absolutely silly, but it worked.

00:16:43.360 Yeah, I've heard that with cold showers and ice baths.

00:16:45.360 So, I could see how that would help.

00:16:46.740 Were there any other supplements that helped to restart your own production and get your

00:16:50.040 testosterone levels back to a healthy level?

00:16:51.840 Like, did you use anything like Tongat Ali?

00:16:53.580 Did you just supplement with zinc, boron, copper?

00:16:55.860 Yeah, all that.

00:16:57.000 So, I did not use Tongat Ali, but I used ashwagandha root extract, which also has some clinical

00:17:03.120 evidence that it raises testosterone concentration.

00:17:05.200 So, I took, in the beginning, I took way more, like 900 milligrams, and then I kind of tapered

00:17:09.780 it down, because there's an effective dose, and then there's, of course, a dose that's

00:17:13.560 a little bit overkill.

00:17:14.820 And I took the zinc, and the selenium, and the carnitine, and the taurine, and making sure

00:17:19.340 I was in a caloric surplus.

00:17:21.020 I had every little vector that you can optimize to recover testosterone production and get the

00:17:26.360 most amount of testosterone while you're recovered.

00:17:29.780 I tried, besides red light therapy.

00:17:35.260 Red light therapy is supposed to help, too, yeah.

00:17:37.540 Right, and then I heard another couple of guys that rub vitamin D3 under testicles.

00:17:44.680 Yeah.

00:17:45.700 Listen, there's a million different ways.

00:17:47.360 No science, man.

00:17:48.160 Right, right.

00:17:48.860 So, whatever works, works, right?

00:17:50.540 What about the Tongat Ali?

00:17:51.720 Why don't you touch that?

00:17:52.440 Because there was a guest that Joe Rogan had on recently that said that they had studied it.

00:17:57.200 Yeah, Huberman, yeah.

00:18:00.140 I've heard a lot of anecdotal evidence that it didn't work.

00:18:04.580 Okay.

00:18:05.120 And I've seen anecdotal evidence that the ashwagandha root extract worked.

00:18:09.180 Okay.

00:18:09.580 So, I decided to go with that one, and I figured, you know what, it's going to take some time

00:18:14.280 anyway, so I can always put it in later, right?

00:18:18.840 And if I recall, I think you got your levels back up to basically, like, around the 600 level.

00:18:23.020 Yeah, 600.

00:18:23.740 Which is pretty incredible, because, I mean, one of the things that typically happens when

00:18:27.600 you, like, get on TRT or, like, you know, performance-enhancing drugs or a bodybuilder

00:18:32.860 dose is your own production shuts down because your body just says, oh, we've got plenty

00:18:36.720 of this stuff in our blood, so we don't need to make our own.

00:18:39.260 And then, after a while, supposedly, you know, the theory is that your testicles get lazy

00:18:44.000 and they just don't really restart.

00:18:46.920 But, I mean, you were on it for quite a while and you managed to restart them just fine.

00:18:50.760 Yeah, and what I see is it's not exactly the testicles that get lazy, but it's the pituitary

00:18:56.100 or the hypothalamus.

00:18:57.200 So, when you shut down your testosterone production, it's a signal, right?

00:19:01.300 The hypothalamus to the pituitary to the testicles, and then they start producing testosterone

00:19:05.940 again.

00:19:06.360 It's not the testicles that see it you, it's either the hypothalamus or the pituitary.

00:19:10.580 So, that's why we do post-cycle therapy with all these fertility drugs to restart that

00:19:14.200 signal.

00:19:15.320 But, if you take a human chorionic gonadotropin, which signals the testicles to produce testosterone,

00:19:22.880 which then cascades into fertility, you see that testosterone comes back normally.

00:19:27.700 And if you run it long enough, the testosterone production comes up quite high and the fertility

00:19:32.560 improves also, which takes about 90 days.

00:19:35.500 That's why I was off so long because I wanted to see, the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

00:19:39.200 was already resolved a long time ago.

00:19:41.240 I just wanted to see how high my fertility would come back, which came back perfectly

00:19:46.340 also.

00:19:47.400 Did you have any other damage to any of your other organs?

00:19:50.040 Because I know that the liver itself is quite robust.

00:19:53.320 It's like one of the organs that you can do a ton of damage to do, and you can really

00:19:57.180 bring it back from what I've heard, you know, reasonably easily.

00:20:00.840 You know, kidneys are a different story.

00:20:02.040 But did you have any other damage to any of the other organs?

00:20:04.840 No, luckily no.

00:20:06.260 Yeah, just the liver.

00:20:07.300 And it's purely from the high food intake and never really taking a break.

00:20:10.940 It can always be a little bit higher than true hormone replacement.

00:20:14.860 So the liver had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which now with ultrasounds and fibro

00:20:19.960 scans and doing my blood work frequently, that's now completely resolved.

00:20:23.940 No issues with my kidneys, normal glomular filtration rate, normal cystatin C levels.

00:20:28.940 All my blood work is good.

00:20:29.880 I've done ultrasounds on my kidneys, normal, no inflammation, no kidney stones or nothing.

00:20:35.220 I've done an MRI on my heart, normal size, surprisingly, because I would expect a little

00:20:41.900 bit of an athlete's heart.

00:20:43.260 But I've been so proactive to prevent that, that my heart is a normal size with normal

00:20:48.240 injection fraction and no coronary artery disease, no plaque buildup.

00:20:52.600 What have you used to maintain your heart health and size so it doesn't get enlarged?

00:20:57.420 Like are we talking things like coenzyme Q10, ubiquinol?

00:21:02.720 Ubiquinol.

00:21:03.280 So I take 200 milligrams per day.

00:21:05.680 It's pretty high dose.

00:21:06.880 And then I take it also around the workout, which gives a little bit of a performance enhancing

00:21:11.800 benefits because you're supplying energy and antioxidants to the heart, allowing it to

00:21:16.300 work at full capacity.

00:21:17.400 And when you train for bodybuilding, of course, the training intensity is quite high, right?

00:21:22.400 So your heart is under a lot of stress.

00:21:24.540 And while you're giving all your audio body parts a break, and you train legs one day and

00:21:29.120 then back the next day and chest the next day, but your heart five times a week is getting

00:21:34.400 hammered.

00:21:35.340 So I put everything in place to ensure heart health, which is 400 milligrams of ubiquinol

00:21:40.260 on training days, sometimes 500 milligrams.

00:21:43.180 And I started taking a beta blocker to keep the heart rate down.

00:21:46.740 So you always, right, you're not in this sympathetic state where you're always like a little bit

00:21:52.140 hyped up after training.

00:21:53.480 What's the, like, is that a, is that something that you need to get scripted from your doctor?

00:21:58.180 Is that something you can get over the counter as far as a beta blocker?

00:22:00.360 Because I mean, like one of the things I've noticed, because I wear this aura ring to track

00:22:02.660 my sleep and my heart rate and all that sort of stuff, is my average heart rate is a little

00:22:06.420 bit higher than what I think it should be.

00:22:08.780 Like it's around, I mean, on low days, it might be in low fifties, but it's usually 59 to 63.

00:22:14.440 Like even when I'm asleep.

00:22:16.140 Okay.

00:22:16.580 Yeah.

00:22:17.000 Yeah.

00:22:17.200 You can get that down.

00:22:18.380 Yeah.

00:22:19.060 Yeah.

00:22:19.260 So a beta blocker, it depends on the country.

00:22:22.160 So here I can buy it over the counter.

00:22:23.880 It's one of the good things about Thailand.

00:22:25.940 I can get 99% of what I want over the counter.

00:22:30.840 But no script.

00:22:31.700 Maybe you just go to the pharmacy or the chemist.

00:22:33.840 No, just go to the pharmacy.

00:22:35.380 You walk in, you said, I need Nebulet, which is a Nebivalol, the pharmaceutical brand.

00:22:39.880 And they, they'll give it to you, you know, as long as you pay for it.

00:22:43.100 It's not cheap.

00:22:43.280 Yeah.

00:22:43.300 I'd have to convince my doctor to script it and they're always tight for everything.

00:22:47.080 Right.

00:22:47.420 So, and that's why there's online pharmacies, but then you're running the risk of importation.

00:22:51.760 There's always a risk of prescribing stuff online, self-prescribing stuff online, but

00:22:56.860 it's basically the bodybuilding scene anyway.

00:22:59.080 I mean, you're self-prescribing because we're taking more than hormone replacement.

00:23:03.140 So you get quite resourceful figuring out where to get stuff besides what you're able to get

00:23:09.960 on prescription.

00:23:11.140 And if you need a prescription, well, there's always methods to negotiate with your doctor

00:23:14.940 to get it prescribed, right?

00:23:16.720 Because Nebulet, there's no underground labs or Nebivalol, there's no underground labs that

00:23:22.020 produce that stuff.

00:23:22.700 So you have to get pharmaceutical grade.

00:23:24.680 I'll tell you a story in a minute that like, you know, literally made my TRT doctor jump out

00:23:29.900 of his chair when I had to go through some labs, but I'm just going to try to catch these

00:23:34.880 super chats as they come in.

00:23:36.580 So did you know, Matt says, what do you wish you knew about tests when you were young that,

00:23:40.060 you know, that, you know, now, I guess is the full question.

00:23:44.140 All esters are the same if you do your injection frequency more frequently.

00:23:49.520 So I just started again, a cycle after being off for about eight and a half months and other

00:23:55.180 side, man, acne is coming back already.

00:23:58.300 So that's because of hormonal fluctuations.

00:24:01.240 So even though if you take a longer testosterone ester twice a week, if you inject that every

00:24:06.820 day, you get more stable serum concentrations.

00:24:09.560 And one of the issues with taking steroids is these hormonal fluctuations causing too much

00:24:15.460 conversion into estrogen, which then you have high tests and then high estrogen and then

00:24:19.500 high tests and high estrogen.

00:24:20.980 And this fluctuation contributes to acne or gynecomacity or water retention, or maybe hair loss

00:24:26.300 because the testosterone converts into dihydrotestosterone, which is one of the causes for hair loss.

00:24:32.980 Now, I think for you, that's really not an issue.

00:24:36.560 And for me, neither.

00:24:37.740 It is because you chose to be right.

00:24:39.740 Shaven and I seem to be immune for hair loss, but everybody gets some sort of side effect,

00:24:45.260 whether that's acne or hair loss or gynecomacity or water retention.

00:24:49.060 Those are like the low hanging fruit side effects that are almost immediate.

00:24:53.460 And what I wish I knew is that regardless of the testosterone formula that you're taking,

00:24:59.460 if you administer that every day, you mitigate a lot of these side effects.

00:25:05.320 One of the questions I get a lot from guys like on tea is essentially, well, aren't you

00:25:12.000 going to lose your hair?

00:25:13.140 And I mean, the way that I handle it, I'd love to hear your feedback.

00:25:15.320 The way that I handle it is if you're predisposed, like if you were already losing your hair

00:25:19.860 before you added therapeutic doses of testosterone, you're probably going to continue to lose your

00:25:25.520 hair or it may accelerate it.

00:25:26.720 But if you've never been really losing much of your hair pre-TRT, it's probably not going

00:25:31.480 to do anything, right?

00:25:32.940 Yeah.

00:25:33.300 Generic predisposition highly contributes.

00:25:35.840 So you have a condition called androgenetic alopecia, which is basically the same as benign

00:25:41.980 prostate enlargement.

00:25:43.280 And then it's mostly hereditary.

00:25:45.740 It's how your body responds to dihydrotestosterone.

00:25:48.700 DHT, yeah.

00:25:49.680 Yeah.

00:25:50.260 And it also depends on how much dihydrotestosterone you're producing.

00:25:54.240 So funnily enough, I produce a ton of dihydrotestosterone.

00:25:58.440 My testosterone is in the middle of the range and my dihydrotestosterone is two and a half

00:26:04.160 times out of the reference range.

00:26:06.480 Yet, I have no hair loss.

00:26:08.960 It's not in my family.

00:26:09.920 And I have no prostate enlargement, which is confirmed with ultrasounds multiple times.

00:26:15.840 So it really depends on how much you're converting and how predispositioned you are to the response

00:26:21.940 of that.

00:26:23.040 Now, if your response is severe, then all the dihydrotestosterone derivatives are off the

00:26:29.500 table.

00:26:29.900 The primabolin, the anivar, the winstrol, the masterone, et cetera.

00:26:33.320 So all you have to do is look at your parents and grandparents.

00:26:39.100 If they're bald, you're going to get bald.

00:26:40.620 And you have to put some preventative measures in place to prevent that from happening.

00:26:44.480 And there's, well, a million different methods, which I'm not familiar with because I didn't

00:26:49.340 have to, I never had to deal with the hair loss.

00:26:52.040 And that's why we have, you know, Derek from More Plates, More Dates, he's highly specialized

00:26:55.640 in hair loss prevention.

00:26:58.020 Yeah, if you want to learn how to keep your hair, you know, watch this channel because

00:27:01.880 he's got tons of videos on strategies to try to hold.

00:27:06.560 I'm of the just shave your head club.

00:27:08.740 Yeah, me too.

00:27:09.840 I've used, you know, primabolin on top of TRT.

00:27:13.840 I've used, you know, like anivar on top of TRT.

00:27:16.780 And those are the ones that he's talking about that convert that can be problematic if you're

00:27:20.760 predisposed to hair loss.

00:27:22.600 I wanted to ask you about the enlarged prostate thing, because I've heard conflicting stories

00:27:27.720 on it.

00:27:28.100 I've heard DHT is a contributor to enlarged prostate issues.

00:27:32.080 And I've seen other doctors and even guys on YouTube, I think Dr. Eric Berg is one of

00:27:37.360 the more prominent ones with a large channel, say things like, I think it was estrogen and

00:27:42.980 insulin are the causes of enlarged prostate.

00:27:45.760 What's your take on that?

00:27:47.220 It's one of those organs that's a response to a lot of different things, including stress.

00:27:51.940 Like what I saw in the, when I was still consulting and you're surrounded with consultants around

00:27:57.220 50 years old and are in a high stress environment, 24 seven, they get all sorts of issues, hair

00:28:03.240 loss, prostate enlargement, um, all kinds of issues.

00:28:07.340 When you say stress, like, like, like stress measured as cortisol levels in the blood.

00:28:11.140 Well, one of those, and of course stress is also something self-induced, how you respond

00:28:16.360 to particular situations.

00:28:17.680 Now, nobivalol helps with that because it keeps your sympathetic nervous system down a little

00:28:21.760 bit and, and your heart rate down as well.

00:28:23.440 So you're able to be a little bit more, uh, stress resistant that way.

00:28:27.580 Uh, that's one of the also hidden reasons why I taken a bivalol, right?

00:28:31.040 Because being self-employed is also a self, a little bit of a stressful environment because

00:28:35.120 there's so much influx of work.

00:28:37.600 Now for the guys that are in a high stress environment that could have a compounding effect

00:28:43.120 on prostate enlargement, same as the dihydrotestosterone.

00:28:46.440 Um, same as, um, there's, um, there's a condition called varicose cells, which is the impaired

00:28:52.260 blood flow to the testicles, whether that's from testosterone therapy or, um, just pure

00:28:58.460 circulation or having the area too hot that can also cascade into prostate enlargement.

00:29:04.180 So there's a lot of new evidence coming out why prostate enlargement, um, occurs.

00:29:10.380 And right from the steroid world, the problem is the guys that are running, uh, very high

00:29:15.200 doses of steroids and never really honest about what's going on in their body because

00:29:18.820 they don't want to, they won't, don't want to say that they're having a complication later

00:29:22.680 on in life.

00:29:23.600 So we see some clinical evidence that, uh, dihydrotestosterone and steroids cause some prostate

00:29:29.440 enlargement.

00:29:29.960 But personally, I haven't seen that really to happen, but right.

00:29:36.200 The, the clinical literature say that benign prostate enlargement occurs slowly over time

00:29:40.960 due to dehydrotestosterone.

00:29:43.400 Um, so maybe you don't have it at the age of 30, but by the age of 50, you might have it.

00:29:47.500 Do, do, do males make more DHT in their body as they get older?

00:29:52.800 Because I mean, one of the things that, um, I've heard is that, um, like it's a normal

00:29:58.660 process for your prostate to enlarge as you get older as a male.

00:30:02.320 So don't worry about it too much unless it, it turns into something problematic like cancer

00:30:06.700 or your PSA markers, you know, spike and there's other things to look at.

00:30:10.640 Um, so is it, so is it your body making more DHT as you get older?

00:30:15.240 No, it's a community live effect over time, which makes it a little bit tricky because

00:30:20.260 if you're a bodybuilder or you're, you're doing TRT plus and you take a dihydrotestosterone

00:30:24.540 derivative that then compounds on top of the dihydrotestosterone that you're producing

00:30:29.260 naturally or, or converting from the testosterone.

00:30:31.580 So now let's say you were drug free until the age of 25, you have a certain burden of DHT

00:30:36.880 on your prostate, and then you go on primo and five times higher than, uh, your natural

00:30:42.860 DHT levels.

00:30:43.860 This is compounding into benign prostate enlargement, which might accelerate it over time.

00:30:49.640 And I haven't seen it in my immediate surroundings.

00:30:52.340 And I'm in touch with a lot of bodybuilders who take a lot, a lot of dihydrotestosterone

00:30:56.640 derivatives.

00:30:57.620 So I think it's, it's just a compounding effect.

00:30:59.860 It seems with acne and, and, and gynecomastia, all these organ issues, it's usually multifactorial.

00:31:06.240 And, uh, the best we can do is just monitor it with organ imaging and blood work and then

00:31:12.500 make the appropriate actions.

00:31:13.820 But I've seen more benign prostate enlargement with guys who are not using steroids, who are

00:31:18.680 in high stress environments and don't really take care of their health, smoking, drinking,

00:31:23.160 uh, you know, to take the edge off of work.

00:31:25.300 And those guys usually get far worse, uh, organ issues than the guys that use steroids and

00:31:31.500 take care of their health, low stress environment and exercise frequently.

00:31:35.980 So, right.

00:31:36.860 All these things you just have to keep track of.

00:31:38.580 And some guys get unlucky.

00:31:40.620 I did.

00:31:41.460 Their response is far worse than general population and their, their organs are not agreeing.

00:31:46.080 Same is with me with the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

00:31:48.220 Um, cause I know people who did far worse, right?

00:31:50.820 Food wise, steroid wise, and, uh, and I didn't have any issues with their liver.

00:31:55.060 What's the, um, like, what was the signal that, you know, cause concern with the fatty

00:32:00.820 liver disease?

00:32:01.380 Like, was it a distended abdomen?

00:32:02.740 Like, was it blood work?

00:32:04.420 How did you pick up?

00:32:04.900 I didn't catch it.

00:32:05.840 I didn't catch it as much as I know, um, about organ health.

00:32:09.740 I did not catch it because the symptoms of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are not that

00:32:15.040 apparent when you're a bodybuilder.

00:32:16.920 Um, so I did not have high triglycerides in the bloodstream.

00:32:20.700 I did not.

00:32:21.240 I had a little bit of issue getting leaner, but as a body, we were like, okay, I'm getting

00:32:25.540 a little bit older.

00:32:26.220 Maybe my metabolism is coming down.

00:32:28.240 Um, like if you have fat in the liver, it makes it difficult to lose body fat.

00:32:32.260 That's one of the side effects, immediate side effects.

00:32:34.660 Right.

00:32:35.220 I didn't have any jaundice or anything else that would indicate an impaired liver function.

00:32:40.240 No, like yellowing of the, uh, no, I've never had my bilirubin levels out of range.

00:32:46.280 Um, so I think it's, it just, and your liver enzymes are a little bit elevated, but when

00:32:53.300 you train very, very hard, your liver enzymes elevate also because these enzymes are also

00:32:57.180 found in skeletal muscle.

00:32:58.500 You stress your body a little bit more too.

00:32:59.920 Right.

00:33:00.360 So, and then I would take a week off from training and everything would kind of fall

00:33:03.820 back into baseline.

00:33:04.580 And then I would assume, okay, I'm good.

00:33:06.880 And then I did some organ imaging, I guess, a routine checkup.

00:33:10.520 And then I was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

00:33:13.120 But I think that happened over maybe three or four years.

00:33:17.220 And because as you want to get bigger, you eat more food.

00:33:20.300 Yeah.

00:33:20.620 Well, yeah.

00:33:21.140 That's like one of the things that stresses your body and your organs is, is high, high

00:33:25.520 caloric, you know, consumption.

00:33:26.760 That's why there's a lot of, um, you know, medical experts that are, that are talking

00:33:30.760 more and more about fasting and, you know, like given your, you know, given like the road

00:33:35.120 works a little bit of a break.

00:33:36.140 So you take food out of the equation.

00:33:37.520 Right.

00:33:38.340 Um, I've never heard you talk about met, metformin.

00:33:41.460 Um, and that's one of the, uh, drugs that's been, it's probably one of the most well-researched

00:33:47.240 drugs.

00:33:47.560 And I've got a good friend who, um, basically says, you know, the trifecta that, that, that

00:33:53.060 you want to take for longevity and for health is TRT, uh, metformin.

00:33:58.520 What was the other one that he had?

00:33:59.900 Oh, and, uh, Cialis, you know, for like kidney health and heart health and vascular, you know,

00:34:05.000 dilation, that sort of stuff.

00:34:06.380 And, and, uh, another performance, but that's somewhere else.

00:34:09.240 Of course.

00:34:09.520 Yeah.

00:34:10.000 Yeah.

00:34:10.320 Yeah.

00:34:10.560 Right.

00:34:10.860 But add a benefit, right?

00:34:12.320 Yeah.

00:34:12.500 Yeah.

00:34:12.800 You've got a lot of benefits, but I mean, like, what's your take on metformin?

00:34:16.020 Cause I've never heard you talk about it.

00:34:17.560 So usually I talk from the context of bodybuilding, which is not slowly changing, right?

00:34:22.880 Which, um, by the way, guys, so you know what it is in case you're unfamiliar, it's the

00:34:26.780 drug normally given to diabetics to help manage their blood sugar.

00:34:30.300 Right.

00:34:30.820 So the, the pharmacology of metformin is as following, um, it's a drug that lowers glucose

00:34:37.000 release from the liver.

00:34:38.900 And in, as a result of that, it also lowers gastric emptying.

00:34:41.860 So it keeps the, um, serum concentrations of your blood glucose more stable.

00:34:47.880 Increasing insulin, uh, sensitivity over time.

00:34:50.340 Right.

00:34:50.560 So normally when you eat a meal, you digest it quite rapidly in the beginning.

00:34:54.800 And then, so your, your concentrations go up and then kind of come down.

00:34:58.260 And as they're very, very high, same as a bigger injection of testosterone, that's where

00:35:03.280 the side effects occur.

00:35:04.360 So the metformin helps to regulate your glucose levels, allowing your body adequate time to

00:35:09.240 absorb the glucose into the muscle.

00:35:10.700 And, and not have this, like this super pulse of insulin following a meal.

00:35:16.880 Um, so in this action, it improves insulin sensitivity and the added benefits of metformin

00:35:23.160 is that it also lowers IGF-1 secretion in the liver, which as a bodybuilder, you kind of

00:35:28.180 want because IGF-1 helps with nutrient partitioning, nutrient uptake, and eventually results in a muscle

00:35:34.560 growth, right?

00:35:35.240 If you train for bodybuilding.

00:35:36.340 So usually the bodybuilders avoid the metformin, but as you get older, you realize, you know,

00:35:42.160 life is finite and I don't want so much anabolism and growth and, and all that stuff going on

00:35:47.320 in my body.

00:35:48.520 It's better to reduce the IGF-1 and then not be so subject to aging.

00:35:53.680 So this is why we take metformin because IGF-1 is directly correlated with aging.

00:36:00.180 So if you keep your IGF-1 levels down, you age less rapidly, but it also means that you

00:36:05.760 recover less rapidly.

00:36:07.340 Now you have testosterone to compensate and most guys are in testosterone and growth hormone

00:36:11.800 a little bit, which secretes IGF-1, but then you blunt that with metformin.

00:36:16.140 But this is the funny thing about hormone replacement.

00:36:18.020 You start with one direction and then it gets a little bit more complicated as you notice

00:36:23.580 the benefits of each compound.

00:36:25.700 So are you a supporter of it for, for, for aging men or like what you take on it?

00:36:30.920 I think so.

00:36:31.420 Yeah.

00:36:31.660 I think by the age of 40, you should be, you should add it in.

00:36:35.240 And, but if you have the aspirations to be a phenomenally large bodybuilder, um, then there,

00:36:40.660 there's no place for it, but for anti-aging, yes.

00:36:43.400 Okay.

00:36:43.720 Yeah.

00:36:43.900 And I might consider to add it in in the future because right as of now I have no aspirations

00:36:48.460 to be gigantic anymore.

00:36:50.220 I'm trying to keep my weight down so I don't have these, these health issues come back.

00:36:55.260 What's your ideal weight for, you know, the optics of, you know, strength and masculinity?

00:36:59.360 I think about 95 kilos, 200 pounds.

00:37:02.300 Yeah.

00:37:03.300 Yeah.

00:37:03.500 Especially in Asia.

00:37:04.620 Like I noticed that besides the interaction with people and how you positioned with women,

00:37:10.020 it's also uncomfortable.

00:37:11.920 Yeah.

00:37:12.480 Being, being big.

00:37:13.580 Right.

00:37:13.800 And then usually my cutoff is about 200, 225 pounds.

00:37:16.720 And I'm not, not the tallest guy, so it's already pretty heavy for me.

00:37:20.780 So that's where I'm trying to keep it.

00:37:22.240 Yeah.

00:37:22.700 Let me, uh, let me catch up on some of these, uh, questions in super chat.

00:37:26.140 Steve, please comment on what you, on what some see as the overuse of AI.

00:37:30.940 So that's aromatized inhibitors, which basically, uh, limit the conversion of testosterone to estrogen

00:37:36.960 in the man's body.

00:37:37.960 A lot of, uh, cookie cutter clinics in North America will just say, here's 200 milligrams

00:37:42.980 of testosterone.

00:37:44.340 Here's an AI tab.

00:37:45.540 Take every three days and go off and have some fun.

00:37:48.920 Um, would be great for the community here.

00:37:50.960 So what's your take on AIs, generally speaking?

00:37:53.720 So there's some unique side effects of, uh, aromatized inhibitors, which are usually related

00:37:59.080 to low estradiol.

00:38:00.420 So if you overuse aromatized inhibitors, you get low estrogen, which then cascades into all

00:38:05.120 kinds of issues, right?

00:38:06.720 Libido issues, uh, joint pain, uh, horrible lipid levels.

00:38:10.380 And, and of course, hormone replacement therapy is going to change your lipids anyway.

00:38:13.940 So you need a little bit of estradiol to help with cardio protection to keep your HDL and

00:38:19.320 LDL ratio favorable.

00:38:21.020 So the overuse of AIs is it's very easy to mitigate that you go in for blood work, you

00:38:26.400 check your estradiol and your lipid levels, and you make an adjustment.

00:38:29.980 Now the cookie cutter clinics, they will put you on tests and, and, uh, arimidex, right?

00:38:36.080 Um, which in a lot of cases is not required.

00:38:39.500 Like if you change your injection frequency, even though it's more cumbersome, you go with

00:38:43.220 daily injections, 25 milligrams, 35 milligrams, however many milligrams you feel comfortable

00:38:48.860 with.

00:38:49.400 You get more stable serum concentrations of testosterone and more stable serum concentrations

00:38:54.020 of estradiol.

00:38:54.840 Maybe you don't need an aromatized inhibitor.

00:38:56.400 Or you get your body fat levels lower because a lot of the testosterone converts into estradiol

00:39:02.240 in the body fat.

00:39:03.660 So you see a lot of guys that go on TRT, like TRT nowadays is like the new, uh, midlife crisis

00:39:08.840 sports car.

00:39:09.720 Yeah.

00:39:10.760 That's right.

00:39:11.780 Yeah.

00:39:12.000 Yeah.

00:39:12.120 I'm like, Hmm, feel a bit old, low libido and not really motivated.

00:39:15.560 Um, not financially secure enough for a sports car.

00:39:18.180 You see it as a poor investment.

00:39:20.040 Maybe you should do some TRT, but, but you, you need to be in a, in a good state of health

00:39:25.100 and, and have low body fat levels, at least below 12%.

00:39:28.900 And then the outcome of going on TRT is far more positive than, uh, going in, going on

00:39:36.080 TRT when you're sick and stressed and fat and, right.

00:39:39.420 And unhealthy, you're still not following the lifestyle of, of, right.

00:39:43.000 Making your own food and going to the gym and that kind of stuff.

00:39:45.520 So plus then the dose is usually higher, uh, to get the same good feeling, um, than a guy

00:39:52.620 that's already healthy and, and can get away with far less.

00:39:55.540 So with TRT, there's, there's a lot of methods to manage your estradiol, including TRT plus.

00:40:01.380 That's what I'm doing.

00:40:02.820 150 milligrams of testosterone per week.

00:40:06.340 And then a hundred milligrams of primabolin on top because primabolin acts as a, uh,

00:40:11.880 reversely binding aromatized inhibitor, it takes the place of testosterone in the

00:40:17.120 aromatized enzyme and just like arimidex or aromacin or brivarin, it just temporarily

00:40:23.740 blocks it while aromacin permanently blocks it, but it, it temporarily blocks

00:40:27.700 testosterone from entering the aromatized enzyme.

00:40:30.240 And because, uh, primabolin doesn't convert into estradiol.

00:40:33.780 Um, now testosterone is not allowed to convert into estradiol.

00:40:36.660 So you keep your levels very stable.

00:40:38.400 And I found for myself, it works very well to have testosterone and primabolin

00:40:41.660 in about a one-to-one ratio to, um, right.

00:40:45.560 You get the additional anabolism of primo, you get a little bit leaner gains and you

00:40:50.060 don't hold so much water, water, more quality muscle idea, better appearance.

00:40:55.160 So about 150 tests, hundreds, 125 milligrams of primo, which is obviously TRT plus, but

00:41:01.100 I'm still a bodybuilder.

00:41:01.960 So I, I, I feel that I need a little bit more and that's basically the new way to

00:41:06.100 approach it.

00:41:06.900 So you don't even need an aromatized inhibitor.

00:41:09.420 You don't need to have to worry about low estrogen levels and all the negative effects

00:41:13.580 that come from low estrogen.

00:41:15.320 Um, so just by managing it a little bit more accordingly.

00:41:18.860 Yeah.

00:41:19.220 Yeah.

00:41:19.580 I'll say this, uh, I've, I've added primo to my mix.

00:41:24.000 And since I did that, my estrogen levels came down to range of like proper range levels.

00:41:29.180 Like I was a high converter.

00:41:30.400 I don't have a lot of body fat, but the application of therapeutic testosterone, even in like normal

00:41:35.700 dosages, like a hundred, 120, 125 milligrams per week, I, I convert high.

00:41:40.400 Like I'm right at the top of the range.

00:41:42.060 Right.

00:41:42.320 Oh, really?

00:41:42.780 Okay.

00:41:42.980 So primo for me was like perfect.

00:41:45.200 Um, it's hard to get though.

00:41:47.100 Are you taking any zinc?

00:41:48.860 I am taking zinc.

00:41:49.940 Yeah.

00:41:50.280 Yeah.

00:41:50.440 I'm taking probably about 50 milligrams of zinc daily.

00:41:53.020 Okay.

00:41:53.260 That's good.

00:41:53.740 That's good.

00:41:54.100 Cause that also acts as a, a little bit of an aromatized inhibitor indirectly.

00:41:58.160 Oh, is that right?

00:41:58.600 Um, yeah, yeah.

00:42:00.240 I use dim.

00:42:01.800 I've used, uh, CDG as well, which, you know, which I found, uh, work, but I mean, the thing

00:42:06.860 that's like the easiest is just add some primo to the mix and it's done.

00:42:09.660 It's taken care.

00:42:10.680 Right.

00:42:11.020 Plus, plus you get to look better.

00:42:12.460 So, and you, you feel better.

00:42:13.560 You get a little bit of, uh, additional, uh, hematocrit, which is good for performance.

00:42:17.620 And then I don't see an issue regarding hematocrit because again, a primo ballon was

00:42:21.600 prescribed as, um, uh, a method to raise hematocrit.

00:42:25.840 And so that's what it's medically prescribed for.

00:42:28.520 Is that right?

00:42:29.800 Yeah.

00:42:30.080 It must have been a disease because both hemoglobin and hematocrit for me came down now.

00:42:35.200 Oh, really?

00:42:35.800 I don't know if it's because I bought a sauna and I've heard like, you know, applying infrared,

00:42:42.180 um, sauna to your body, which I usually do about 45 minutes a day.

00:42:45.780 Not so much in the summertime cause I'm out in the sun sweating anyway, but, um, apparently

00:42:49.800 it, it like thins your blood a little bit.

00:42:52.040 I don't know if that's true.

00:42:52.800 Oh, really?

00:42:53.360 I don't know.

00:42:54.500 No, I, that I don't know.

00:42:55.540 Yeah.

00:42:55.840 I mean, it could be that you're increasing your metabolic rate and it's the same as like

00:42:59.900 niacin it to help with lipids.

00:43:02.560 It, it opens up the capillaries allowing for more blood flow and maybe the sauna is increasing

00:43:07.040 blood flow allowing for lower hematocrit levels speculating a little bit.

00:43:12.200 So I don't hold me accountable to this, um, whatever works.

00:43:17.540 Like the funny thing is there's so many methods to optimize something and, and with hormone

00:43:24.640 replacement or bodybuilding, you just do what works for your body considering it's not doing

00:43:28.900 anything unhealthy.

00:43:30.560 Um, so if you do the sauna.

00:43:31.820 Like everybody's body is going to respond differently to inputs too.

00:43:35.960 Yeah.

00:43:36.140 Yeah.

00:43:36.720 Otherwise we would all look the same and we could do the same cookie cutter approach, right?

00:43:39.960 We're all uniquely different.

00:43:41.500 If you do the sauna, I would recommend a little bit of an ice pack to a chill the area.

00:43:44.960 I think I'm going to get a, um, ice bath for afterwards.

00:43:47.980 So I can do the sauna first and I'm going to go into an ice bath afterwards.

00:43:50.740 So that'll be the next thing I add to the.

00:43:52.380 Have, have, have a look at some of the fertility studies where they show that increasing your

00:43:57.340 testicle, um, uh, what is temperature beyond a certain range for a certain amount of time

00:44:02.840 that it completely arrests spermatogenesis.

00:44:05.860 You're not losing sperm.

00:44:07.320 Yeah.

00:44:07.760 So you, so you sterilize yourself sitting in a sauna.

00:44:10.640 Yeah.

00:44:11.020 And a hot bath also.

00:44:12.220 Yeah.

00:44:12.500 Yeah.

00:44:12.780 Yeah.

00:44:13.080 Even though, even though it's very, very enjoyable, right.

00:44:15.860 And you get a little bit of a sweat going or remove some toxins that way.

00:44:18.980 Apparently it's also not good for fertility, but, um, well, this day and age, you, you might

00:44:24.100 want to have an impaired fertility anyways.

00:44:25.980 Yeah.

00:44:26.240 I mean, I'm not interested in having any more kids.

00:44:28.300 Um, yeah, I was going to say, because we mentioned Primo a few times and I don't think

00:44:32.400 you can get it from a TRT clinic in the U S I know you get it.

00:44:35.540 No.

00:44:35.980 Like, um, you can get it in Mexico over the counter.

00:44:39.160 I'm sure you get it in Thailand.

00:44:40.560 And so you're going to have to find somebody that is a home brewer.

00:44:44.300 I mean, that's where I get mine from.

00:44:46.400 Yeah.

00:44:46.520 Or an online source.

00:44:47.780 Yeah.

00:44:48.060 Yeah.

00:44:48.220 Or an online source.

00:44:49.480 Where there's a will, there's a way I would always say.

00:44:51.900 Yeah.

00:44:52.280 Um, and it's a wonderful compound.

00:44:53.920 It's, it's great.

00:44:54.680 But, but again, if you're predisposed to losing your hair, it'll probably accelerate.

00:44:58.940 It just, you know, heads up.

00:45:00.100 So, you know, yeah.

00:45:00.780 Uh, another, another fair warning for Primo is if you have sleep apnea or you're a little

00:45:05.500 bit higher body weight and you you're snoring at night, you wake up gasping for air.

00:45:09.560 You didn't do a sleep study yet, or you don't have a CPAP.

00:45:11.900 That is also causing your hematica to go up.

00:45:15.480 That's right.

00:45:15.880 Yeah.

00:45:16.160 So if you're on TRT, which also causes, right.

00:45:19.280 You're not breathing.

00:45:19.860 Your hematica is going up from the sleep apnea, from the testosterone.

00:45:22.360 And then the Primo on top might send you over the edge.

00:45:25.360 Even if it's a low dose of one ampoule per week, it might send you over the edge to the

00:45:29.580 point you need to donate every four weeks.

00:45:31.440 Yeah.

00:45:31.880 So keep that in mind.

00:45:32.780 Get your sleep apnea addressed first before you add in an erythropoic compound like testosterone,

00:45:38.160 especially Prima bolan.

00:45:38.900 Prima bolan is all these things compound, you know, and there's, um, I don't have it

00:45:43.580 here on my desk, but there's a device called a low key L O O K E E, um, which, which is

00:45:51.220 not expensive.

00:45:51.680 It's a hundred bucks and you basically wear it on your wrist and it has this extended

00:45:55.400 cord that goes to your finger with a red light and it measures your blood oxygen levels

00:45:59.740 continuously through the night.

00:46:01.240 So if you're unsure, if you have sleep apnea, get that little device, it's a hundred bucks

00:46:05.740 and it's got a great little app.

00:46:07.480 It'll download all the data via Bluetooth and it'll tell you what your, what your concentration

00:46:11.580 of blood oxygen levels is throughout the entire night.

00:46:14.600 It's really, that's great.

00:46:15.820 That's, that's very good.

00:46:16.800 Well, I will have to look into that because I've been telling my clients to record themselves

00:46:20.200 on a webcam all night and then go through, go, go through the footage to see if they're

00:46:25.160 gasping.

00:46:25.700 Right.

00:46:26.060 So this is far better.

00:46:27.920 It's actually more accurate than this aura ring, um, because of how it collects the data

00:46:32.540 because it, because it uses this bright red light to basically collect the blood oxygen,

00:46:36.760 um, levels.

00:46:37.940 This thing will say sometime like, and it also, um, tracks your pulse rate too.

00:46:43.800 So this thing sometimes will not pick up on the spikes in my heart rate.

00:46:48.320 And sometimes when I'm sleeping, like through the function of dreaming or something that

00:46:51.760 might be going on with movement, you're my, my heart rate will spike up like 130 beats

00:46:57.300 per minute, you know, for short, short bursts hearing there at night.

00:47:00.620 Yeah.

00:47:01.580 And then I'll, you know, take the data from the low key device and I'll compare it to

00:47:05.840 my aura ring and the aura ring doesn't even pick up on it.

00:47:09.060 So it's a far more accurate, um, tracking mechanism than 130.

00:47:14.020 Yeah.

00:47:14.680 That might be a little bit of sleep apnea.

00:47:17.520 You, do you ever wake up gasping for air?

00:47:19.000 Do you have any dips in oxygen levels?

00:47:21.380 Um, yeah, the SpO2 dips sometimes, but it's not as dramatic as it used to be.

00:47:26.500 So a couple of things that I did to fix these, the sleep apnea problem, which I haven't completely

00:47:31.600 corrected yet is I got a chili pad mattress.

00:47:34.400 So it lowers my blood temperature or not my blood temperature, but it, but it lowers your

00:47:38.600 core temperature.

00:47:39.500 Right.

00:47:39.940 You sleep better.

00:47:40.820 And I've also found sleeping on my right side is, is the best way to keep the, um, uh, air

00:47:48.600 passage clear.

00:47:49.560 Right.

00:47:50.040 So as long as I'm sleeping, yeah, sometimes you slobber a little bit and you're waking up

00:47:53.280 a little bit of drool on the pillow, but whatever, whatever.

00:47:56.500 If, if, if there's a woman around, it's too late.

00:47:59.040 Well, she, she's already sleeping.

00:48:00.820 Yeah.

00:48:03.340 Um, us, us healthcare worker here says, which clinics or online services do you use to monitor

00:48:09.260 labs, ultrasounds and testosterone?

00:48:11.480 What's your take on that in the U S?

00:48:13.360 So there's quest lab corp and Merrick health, the, the, the private clinic of Derek for more

00:48:19.580 plates, more dates.

00:48:20.340 And those are all places you can do blood work.

00:48:22.480 Right.

00:48:22.920 The ultrasounds, you probably need to get a script or, or some sort of referral from

00:48:26.720 your primary care physician and do that at a hospital.

00:48:30.560 Um, testosterone is mostly on prescription or you self prescribe that.

00:48:34.200 So it really depends on the state and, and what you can get in your state and how they

00:48:39.660 handle the, um, the laws or, or how you get a referral for blood work.

00:48:45.320 Because in some States you can just walk into lab corp, have your blood drawn, they send

00:48:49.400 it in for analysis and you get the results by email.

00:48:52.080 Another state you have to go through your primary healthcare physician, um, pretend that

00:48:56.280 you're sick and all things wrong with your body and then give some sort of incentive for

00:49:00.880 them to write you a referral, but all the markers that you need, and then you still need

00:49:04.960 to pay out of pocket.

00:49:05.800 So it really depends on where you are.

00:49:08.460 Um, but I know quest lab corp and then Merrick health there, those are probably the go to

00:49:13.240 places in the States to, uh, get a blood work service.

00:49:16.880 And then America health also offers, um, blood work analysis with some of their, um, inpatient

00:49:23.040 care coordinators and otherwise, well, uh, I offer consultations for blood work review,

00:49:28.600 uh, especially for the guys that are self-prescribing, you know where to find me.

00:49:32.900 Yeah.

00:49:33.260 If you're self-prescribing, don't, don't do it unless you know exactly what you're doing.

00:49:36.960 Right.

00:49:37.460 So there's a lot of knowledgeable guys that offer guidance for that, uh, through consultations.

00:49:42.280 Yeah.

00:49:43.060 And ultrasounds, it really depends.

00:49:44.360 Like here in Thailand, I can walk into a lab, pay out of pocket, do like 50, a hundred

00:49:50.280 different markers if I want to.

00:49:51.900 And it's pretty affordable.

00:49:53.420 Same with the ultrasounds, same with the MRI.

00:49:56.040 It just went, well, the MRI had to get a script for, yeah.

00:49:58.660 The MRI had a script.

00:50:00.100 Yeah.

00:50:00.180 Let me, uh, just drop in the chat.

00:50:03.400 Cause I know somebody who's going to message me or email me later.

00:50:05.380 Like, what did you say that monitoring devices, it's called the low key.

00:50:08.520 And then here's the link.

00:50:10.620 Uh, so it's L O O K E E.

00:50:12.960 And, um, they've got a bunch of different ones there.

00:50:14.900 You guys can check it out.

00:50:15.660 It's in the live chat.

00:50:17.080 Um, you mentioned the, do you have a discount code or a referral?

00:50:21.340 No, I have no code for that.

00:50:22.480 It's, I just happen to like the product.

00:50:24.140 Yeah.

00:50:24.420 It's really good.

00:50:25.300 You should.

00:50:25.920 It sounds like a great product.

00:50:27.040 So I will definitely look into it myself also.

00:50:29.700 Yeah.

00:50:30.260 I, um, I didn't go for the fingertip one.

00:50:32.520 There's one that'll stay like right on your fingertip.

00:50:34.780 Yeah.

00:50:35.100 That one I have.

00:50:35.900 Yeah.

00:50:36.100 Yeah.

00:50:36.580 Yeah.

00:50:36.780 Yeah.

00:50:37.220 From the research I got, it's not the best for sleeping with the one that has a wristband,

00:50:41.040 which has a cord that goes to your finger is basically the one that I like.

00:50:44.420 Uh, the one that you put in your finger, it's like $2 on Aliexpress and that I check my ox

00:50:49.700 because I, during COVID during this, this crisis, you, uh, that's one of the easiest

00:50:54.700 way to detect if you're, if you're having issues because your blood oxygen levels go

00:50:58.320 down.

00:50:58.720 Oh, is that right?

00:50:59.140 Yeah.

00:50:59.900 I just keep checking my, my finger every couple of days and just to see, uh, if it

00:51:04.280 drops below a 99, which it so far it hasn't.

00:51:07.200 So 99 is pretty high.

00:51:08.580 I mean, if you've got a 99 saturation rate, that's, that's really good.

00:51:12.300 Cardio every day for the last 10 years.

00:51:14.420 Yeah.

00:51:15.500 Um, so Mr. Singh says, you mentioned the pituitary stop sending signals to produce

00:51:20.060 testosterone.

00:51:20.660 Is there a natural way to get your pituitary communicating normally after TRT?

00:51:24.540 That would be HCG.

00:51:25.840 I would think, wouldn't it be?

00:51:27.260 Uh, no, HCG just sends the signal to your testicles.

00:51:30.320 So there's, um, naturally you'll just have to wait.

00:51:35.980 It usually takes about six months, maybe a year before everything kind of picks up again.

00:51:40.740 So that's why we do post cycle therapy where you can call it post TRT.

00:51:44.420 Yeah.

00:51:45.420 Um, that's double therapy, but it is what it is.

00:51:48.860 Uh, so you'll use fertility drugs to restart the signaling process.

00:51:54.260 You can use kiss peptin 10, which has a little bit of evidence that it's able to, um, secrete

00:52:00.440 the lute enhancing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone from the pituitary.

00:52:03.640 Or you use a gonadotropin hormone, releasing hormone analog, like gonadotropin, tryptirelin,

00:52:11.080 bucerillin.

00:52:11.700 You have to dose that, uh, low dosages probably multiple times per day just to send a little

00:52:16.460 bit of signal.

00:52:16.920 So now you're replacing the signal from the hypothalamus to the pituitary with three different

00:52:21.500 drugs.

00:52:21.920 The kiss peptin 10 works on the hypothalamus to release gonadotropin hormone, releasing

00:52:27.100 hormone, but you can mimic this with one of the fertility drugs.

00:52:30.920 And then the last step from the pituitary to the testicles is luteinizing hormone, follicle

00:52:35.380 stimulant hormone, which you can mimic with ACG or human menopausal gonadotropin, which

00:52:42.780 contains luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulant hormone.

00:52:45.820 So you'll have to choose which of these steps you want to restart.

00:52:52.480 And, uh, that's going to take time and not every drug is as efficacious as the next guy,

00:52:57.620 uh, the next drug.

00:52:58.940 So you'll have to figure out what works.

00:53:00.120 So I've been running an experiment with kiss peptin 10 didn't work, didn't raise my LH

00:53:05.500 and FSH levels.

00:53:06.360 And I'm still running it just to get the blood work.

00:53:09.280 And then I probably have to look at another drug.

00:53:11.360 You can block the estrogen receptor in the hypothalamus and pituitary with Novodex, Clomid

00:53:17.460 and Clomiphene, Roloxifene, and send a little bit of signal that way, because there's always

00:53:22.060 a negative feedback.

00:53:23.720 And of course, when you're coming off TRT, you're, you're kind of in like this hormonal

00:53:27.880 imbalance limbo and, and the selective estrogen receptor modulator helps with that, but it also

00:53:32.880 acts as an estrogen in the brain.

00:53:34.940 So the Clomid or Enclomiphene might give you a little bit of side effects, you know, estrogenic

00:53:39.240 side effects in the brain.

00:53:40.240 And so you, you watch Titanic and then suddenly here's, you're starting, really, it's, it's

00:53:45.240 insane.

00:53:46.200 Like you think you're the most alpha male and you know, all right, you're successful and

00:53:50.980 you've accomplished a lot of things and you're, and you're settled and you're grounded.

00:53:54.500 Then you take Clomid or Enclomiphene.

00:53:56.860 You start freaking crying during movies.

00:53:59.840 Yeah.

00:54:00.500 You know, what's interesting.

00:54:01.600 A lot of people think that when you start introducing therapeutic doses of testosterone into

00:54:07.720 your healthcare regime, as you get older as a guy, like you're going to get more aggressive,

00:54:11.000 you get more like pissed off, you know, you get cut off driving, you know, you're going

00:54:14.620 to get road rage.

00:54:15.400 But for me, I found it actually calmed me.

00:54:17.500 Like, you know, having, having more balanced levels of testosterone and estrogen and all

00:54:22.600 the other hormones actually like stuff didn't bother me so much.

00:54:26.180 Yeah, no, you, because you, you're also actively suppressing cortisol, right?

00:54:31.300 If your testosterone is higher, you suppress your cortisol.

00:54:33.600 And that's also one of those stress hormones that make you a little bit agitated.

00:54:37.220 Yeah.

00:54:37.700 So if your testosterone is at the top of the reference range or a little bit over, right?

00:54:41.220 Wherever you feel comfortable and your estrogen is the same and it's nice and stable, you feel

00:54:45.700 very grounded and leveled.

00:54:47.400 Now you go and test Trembolone and all this bodybuilding stuff and higher dosages.

00:54:52.420 But yeah, road rage is definitely there and you will feel pissed off while driving.

00:54:56.860 I've been there many, many, many times, you know, driving in Asia is a, yes, it's a one

00:55:01.560 hell of a roller coaster, I would say.

00:55:04.380 So it's, it, it, like there's a therapeutic dose where you feel good and then there's a

00:55:09.420 too high of dose where you get good results, but the side effects start to manifest also.

00:55:13.640 Yeah.

00:55:13.780 It's like one of the questions my doctor's always asking me is like, you know, your levels

00:55:17.200 look good.

00:55:17.620 You're a little bit, you know, higher under the reference range.

00:55:19.960 You're getting pissed off easily, you know, you get angry.

00:55:22.180 You have any anger issues.

00:55:23.040 I'm like, no, I feel really good.

00:55:24.180 Actually, I feel very calm.

00:55:25.360 You know, nothing really gets under my skin.

00:55:27.340 So now it's, it just works better for me that way.

00:55:29.820 I think for a lot of men, if you, especially when you're older, even if you like when my

00:55:35.220 testosterone levels came back to about 600 nanograms per deciliter and now that I restarted

00:55:40.580 again, four weeks ago, like quality of life improved tremendously just by having a little

00:55:46.820 bit of testosterone and primobolin in the mix.

00:55:49.040 Like I'm more, better sex drive, uh, more outgoing, more, uh, go getter attitude regarding

00:55:54.640 business.

00:55:55.120 I'm able to work longer, right?

00:55:57.620 During the day.

00:55:58.120 So I can do, well, uh, six in the morning till 10 in the evening if I wanted to, um, right.

00:56:04.160 And I, I'm energetic throughout the day, which I didn't have, um, when I was off TRT.

00:56:12.280 So there's, there's, there's huge benefits.

00:56:15.320 What do you think about that, um, soundbite that came off the Huberman interview?

00:56:19.400 I think he was on Friedman's podcast and he, and he said something along the lines of,

00:56:22.820 of testosterone makes effort feel good.

00:56:25.580 Yeah, it's very true.

00:56:27.360 It's, it's some sort of a dopaminergic or a dopamine response in the brain, uh, where

00:56:33.060 you do something and you get this little reward strategy or reward and through a chemical release.

00:56:38.520 And it, it, it's certainly true.

00:56:41.320 It's certainly true.

00:56:42.240 I mean, you're on hormone replacement in the end of the month when you're doing your

00:56:45.140 financials is a very rewarding, uh, experience, far more rewarding than without the testosterone,

00:56:51.440 which is weird to say.

00:56:53.320 Um, but yeah, it's, it, you're just more driven.

00:56:56.500 I would say more driven and you're less, um, less conflicted on how, which direction you

00:57:04.340 need to go with, uh, business wise.

00:57:07.380 Like if you're investing, for example, sometimes there's a lot that you have, the market says

00:57:11.080 this thing and the news says this thing.

00:57:13.100 And then, then you're not really sure.

00:57:15.200 Should I invest or not invest?

00:57:17.040 Should I sell or not sell?

00:57:19.280 And then now that I'm four weeks back on hormone replacement, I know exactly what to

00:57:23.040 do.

00:57:23.640 There's no conflict.

00:57:25.100 Yeah.

00:57:25.760 It, it, it clears up some of the brain fog.

00:57:28.160 You know, it's one of the things that people don't understand is, uh, when you're deficient

00:57:32.600 in testosterone and one of the things that a lot of guys get prescribed incorrectly in

00:57:37.620 my view is they get SSRIs and antidepressants when they should really be going on testosterone

00:57:42.100 therapy, like a therapeutic dose of it, not nothing like bodybuilder levels, but like

00:57:46.680 just, just getting that, that level fixed.

00:57:49.000 And that fixes a problem for most guys.

00:57:50.780 Right.

00:57:51.380 For sure.

00:57:51.960 For sure.

00:57:52.300 And of course there is a place for SSRIs, but most guys, especially if your testosterone

00:57:57.240 levels are subclinical, that will be the immediate approach going forward because our bodies

00:58:02.600 works on testosterone.

00:58:03.580 And if your body is not, not cooperating and producing sufficient amounts, supplement.

00:58:09.700 I mean, women have been doing that since the age of 15 with birth control.

00:58:13.440 So, right.

00:58:14.640 We should be able to do the same thing.

00:58:16.720 And, and in the end, if you're more productive, more business oriented, um, the whole world

00:58:22.960 benefits because the economy is rolling.

00:58:26.800 That's, that's the way I look at it.

00:58:28.340 So, all right.

00:58:30.200 And then it's just a matter of managing your health accordingly, which if you want to be

00:58:34.620 a bodybuilder, it's a constant sacrifice, but with hormone replacement therapy, even

00:58:39.540 if it's a little bit plus in the management of health is, is, is not that, uh, severe.

00:58:45.200 You can do your blood work every three months, make a couple adjustments and, and go about

00:58:49.280 your business.

00:58:50.240 A lot of people get like overwhelmed with the notion of managing their blood panels.

00:58:55.440 Cause like, really you can't trust your family doctor to do something.

00:58:59.340 If you're one of the guys that's like, you know, getting into your late thirties, your

00:59:01.980 forties, and you're going to your doctor for like your, your annual checkup or your, you

00:59:06.680 know, checkup you do every three years or something like that.

00:59:09.440 And they check your blood and they're like, yeah, it looks like all your blood levels

00:59:12.020 are fine.

00:59:12.520 I mean, you know, the thing with this is, uh, you know, it's like the basketball net.

00:59:16.700 It's like, you know, if you can't dunk the ball, then what they, then what did they

00:59:20.400 do for you?

00:59:21.120 You know, back in school days, they would lower the net.

00:59:23.240 Right.

00:59:23.560 So that, you know, the bar is lowered and all of a sudden, you know, you can dunk the

00:59:26.240 ball.

00:59:26.640 It's kind of the same thing with, with like the blood labs, because I feel anyway that

00:59:31.680 society, government, the state, you know, like the entire narrative seems to be trying

00:59:36.540 to weaken, you know, the Western male and just, just telling guys like, oh yeah, you know,

00:59:41.720 you're fine.

00:59:42.220 But you know, if you don't feel good, I can give you the script for an SSRI, but like your

00:59:46.700 levels are fine.

00:59:47.220 Like, like I have guys that'll, that'll have all the symptoms of low T and they'll go to

00:59:52.940 the doctor and they'll get their blood labs drawn, you know, cause it's done with their

00:59:55.520 family doctor and they'll come back and be like, they won't script me anything.

00:59:58.020 Cause they say that my levels are normal.

00:59:59.520 Well, yeah.

01:00:00.520 If you keep lowering the levels to, you know, to comply with what is being produced with

01:00:06.360 the test results, of course you're going to look normal, but how do you feel?

01:00:09.040 Do you feel like shit?

01:00:10.120 Do you have the symptoms of low T?

01:00:12.060 Then go to a TRT clinic.

01:00:14.180 Right.

01:00:14.560 I call it the feminist reference range, the feminist reference range.

01:00:18.280 That's a good way to put it.

01:00:19.340 What do you think of the general weakening of like the Western male, you know, with like

01:00:22.300 the lower T levels and all that today?

01:00:24.260 It's one of the reasons why I left the Western world.

01:00:27.540 Yeah.

01:00:28.200 Not that, not that masculinity is so predominant here in Thailand, but like, I want things out

01:00:33.280 of life that I couldn't get there.

01:00:35.300 So I decided to go somewhere else where I felt that I can get more out of my own life and

01:00:39.900 here I can do the blood work out of pocket.

01:00:42.180 Here I can self-prescribe TRT.

01:00:43.760 Here I can live my lifestyle the way I want it to.

01:00:46.500 And, and the women here seem far more receptive to what I wanted out of my life.

01:00:51.700 The women in the Western world did not seem that receptive.

01:00:54.340 And when I went in for blood work, I would have to negotiate hardcore, like, like some

01:01:00.660 sort of business transaction that would take place for the next 10 years.

01:01:04.820 I would need to negotiate with my primary healthcare physician just to get the markers done.

01:01:08.320 Even though I was paying out of pocket.

01:01:11.200 So I, right.

01:01:12.740 It's like, they're trying to suppress you actively through the healthcare system, through the

01:01:17.560 insane taxes here and there.

01:01:19.160 And I just, so listen, I'm, I'm, I'm done with this.

01:01:21.860 I have a particular expectations I want to accomplish in my life and I won't be able to do it here.

01:01:27.180 Um, and, and for all the guys that are struggling with this, make money online and move.

01:01:33.940 Yeah.

01:01:34.360 Like you, it sounds like you're able to take sovereignty over your own health and your body

01:01:38.960 in Thailand in a way you couldn't in Holland.

01:01:41.160 Right?

01:01:41.760 No, no, I couldn't.

01:01:42.700 I have, I would have to go to my primary healthcare physician.

01:01:45.280 I could only do blood work once per year.

01:01:47.040 And that was always one of the hidden reasons why I wanted, didn't want to start steroids

01:01:52.080 because I knew I was going to have to monitor my, my health more closely, right?

01:01:56.860 Because you're administering a foreign body and you're, um, you're going to change your

01:02:01.720 parameters.

01:02:02.420 So I could only do blood work once per year.

01:02:04.360 And every year on the day I would be at my, uh, healthcare provider said, Hey, listen,

01:02:08.520 it's time again.

01:02:09.080 Can I do my blood work just to see if I'm healthy?

01:02:11.280 And he was like, no, it's not needed because you're, you're young and you're right.

01:02:15.100 You look good and, and, and then, so you have to play the victim going that you have

01:02:18.940 all kinds of side effects that you're not really.

01:02:21.040 So you make up stuff to get them to pull the blood.

01:02:23.180 Yeah.

01:02:23.540 Yeah.

01:02:23.700 You literally have to lie.

01:02:24.920 You literally have to lie.

01:02:26.140 So I have low libido.

01:02:27.260 I don't feel good.

01:02:28.060 I feel a little bit right.

01:02:28.900 But not to the point you give a hint that you're depressed because that's when they

01:02:32.460 want to give you.

01:02:33.900 Yeah.

01:02:34.580 Yeah.

01:02:35.900 Um, right.

01:02:36.620 So you have a little bit of abdominal pain.

01:02:38.300 You want to do some liver examination, this kind of stuff.

01:02:40.780 You have to manipulate the healthcare in, in, in Holland to get what you want.

01:02:46.340 After a while, I was kind of tired of that.

01:02:48.540 And, uh, but look at it this way.

01:02:49.940 Like healthcare is never preventative.

01:02:52.320 It's reactive.

01:02:53.500 Yeah.

01:02:53.640 It's reactive.

01:02:54.320 Yeah.

01:02:54.980 So if you have an issue, uh, let's say you have a heart attack, you can go into the ER

01:02:59.300 and get, um, helped.

01:03:01.860 If you want to do an MRI 20 years before you have a heart attack, you have to get a

01:03:07.080 prescription.

01:03:07.940 Yeah.

01:03:08.260 I had to go to five doctors here in Thailand, even, even Thailand, five doctors, uh, to

01:03:14.020 get, um, an MRI scheduled because it's reactive medicine.

01:03:18.620 There's nothing wrong with my heart.

01:03:20.100 We did the contrast that I was in the MRI for machine for one and a half hours.

01:03:24.280 And then my heart health is just normal.

01:03:26.120 And the doctor asked me, why did you do an MRI?

01:03:28.660 And said, well, I took steroids.

01:03:29.800 I want to know I'm financially secure.

01:03:31.640 I can pay out of pocket.

01:03:32.640 I want to know what's going on with my heart.

01:03:35.780 It's reactive.

01:03:36.620 Otherwise, so if I go in with a heart attack or I think I'm out of breath all the time

01:03:40.460 or I have no energy, then they would schedule it for you.

01:03:44.380 Um, yeah.

01:03:44.980 If you showed up on a stretcher with, you know, half your body frozen, then that's what

01:03:49.320 they'll pay your face is falling off and that's when they'll pay attention.

01:03:52.920 It's pretty similar here in Canada.

01:03:55.180 I mean, they're pretty tight with it.

01:03:56.320 Um, like my family doctor didn't want to hear about it.

01:03:59.860 It wasn't even a conversation.

01:04:01.220 So I started just basically looking around.

01:04:03.380 I started Googling.

01:04:04.140 I found a clinic and even then at 43, like he didn't really want to give me testosterone

01:04:09.380 right away.

01:04:09.760 Like he basically said, you know, take these supplements and see if we can get your levels

01:04:13.000 up, which I'm fine with.

01:04:14.040 Like I'd rather try to get, you know, to where I want to be naturally and let my body

01:04:18.780 do what it's supposed to do.

01:04:19.800 But, um, he scripted DHEA, he, uh, suggested, um, a bunch of other supplements like, uh,

01:04:26.740 Chrysan, DHEA, which he scripted for me here.

01:04:29.060 Cause it's gotta be done through a doctor.

01:04:31.440 Um, but even then back to the story that I was going to tell you earlier, that was funny

01:04:35.460 cause I was in Mexico a few summers ago before all this COVID bullshit.

01:04:39.100 And it's like, you know, you go there and you're like, all right, it's kidding.

01:04:42.200 Let's go.

01:04:42.780 Yeah.

01:04:42.940 Actually, I'll take some Deca.

01:04:44.320 We'll take some testosterone Depot.

01:04:45.920 We got some Proviron here.

01:04:47.060 So it was about seven, seven to 10 weeks before my next blood draw.

01:04:53.400 So I was like, cool.

01:04:54.040 You know, we're here for a few weeks.

01:04:55.280 Let's have some fun.

01:04:56.680 Um, I didn't realize that Deca stays in your blood as long as it does.

01:04:59.900 So when I came back, you know, about nine, 10 weeks later, I had to do my blood and he's

01:05:04.240 like, you know, I go in, I hadn't seen my labs.

01:05:06.560 He goes, well, what the fuck are you doing?

01:05:08.300 Like, what's going on?

01:05:09.260 We need to have a talk.

01:05:09.740 Yeah.

01:05:10.040 We need to have a talk.

01:05:10.980 Like what's going on?

01:05:12.020 Why are your levels so high?

01:05:12.880 I'm like, what are you talking about?

01:05:14.040 He goes, well, how much are you taking?

01:05:15.580 I'm like what you scripted.

01:05:16.320 You know, which I was, I was basically taking what he was scripting me, but I hadn't realized

01:05:20.040 that the Deca from prior was still in my blood for that long.

01:05:24.060 Cause it's got such a long half-life.

01:05:26.440 Um, but the levels were like way too high.

01:05:29.200 Yeah.

01:05:29.320 Quite high.

01:05:29.860 And then you see your prolactin is elevated.

01:05:31.560 Yeah.

01:05:31.780 So I told him why he's like, well, I have to, you know, he's writing a note.

01:05:34.220 I'm like, what are you doing?

01:05:34.840 He goes, I have to write a note to make sure that if I ever get audited, they know that

01:05:38.200 I didn't do this.

01:05:38.960 It was you, you as an idiot in Mexico doing stupid shit.

01:05:42.060 I'm like, okay, got it.

01:05:43.140 Right.

01:05:43.380 Oh, so it does go in your record.

01:05:44.760 Well, he, well, he wants to cover his ass, you know, because of his license, right?

01:05:48.180 Like he doesn't want to get nailed for it.

01:05:49.860 So I was like, that's fine.

01:05:50.700 You know, I'll take the blame.

01:05:51.420 I was out of the country.

01:05:52.160 I can do whatever I want out of the country.

01:05:53.420 Yeah.

01:05:53.740 You're not liable for that.

01:05:55.120 That's why I don't bother anymore.

01:05:56.620 Yeah.

01:05:56.980 With, uh, with the primaries, you know, it's what I do with my own body is my responsibility

01:06:01.200 and I do as much research as I can.

01:06:03.420 And of course I also have a prescription for testosterone, but when I get that extended,

01:06:08.200 I make sure that I'm off everything and that my blood work looks good.

01:06:12.100 Yeah.

01:06:12.860 I'm not a fan of the 19 North stuff anymore.

01:06:15.000 Like, uh, like I've never messed with trend or anything like that, but the Deca is really

01:06:18.860 not worth it.

01:06:19.300 I mean, it's wonderful for your joints.

01:06:20.620 It's great for your joints, but I mean, like you can end up with all kinds of side effects

01:06:23.680 with a prolactin and the Deca dick and all that.

01:06:25.500 Forget it.

01:06:25.800 It's just not worth it.

01:06:26.500 Plus you get really watery too.

01:06:28.520 Yeah.

01:06:28.800 So that's why I feel primobolin is the superior compounds because you get a little bit of

01:06:32.660 the beneficial collagen synthesis, but you don't get this water retention.

01:06:36.800 I've got a great collagen supplement that I take every morning with my coffee.

01:06:40.020 Like I just throw it in the coffee.

01:06:41.780 It tastes great.

01:06:42.700 It kind of foams it up a little bit.

01:06:44.240 And that way you get your collagen into your body too, as well, which is great for your

01:06:47.340 joints.

01:06:48.120 Yeah.

01:06:48.320 Right.

01:06:48.580 I have a whole video series on my YouTube channel about collagen and it's, it's a highly beneficial

01:06:52.520 supplement.

01:06:53.180 It's far better than whey protein.

01:06:55.340 Yeah.

01:06:55.700 Because, uh, that's, that's what the fitness industry says.

01:06:57.800 Oh, you need whey protein post-workout.

01:06:59.400 Well, it doesn't, it doesn't really protect your connective tissue for that.

01:07:03.880 You need collagen.

01:07:04.820 So I've been taking collagen for the last six years, seven years, collagen supplements.

01:07:09.120 How much, uh, how much collagen do you take daily?

01:07:12.580 20, 20, 40 grams, depending on the day.

01:07:15.440 20 to 24 grams, 20 to 40 grams per day.

01:07:19.260 Grams, not, not grams.

01:07:20.780 You're talking grams.

01:07:21.500 No grams.

01:07:22.220 Yeah.

01:07:22.660 Yeah.

01:07:23.160 So normally you have like a post post-workout shake, right?

01:07:26.400 And it would be like two scoops of whey protein.

01:07:28.300 That's about 40 grams, 45 grams of protein.

01:07:30.600 Okay.

01:07:30.920 So I, I look at all, you know, the benefits you get from whey protein and besides the

01:07:34.900 branch chain amino acids, there's no real benefit.

01:07:37.260 Yeah.

01:07:37.660 Um, so I started supplementing with collagen, 40 grams, same amount, post-workout or pre-workout

01:07:44.040 and my joints feel amazing.

01:07:46.440 Yeah.

01:07:47.360 And because I used to lift quite heavy, not, not anymore.

01:07:50.080 Um, I'm taking a little vacation from that stuff.

01:07:52.760 Um, but when I used to train like very, very heavy weights, my joints would always be hurt

01:07:56.880 a little bit.

01:07:57.360 And then I really started looking into, you know, the inflammation and, and, uh, how to

01:08:02.240 recover your joints and connective tissue.

01:08:04.300 And I realized that I just need to get more collagen in my diet.

01:08:07.260 I'm only getting so much collagen from the chicken and the fish and the beef and the eggs.

01:08:10.800 I started supplementing and that that's been a game changer for me.

01:08:14.380 I've been doing that for the last few years.

01:08:16.000 Yeah.

01:08:16.420 And then I've only been doing it for about four or five months and I'd really like it.

01:08:19.500 Yeah.

01:08:19.960 Consider taking vitamin C with each meal.

01:08:22.560 Oh, I do that too.

01:08:23.480 Yeah.

01:08:23.860 Yeah.

01:08:24.080 I watched your video the other day, you know, with the supplements that, you know,

01:08:26.600 you'd recommend it.

01:08:27.260 And I added a few extra ones.

01:08:28.720 Like I did, I get lazy with all the pills.

01:08:30.680 So yeah.

01:08:31.140 Okay.

01:08:31.400 You know, I'll start taking vitamin C with the meals and it's, it's cumbersome for sure.

01:08:35.640 It's very cumbersome, but yeah, they all have their benefits.

01:08:38.440 So people look at me and like, why are you having so many tablets?

01:08:41.540 It's why I can't get it from food.

01:08:43.260 Yeah.

01:08:43.580 And they all have their unique benefits.

01:08:45.140 And I just spaced it out over the day.

01:08:47.700 Um, instead of having one dose in the evening and one dose in the, in the, in the, right.

01:08:51.700 In the morning, they just space it out over the day.

01:08:53.900 And then every meal has a little bit of a tablets, which is annoying, but it gets the

01:08:57.380 job done.

01:08:58.040 Yeah.

01:08:58.600 Yeah.

01:08:59.640 Um, let's switch gears a little bit.

01:09:01.160 Cause, um, we're probably going to wrap up in about 15 to 20 minutes.

01:09:04.900 I wanted to talk to you about, you know, creating content on YouTube.

01:09:07.160 Cause I mean, we were talking briefly before we went live.

01:09:09.920 Um, how long ago did you start your channel?

01:09:12.720 Uh, I started it a long, long time ago in 2013, then my coaching business took off and

01:09:19.460 I realized that that's where my revenue was going to be.

01:09:21.900 Uh, and back then we didn't have YouTube monetization, I believe, or I wasn't able to monetize the

01:09:26.260 channel.

01:09:26.920 So I took a little break from YouTube.

01:09:28.600 So I, I restarted about two years ago, two and a half years ago.

01:09:33.080 And, uh, I mean, good company.

01:09:35.720 Um, so I, I got a little bit of a boost from Derek, more plates, more dates.

01:09:39.000 And then with Leo longevity, and then I'm sure I'll get a boost from, uh, from being on

01:09:42.580 your channel.

01:09:43.160 And then this, with these collaborations, it grows quite fast.

01:09:46.480 So over the course of two years, I went from 1500 subs to 35,000 and, uh, it goes quite

01:09:54.920 rapidly.

01:09:55.240 And I, I've, you know, blown past a couple other channels that are, um, in the same

01:09:59.640 fields, but just, you know, they don't grow.

01:10:01.900 So it's, it's, it's very niche content what I'm producing.

01:10:04.040 Um, yeah, it's like YouTube's a strange platform, man, because it's like every, every few months

01:10:11.600 or maybe a couple of times a year, it feels like they're always changing the algorithms

01:10:15.880 and they start to reward different things.

01:10:17.680 I mean, I noticed about, you know, six to 12 months ago, there's a lot, you know, we

01:10:22.760 chatted, but there's a lot more thumbnails with like, you know, like shocking, like this

01:10:27.480 and the other thing.

01:10:27.960 And it's like, fuck me.

01:10:28.800 I'm like, do I really have to do that to get views?

01:10:30.940 Like, do I have to like stoop to that level when all I want to do is talk about what I

01:10:35.240 want to talk about?

01:10:35.860 And I haven't gotten there yet.

01:10:36.720 Like, I don't think I'm ever going to do those like thumbnails and those like, you know, you

01:10:41.140 know, like react, like millionaire reacts to millionaire reacts to vigorous Steve taking

01:10:45.860 PED is talking about his fatty liver disease.

01:10:48.680 It's like, um, I don't know, man.

01:10:51.080 I just, it gets, it gets views.

01:10:53.140 Unfortunately, it does though, man.

01:10:54.640 It pisses me off because you know, you put like really good quality content out, but some

01:10:59.680 guy with a dorky thumbnail with the right picture on it will get all the views, even

01:11:04.380 if he's providing less value.

01:11:06.680 I started doing that also just to draw the audience in like, there's a, a whole different

01:11:11.580 game when it comes to YouTube.

01:11:13.060 You have quality content, you know, good audio, good video, uh, you look taken care of, right.

01:11:18.360 And, and, and then you still need to bait, lure people in with the thumbnail or the title.

01:11:24.400 It's the same as Tinder or, uh, advertisement, right?

01:11:28.340 Every, every thumbnail and title is an opportunity to get people in and then you have to entertain

01:11:35.080 them and inform them and keep them engaged throughout the video.

01:11:38.900 Now with my kind of content, it's a little bit difficult because sometimes it's very in

01:11:42.680 depth.

01:11:43.500 Uh, and then people kind of doze off, you know, because I do have a tendency to kind of, well,

01:11:47.880 sounds like a freight train after a while.

01:11:49.660 Um, but if you're able to entertain, uh, then you can keep the audience retention and

01:11:54.940 then people watch the videos longer, allowing them to look at more ads, which are placed

01:11:59.440 on the video.

01:12:00.000 And then YouTube is like, yes, this guy's a moneymaker.

01:12:03.020 Let's put more of his content to a new audience.

01:12:06.960 One of the things I like about what you do is you, is you've got the chapters in the

01:12:10.340 video, which I'm too lazy to do, but it, but it makes it easier for me to watch the

01:12:13.620 part or like skip back over to the part that I want to see again.

01:12:15.980 Um, people, um, uh, people kind of forced me into it and there was one comment.

01:12:21.920 He said, uh, this is the story of YouTube, a 20 minute video to say one thing.

01:12:25.840 We need timestamps.

01:12:27.100 And then it got like a ton of likes and it's like, fine, I'll do it.

01:12:31.020 So I started doing it.

01:12:32.540 And, and now I've figured out a little trick.

01:12:35.040 You see, you have the timestamps and after a week you can check, um, in the YouTube, uh,

01:12:40.200 analytics, which segments get more views than others.

01:12:43.420 Oh, is that right?

01:12:44.120 Yeah.

01:12:44.560 Yeah.

01:12:44.920 So you have the audience retention and sometimes it goes up and jump to the timestamps and

01:12:48.480 it'll show where it's like, okay, interesting.

01:12:50.320 Right.

01:12:50.480 So then you skip ahead to like probably the protocol at the end of the video when I've

01:12:54.180 done all my information, they're like, ah, Steve, I just want the protocol.

01:12:57.640 So you see that the protocol gets more audience retention again.

01:13:01.180 And then I reward everybody, uh, with an ad at that spot.

01:13:05.820 Good.

01:13:06.560 So, so tip for you then is if you're doing like a 35 minute clip or like a 35 minute video,

01:13:12.740 get it, get it clipped down to like a shorter clip and put it on because those things really

01:13:18.520 exploded for me on my clips channel.

01:13:20.600 Um, that's, that's what I do.

01:13:21.700 Now I realized that those 30 minute, 50 minute videos that are almost documentaries with all

01:13:25.440 the information that I would like to know are not doing so well.

01:13:28.520 So now I've shortened it to like 10, 15 minutes and, um, yeah, that's the YouTube game is, um,

01:13:35.300 is hard to figure out sometimes because like you and me, we have a certain ID, uh, idea that we

01:13:41.300 want to, um, right.

01:13:43.100 Hand over to the audience, but then the audience is, is just simply scrolling through the phone

01:13:48.180 and it's got a million different thumbnails, very low attention span.

01:13:51.120 Right.

01:13:51.560 Right.

01:13:52.100 And so you gotta, you gotta, you have your elevator pitch and then some people also look

01:13:56.580 at the, the length of the video and they, they don't want to commit to 30 minutes.

01:14:00.260 So you have to split it up.

01:14:01.700 Yeah.

01:14:02.480 Yeah.

01:14:02.840 You have to split it up.

01:14:03.760 I might have to just do a clip channel with just the protocols and then refer to the full

01:14:07.820 video on a, uh, uh, but I need an editor right now.

01:14:11.320 I'm doing everything myself.

01:14:12.420 So yeah, you got to find somebody to do that for you.

01:14:14.400 Like, you know, as a piece of advice, what I did to find my, uh, clip editors, I just put

01:14:20.280 a, put like a post out on social media.

01:14:22.460 I said, Hey, you know, I'm looking for somebody for this task.

01:14:24.600 You have to be a fan that already watches all my stuff and you have to have the skill

01:14:28.540 to edit it.

01:14:29.280 And then I had, um, people submit samples of clips the way that they would do it.

01:14:35.340 I didn't tell them how to do it.

01:14:36.360 I said, send me an example of a clip the way that you would do it.

01:14:39.960 And what I'll do is I'll call you and we'll have a conversation.

01:14:43.160 We'll, you know, we'll hash it out.

01:14:45.060 And out of like the 30 people that messaged me, I think five people bothered to actually do the

01:14:49.480 work and make the clips to like, you know, submit their tests work for me so I could see it.

01:14:54.400 I picked the two best that I liked.

01:14:56.000 I did an interview with them and I hired the guy that liked the best and he's, he's doing great.

01:14:59.620 I mean, the guy's making a lot of money and he's, and he's working for it.

01:15:02.280 So I'm really pleased with it.

01:15:03.240 But, um, yeah, you don't want to do that.

01:15:05.000 I mean, you want to have somebody, you know, create content and like clips for you.

01:15:08.560 Um, you know what I want to ask you too, before we wrap up and I got a super chat here

01:15:12.020 that we'll hit in just one second.

01:15:13.680 Um, we were talking earlier about marriage and, um, you chose to get married in Thailand.

01:15:18.980 And it's one of the things that I talk a lot about on my channel as well as I tell

01:15:21.500 guys, you know, like marriage is a bad game.

01:15:23.540 It's basically a really bad deal for guys in the West.

01:15:26.260 What's it like being married in Thailand?

01:15:29.000 Like, is there a, is there a risk profile to that as a guy, as far as your wealth, you

01:15:33.900 don't have any kids though, right?

01:15:35.300 No, not yet.

01:15:36.060 Yeah.

01:15:36.260 That's in the, that's in the picture.

01:15:37.520 So I've been married for five, six years, seven years, times it's flown by.

01:15:43.960 So, you know, pretty good.

01:15:44.920 I mean, like you've had some stress applied to the relationship.

01:15:47.460 You see how she responds to that.

01:15:49.100 If she's, I mean, usually crazy comes out when stress gets applied to the relationship.

01:15:53.040 Right.

01:15:53.380 So if you haven't seen that stress, but that's from outside forces, I never really, um, never

01:15:58.720 applied it myself.

01:15:59.780 Like, again, I found your YouTube channel after I got married.

01:16:02.660 Um, so there, there's some, some moments where you need to put your foot down.

01:16:07.800 Right.

01:16:08.600 And then, uh, yeah.

01:16:10.660 So I said, this is no, right.

01:16:13.460 This is not going to, this is not going to fly.

01:16:15.140 So, but so far it's been great, but I think it's because I was very, very selective, uh,

01:16:21.080 previously.

01:16:21.680 Like I would, I was, I would date women multiple at a time and I would never get invested.

01:16:27.780 I would never get invested because I didn't feel that these women previously, before I met

01:16:32.100 my wife were on par to commit to a relationship.

01:16:35.940 And then I met my wife and I was like, man, she's not like anybody else I've met previously.

01:16:40.420 And I I've traveled all over the Asia.

01:16:42.440 I've traveled all over Europe.

01:16:43.980 I've dated women from multiple countries, multiple different backgrounds.

01:16:47.860 Then I met my wife and I'm like, Hmm, this girl is like me, business oriented, educated,

01:16:55.820 loves bodybuilding, right?

01:16:56.840 Loves fitness.

01:16:57.360 She competed for many years and was the best, the best in this country.

01:17:01.020 And the best basically in the world, because she won the world championships multiple times.

01:17:05.700 So I would, it's the term trophy wife.

01:17:09.220 Is that still applicable?

01:17:10.400 I think so.

01:17:10.840 Yeah.

01:17:11.640 So that's how I would consider it.

01:17:13.700 Okay.

01:17:14.140 Right.

01:17:14.480 A woman that's, um, on par of what I'm trying to be and accomplish now and in the future.

01:17:23.200 So she's a compliment to your life is what you're saying.

01:17:26.020 Absolutely.

01:17:26.620 Yeah.

01:17:26.900 Absolutely.

01:17:27.540 Yeah.

01:17:27.740 My, my life, uh, improved dramatically after, uh, coming together.

01:17:33.540 You want that as a guy.

01:17:34.220 I mean, you know, if you're on a mission, if you're on a purpose, you don't want a woman

01:17:36.860 distracting you from what it is that you're doing.

01:17:39.220 You want her to compliment your life and what it is that you're doing.

01:17:41.560 So that's really important too.

01:17:43.200 Right.

01:17:43.460 Because I'm, I'm so busy.

01:17:44.580 So I, I, I added her to my work environment.

01:17:47.640 So she, I'm employing her and she's helping me with the YouTube.

01:17:50.780 And, and also I, I, I asked her, say, Kim, please look into these investments, right?

01:17:55.980 Because I'm too busy with the YouTube.

01:17:57.440 And then she comes back with a report and, and we're looking at it like, Hmm, this might

01:18:01.980 be a good opportunity.

01:18:03.520 So, so some guys would cringe at this year taking business advice from my wife.

01:18:08.120 Um, but so far it's, it's been very, it's been paying off very, very well.

01:18:13.180 So, so when you look at the, the, the risk here, let's say for divorce, um, I've not

01:18:19.900 looked into it to be honest, because I didn't want to settle down with the women where I

01:18:25.920 felt that I needed to look into, uh, the risk of a divorce.

01:18:31.860 And the way I looked at it also is like, my parents are divorced.

01:18:35.440 Um, and then there was a horrible, like both of them are Westerners, obviously, um, a lot

01:18:40.720 of lawyers, a lot of legal fees, a lot of transfer of money.

01:18:43.420 And then they both ended up basically bankrupt, right?

01:18:46.060 Right.

01:18:46.340 To the divorce.

01:18:48.300 Um, because both of them didn't understand how to make money and they're both employed.

01:18:53.700 They're not self-employed.

01:18:55.280 So what, as a man, when you have the opportunity to make money for yourself, even if you have

01:19:01.400 to give a percentage away through a divorce, you don't lose the opportunity to make money.

01:19:06.700 And I think this is the mindset that a lot of guys need to have.

01:19:10.620 So listen, I'm me.

01:19:11.900 Okay.

01:19:12.100 There might be a stressful period involved when you go through a divorce, but I'm still

01:19:15.700 me.

01:19:15.920 I can still make money after the divorce.

01:19:18.200 So it should be a non-issue.

01:19:20.060 And I think a lot of guys should not keep that in the back of their head.

01:19:23.060 Like I'm going to lose my money potentially 20 years from now, uh, because that also kills

01:19:27.780 the relationship.

01:19:28.780 Yeah.

01:19:29.100 That's one part of the equation.

01:19:30.000 I think the, I think the big hangup that a lot of guys here have, have here, especially,

01:19:34.400 uh, you know, in Canada and the U S is that, um, like the big selling point to having a

01:19:41.380 wife slash mother of your kids is, you know, you, you pass on your DNA, you pass on your

01:19:45.820 genes.

01:19:46.180 So, um, the problem that most guys run into is they'll invest into her and the children

01:19:51.560 and then they'll find if they go through the divorce grinder that they actually lose quite

01:19:57.360 a lot of access to seeing their own kids and parent them.

01:20:00.200 And in many cases, some random dude that now becomes the boyfriend to her in the future

01:20:05.620 spends more time with your kids than you do.

01:20:07.740 And all you do every month is watch your wealth transfer from your bank account to hers with

01:20:13.560 no access to those kids.

01:20:14.660 So that's why I was asking, like, I was curious, like, what does family law look like in Thailand?

01:20:19.260 Cause a lot of guys are all about, Oh, you know, I'll just leave, you know, the States

01:20:23.540 or I'll leave Canada and I'll go to Asia or I'll go to Columbia or I'll go to some Latin

01:20:27.700 American country and things will be better over there.

01:20:29.640 But it's like, no, dude, if you don't have frame, like if you don't understand women,

01:20:33.140 maybe, maybe the, maybe the laws will be better.

01:20:35.260 Like maybe you could screw up and the laws might be better than we might be, might be

01:20:38.200 more in your favor.

01:20:38.780 And it's easy for you to see your kids and you're not going to be drained of all your

01:20:41.220 wealth.

01:20:41.920 But yeah, there's a, there's a really interesting, you know, component to that narrative of guys

01:20:46.820 thinking, well, I'll just move to this country and that'll solve all my problems.

01:20:49.600 Right.

01:20:50.060 But there's still game that's involved.

01:20:51.340 There's still laws that, that, that can't apply to your relationship that you don't have control

01:20:56.120 over plus the cultural difference.

01:20:58.600 A lot of people forget about the cultural differences.

01:21:00.480 Like, like I have my own culture being from Holland or in the Western world and she has

01:21:04.120 her own culture and it takes some adjustment.

01:21:07.080 You find that, that women in Thailand are still considerably more feminine than they are

01:21:11.540 in like the more feminist sort of countries.

01:21:13.380 Yeah.

01:21:14.180 Yeah.

01:21:14.440 But also more insecure than Western women.

01:21:16.900 And then secure how like their, about their looks or.

01:21:20.000 About their looks, about how they're positioned in the relationship.

01:21:23.440 Like there's a lot of infidelity in Thailand, uh, amongst the Thais and the foreigners because

01:21:28.900 it's so easy to get in touch with other women.

01:21:31.540 So you really have to be grounded and comfortable with who you are.

01:21:35.140 So you're not jealous.

01:21:36.420 And I noticed that, well, with the hundreds of Thai women that I've interacted with within

01:21:41.580 an hour or a couple of days or a couple of weeks, jealousy starts to manifest.

01:21:46.900 And a lot of guys don't see this.

01:21:49.000 Right.

01:21:49.120 A lot of guys that are in the Western world, they maybe don't have so much game and they

01:21:52.360 completely focused on business, but they don't understand women.

01:21:55.060 Then they come here and the first girl gives them attention.

01:21:58.100 They're, they're settled.

01:21:59.620 That's not the way to approach it, man.

01:22:01.340 You really need to cowboy up and, and, and see what Thailand and Asia and, and women with

01:22:07.460 a different cultural background are all about before you can, uh, really commit.

01:22:12.720 And until you find a woman that you're like tax all the boxes, you're not going to commit.

01:22:17.660 I didn't commit or for, for, for a long, long time.

01:22:21.040 I just sample.

01:22:21.680 You shouldn't.

01:22:22.140 Yeah.

01:22:22.260 You should sample it.

01:22:23.120 You don't take it for a test drive.

01:22:24.320 Yeah.

01:22:24.780 Right.

01:22:25.220 Right.

01:22:25.520 So, so there's, right.

01:22:27.740 The laws, but they're always against you if you're a foreigner, if you're in a foreign

01:22:32.780 country.

01:22:33.860 But here the, the transfer of wealth is not that, uh, dramatic compared to the Western world.

01:22:41.180 And that's why a lot of Thai women, when they leave, they'll take whatever's in your house

01:22:45.000 and then they're gone because they'll take whatever they can get.

01:22:48.460 Right.

01:22:48.720 So, so, um, well, I, I don't expect that to happen to me, but right.

01:22:53.880 Famous last words.

01:22:55.080 Fair enough.

01:22:55.740 It's a, yeah, but so far so good, man.

01:22:57.680 It's a, I'm, I'm very happy where I am.

01:22:59.760 Yeah.

01:23:00.180 We got a question here from, uh, Mr. Sink.

01:23:02.600 Since 33, 33 year old male with test levels of three 76 nanograms per deciliter qualified

01:23:07.320 for TRT, but worried about fertility.

01:23:09.100 I want to have healthy kids in the future or wait until I have kids to start or just

01:23:13.340 go for it.

01:23:14.040 Any advice?

01:23:15.540 Um, check your fertility first and see where your testosterone levels are at or the testosterone

01:23:20.620 is already determined.

01:23:21.460 So, but see where your fertility is at, you know, the check the motility, check the morphology,

01:23:26.040 check the semen volume, the semen count, uh, sperm count in the semen, all these things

01:23:30.060 you can do before going on TRT.

01:23:32.180 And maybe, um, your fertility is already not so good because your testosterone levels are

01:23:37.060 low.

01:23:37.360 You need to increase your fertility with protocols, which will also increase your testosterone

01:23:44.480 levels.

01:23:45.360 So you don't need to directly go on TRT.

01:23:47.040 Maybe you can use a fertility drugs like ACG and HMG, which is very common in a fertility

01:23:53.440 space.

01:23:54.020 And you can improve your fertility that way, get kids or have your sperm frozen and then

01:23:59.620 go on TRT.

01:24:00.740 Or maybe you already feel good on this ACG and HMG protocol, which while it was, is way

01:24:05.300 more expensive than a TRT.

01:24:08.420 So I would focus on your fertility first.

01:24:10.920 And that's something I wish I did, or at least checked before I went on cycle where my fertility

01:24:16.020 was at.

01:24:16.560 But I was living in Holland at the time and you don't walk into your primary healthcare

01:24:20.560 physicians.

01:24:21.220 I'm going to start a cycle.

01:24:22.280 I want to check my fertility.

01:24:24.280 There's a lot that you can do to increase testosterone and deal with fertility issues,

01:24:28.340 especially at 33.

01:24:29.360 I mean, like you should be, I mean, I would start from the question of like, are you obese?

01:24:33.460 You know, like what are your health markers look like in general?

01:24:37.220 You know, cause maybe there's a reason why you've got fertility issues and you know, low

01:24:41.720 TESOL.

01:24:42.660 By the way, I forgot to ask you, have you read Estrogeneration by Dr. Anthony J?

01:24:48.620 No.

01:24:49.400 I think you'd like it, man.

01:24:50.320 It's a great resource.

01:24:51.700 He's a, he's a doctor that, that spent his, pretty much his entire career studying environmental

01:24:57.820 estrogens that are making Westerners like fat, sick and, and infertile.

01:25:04.100 So like everything from endocrine disruptors externally to toiletries, to water, you know,

01:25:10.940 like the water supply, there's estrogen in the water supply, for example, because of

01:25:14.240 women with birth control, they pee it in, you know, they can get out solids and stuff

01:25:17.380 like that, but they can't get hormones out of the water.

01:25:19.120 So a lot of the water you drink is very estrogen dominant.

01:25:21.940 So there's a lot of things to look at like, like that, which might be, um, a problem for

01:25:26.980 low T and fertility issues for guys.

01:25:29.680 Yeah.

01:25:29.840 There's so many things out there to get rid of.

01:25:33.460 Can negatively affect your health.

01:25:34.980 And you almost need to be a millionaire to, to, to really navigate.

01:25:39.720 It's a full-time job.

01:25:40.700 Like literally at my age, I spent a lot of my time on self-care.

01:25:44.760 Yeah.

01:25:45.320 Practically a full-time job.

01:25:46.600 No, probably.

01:25:47.160 You have to look at it as a car, right?

01:25:48.780 I mean, there's so much maintenance involved just to keep the engine going.

01:25:52.240 And then, um, and as you age, your body kind of starts to reject some of the practices that

01:25:57.360 we'd like to keep up and then you have to micromanage it even further.

01:26:01.080 So I think as a man, the best thing you can do is invest in yourself, whether that's your

01:26:05.400 knowledge or your health.

01:26:06.460 And, and the more of that you do, the more knowledgeable you get and the, the, the healthier

01:26:11.780 you stay, um, the more that's going to pay off in the, in the short term and the long

01:26:16.720 term.

01:26:17.300 And, and then, then it's, again, it's a balancing act between how much are you going to use pharmacology

01:26:22.840 to take yourself to the next level that make sure you don't detract from your health.

01:26:27.100 And that's, that's a, that's a pretty good balancing act as well.

01:26:30.260 And again, hormone replacement in most cases will lower your fertility unless you use fertility

01:26:35.700 drugs to keep the fertility going.

01:26:37.560 And for that, I would look into HMG, but HMG is far more expensive than the ACG.

01:26:42.540 And you can't get some of those different parts of the world now.

01:26:45.720 So I heard that HCG you can't get in the States, you know, for the most part now.

01:26:49.320 No, but if Mr. Singh is in India, um, which his name might indicate, then he can get HMG

01:26:55.680 over the counter.

01:26:56.300 Okay.

01:26:57.540 Yeah.

01:26:57.880 India has very good pharmacies.

01:26:59.640 And, and Steve's available for consults.

01:27:01.680 Like you still do like one-on-one work with clients.

01:27:03.960 Yeah, absolutely.

01:27:05.040 Yeah.

01:27:05.260 Always available for consultations, not getting any clients.

01:27:09.460 Hey, Steve, do you have access to your wife's Insta?

01:27:11.600 Yeah, of course.

01:27:14.400 It's not really a discussion point.

01:27:16.440 It's more of a question just for you directly.

01:27:18.080 Yeah.

01:27:19.040 Is it something you mentioned in your, uh, in one of your videos about, uh, uh, women, uh,

01:27:24.500 or having like a different life online?

01:27:26.800 Yeah, it's, um, yeah.

01:27:29.360 So we can talk about that for, for a quick minute.

01:27:31.760 So, I mean, I generally tell, tell guys, like if you've got a, uh, a girlfriend or wife and

01:27:38.260 they're on a social platform like Instagram and they're posting provocative photographs

01:27:43.900 and it's not in their line of work, like they're not a fitness model.

01:27:47.420 They're not a fitness, you know, a competitor, you know, for example, which your wife is right.

01:27:51.380 So, I mean, if it's not their line of work and they're posting for attention, then you basically

01:27:56.100 got to say, you know, girlfriends with boyfriends don't behave that way and, you know, be in

01:28:00.660 a position to walk from that because she's basically marketing herself to other guys,

01:28:05.740 generally speaking.

01:28:06.860 And a woman that's in a guy's frame that sees him as her best option will willingly make

01:28:13.280 her Instagram either private or she'll delete it if you tell her to, because it's not in

01:28:17.840 her line of work.

01:28:18.480 I mean, she doesn't need the attention from other guys.

01:28:20.080 However, if she needs the attention from other guys and is still shopping out there for options,

01:28:24.400 she's basically going to tell you to pound sand and how dare you try to control me and

01:28:28.020 all that sort of stuff.

01:28:28.700 And you're going to be like, smart guys will be like, I'm out.

01:28:31.920 I got lots of other options over here.

01:28:33.240 I'm good.

01:28:33.880 See you later.

01:28:34.780 You do you.

01:28:35.500 I'm going to keep spinning plates.

01:28:37.300 Right.

01:28:37.500 So my wife was competing, right?

01:28:39.760 And for that, you need to put a physique on states that is, uh, in a bikini, but we,

01:28:45.500 she never marketed in a way that was, uh, sexualized, right?

01:28:49.740 Whether that's on Instagram or on stage, I always try to look feminine and consider it

01:28:54.960 like a catwalk, like a display of art.

01:28:57.660 So she would not do a lot of the things that other women do for attention, uh, shaking

01:29:03.840 her booty, doing provocative pictures and all that stuff.

01:29:06.460 Yeah.

01:29:06.840 Like for her, it's mostly an outlet to get personal training clients.

01:29:10.100 And if I, um, if I reach, but, uh, potential financial targets and I would ask her to,

01:29:16.800 we both go offline.

01:29:18.260 Uh, she would do that in a heartbeat, right?

01:29:21.940 But that's, that's mostly for privacy.

01:29:23.460 Like for her, it's a bit, it's a business endeavor and she's not doing anything provocative,

01:29:27.400 uh, which I would consider a huge red flag, uh, online.

01:29:31.740 And if I wanted to go into her messages, I would, um, I think a lot, like you have to

01:29:36.660 look at it two ways.

01:29:37.320 Let's say you're with a woman and she's going online to get attention.

01:29:40.920 Um, maybe you're not doing everything you need to do as a man to mitigate that.

01:29:49.440 This is a part of the equation.

01:29:50.860 Yeah.

01:29:51.180 Yeah.

01:29:52.000 Right.

01:29:52.520 So a lot of women today are drunk on social media.

01:29:55.820 Oh, absolutely.

01:29:56.560 They've grown up on it.

01:29:57.500 So for a guy like one of us to come along and say, Hey, you know, like I dig your vibe

01:30:02.500 too.

01:30:02.740 And, you know, um, we've been seeing each other for a while, but girlfriends with boyfriends

01:30:06.240 don't behave this way.

01:30:07.080 So it needs to stop.

01:30:08.060 You don't want to stop.

01:30:09.240 Okay, cool.

01:30:09.700 I'm going to keep dating other chicks on.

01:30:11.060 Right.

01:30:11.180 I mean, for some women, like that's a shocker.

01:30:13.500 Like what, what did you just say?

01:30:14.820 Like he actually has options.

01:30:15.900 He's telling me what to do.

01:30:17.300 I need likes.

01:30:18.300 I need likes.

01:30:18.960 I need a thousand likes on my ass.

01:30:20.420 No.

01:30:20.660 So I need to get my dopamine hit, man.

01:30:22.860 Yeah.

01:30:24.100 My, my hedonistic treadmill needs to be a stroke.

01:30:26.980 So I would look into a woman for settlement, right.

01:30:30.560 For long-term relationship and long-term investment.

01:30:33.460 That's also how you have to look at it.

01:30:35.200 That didn't start off that way.

01:30:37.300 Yeah.

01:30:37.400 So if, if that's already present where the, the hedonistic treadmill is being run at and

01:30:42.820 the likes for, uh, right.

01:30:44.820 As, uh, as pictures, uh, is already taking place.

01:30:47.840 You can date, but you don't settle.

01:30:49.880 Yeah.

01:30:50.880 That's how I would.

01:30:52.000 You just treat her like an option is what I'd say.

01:30:53.980 Uh, just, uh, just a thank you note from Italy.

01:30:56.260 Um, so I think on that note, we can wrap it up.

01:30:58.460 And when we did a full 90 minutes, which is awesome.

01:31:00.220 It's been a slice.

01:31:00.900 I really enjoyed the insight and the conversation.

01:31:02.660 We covered a lot so much.

01:31:04.160 Um, if you guys enjoyed it, vigorous Steve on YouTube, you can search for it, or I've

01:31:08.740 tagged him in the title.

01:31:09.700 So you can just click that link and it'll take you over to his channel.

01:31:11.720 If you're interested in me, the stuff we've talked about tonight, um, he goes very deep

01:31:15.960 down the rabbit hole of, uh, bodybuilding pharmacology, uh, like aging, you know, health,

01:31:21.600 uh, supplements, stuff that you can get over the counter and stuff that you might need

01:31:25.160 a script for, or maybe a friend that brews it, or you can learn it yourself.

01:31:27.820 But, um, yeah, like a wealth of resource.

01:31:30.760 So check out Steve's channel and dude, man, you know, you're welcome back anytime.

01:31:34.840 Really enjoy talking to you, man.

01:31:36.140 Anytime.

01:31:36.500 This was, this was great.

01:31:37.500 One and a half hours flew by.

01:31:38.720 So thanks so much for having me rich.

01:31:40.340 And, uh, yeah, I really appreciate it.

01:31:42.160 I hope to talk to you again soon.

01:31:43.400 We'll see you soon.

Playing to Win - March 02, 2022

042 - The Truth About Testosterone & Aging w⧸ @VigorousSteve

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