The Mind Performance Health Podcast

Beyond the Basics: Testosterone's Role in Men's Health

• Michael Pritchatt • Episode 28

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Are you struggling with unexplained fatigue, weight gain, or low motivation? The answer might lie in your testosterone levels. In this eye-opening episode, Michael Pritchard, founder of MPH Personal Training and Nutrition, cuts through the confusion surrounding this vital hormone and delivers a practical roadmap for natural optimization.

Drawing from years of experience working with everyday Australians and elite athletes alike, Michael breaks down the warning signs of low testosterone and explains why a comprehensive blood panel—not just total testosterone—is crucial for accurate assessment. He analyzes how testosterone production can break down at different stages, from initial signaling problems to excessive conversion to estrogen, and why this matters for your treatment approach.

What sets this episode apart is its focus on addressing root causes rather than merely treating symptoms. You'll discover how achieving specific body fat percentages (13-15% for men), implementing strategic strength training, optimizing sleep quality, and refining nutrition can dramatically improve hormone profiles without medication. Michael shares the exact supplement protocols he's used with clients to support this process, including phosphatidylserine for Leydig cell health and pomegranate extract for managing excess estrogen conversion.

Whether you're dealing with diagnosed low testosterone or simply want to optimize your hormone health for better energy, body composition, and overall wellbeing, this episode provides the science-backed strategies you need. Take control of your hormonal health today and transform your quality of life from the inside out. Share your experience or questions with us at michael@mindperformancehealth.com.au or connect on Instagram @michaelpritchart.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Mind Performance Health Podcast. I'm Michael Pritchard, owner and founder of MPH Personal Training and MPH Nutrition. I'm a coach to everyday Australians, high performers, elite athletes and bodybuilders and on this podcast, I want to make you aware that 7 out of 10 Australians are living with obesity or being overweight and 1 out of 4 kids Australian kids are obese or overweight, and with that comes a lot of problems blood pressure, blood sugar, confidence issues. You have even cancer, blood pressure. There's a lot of problems that can happen with being obese and overweight and when you're coming onto this channel and this podcast, I don't want you to be part of that. In the trenches we've had experience helping Australians get to healthy body fat ranges, putting these things into remission best we can, without control. So I just want to share a bit of knowledge, give you motivation, put you in the right environment so you can actually take action on your health and fitness goals, so you can basically and simply live the best quality of life. So let's lock in Now. On today's podcast episode, we're going to talk about testosterone and why it matters. So testosterone and why it matters. Now, this is going to be geared towards more the guys out there. However, it's still something that can impact ladies too, but I just want to give you a bit of an overview of what I've seen in the trenches with clients that have low testosterone the negative impacts of that, how it impacts their life, their quality of life, but also some strategies to help improve it naturally. Some strategies to help improve it naturally. Let's get into it Now.

Speaker 1:

With low testosterone, you get a blood test and there's a few metrics total testosterone, free testosterone, shbg. It's important that you look at all these metrics estrogen as well to paint a better picture, and I'm going to come back to that in a second. But you get a blood test or you may have some symptoms of low energy, low libido, your mood's not the best, your strength, you're putting on more weight, you're more overweight, obese, and you might find, as you're aging, these symptoms get worse. That I've just covered All right. I do think it's important every six months to look at your testosterone levels to see where they're at, because you can make a change to that hormone right with what's in your control and that can actually have a positive impact on your life. Low testosterone, yes, can lead to not looking the best. You're more overweight, you struggle with weight loss, but also it can lead to cardiovascular issues as well. So there's a lot of problems that can happen with it internally and externally, from what you see in the mirror.

Speaker 1:

Now, with testosterone optimized or improved what we've seen with clients they can have better quality of life, more strength, more muscle mass, overall just feeling a lot better about themselves, which is a light and day difference. So I'm going to share some strategies that I've used with clients that you may be able to take away that are very, very simple. Before you look at things like hormone replacement therapy and whatnot. Now, I do recommend look, everything I'm just going to speak on here is just for informational purposes only. I do recommend you seek help from a health practitioner for your own individual goals.

Speaker 1:

Okay, very, very important, especially when you're looking at improving your hormones. Okay, now, as I touched on, with testosterone improving you can have a better body composition, more energy, less cardiovascular issues as well, but it is a balance. If you go too much, it can thicken up the blood, which will put a bit of pressure onto your system as well and cause more issues with your heart. So you've got to be very smart with the balance of things. Now. If you're doing things, naturally we shouldn't go too much in excess. But if you're doing it through HRT or sports replacement dosages, then you run the risk of bursting a few pipes if you're not doing it under proper control. So always be mindful of that. I do recommend you seek competent doctors, essentially if you're looking at going the road of HRT and not just sourcing it yourself. Very, very important Now testosterone it's not just.

Speaker 1:

You've got to think. When we produce testosterone, we send signals okay, to like our late dig cells, but is it that you're not producing enough? Is it that you're producing enough but it's bound too much and we're not using it the way we're meant to? Or are you aromatizing too much testosterone into things like estrogen? This is why it's important to get a full test Now, usually with clients. What we recommend is to look at total testosterone free testosterone, sex hormone, binding globulin, shbg, and also estrogen as well, to see exactly where and if there's a break in that chain. Because if you're aromatizing too much into estrogen, there'll be a certain thing that you need to do to help improve that. But if you're not producing enough from the start with your signals, there's a certain different strategy you may need to improve as well. But I'm gonna give you some basic stuff that we've seen that improve testosterone across the board, with clients from getting blood tests where it's low to them not going on HRT to them afterwards being in the normal to high ranges, all right. But just be aware it's not just producing testosterone, it's how you're using it and also how it's aromatizing as well.

Speaker 1:

Now, why, in the first place, can testosterone be low? Well, things that can cause low testosterone being overweight or obese, poor quality nutrition, poor stress management, things like excess high cortisol these are things that can actually tank your testosterone. Consuming things that cause inflammation inflammation caused by, like parasites or gut bugs or bacteria overgrowth Heavy metals is a big one as well. Yes, you can manage symptoms of low testosterone with supplementation. You can manage symptoms, but it's important that you address the cause. So, if you have low testosterone, it's very important that you look as to why that's happening. Manage the symptoms by addressing the cause. Maybe you've got to improve your gut health, maybe you need to detoxify the heavy metals. Maybe you need better stress management and improve your sleep. Look as to why it's happening and address it. Very important. So, if you're conscious of your testosterone levels and you want to even just boost it. Maybe it's not low but you want to improve it. These are all things that can influence it.

Speaker 1:

Strength training three reasons. Well, like I touched on, there's a few reasons where but three things I want you to be aware of. Also that things that you can control is going to be getting to healthy body fat ranges. So I do recommend, like markers we use with our skin folds or body fat machines, 13 to 15% for guys is a great healthy average to shoot for. Okay, once we go sub that, that we're getting to more fit ranges.

Speaker 1:

Also, if you're going too low in body fat, it can be harder to produce the hormones because you don't have the material there and the body's, you know, more in a higher state of stress because of low body fat. It can be harder to produce the hormones because you don't have the material there and the body's more in a higher state of stress because of low body fat. But 13% to 15% is a good marker to shoot for. 10% to 12% is the next kind of unlock after that. So getting to those ranges can improve your testosterone levels. When you have higher body fat, your blood sugar is going to be out of whack, insulin is not going to do the best that it can. You might be more insulin resistant. You can have higher estrogen with that as well, which then in turn can potentially lower your testosterone. So step one get to healthy body fat ranges or fit body fat ranges if you want to improve your testosterone levels.

Speaker 1:

Number two is incorporate strength training, improving lean muscle on your body, going to the gym and not just doing cardio, not running on the treadmill lifting weight and then also each week trying to get more reps or increase the load of what you're doing, will help improve your testosterone levels. When we have clients that have low testosterone, first thing we get them to do is start strength training and eating better and getting to healthy body fat ranges. So incorporating strength training three, four, five days a week, whatever you can fit into your schedule that will help your testosterone level, because testosterone is going to help upregulate lean muscle mass and we need it there to help our lean muscle grow. So that's going to be a simple tool that you can take action on is actually getting to the gym and lifting some weight.

Speaker 1:

Alcohol consumption, beers, drinking a lot of beers I know in Australian culture we go to the pubs. I don't go to the pubs, but you go to the pubs. You drink beer and all this kind of stuff. Swapping the beer for spirits every now and then more cleaner alcohol, if I were to, and obviously not in excess, because that can cause issues but doing little switches of, like drinking more spirit-based, cleaner alcohol that doesn't spike your blood sugar too much all right, like I said, any alcohol in excess is not good, but making quality choice swaps will make a difference, help you with your weight loss, fat loss, but also improve your hormone response as well. So little switches like that can help.

Speaker 1:

And then I really want you to pay attention to your sleep, optimizing your sleep as much as possible. If your sleep isn't optimized and when I say optimized, I do recommend seven plus hours for most people out there. Of quantity of time of sleep, I do recommend to try and make it as best as possible. To make it as best as possible no caffeine, no pre-workouts, no sugar-free Cokes or anything like that eight hours before bed, or black teas or green teas. No caffeine consumed eight hours before sleeping. And then I also recommend screen time Okay, not looking at the emails, backing off the TV an hour before bed at minimum so you can improve your quality of sleep and get the right hormone kind of ecosystem and not, you know, raising your stress levels too much while trying to sleep as well, like cortisol. So these are important little things that you can take action on and just be aware of that will influence a higher testosterone production. So get lean, get to healthy body fat ranges, improve your sleep, improve your quality of nutrition, stabilize your blood sugar.

Speaker 1:

Fish gathered, plucked or hunted is our philosophy, whole foods okay. Prioritize more of a healthy fat. Avocados, butter, nut butters. Find, obviously, what works for you digestively. If you ever need a list of healthy fats, we have that in our resources section or you can email me at michael at mindperformancehealthcomau, or message me on Instagram at just my name, michael Pritchett. But yeah, if you clean up your diet, having more of a dominance in terms of protein and healthy fats and still carbs can be fine. But using them to help not spill over with calories and using them mainly around the training window, that can be a great way to influence testosterone production as well. A little bit of saturated fats you've got to find out what works for you, but saturated fats in moderation, in control, can actually help your testosterone production as well. Coconut oils, for example. But yeah, you got to find out what works for you. But just be aware, higher protein, higher fats it's something we've found with clients that can make a difference.

Speaker 1:

Okay so, sleep, nutrition, strength training, get to healthy body fat ranges, build muscle that's what you need to do, that's what you need to do and that's what you need to prioritize. Little one percenters and things that can help as well is going to be supplements. Now, a few supplements. Once again, see a health practitioner, get them to sign up on what you need to take, but with clients, I like to use fish oils. Okay, that can improve things like insulin sensitivity, lean body mass and, once again, as a byproduct, potentially that can bring up your testosterone levels.

Speaker 1:

I like to use pomegranate extract to help with aromatization if that's a problem, as in being, your test is aromatizing too much into estrogen. I like to use phosphoryl serine. It's a powerful antioxidant, especially to help the Leydig cells, which help produce testosterone. There's a few different supplements you can try. Zinc is a very important one, very important for hormone production as well. These are little one percenters, right, but you've got to understand if you're not training, you're stressed out. You've got inflammation, you've got heavy heavy metals in your system and you're taking these kind of supplements. They may make a little bit of difference, but not a total difference. You need to do everything combined. Once again, these are great things that can help manage symptoms while you address the cause. Okay, but there's some supplements that I like to use like a big staple.

Speaker 1:

For us as well is adding in magnesium. A lot of Australians are deficient in magnesium as well, but there are a few supplements that you might want to keep in mind and be aware of and potentially may work for you. But ultimately, what we want to do and what you're hearing is you want to improve your blood sugar, your insulin response. You want to improve your lean body mass. You want to do things like antioxidants to clean up free radicals that can cause issues. You also want to be aware that if your test is aromatizing too much into estrogen, we're also not making that happen potentially with some supplements as well, or trying to limit that from happening in excess. A few little strategies there that you can be mindful of, and these are things that we've used to help clients improve their testosterone levels.

Speaker 1:

Naturally, now is it a 100% guarantee that you get to healthy body fat levels. You incorporate these supplements, you improve your sleep and your testosterone comes up. In most cases I will say I have seen it work okay, because in most cases clients aren't starting in a place of healthy body fat ranges or they're not starting in a place where they're super consistent 90% of the time. Sometimes we get very fit individuals see us and their testosterone is low and then it may be time to see the doctor and review and look at hormone replacement therapy as well. It does have a time and place.

Speaker 1:

My school of thought is try to exhaust everything naturally, because when you go on HRT, you may be on it for the rest of your life, okay, and that has other things you need to be aware of. So my school thought what you need to do first is try to improve it naturally. If you get to that spot where the next step is HRT, you can book in with a doctor to investigate that a little bit further and then that may be the path for you, okay. But look, guys, I just wanted to share a few tips that we've seen with clients to improve testosterone naturally. So hopefully you got some takeaways from that for yourself.

Speaker 1:

Maybe it influences a few behaviors like getting to the gym, lifting heavier, cleaning up your diet, sleeping better, lowering your stress hormones and actually making a difference to your quality of life. So if you found it helpful, please give it a like. We've got free resources down below our Body Transformation guide, amongst others, and if you ever need any help with our service, feel free to get in touch. We have both our personal training service and we also have our nutrition supplements, where we try to make you better for your day to day. So thanks, guys, and I'll see you in the next one.