Considering TRT?
Try this first...
In Jiu-Jitsu circles, especially in my age range, meeting guys on TRT is not uncommon. It kind of comes with the territory. When these are your friends, and you start to take an interest in their well-being, you wonder why.
What I mean is, BJJ mastery is a long road, and I wouldn’t expect most of my training buddies to take shortcuts (if any were available) to get to their goals. Of course, mastery in this sense is “all about the journey” and I get that- I am part of that scene.
Grit, tenacity, putting in the work…even though the seasons of adult men’s lives don’t always allow for the sort of discipline in attendance that charts as a steady, straight line, most men who are serious show up, train hard, & attend open mat.
A vast majority workout and pursue other hobbies, have families, kids in sports, demanding careers, outside commitments, wives to take on date nights, and on and on.
The temptation to get on TRT is real and at first glance, paradoxical: why take a shortcut when we all work so hard otherwise?
BJJ is the perfect storm- you get aging guys 35-50s, with high training volume that stresses the CNS and joints, in a competitive environment (even if casual) with a visible hierarchy- “who’s dangerous and who’s fading out?” and the paradox begins to make sense.
When you look around and realize you’re not an outlier for being disciplined, showing up, eating decently and training hard, the internal story shifts to, “I’m doing everything right, so why am I not recovering the way I used to? This friction can be resolved quickly with TRT. I have asked a few guys I know who said something similar: “At first it feels like cheating but it also feels like a relatively easy lever to fix something unfair…”
The glaring truth most men do not know: testosterone doesn’t naturally decline with age- it only appears that way because society has lost sight of some things that used to be non-negotiables like sleep hygiene (when did it become cool to brag about how little sleep we get?), physical exercise, wholesome nutrition consumed 3x/day.
I have had conversations to push some of my friends and have learned to not drown them in needless information. Here’s the short “do this first stack” that I recommend most men try before TRT - sometimes it’s not hard at all to get back on track.
Lift heavy 2-3x/week (non negotiable) - not circuits, not cardio disguised as lifting- this is compound focus on the big 4: squat, hinge, push, pull
Short sessions (45-60 mins) anything longer spikes cortisol and this is the enemy of testosterone
Leave 1-2 reps in the tank - do not chase pump because again, cortisol
This is one of the strongest natural signals for testosterone and insulin sensitivity.
Zone 2 + occasional sprint
2-3x/week easy cardio - I run 4 miles but can talk the whole time, this is the test. If you can talk to a running buddy but not sing you’re in the sweet spot. If you can’t talk, dial it back. For me this started at 2 miles, about 145 BPM heart rate and 13 min mile pace. Stick with it because it quickly goes to 10 min miles, then 9 and so on.
1x/week short sprint work 3-5 sets of 10-20 sec bursts with 45 sec rest
This lowers systemic inflammation, improves mitochondrial density and function- the ATP producing powerhouse organelles in our cells.
3) Drop visceral fat - this is the big one
I have to give a shout out to my trainer who introduced me to this: Mo Saleem (look him up) has been teaching men like me the magic of waist to height ratio and it works. When I worked with Mo, I dropped 30# and took a waist to height ratio from .51 to .41.
Measure your waist above the belly button and your height in inches. If the waist over height (divide) is above 45%, you are in a risk cohort for a host of health ailments that show up together so often, the experts call them metabolic syndrome.
If you fix nothing else but this-
Testosterone goes up
Inflammation goes down
Estrogen balance improves.
4) Protein + whole food baseline
There is so much nutritional information out there- and it is tempting to become “optimized.” So I will keep this simple because there are truly only a few things that move the needle.
Protein every meal (eggs, meat, fish- not protein slop like bars and cereals with added protein)
Eliminate ultra processed foods
Don’t snack - stabilizes blood sugar, lowers inflammatory load
5) Alcohol: throttle it down hard, or better yet, eliminate it (30-60 days) if you can
This is where most men in the 40+ crowd sabotage themselves weekly- here are the guidelines:
1-2 drinks/week max (ideally zero for 60 days while you get this shit back on track)
In addition to being calorically dense with nearly zero energetic return, alcohol crushes testosterone and drives inflammation
6) Breathing/downshift (highly underrated)
5-10 minutes of nasal breathing daily
Longer exhales in general
Here’s the feedback loop: chronic stress = chronically elevated cortisol= suppressed T+ high inflammation - so reverse this:
breathe like your life depends on it, it does. Also, downregulating the CNS is a skill (think post-match clarity when you first learned to slow pace as a white or blue belt- this is where the learning happens because your brain says “I am no longer in fight or flight” let’s unpack and internalize what just happened)
If inflammation is your glaring problem- here’s my short list (again, let’s not overcomplicate this)
Fatty fish 2-3x/week (or fish oil supplement if you find fish unpalatable)
Walk after meals (10 min)
Fix sleep first (this is the #1 anti-inflammatory)
Magnesium glycinate before bed
Optional but solid:
Turmeric (with black pepper) -> try Golden milk
Ginger in food/tea
What not to do (this is important!!)
Do not jump into 10 supplements
Do not go extreme on dietary changes (keto, fasting, carb cycling, etc) right out of the gate - if you want to try these, gradually ramp up
Do not “optimize” or “biohack” before mastering the above basics.
If you clean this up for 8-12 weeks and still feel off, then get bloodwork and revisit TRT.
Here’s my parting shot:
A lot of guys aren’t actually low T. They have poor recovery, high inflammation and excess fat. This trifecta, if left unchecked, can hijack testosterone and hormone balance in general, but can be reversed surprisingly quickly if you attack the above in order of importance.
So, lift heavy, walk daily, get your waist down, cut alcohol, sleep like it matters. Put this in place for 2-3 months before you get on TRT.