NOT JUST A
MAN HORMONE
Most people hear testosterone and think bodybuilding. That is wrong. Testosterone is a foundational hormone in both men and women. Men produce more. Women produce less. But both need it. And both suffer when it drops.
In men it is produced primarily in the testes. In women it comes from the ovaries and adrenal glands. The amount differs. The importance does not.
It controls more than most people realise. It is not just about muscle. It is about how you think, how you feel, how much energy you have, how clearly you see the future, and how motivated you are to go after it.
LOW TESTOSTERONE
THE SYMPTOMS
Most men with low testosterone are never diagnosed. They go to the doctor. They are told they are tired, stressed, depressed. They leave with antidepressants. The root cause is never measured.
Average testosterone levels in men have dropped roughly 25% since 1980. A man with the same age and lifestyle has significantly less testosterone today than his grandfather did. This is not genetics. This is environment, diet, sleep, and chronic stress.
Chronic fatigue that sleep doesn't fix. Low or zero libido. Difficulty building muscle despite training. Belly fat that won't move. Brain fog. Depression or flat mood with no clear cause. Loss of morning erections. Poor motivation. Any combination of these is your body asking you to check your hormones.
WHAT KILLS YOUR
TESTOSTERONE
Most of the things destroying testosterone are decisions. Not genetics. Not age. Decisions you make every day. The good news: reversible decisions produce reversible results.
RAISE IT
NATURALLY
You do not need drugs to optimise testosterone. You need to stop doing the things that destroy it. Then you add the inputs that build it. That order matters. Most people skip the first step.
Fix sleep first. Then training. Then diet quality. Then stress management. Then micronutrients. In that order. Most men who do steps one through four see dramatic improvements without touching a single supplement.
GET YOUR
NUMBERS
You cannot fix what you cannot measure. Most doctors test total testosterone and stop there. That is not enough. Total testosterone tells you how much is circulating. Free testosterone tells you how much is actually available to your cells. They are not the same number.
Ask your doctor for a full panel. Not just total T. If they refuse or dismiss you — find a different doctor. This is your health. You are allowed to advocate for it.
| Marker | What It Tells You | Range | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Testosterone | Total circulating testosterone — bound and free combined | 300–900 ng/dL (normal) · 600–900 optimal | Essential |
| Free Testosterone | The active, usable portion not bound to proteins | 9–30 pg/mL | Essential |
| SHBG | Sex Hormone Binding Globulin — binds testosterone and makes it unavailable. High SHBG = low free T even if total T looks fine. | 10–57 nmol/L | Essential |
| LH & FSH | Signals from the brain telling the testes to produce testosterone. Helps identify whether low T comes from the brain or the testes. | 1.5–9.3 IU/L | Recommended |
| Estradiol (E2) | Estrogen. Men need some. Too much causes gynecomastia, low libido, fat gain. Check the ratio alongside testosterone. | 10–40 pg/mL | Recommended |
| Vitamin D | Direct precursor in testosterone production. Deficiency is common and causes measurable drops in T. | 30–80 ng/mL · aim 50–80 | Recommended |
300 ng/dL is technically "normal." A man at 300 feels exhausted, unmotivated, and depressed. A man at 800 feels sharp, energised, and capable. The reference range is built on population averages — not on what makes you feel and function at your best. Know the difference.
TESTOSTERONE
REPLACEMENT THERAPY
TRT is medical treatment for clinically low testosterone. It is not a shortcut. It is not a performance enhancer. When used correctly, under proper medical supervision, for people who genuinely need it — TRT is legitimate and effective.
When used by healthy young men who just want to be bigger — it is a different story. And the line between TRT and steroid use is much thinner than most people admit.
You are older. Your levels are genuinely low — confirmed by blood work, not YouTube. You have already fixed sleep, training, diet, and stress. Nothing moved the needle. You have money for proper medical supervision and consistent testing. TRT in that context is a legitimate tool. It is replacing what your body stopped producing. That is different from a 24-year-old injecting testosterone because he saw it on Instagram.
The men TRT makes the most sense for are not 22-year-olds at the gym. They are 50-year-old executives who spent decades running on stress, sleep deprivation, and poor food — and whose hormonal systems paid the price. The wealthy know this. And they act on it.
TRT in the context of Bezos and Musk is not about bodybuilding. It is about damage repair. Decades of extreme stress, poor sleep, unhealthy habits, and relentless pressure left their hormonal systems depleted. TRT is the bandaid. It works. But the wealthiest men in the world using it to reverse years of self-inflicted damage is not the same story as a 22-year-old using it to look bigger on Instagram.
Exhaust every natural option first. Sleep, training, diet, stress management, micronutrients. If after 6 months of real effort your numbers are still clinically low — speak to an endocrinologist. Not a clinic that profits from prescribing. Not a YouTube coach. A doctor. Test every 3 months. Do not freelance this. And understand what you are signing up for: a bandaid you replace every week, possibly forever.
THE TESTOSTERONE–
ESTROGEN RATIO
Every man has estrogen. You need it for bone density, cardiovascular health, and brain function. The problem is never estrogen itself. The problem is the ratio.
The higher your body fat percentage, the more aromatase enzyme you carry in that fat tissue. Aromatase converts testosterone to estrogen. The result: low testosterone combined with high estrogen — even in men who are not on any drugs. This explains a lot of symptoms that get missed.
Reduce body fat. This is the primary driver of the imbalance and the most reliable fix. Strength training increases testosterone. Losing fat reduces aromatisation. The two work together. If you are managing TRT and not monitoring E2, you are doing it wrong. The ratio is what matters.
STEROIDS —
THE REAL COST
Anabolic steroids are synthetic testosterone. They build muscle faster than your body can naturally. That part is true. What nobody puts in the thumbnail is everything that comes with them.
Your body produces testosterone through a feedback loop. Your brain signals your testes to produce it. When you inject synthetic testosterone from outside, your brain detects the surplus and shuts down your own production. The longer you use, the harder it is to restart. Some never do.
Your body's natural hormone production shuts down while on cycle. When you stop, you crash. Testosterone drops to near zero. Estrogen spikes. You feel depressed, fatigued, emotionally unstable. This is post-cycle crash. It can last months. For some, it never fully resolves without medical intervention.
You are trading years of healthy hormonal function for faster muscle growth. In your 20s and 30s your natural testosterone is at its peak. That is the best environment to build muscle you will ever have. Drugs during this window do not add to your peak. They replace it — and damage the system that would have served you for decades.
THE PHYSIQUE THEY'RE SELLING
ISN'T THE FULL PICTURE.
They show you the muscle. They do not show you the blood panels, the TRT injections for life, the cardiac MRI, or the post-cycle crash. The product is the image. Everything else stays off camera.
THE INFLUENCERS
RANKED BY REACH
These are some of the biggest names in fitness on YouTube. Combined they reach tens of millions of subscribers. Most sell workout plans, supplements, and a lifestyle. Most are on gear. Not all admit it.
This is not a hit list. Some of these people are honest. Some are not. Some were caught. Some came forward. The table below separates confirmed from alleged — because the distinction matters when you are making decisions about your own body.
| # | Name | Subs | Status | What We Know |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Huberman |
~7.4M |
✓ Confirmed | Admitted on his own podcast: on TRT since age 45, 125mg/week. Spent years promoting supplements as the reason for his physique. |
| 2 | Bradley Martyn |
~4.5M |
⚠ Alleged | Has never admitted or denied. Physique considered impossible naturally by virtually everyone in the fitness community. |
| 3 | Sam Sulek |
~4.5M |
⚠ Implied | Never confirmed. Told fans he couldn't reach 300lb "natural." Multiple experts including Layne Norton publicly concluded heavy PED use. |
| 4 |
Noel Deyzel
Most Honest
|
~5M |
✓ Confirmed | Openly admits steroid use. His most viewed video: "Why I'm open about my steroid use." Actively calls out others for lying. One of the very few who told the truth unprompted. |
| 5 | Tren Twins |
~3M |
⚠ Alleged | Never confirmed. The name itself references Trenbolone. Community consensus is as clear as it gets. No admission. |
| 6 | Alex Eubank |
~2M |
✓ Confirmed | Built his entire brand as "natty." Announced in late 2024 he was starting testosterone — 200mg/week under medical supervision. At least he told his audience. |
| 7 | Dr. Mike Israetel |
~1.7M |
✓ Confirmed | Openly admitted steroid use during competition prep. Described waking up with anxiety and violent intrusive thoughts on high doses. Transparent about the real cost. |
| 8 | Greg Doucette |
~1.5M |
✓ Confirmed | Decades of steroid use and TRT. Has a video titled "I Lied About My Testosterone Dose." Open about use — at least now. |
| 9 | Larry Wheels |
~1.3M |
✓ Confirmed | Admitted publicly. Discussed the side effects openly in 2018. Quit in 2022. Relapsed in 2024. Honest about the cycle of dependency. |
| 10 | Liver King |
~1M |
✗ Caught | Spent $11,000/month on 16 vials of PEDs while claiming to be 100% natural. Exposed via leaked emails. Admitted. Netflix made a documentary about the lie. |
| 11 | Rich Piana |
~960K |
✓ Confirmed | 25+ years of steroid use — admitted openly. Died age 46. Heart disease. 20+ bottles of steroids found at his home. He said "stay natural" publicly while using. |
| 12 | Mike O'Hearn |
~700K |
✗ Denied | Claims natural for 40+ years. 4x Mr. Universe. Nobody in the fitness community believes him. Has become a running joke at this point. |
✓ Confirmed = self-admitted or verified · ⚠ Alleged = strong evidence, not officially confirmed · ✗ Caught = exposed against their will · ✗ Denied = denies use, widely disputed
MY MESSAGE
TO YOU
STAY NATURAL.
YOU DON'T NEED IT.
I have nothing against the people in that table. They work hard. They built real audiences. Some of them are honest about what they do. But the fitness industry today sells you a lifestyle — healthy food, good sleep, sunlight, cold showers, ancestral living — while behind the scenes, everyone is blasting gear. That gap between the brand and the reality is what concerns me. It is sad to see.
Scroll through YouTube today. Hundreds of fitness creators promoting bodybuilding. Promoting that lifestyle. What they do not tell you is that those competitions are not natural. To compete at that level you need years of training. And years of steroids. Years that come with a cost that never makes the thumbnail.
For the average person who just wants to look good? You do not need any of it. In two years of real training — good food, consistent work, a plan you follow — you can build a body most people will not believe is natural. They will think you used something. You didn't.
Steroids are expensive. They cost you money. They cost you your health. They cost you your hormonal system — possibly forever.
And you cannot even trust what you are injecting. Most steroids on the black market are mixed with unknown substances. Produced in unknown conditions. You can get an infection. A disease. From a product you paid for and trusted.
When you come off cycle — most guys cannot recover. Their testosterone is gone. Their body will not produce it anymore. They end up on TRT for life. Look at the biggest names on YouTube: Huberman, Greg Doucette, Mike O'Hearn who still denies it. Alex Eubank who finally admitted it. The Tren Twins whose name says everything. These are not drug-free athletes. These are the product they are selling you.
And then there is Zyzz.
He was probably the first guy to combine his physique with dancing and confidence and turn it into a movement on YouTube. He inspired millions. He died in a sauna in Thailand on August 5, 2011. He was 22 years old. Heart failure. From gear abuse. He had an undiagnosed congenital heart condition — that steroids accelerated past the point of no return.
Since then the numbers have not gotten better. In a study of over 20,000 IFBB competitors, nearly 2 in 5 deaths were from sudden cardiac arrest. Professional bodybuilders die from heart failure at a rate 14 times higher than amateurs. At an average age of 36 years old.
27 out of 66 tracked professional bodybuilder deaths were cardiovascular. 61% of those heart deaths happened in men under 45. These are not old men. These are men who look like the picture of health in their social media thumbnails.
Stay natural. Build your physique. Two years from now you will look incredible. After that you maintain. You stay healthy. You avoid all the problems that come with that needle.
The body you want is possible without it. It always was. You just need to know what to do — and have the patience to do it. That is what this book is for.