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More Testosterone!?
Plus: Silent dads
Geoff Girvitz
June 19, 2025
Today on Dad Strength
Do you need TRT or better cardio?
If you don’t already follow my friend, Mike T. Nelson, it’s probably because he’s far more low-key than most fitness influencers. I chalk this up to a combination of his Minnesota-style politeness and his nerd credentials (including a PhD in Exercise Physiology). He’s one of the most knowledgeable guys I know in the field. Despite this, he remains kind and unpretentious. Mike recently shared this post:
This is very congruent with my experience and absolutely worth mentioning if you’ve ever contemplated testosterone replacement therapy. Some quick follow-up thoughts about why this is the case:
Every system has a bottleneck or rate-limiting factor. When it comes to managing chronic stress — which will typically suppress testosterone production), a well-functioning aerobic system is incredibly important. You’ll want a relatively low resting heart rate and blood pressure because sudden spikes to your fight-or-flight response — whether they come from emotional stresses or from a quick bout of exercise — are shorter and less taxing.
If you are actively lifting weights, your ability to recover and repeat efforts is strongly influenced by your aerobic system. Even if an activity isn’t aerobic on paper, the entire period in between sets is.
As a side-note, you’ll sometimes here people avoiding aerobic activity because of a fear of “interference effect” or otherwise affecting their gains. Unless you’re 20ish and truly struggling to gain weight, I wouldn’t recommend spending a single moment worrying about this.The human endocrine system is incredibly complex. So, the idea that every attribute is directly related to testosterone levels is a deeply un-serious take.
As ever, look for simple things first. Sleep, nutrition, stress management, daily activity levels, and — of course — aerobic health. If you are under-investing in any of these, progress is accessible and often easy. It’s best practice to start there.
Need some help getting traction? Book a time with me here.
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“Strong opinions, loosely-held”
A friend once asked me, “How often do you hear someone say, ‘Hmm. I don’t really know enough about that topic to have an opinion on it.”? I think about that one a lot.
There’s another question you can ask: What would need to happen for you to change your mind about this? That’s a tougher one in today’s vibe-based political environment.
If you’re the one making the case for something, there’s another option: Lead with your assumptions. State them openly. What needs to be true for this argument to make sense? Or to be true? This allows you to hold the argument in one hand and the foundational belief in the other. You can choose to explore either one.
This isn’t just a hot take; it’s a strategy for arguing with confidence but not misrepresenting your own understanding — and it’s important for kids to hear. Why? Well, for starters, kids 5-10 tend to believe whoever argues with the most confidence… Even when it comes to counter-evidence sitting in plain sight.
Silent Dads
On our most recent call, we talked about an article one of our dads shared: How to Get Your Silent Dad to Talk to You. Is this a real thing or just clickbait?
There’s no question as to whether this generation of dads is more capable of opening up than the previous one. Mileage, of course, varies. So, how do we talk to our own dads? We talked about our own experiences opening up and tempering our expectations about what our dads are/were capable of.
Quickly, though, the conversation turned to our own own communication styles — and how well our kids respond to them. We want to effectively teach our kids… which can mean lecturing, of course, but we all know how that goes. Our dads more often communicate through curiosity, open discussions and Socratic dialogue.
Curious about our Tuesday calls? Start here.
What I’m reading/watching:
T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us by Carole Hooven (read a review here)
A 2-year-old brown bear made its way into Lithuania. The government released a permit making it legal to shoot the bear. Hunters said, “No.”
Photo via Paulius Peciulis via AP
A quote
“Testosterone makes us more willing to do what it takes to attain and maintain status. And the key point is what it takes. Engineer social circumstances right, and boosting testosterone levels during a challenge would make people compete like crazy to do the most acts of random kindness. In our world riddled with male violence, the problem isn't that testosterone can increase levels of aggression. The problem is the frequency with which we reward aggression.”
A dad joke
Diarrhea is hereditary. It runs in your jeans.
Take care of yourself, man!
Geoff Girvitz
Father, founder, physical culturist
dadstrength.com