Morning Wood

Okay from 10/25-11/14 I cycled tribilus w. ZMA – three servings a day for a week, and one serving a day for two weeks. Like some people mentioned, it didn’t do jack shit for me. In addition, I went from having rock hard morning woods every single day to rarely, to not at all the last week.

Now, I can’t say it was the trib. that gave me this result directly. I also made some other changes in my diet – I played around with my pre/peri workout nutrition. I went from have five whole-food meals and one whey protein shake w. poptarts PWO, to having BSN’s syntha-6 w. WMS 30min. preworkout, whey protein and WMS during my workout, and more whey protein afterwards.

One thought that crossed my mind, was introducing soy (through snytha-6) into my diet on a daily basis. I haven’t had any soy products in over 9 months until now, and currently take at least two servings of S-6.

Considering that morning wood is the best indicator of T-levels, as Beradi has stated, this concerns me. I’ve used ZMA in the past and have always got morning woods, although now I’m not getting those results. I’m considering going back to more whole-food meals, although I certainly don’t want to have a half-tub of S-6 and WMS lying around.

Another note I always get plenty of sleep, 8hrs and up to ten if I can. Sorry for the long post, does anyone have an idea how I can get back on track to rock hard morning woods? Thanks!

You know, I may be a gelding, but the most immediate cause of most of my morning wood is having to pee really bad. Have nighttime bathroom habits changed?

Also, I’m confused if the dropoff in morning wood was associated with starting or tapering the Trib/ZMA cycle?

[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
You know, I may be a gelding, but the most immediate cause of most of my morning wood is having to pee really bad. Have nighttime bathroom habits changed?

Also, I’m confused if the dropoff in morning wood was associated with starting or tapering the Trib/ZMA cycle?[/quote]

I’m not certain if Trib/ZMA was what effected my morning woods either. I generally hold off on water or any beverages four hours before bed, and sleep soundly throughout the night.

Just watch some porn upon waking and voila, morning wood.

On a serious note, has your sex drive decreased?.. If so you might want to lay of the soy products.

Soy products have phytoestrogens and from my understanding estrogens and androgens compete for the same binding site. So by increasing the estrogen levels in your body, you are in turn suppressing testosterone.

Also as ER stated, a full bladder can lead to morning wood… your bladder is probably empty if you stop drinking 4 hrs before bed.

You know if you are worried about your T-levels which isn’t clear from your post, then you’ll just have to get them tested.

Any issues with sex drive or just morning wood?

[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
You know, I may be a gelding, but the most immediate cause of most of my morning wood is having to pee really bad.

[/quote]

same here

[quote]Chi-Towns-Finest wrote:
Okay from 10/25-11/14 I cycled tribilus w. ZMA – three servings a day for a week, and one serving a day for two weeks. Like some people mentioned, it didn’t do jack shit for me. In addition, I went from having rock hard morning woods every single day to rarely, to not at all the last week.

Now, I can’t say it was the trib. that gave me this result directly. I also made some other changes in my diet – I played around with my pre/peri workout nutrition. I went from have five whole-food meals and one whey protein shake w. poptarts PWO, to having BSN’s syntha-6 w. WMS 30min. preworkout, whey protein and WMS during my workout, and more whey protein afterwards.

One thought that crossed my mind, was introducing soy (through snytha-6) into my diet on a daily basis. I haven’t had any soy products in over 9 months until now, and currently take at least two servings of S-6.

Considering that morning wood is the best indicator of T-levels, as Beradi has stated, this concerns me. I’ve used ZMA in the past and have always got morning woods, although now I’m not getting those results. I’m considering going back to more whole-food meals, although I certainly don’t want to have a half-tub of S-6 and WMS lying around.

Another note I always get plenty of sleep, 8hrs and up to ten if I can. Sorry for the long post, does anyone have an idea how I can get back on track to rock hard morning woods? Thanks![/quote]

Soy protein is often feared because of the potential oestrogen raising effects but I think that there needs to be a lot of it taken for this effect. Having said that though, I still don’t want to take soya lol.

As regards diet, the main thing that would effect T-levels is either a reduction in overall calories, or and insufficient fat intake. I don’t care how bad some people say sat.fats are, without a doubt my t-levels go up in direct proportion to how much sat-fats I take in. Things like beef and dairy should be eaten regularly. At least a third of your fat intake should be sat.fats. Also, at least 20% of macronutrient split should be fat.

Tribulus does increase sex drive, and so does ZMA. It’s obvious that if you stopped them, you wouldn’t get wood as much in the mornings. Long term, I don’t see the benefit of Tribulus…unless you take it in high dosages pre workout (for the aggressive factor). I found that ZMA has to be cycled on for 3 days, and off for 3 days…in order to still get the effects (e.g. sex drive, morning wood etc). You also shouldn’t overdo the zinc, since this leads to imbalances in other nutrients, long term high dosages (e.g. 60mg plus) will do more harm than good.

As regards training, running yourself into the ground (e.g. volume too high for intensity) will lower t-levels and sex drive. Try pulling back for a week (e.g. deloading), if this helps, you had just reached your limit.

Just checked the ingredients of syntha-6. It doesn’t have any soy protein in it.

A lot of things can cause a decrease in testosterone like too little saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet and/or extra stress.

ZMA never really did anything for me, but I have been taking vitamin D with it before bed, and lately I have been waking up with insane morning wood. Maybe give it a try?

I find that personally, having an erection in the morning is entirely dependent upon what stage of sleep I wake up from. When I wake up from REM (dream) sleep, I almost always have an erection, but when I wake up from sleep in which I’m not dreaming, I usually don’t have one.

It might just be the stage of sleep you’re in when you wake up.

Thanks for the respones.

I have noticed I more likely to have a hard wood waking up from dreap sleep than otherwise.

[quote]Fezzik wrote:
Just checked the ingredients of syntha-6. It doesn’t have any soy protein in it.

A lot of things can cause a decrease in testosterone like too little saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet and/or extra stress.

ZMA never really did anything for me, but I have been taking vitamin D with it before bed, and lately I have been waking up with insane morning wood. Maybe give it a try?[/quote]

It’s not soy protein per se, but the label does say it has soy ingedients.

I generally get about 90g of fat each day, and that’s about 25% of my macro split – perhaps I need more saturated fat. My main source of fat is natty-PB, eggs, and nuts, I get steak or red meat maybe 2-3x a week. I imagine I get a healthy amount of sat. fat and cholesterol from four whole eggs 1-2x a day.

I have vitamin D with my eggs most of the time since it’s best absorbed with fat – and I believe you should take ZMA on an empty stomach. Maybe I’ll give it a try anyways.

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Chi-Towns-Finest wrote:
Okay from 10/25-11/14 I cycled tribilus w. ZMA – three servings a day for a week, and one serving a day for two weeks. Like some people mentioned, it didn’t do jack shit for me. In addition, I went from having rock hard morning woods every single day to rarely, to not at all the last week.

Now, I can’t say it was the trib. that gave me this result directly. I also made some other changes in my diet – I played around with my pre/peri workout nutrition. I went from have five whole-food meals and one whey protein shake w. poptarts PWO, to having BSN’s syntha-6 w. WMS 30min. preworkout, whey protein and WMS during my workout, and more whey protein afterwards.

One thought that crossed my mind, was introducing soy (through snytha-6) into my diet on a daily basis. I haven’t had any soy products in over 9 months until now, and currently take at least two servings of S-6.

Considering that morning wood is the best indicator of T-levels, as Beradi has stated, this concerns me. I’ve used ZMA in the past and have always got morning woods, although now I’m not getting those results. I’m considering going back to more whole-food meals, although I certainly don’t want to have a half-tub of S-6 and WMS lying around.

Another note I always get plenty of sleep, 8hrs and up to ten if I can. Sorry for the long post, does anyone have an idea how I can get back on track to rock hard morning woods? Thanks!

Soy protein is often feared because of the potential oestrogen raising effects but I think that there needs to be a lot of it taken for this effect. Having said that though, I still don’t want to take soya lol.

As regards diet, the main thing that would effect T-levels is either a reduction in overall calories, or and insufficient fat intake. I don’t care how bad some people say sat.fats are, without a doubt my t-levels go up in direct proportion to how much sat-fats I take in. Things like beef and dairy should be eaten regularly. At least a third of your fat intake should be sat.fats. Also, at least 20% of macronutrient split should be fat.

Tribulus does increase sex drive, and so does ZMA. It’s obvious that if you stopped them, you wouldn’t get wood as much in the mornings. Long term, I don’t see the benefit of Tribulus…unless you take it in high dosages pre workout (for the aggressive factor). I found that ZMA has to be cycled on for 3 days, and off for 3 days…in order to still get the effects (e.g. sex drive, morning wood etc). You also shouldn’t overdo the zinc, since this leads to imbalances in other nutrients, long term high dosages (e.g. 60mg plus) will do more harm than good.

As regards training, running yourself into the ground (e.g. volume too high for intensity) will lower t-levels and sex drive. Try pulling back for a week (e.g. deloading), if this helps, you had just reached your limit.
[/quote]

Interesting, I had no idea you were supposed to cycle ZMA – do you have a source/more info on this? I don’t think I’m running myself into the ground. I generally keep my sessions short and intense, I’ll focus on progression on three movements per body part – I may do a couple additional isolation movements.

there’s no need to cycle ZMA

[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
You know, I may be a gelding, but the most immediate cause of most of my morning wood is having to pee really bad. Have nighttime bathroom habits changed?

Also, I’m confused if the dropoff in morning wood was associated with starting or tapering the Trib/ZMA cycle?[/quote]

It is NOT because one has to urinate! A healthy man gets erections several times in his sleep because this is the body’s protective mechanism in keeping normal penile functioning.

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
EasyRhino wrote:
You know, I may be a gelding, but the most immediate cause of most of my morning wood is having to pee really bad.

same here

[/quote]

Again, not the reason you get an erection. Go talk to any urologist or andrologist.

[quote]Chi-Towns-Finest wrote:
Okay from 10/25-11/14 I cycled tribilus w. ZMA – three servings a day for a week, and one serving a day for two weeks. Like some people mentioned, it didn’t do jack shit for me. In addition, I went from having rock hard morning woods every single day to rarely, to not at all the last week.

Now, I can’t say it was the trib. that gave me this result directly. I also made some other changes in my diet – I played around with my pre/peri workout nutrition. I went from have five whole-food meals and one whey protein shake w. poptarts PWO, to having BSN’s syntha-6 w. WMS 30min. preworkout, whey protein and WMS during my workout, and more whey protein afterwards.

One thought that crossed my mind, was introducing soy (through snytha-6) into my diet on a daily basis. I haven’t had any soy products in over 9 months until now, and currently take at least two servings of S-6.

Considering that morning wood is the best indicator of T-levels, as Beradi has stated, this concerns me. I’ve used ZMA in the past and have always got morning woods, although now I’m not getting those results. I’m considering going back to more whole-food meals, although I certainly don’t want to have a half-tub of S-6 and WMS lying around.

Another note I always get plenty of sleep, 8hrs and up to ten if I can. Sorry for the long post, does anyone have an idea how I can get back on track to rock hard morning woods? Thanks![/quote]

You’re not getting erections in the morning, but you might be getting them mid-sleep. Go look up information on any high-quality site on urology, fertility, and andrology. There’s a self-test one can do to see if they had nocturnal erections.

AGAIN, morning erections don’t occur because one has to urinate. Erections aren’t necessary for urination. One has nocturnal/mid-sleep erections because it’s a protective mechanism to maintain the integrity of your dick!

I take that back. I just found a source saying that an erection might occur during sleep so that urinating during sleep doesn’t occur.

However, as I said, they don’t only occur as you’re waking up. They happen in the middle of the night too.

slightly off topic but not really: anyone ever wonder if they damage their dick by rolling over it while you have morning (or dream) wood? just thinking about it makes me cringe

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
I take that back. I just found a source saying that an erection might occur during sleep so that urinating during sleep doesn’t occur. [/quote]

That’s what I was getting at, but I’ll read up on the other function too.

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
Chi-Towns-Finest wrote:
Okay from 10/25-11/14 I cycled tribilus w. ZMA – three servings a day for a week, and one serving a day for two weeks. Like some people mentioned, it didn’t do jack shit for me. In addition, I went from having rock hard morning woods every single day to rarely, to not at all the last week.

Now, I can’t say it was the trib. that gave me this result directly. I also made some other changes in my diet – I played around with my pre/peri workout nutrition. I went from have five whole-food meals and one whey protein shake w. poptarts PWO, to having BSN’s syntha-6 w. WMS 30min. preworkout, whey protein and WMS during my workout, and more whey protein afterwards.

One thought that crossed my mind, was introducing soy (through snytha-6) into my diet on a daily basis. I haven’t had any soy products in over 9 months until now, and currently take at least two servings of S-6.

Considering that morning wood is the best indicator of T-levels, as Beradi has stated, this concerns me. I’ve used ZMA in the past and have always got morning woods, although now I’m not getting those results. I’m considering going back to more whole-food meals, although I certainly don’t want to have a half-tub of S-6 and WMS lying around.

Another note I always get plenty of sleep, 8hrs and up to ten if I can. Sorry for the long post, does anyone have an idea how I can get back on track to rock hard morning woods? Thanks!

You’re not getting erections in the morning, but you might be getting them mid-sleep. Go look up information on any high-quality site on urology, fertility, and andrology. There’s a self-test one can do to see if they had nocturnal erections.

AGAIN, morning erections don’t occur because one has to urinate. Erections aren’t necessary for urination. One has nocturnal/mid-sleep erections because it’s a protective mechanism to maintain the integrity of your dick!
[/quote]

I’d be interested in a self-test, do you have a source? I’ll google those keywords.

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
there’s no need to cycle ZMA

[/quote]

I just experimented on myself, can’t prove it. I personally found that the effects are more prominent when cycled 3 days on, 3 days off.