Caveats:
Have done basic research into ‘natural testosterone boosters’, and AAS / pharma grade products. Have decided to stay in the natural realm.
Male in Mid 30s, 2 decades of training experience. I already supplement with Vitamin D and Zinc.
I have had a good experience with D-Aspartic Acid [DAA], but found it must be cycled in short bouts. My “stack” looks (or will look) like this: Week 1: ~3g DAA daily Week 2: Biotest Alpha Male (2 caps only), for 5 days then 2 off. I take only 1 cap on two of those days, as I am sensitive to the Forskolin with pre-workout stimulants (don’t want interference with sleep ). Repeat - in perpetuity
Any concerns running this in perpetuity? Concerns such as down-regulation of any process or enzyme (I am no doctor clearly). I have also considered only taking some combination of DAA + Alpha Male on days when I am tired or didn’t sleep well. Sleep is probably the best testosterone ‘booster’, after all.
I realize there are better methods of research than posting on a forum, but this is my question, and this is a place to start.
I havent ever really looked into DAA myself (I believe there were questions around the tested shows I was doing when it first became a thing), but I’ve been using Alpha Male for years,… seriously, years now and I feel a hell of a lot better when I’m steady with it than when I’m not. Of course, I’m in my mid-late 40’s, so training aside, I may notice the differences more than you might. Everyone is different, and I’ve had my T-levels tested and they’re pretty impressive all things considered (relying on AM for so long, I obviously was taking it when I had my levels checked).
VItamin D and Zinc have long been shown to support natural T production, so I doubt there’s anything wrong with relying on them long term either, especially in recommended dosings.
Sensitivity to sleep can be from a variety of factors. I know that I can live on coffee and stress helps me be productive, but sometimes (I don’t rely on it), I take some Z12 or even Z-Quill to help me knock off for the evening. I’ve actually found that a beer helps too -lol
i ran 12 days of DAA then 14 days of tribulus for 2 months. only felt bad 1 time maybe 2-3 days, i felt like i had a crash of oestrogene, but went back to normale few days later. Still like the feeling for those 2 months was always horny. When i stopped i had maybe 1-2 days with lower libido but after 5 days i was back to normal. I like to run this stack sometimes. but im 25, im not ready to run it steady
Yeah, with almost anything your body can adapt, and while there are likely other possible approaches of on/off, 5/2 makes it pretty easy for most people in terms of weekday/weekend schedules.
After some experimentation and further review: I decided to go with the DAA for 2 weeks on, 1 week off. Maybe even just 1 week on, 1 week off if I feel it is losing its potency (body is “adapting” and something is getting down-regulated, or whatever; I know this happens in some form with DAA, from experience).
Don’t mean to knock to Biotest supplements at all: if I was doing a hard cut (diet) I would probably use Alpha Male and/or Carbolin-19 at some points.
Hey Stu, I wanted you to know that I bought 2 bottles of Alpha male during the labor day sale because of the endorsement you gave it here. I don’t know if Biotest/t-nation cares about referrals or anything, but I trust your word on these things and know you’re not a shill, so thanks for writing it out.
It’s also reassuring to know it’s free of banned substances, as you took it as a natural competitor.
Glad my own take could be helpful to you. I’ve always been thankful to those who knowingly or not provided me with info or help when I was first starting out as a competitor, so if my openness in sharing my own experiences can help anyone, I’m always pleased to hear.
Lol, I don’t know if they have a referral program or anything, but Tim and his crew have always treated me kindly in term of trips to CO, or even asking my thoughts on new products. I’m not an author on the site or anything, so I suppose they value my opinions as a non-employee I suppose
Yeah, the last thing I needed when I was competing was to get popped for anything I didn’t even know about, and back then, looking at the products most companies were putting out, the gray line between legal/questionable seemed pretty hazy at times.
It’s a fine idea if I wanted to keep using those other supplements. I will see if 1 week off is enough time with 2 weeks on. Or maybe 2 weeks on is too long, whichever.
