Testing Testosterone #1

A new rabbit hole I've started to explore which is linked to the dominance hierarchies.

What is the link between DHs and testosterone?

I've been doing a fair bit of weight training for over a year now and I'd say I've bulked up a bit. I've shed some fat  ~10kg, probably more as that is the figure of weight on the scale I've lost, but I've added muscle.

Testosterone is good for muscle growth - this much I know. I stopped drinking water from the tap and switched over to filtered water once I learnt this (who actually knows if it is true or not, but meh no harm no foul). I'm also 36 so naturally my testosterone levels are dropping off somewhat due to age. Not what they were when I was 20, but higher than when I'll be 44. Hopefully my healthy lifestyle is mitigating/slowing that decrease down, and there are things I can do to increase.

Watched a podcast with Rogan and Andrew Huberman where they discuss testosterone optimisation. So apparently testosterone has some cool side effects besides muscle growth - it helps you persevere through pain. In fact the pain makes you feel good. I think that was the gist of it.

There is your link to the dominance hierarchy. Compounding effect perhaps? Small win by male gives them a boost of testosterone. So then they try harder/push through pain barrier for training. If they keep winning they keep getting more testosterone, building muscle, easier to push through pain to train. Self perpetuating here (probably more talking a physical activity).

In the podcast they discuss rams fighting each other for the right to mate. How the testosterone plays a part in that. In fact they discuss how in some animal fights, including humans, the ball sac, which is the epicentre of testosterone creation, gets ripped off by the victor.

Im reading a book on the crazy shit that happened in Columbia (based on real events). Part of the story involves the army setting up what essentially is a torture chamber for 'enemies of the state' (which turns out to be random people). The men in charge start creating all sorts of weird and exotic ways to torture their prisoners. It gets worse and worse, water torture, electrocution, hanging etc. All the women are raped, the attractive ones repeatedly.

Then the torture compound gets stormed by another section of the army. They are horrified by what they find. The state of the prisoners is catastrophic. They are skin and bone, mentally smashed. What is interesting is how the author describes the men's testicles. They are not there anymore. The scrotums hang empty, just loose voids of skin like a chandelier on a lamp. I will have to track down the actual quote.

The men who started running the torture chamber initially are just described as loyal regular soldiers. Then it is through the power and whatever that I assume the testosterone does to them, they hit another level of crazy. Fascinating that they inevitably end up raping all the woman and castrating all the men. I think the Stanford Experiment deals with this as well.

Perhaps this is another balance situation.

You don't want to be low on T, for that leads to all sorts of mental anguish and inability to persevere and get up on dominance hierarchy ladder at all.

You don't want too high T as you start becoming anti social, unable to be normal with peeps. Human society is complex, cultural and religious institutions have been implemented across many societies to prevent the occurrence of one man with many females, and lots of men with no females, because lots of men with no females leads to violence violence violence.

Where does all the T sit with stoicism and awareness and love? Thoughts to contemplate on another night.