Every tired man over 40 has typed "low testosterone symptoms" into Google at 11pm. Low energy, soft body, no drive in the gym, no drive in the bedroom. It's a real thing and some men do need medical help for it. But most of the men who ask me about it have never fixed the five things that move testosterone the most, and they'd be shocked at how much comes back when they do.

I'm not a doctor. This is what I've seen over 20 years, and what the research generally backs.

1. Sleep

Testosterone is made mostly while you sleep. Cut sleep to five hours and a healthy man's levels drop noticeably within a week. Fix it back to seven or eight and they recover. If you snore hard and wake up exhausted, get checked for sleep apnea. It quietly tanks testosterone and it's very common in men over 40 who carry weight.

Nothing else on this list works if you're sleeping five hours.

2. Body fat

Fat tissue converts testosterone into estrogen. The more you carry, especially around the middle, the more of your testosterone gets turned into the wrong hormone. Men who drop 20 to 30 pounds of fat routinely see their levels climb without touching anything else.

This is the one most guys don't want to hear, because it means the fix is the boring work. It's still the fix.

3. Lifting

Heavy compound lifting, squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, is the training that supports healthy testosterone. Two to three full body sessions a week. Not marathon cardio, which tends to push it the other way when you overdo it.

4. Alcohol

Regular drinking suppresses testosterone and wrecks the deep sleep where it's produced. Three or four beers most nights is a testosterone problem before it's a calorie problem. Cut it to a couple of nights a week and watch what happens over a month.

5. Stress and the phone

Chronic stress keeps cortisol high, and cortisol and testosterone work against each other. You can't quit your job, but you can walk daily, get morning light, keep the phone out of the bedroom and stop scrolling until 1am. Small things. They add up.

What about supplements

Most testosterone boosters are marketing. Two things have some real evidence if you're actually deficient in them: vitamin D, which most Canadians are low in from October to April, and zinc if your diet is poor. Get your levels tested and fix a deficiency if there is one. Don't buy the bottle with the bull on it.

When to see a doctor

If you've done all five for three months, you're sleeping, you're leaner, you're lifting, you've cut the drinking, and you still feel flat, get your blood work done. A morning testosterone test, twice, on different days. Then have a real conversation with a doctor about what the numbers mean. Some men do need medical treatment and there's no shame in it.

But do the five things first. Most men never do, and most men who do don't end up needing the appointment.

The free Your Bro Rob app tracks sleep, training, weight and habits in one place so you can see which of the five is actually the problem. Start there.