There is some insidious happening to all of us as men in
2013. It's something we could never have anticipated but it
could very well be the #1 thing holding back your progress
and causing you frustration anguish and a feeling that you're
just never going to get a truly ripped body that you want.

If you think it's actually getting harder to get in shape than in
previous years you're right! And the culprit is something called
"xenoestrogens"

Xenoestrogens is a term that refers to any estrogen or estrogen
like compound that occurs outside of your body and that your
body didn't produce.

This is important because you are being exposed to various
forms of xenoestrogens on a daily basis from multiple sources.

The water supply itself is heavily contaminated with estrogen
from the influence of birth control use in women. When women
take birth control a certain amount of the drug gets excreted in
their urine and some of that synthetic estrogen ends up in our
water supply even after water treatment and purification.

This is a bigger problem than any scientist could have anticipated
when birth control use became so widely adopted. I'm sure just
about every woman you know is on some form of hormone
replacement therapy, this means every single woman around
each of us is contributing to this environmental rise in
xenoestrogens.

Some of these estrogens get into us from the water supply itself
and some of it gets into fish that ends up getting into us from our
diets.

But it's not just that, there is also research showing xenoestrogens
coming from many house hold and consumer items that you
probably use every day including:

BPA (Bisphenol A)- BPA is used in the lining of plastic bottles
and cans...if you drink anything out of a bottle or a can you're likely
consuming more BPA than you should and it can have an estrogenic
effect on your body.

Atrazine - one of the most widely used pesticides in the world and
is commonly used on the weeds that grow in corn and wheat fields,
and it's also commonly used on lawns, golf courses, and other
residential areas. In other words you're essentially immersed in
this stuff.

Phthalates - these can be found in all kinds of plastics but also in
various forms of lotions and pharmaceuticals, shampoos, conditioners,
even floor laminate. It's highly likely that by the time you've had a
shower and brushed your teeth in the morning you've already been
exposed to this one.

Soy Protein - Soy has compounds in it that are ver similar to estrogen
and consuming too much of them can have an estrogenic effect in your
body. Soy is cheap and many big food manufacturers use it to fortify
foods to make them 'high protein'. Pay attention to your labels, if you're

As men we produce a small amount of estrogen that is crucial for proper
healthy functioning. It plays a role in bone health, maintaining healthy
cholesterol levels, and having a healthy and normal sex drive and sexual
function.

The problems arise when we have too much estrogen.

Typically a rise in estrogen can happen at puberty as your
natural testosterone levels shoot up to build your body up
from a 'boys' body to a 'mans' body. The reason we can
sometimes see a rise in estrogen at puberty is because
some of your natural testosterone gets converted to
estrogen.

Now this process of converting testosterone to estrogen is
happening all the time in your body, but when testosterone
shoots up too high, there is simply more of it that can be
converted to estrogen. This is how some boys develop
male breast tissue at puberty called gynecomastia (bitch tits).

This is also a major side effect for guys who use steroids as
some of the massive amount of testosterone being injected
gets converted to estrogen. Again, bitch tits can occur.

So where do xenoestrogens fit into all of this?

Well if you start poking through the research on normal male
testosterone levels in the 2000's compared to the 1990's and
the 1980s you'll find that the average testosterone level for
men has been steadily dropping! This is because of the
influence of xenoestrogens.

In other words, it's harder now than it ever has been to build
impressive muscle and keep bodyfat levels low because the
environment we live in is highly estrogenic which pushes us
the wrong direction.

Xenoestrogens + Bulking = Bad Idea

Gaining some bodyfat and 'bulking up' in an attempt to gain
muscle faster might have worked back in the day when
environmental estrogens were low and men could keep their
testosterone relatively high.

But nowadays knowing how much the environment is
working against you it's doubly important to avoid gaining
bodyfat if you expect to keep your testosterone levels high
and build quality ripped muscle.

Bodyfat contains the aromatase enzyme. And if you didn't
already know, aromatase is responsible for converting your
testosterone into estrogen. The more bodyfat you have, the
more aromatase you have and the worse things can get.

This is why you should never attempt to bulk up and gain
any fat while trying to gain muscle. In short, bulking and
cutting just won't work anymore.

Get Lean First, then Build

Your first order of business should be getting lean then focus
on building muscle. I'd say keeping bodyfat in the low teens
for example 13% or lower is going to ensure you're not at risk
for higher conversion of testosterone to estrogen. And given
our modern estrogenic environment 10% is likely an even
better bodyfat target.

The bottom line is the environment has changed, and you
have to change with it. Bulking up to gain muscle isn't going
to work anymore. Instead you should be focusing on a lean
muscle gaining approach. You'll actually gain muscle faster this
way and a major benefit is you'll never have to go through hassle
of cutting down.

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