Nugenix is a supplement in a long line of “testosterone boosters” that claim to enhance a man’s strength, energy, vitality, and sex drive by increasing the amount of testosterone he naturally produces.

It has a heavy presence in all the supplement stores, including GNC and Vitamin Shoppe. You’ve probably seen ads for it online too.

Nowadays, testosterone boosting supplements are all the rage and company after company are releasing their version of a pill that promises to bring you everything from increased confidence to godlike sexual prowess.

I’ve tried testosterone boosting supplements in the past and got mixed results. Now that I’m 35, I know that my levels aren’t nearly as high as they were 10 years ago, and I obviously want to change that.

After a lot of research, I decided that Nugenix was worth a review. So let’s dive right in.

First, Some Important Info About Testosterone

Testosterone is obviously the male hormone and is associated with male traits. Characteristics like strength, muscle mass, confidence, and assertiveness are all often associated with higher testosterone levels in men.

Testosterone production spikes in puberty and sparks development from boys into men. Levels usually peak in the late teens-early 20s and then slowly start to go down the older we get. After 30-35, they start falling a lot, often by as much as 1% every year.

Not only does it help fun stuff like strength and sex drive, but testosterone also has a bunch of important health effects.

Testosterone helps maintain bone health, heart health, and can even affect your positive mental state. Low levels of testosterone can lead to a decline in all of these areas.

Modern research has shown that a lot of age related conditions like lack of energy, brittle bones, lower strength, etc. can often be a result of testosterone levels that fall too low.

Obviously, testosterone also has a huge effect on a man’s sexual function.

Low levels can seriously decrease your sex drive and interest in sex. As if that wasn’t scary enough, low test can also cause erectile dysfunction, aka ED. Many men who lose the ability to get an erection can trace it back to lower testosterone due to aging.

If you’re anything like me, you want to make damn sure your testosterone is at an optimal level. That’s why I was really counting on Nugenix to help.

What is Nugenix Made Out Of?

 The main ingredients in Nugenix are:

– Zinc

– Vitamin B6

– Vitamin B12

– Testofen

– Tribulus terrestris

– L-Citruline malate

Right off the bat, there’s nothing new or revolutionary here. If you’ve looked into test boosters at all, you’ll know that these are pretty standard ingredients.

However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s been a substantial amount of research showing that these ingredients may be able to help the body naturally produce more testosterone.

In case you’re not familiar with Testofen, that might be because it’s not a vitamin or a typical herb. It’s actually fenugreek that has been standardized to contain high amounts of phytochemicals that are supposed to help increase natural testosterone.

Testofen is included in a good amount of testosterone supplements nowadays and has some research that shows it may be effective.

An important claim that Nugenix makes is that it claims to increase “free” testosterone. What’s the difference?

The Difference Between Free and Bound Testosterone

Basically, free testosterone is “bioavailable” testosterone, which means that it is free to exert its good effects in the body.

The opposite is “bound” testosterone, which is test that has bound to proteins like SHBG in the body.

Testosterone that is bound won’t exert any effects in the body, no matter how much there is. So really, we’re only interested in increasing free testosterone if we want to see some positive effects.

Testofen claims to bind to SHBG, freeing up testosterone in the body. It has been shown to improve low testosterone symptoms in men in at least one study, so I liked seeing that this ingredient was in Nugenix.

Other ingredients like Tribulus are used time and again in testosterone supplements. There is conflicting evidence as to whether they really work or not.

Some people claim it helps with sex drive, but not with strength or muscle mass. Either way, it’s included in virtually every testosterone booster, so no surprise seeing it here.

The other ingredients are very common in all kinds of supplements, so I won’t waste your time going too in depth on them here. Time to get to my personal review.

My Experience With Nugenix – Does It Work?

As I said before, I’m 35 now, so I’m definitely in that age range where men start to see a big drop in testosterone.

I take pretty good care of myself, but I have been noticing a little less energy and sex drive as of late, especially compared to when I was in my early 20s.

With every supplement, I’m always at least a little skeptical, especially when they start making big claims. But for my reviews, I always give it a fair shot, and it was no different with Nugenix.

I went with a dose of 3 pills a day. At 90 pills per bottle, that gave me enough for a solid month-long run.

When I first started taking Nugenix, I didn’t really notice anything right away. I wasn’t expecting to see anything extreme overnight, it’s not like this was an anabolic steroid.

After the first week in the books, not much in the way of noticeable change had taken place.

However by day 10 or so, I began to feel a little more energetic, especially in the bedroom department. Obviously this was a very welcome effect.

I kept tabs on it to rule out the placebo effect, but it seemed to last all the way until I stopped taking the bottle after day 30.

I also noticed I started getting morning erections almost every day after week 2 as well. As far as performance wise, I was my same old self, but just with more sexual “drive” I guess you could say. Good stuff.

However, I didn’t see much of a difference in terms of my athletic performance.

I’m not a competitive athlete but I do keep myself in pretty good shape. I run 6 days a week 3-5 miles and I hit the gym for weights 3 days a week, Monday Wednesday Friday.

When I was taking Nugenix I kept my workout pretty consistent on the runs and tried to go a little harder in the weight room to take full advantage of any increases in testosterone.

Over the 30 day review I did add 10 pounds to my bench and 15 to my deadlift. But I can’t say for sure that the increase was because of the Nugenix or because I was just naturally progressing.

10-15 pounds is great but it’s not mind-blowing, not over an entire month. So I can’t conclude that Nugenix helped at all here.

My diet is normally very healthy, and I didn’t change this at all either. By the end of the month I had gained about a pound and a half.

However, I didn’t really look too different in terms of muscle growth or development. So no conclusive proof Nugenix helped me with muscle gain either.

Would I Recommend Nugenix?

At the end of the day, I had mixed results with Nugenix. On the one hand, I feel that it worked great for me as far as sex drive and libido. I felt more sexual desire and was more “into it” during the month I was taking Nugenix.

But on the other hand, I didn’t notice any significant gains in either muscle mass or strength that couldn’t be explained by natural progress. So as far as athletic performance goes, I can’t recommend Nugenix for this reason.

But for the man who’s just looking to increase sex drive, I would definitely recommend trying Nugenix. As I said before, I had a good experience in that department.

One final note: the only way to see if a testosterone supplement really raises your testosterone is to get blood work done before and after you’ve taken it. I didn’t have a chance to do this unfortunately.

However men taking testosterone boosters aren’t looking for just higher numbers on a blood test, they want the positive effects more testosterone brings.

So in the end, if a decrease in sex drive is bringing you down, I can say that Nugenix is probably worth trying.