THE SHORT ANSWER
Here's the thing most masters riders get wrong when they finally test their hormones: they look at the wrong number. Gordon, a neuroendocrinologist, is blunt about it on the podcast — total testosterone is, in his words, worthless, because only about 2% of it is the free testosterone your body can actually use. He wants male athletes in the 50th to 75th percentile of free testosterone, not chasing a total that tells you nothing. He's just as practical about the levers that move it without a prescription: he points to a study where 40-to-70-year-olds taking 50mg of DHEA a night saw real gains in cognitive and physical function in three months, and he's adamant that cortisol is the quiet saboteur — 15 minutes of meditation three times a week, he says, can halve it. The takeaway for an ageing rider isn't to panic about a fading engine. It's to measure the right thing, manage stress like it's training load, and stop guessing.
WHO IS DR MARK GORDON?
Dr Mark Gordon is a US endocrinologist whose work on traumatic brain injury and hormonal recovery has made him one of the more debated voices in functional endocrinology. His clinics treat post-concussion syndromes, age-related hormonal decline, and the cumulative effects of athletic and military head trauma. For Roadman listeners interested in the male hormonal landscape after 40, the connection between cycling crashes and long-term health, or the realities of testosterone and recovery, his perspective raises questions worth hearing — though several of his framings remain debated within mainstream endocrinology, and his protocols should be considered alongside conventional clinical guidance.
GORDON ON TESTOSTERONE & HORMONES
Gordon’s key positions on testosterone and hormones after 40.
- Traumatic brain injury can disrupt the hypothalamic–pituitary axis and produce long-term hormonal deficits.
- Free testosterone in masters athletes can be a more useful marker than total testosterone for performance and recovery.
- Hormonal optimisation is not the same as anabolic abuse — but the line is poorly drawn and easily abused.
- Sleep, stress, and energy availability are upstream of most hormonal issues for masters cyclists.
IN GORDON’S OWN WORDS
Verbatim from Dr Mark Gordon’s appearances on the podcast.
“free testosterone is the key not total they mostly do total testosterone which is worthless it's a bunch of junk only 2% of total testosterone is functional free testosterone so you need to only be speaking about free testosterone and you need to be in the 50th to 75th percentile of the lab”
“in a study done on 40 to 70 year old males and females who were taking 50 milligrams of DHEA a night in three months they had improvement in their cognitive ability and their physical functioning they were out dancing when before they were limited”
“15 minutes three times a week of meditation can lower cortisol level in half”
HEAR IT ON THE PODCAST
Episodes where Dr Mark Gordon covers testosterone and hormones after 40 and related ground.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What does Dr Mark Gordon say about testosterone and hormones after 40?
Here's the thing most masters riders get wrong when they finally test their hormones: they look at the wrong number. Gordon, a neuroendocrinologist, is blunt about it on the podcast — total testosterone is, in his words, worthless, because only about 2% of it is the free testosterone your body can actually use. He wants male athletes in the 50th to 75th percentile of free testosterone, not chasing a total that tells you nothing. He's just as practical about the levers that move it without a prescription: he points to a study where 40-to-70-year-olds taking 50mg of DHEA a night saw real gains in cognitive and physical function in three months, and he's adamant that cortisol is the quiet saboteur — 15 minutes of meditation three times a week, he says, can halve it. The takeaway for an ageing rider isn't to panic about a fading engine. It's to measure the right thing, manage stress like it's training load, and stop guessing.
What is Gordon's main point on testosterone & hormones?
Traumatic brain injury can disrupt the hypothalamic–pituitary axis and produce long-term hormonal deficits.
Which Roadman Cycling Podcast episodes cover Dr Mark Gordon on testosterone & hormones?
Gordon discusses testosterone and hormones after 40 in this episode: "Testosterone Truth: 99% Don't Know This Energy Secret | Dr Gordan".
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