When neuroscientist Andrew Huberman saw the dosages used in a famous testosterone study, his reaction was instant. He said: “600mg per week is what they gave them. ?! That would make a plant grow muscles.”
He wasn’t joking. That amount is around six times higher than a standard testosterone replacement therapy dose. What’s even more alarming is that some teenagers in the looksmaxxing community are reportedly taking even more than that, without ever stepping into a gym.
Huberman was referring to a well-known 1996 study that split men into four groups: placebo with no exercise, testosterone with no exercise, placebo plus exercise, and testosterone plus exercise. The testosterone groups were given 600mg weekly, a massive dose administered under medical supervision.
The men who took testosterone without exercising gained some muscle. More importantly, their gains were far smaller than the group that combined testosterone with actual training.
The testosterone-plus-exercise group were better than everyone else:
- 6.1 kg of muscle gained (versus 3.2 kg for testosterone alone)
- Quadriceps area increased by 1,174 mm² (versus 607 mm² for testosterone alone)
- Bench press strength up 22 kg (versus 9 kg for testosterone alone)
The study’s takeaway was: testosterone works best alongside training, and even then, the risks remain serious.
Despite that, some looksmaxxing teens are chasing hormones as a shortcut to facial transformation. YouTuber Coach Kolton recently exposed a particularly concerning case in a recent YouTube video that highlights how out of control this online movement has become.
He encountered a 17-year-old taking 640mg of combined androgens weekly with no training plan at all. “He’s really just looking for the speed of results,” Kolton said. “He doesn’t care what he’s doing.”
These kids believe testosterone will restructure their bones and sharpen their features. In reality, the effects are more likely to be water retention, accelerated aging, and long-term health complications, without the gains they could achieve naturally through lifting.
In a Huberman podcast, six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates laid out what the looksmaxxing community refuses to hear. Yates competed naturally first, winning his first contest at 185 pounds without any pharmaceutical help. When he finally used ste**ids professionally, he started with just 20mg of Dia**bol daily, a fraction of what these teenagers are taking.
His advice? “Get as far as you can naturally. Whatever gains you make by taking anabolics is a temporary situation. You will lose it when you get off.”
Then came the warning: “Once you get on the merry-go-round, you don’t really want to get off because when you do get off, you start to lose all those gains. A lot of guys that I used to compete against are no longer here. So is it worth the risk?”
Yates also highlighted something the looksmaxxing community ignores: mental health. “I believe there’s a lot of people in the sport with mental health problems, especially women now, because they’re in the high doses now.”
The study also explicitly stated: “Our results in no way justify the use of anabolic-androgenic st**oids in sports, because, with extended use, such d**gs have potentially serious adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, prostate, lipid metabolism, and insulin sensitivity.”
Even the massive 600mg dose didn’t justify skipping the gym. The study showed that testosterone without training is vastly inferior to testosterone with training. For teenagers whose bodies are already producing testosterone naturally, the equation makes even less sense.
