How to Increase Libido in Men Naturally (and Get Your Drive Back)
If your drive has slipped, you probably noticed it before anyone else did. Fewer mornings waking up hard. Less interest at night. A flat feeling where wanting it used to be. Men searching how to increase libido in men naturally usually want two things: the habits that move the needle, and something they can take every day alongside them. Here are both, starting with the levers that have numbers behind them.
How to increase libido in men naturally, starting with sleep
In 2011, Rachel Leproult and Eve Van Cauter at the University of Chicago put 10 healthy young men (average age 24) in a sleep lab. After three nights of up to 10 hours in bed, the men spent eight nights sleeping under 5 hours. Their daytime testosterone fell by 10 to 15%, with the lowest levels between 2 pm and 10 pm. The researchers compared the drop to aging 10 to 15 years. The men also rated their mood and vigor lower on every day of the restricted week. The study ran in JAMA.
If you sleep six hours or less on work nights, start here. A fixed wake time, a dark cold room and no screens in the last half hour cost nothing.
Lift heavy, and use the big muscles
William Kraemer and Nicholas Ratamess reviewed the hormone research on resistance training in Sports Medicine in 2005. The workouts that produced the largest acute rise in testosterone had high volume, moderate to heavy loads, short rests and exercises that move a lot of muscle. Squats, deadlifts, rows and presses fit that description. Biceps curls on a machine don't.
In practice that means three sessions a week built on compound lifts, with plenty of sets and short rests between them.
Lose the belly fat
A 2013 meta-analysis in the European Journal of Endocrinology (Corona and colleagues) pooled 24 studies of overweight men who lost weight. Total testosterone rose by an average of 2.87 nmol/L in men who lost weight on a low-calorie diet and by 8.73 nmol/L in men who had bariatric surgery. The more weight the men lost, the bigger the rise.
Drink less, and not late
A 2023 review in Expert Review of Endocrinology and Metabolism looked at alcohol and testosterone synthesis in men. Heavy and chronic drinking was linked to lower testosterone, through stress hormone activity, inflammation and oxidative stress. If you want a drink, have it early in the evening and keep it to one or two, so it doesn't eat into the sleep that the Chicago study measured.
Get the stress out of the evening
Desire is hard to find when your head is still at work at 10 pm. Put a hard stop on the workday. Leave the phone in another room after dinner and go for a walk instead. Protect a few evenings a week from work the way you'd protect a meeting. A hard training session at 6 pm burns off the day better than a third beer.
Zinc and what's on your plate
In 1996, Ananda Prasad and colleagues at Wayne State University published a zinc study in the journal Nutrition. When four young men ate a zinc-restricted diet for 20 weeks, their serum testosterone fell from 39.9 to 10.6 nmol/L. When nine older men (average age 64) with marginal zinc levels took zinc gluconate for six months, their testosterone went from 8.3 to 16.0 nmol/L.
Oysters, red meat, pumpkin seeds and eggs carry the most zinc. A diet built on those, with enough protein to back up the lifting, covers the basics.
How to increase libido in men over 50
Age works against you slowly. The Massachusetts Male Aging Study followed 1,156 men aged 40 to 70 for 7 to 10 years and reported in 2002 that their total testosterone fell about 1.6% a year. Bioavailable testosterone fell 2 to 3% a year, and SHBG (the protein that binds testosterone and keeps it from acting) went up about 1.6% a year. After 50, sleep, lifting and body fat carry more weight, because you're working against that slide every year. It's also the age group where pine pollen has the most interesting results.
Pine pollen, the plant men reach for
Pine pollen has a long history in men's tonics. In China it is song hua fen, recorded in herbal texts since the Tang dynasty. In 1971 the chemist Šaden-Krehula isolated testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione from Scots pine pollen. It was the first plant in which testosterone had been found. Our complete guide to pine pollen covers that history and how the pollen is collected.
Two pilot studies have since measured what a pine pollen tincture does in men. In 2024, Wolkodoff and colleagues followed 10 men aged 47 to 78 for 8 weeks. Their average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL. Their qADAM scores, from a questionnaire that asks about sex drive, erections, energy and mood, rose from 23.9 to 31.7.
A 2025 pilot followed 11 men aged 25 to 50 for 8 weeks. Free testosterone, the share your body can use, went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL, and SHBG fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L.
Men who take it daily describe the change in plain terms. Stronger morning wood is the report that comes up first. More drive is the second, in bed and in getting on with the day. Mostly they talk about feeling like themselves again. For more on how men use it day to day, read our post on pine pollen for men.
Why Mara's tincture
Mara's Pine Pollen is wild-harvested Pinus radiata pollen. The grains have a tough outer wall, so the pollen is cracked-cell (the wall is broken before extraction). It is then made spagyric. The pollen is extracted, and the minerals left behind are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.
It comes in dark Miron glass. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction, but Miron glass is the gold standard for keeping light off an extract, and it's what Mara uses.
Pine Pollen – Spagyric Pine Pollen Tincture
50 ml dropper bottle. Wild-harvested, cracked-cell Pinus radiata pollen.
Add to bagHow men take it
Take 1 to 2 droppers a day. Hold it under your tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow, or stir it into your morning coffee or a post-training shake. It tastes soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness. A bottle lasts 30 to 50 days, which covers the 8 weeks the pilot studies ran. Keep the bottle next to the coffee and it becomes part of the morning.
Pine Pollen considerations
Contains alcohol. If you're pregnant, nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.
Questions people ask
How can I increase my libido fast?
Sleep is the quickest lever on the list. In the 2011 Chicago study, one week of under 5 hours a night lowered testosterone by 10 to 15%, so getting back to 7 to 8 hours is the first move.
What are the best natural libido boosters for men?
The habits with the strongest numbers are sleep, heavy compound lifting, losing body fat, drinking less and getting enough zinc. Pine pollen is the plant men add on top, with two pilot studies in men measuring rises in total and free testosterone.
How long does pine pollen take to work?
Both pilot studies measured their results at 8 weeks. One Mara bottle lasts 30 to 50 days at 1 to 2 droppers a day.
Can I put pine pollen tincture in coffee?
Yes. Many men stir 1 to 2 droppers into their morning coffee or a protein shake instead of holding it under the tongue.