What: Hormone levels endocrine muscle gain and fat loss efforts
One thing that is often overlooked is hormones.
Don't panic, it's not supplements and exogenous drugs that are being talked about. It's your own hormone levels.
A common reason for this is that hormone levels vary from person to person.
The same amount of training, training plan, presented by different people with different physiological hormonal environments can be worlds apart.
How to adjust your condition and maximise your body's development in your ideal direction is probably where fitness requires the most skill and self-control.
Today we will talk about the hormones that fitness people need to take into account.
Key hormones
Let's start with what hormones are, in layman's terms, signals.
The body has a complex endocrine system that often issues different commands to adapt to your physical condition and environmental changes. The body is a very sophisticated instrument and there should not be too many different types of hormones. The most relevant ones for fitness professionals are, of course, anabolic and catabolic hormones.
Anabolic hormones.
● testosterone
Not to put extra emphasis on it, but testosterone is indeed the most crucial hormone in the bodybuilding world - the grandfather of all kinds of steroids, so to speak.
There have been very simple and brutal experiments with testosterone injections in the last century, where young men were given testosterone and the rate of myostatin synthesis increased by a remarkable 27%. (griggs, 1989) this is an effect that is unlikely to go unnoticed by fitness professionals.
Testosterone promotes lipolysis and increases muscle synthesis, and for most people is a necessary natural tool for muscle gain and fat loss ...... And accordingly if body fat is high, testosterone levels will also be affected by the level of obesity, and fat loss and muscle gain will both be more difficult.
This is why leg workouts like the deep squat are perennially cited as the golden movement. In addition to the advantages of the compound movement itself, the extra gains generated by the testosterone boost are also significant for muscle growth.
● growth hormone
Growth hormone is also the very counter-intuitive anabolic hormone, another major source of drug abuse in sports.
Simply put, growth hormone allows you to grow from a child to an adult size, from the very first embryo to 5'8", which is a powerful enough effect, right? But the average person's growth hormone levels gradually decline with age in adulthood. And the less growth hormone you produce, the less your ability to build muscle and your metabolism will decline, and your body fat will rise accordingly.
The answer to why people are so energetic and resistant to building during adolescence, and don't gain weight even when they eat casually, but easily get belly fat in middle age - is a decline in growth hormone levels.
The function of growth hormone is to build muscle and reduce fat, strengthen bones and muscles, and promote fat metabolism. It can be summarised as a "Rejuvenating" Hormone. For most people to have this effect, it is possible to significantly increase growth hormone levels without the use of medication, but with better sleep and strength training.
● insulin
Although overlooked on a daily basis, insulin is actually an anabolic hormone:
-why is it so important to eat for fitness? Why do you need 5 meals a day to prepare for a bodybuilding competition?
-one of the reasons is insulin.
Don't simply think that insulin only has the ability to control blood sugar, but in fact it is a key player in many metabolic processes: How the carbohydrate energy consumed is distributed, whether it goes to muscle or fat, is significantly influenced by insulin levels.
Experiments in young people in 2006 showed that when moderate doses of insulin were injected locally, muscle tissue in the area had an increased capacity for myostatin synthesis and reduced catabolism. (fujita, 2006) insulin supervises the delivery of nutrients (amino acids) to the target area, enhancing muscle tissue performance and protein synthesis in this area.
As shown above, the anabolic rate of insulin injected at moderate doses (b*) was significantly higher than that of the control group.
The daily talk in fitness circles of "Enhancing insulin sensitivity" Is an effort to get more insulin production in response to less food, to enhance muscle building.
(igf-1)
Igf-1, which is also an anabolic hormone, has a similar ability to promote anabolism as insulin, and its production, which requires the aforementioned growth hormone, can also be affected by testosterone levels, which is why teenagers have more acne problems.
Of course, apart from skin problems, igf-1's ability to build muscle is actually quite impressive.
Igf-1 is essentially a wound healing stimulant that promotes cell proliferation and collagen synthesis, but while it enhances healing, it also promotes protein synthesis and lowers blood sugar - which makes it a hit with gym goers, after all, after each workout, the repair of muscle fibers and also "Healing ".
Catabolic hormones
● cortisol
Just to be clear, one cannot say that cortisol is a bad thing, this hormone is set up for the body to survive. If the body perceives emotional stress and environmental stress, cortisol is definitely going to come into play to help you fight it.
But rather unfortunately for a survival crisis, preserving muscle is not the most economical option, fat is, so priority will be given to breaking down muscle and preserving fat. This is the biggest fear of bodybuilders these days.
That's why bodybuilders are taking extra care to control cortisol. Adjusting mood and mental stress and making sure you rest are all controls on cortisol.
If one knows more about the physiology of the human body, one will find that getting the body to move in the direction of muscle gain may take more than just an hour in the gym. A gym goer's diet and routine are all designed to move the hormones - or rhythms - of the body's endocrine system in the direction of anabolic endpoints in order to achieve muscle gain.
Fitness enthusiasts also have to do a lot to make their muscles bigger, so to speak. The so-called "Self-disciplined life" Is a combination of many physiological, nutritional and kinesiological findings that lead to an optimal lifestyle.
The simplest advice for the average enthusiast on hormonal issues is to train, eat well, rest well and seek medical attention for any endocrine problems early.
As we age, testosterone and growth hormone production will decrease, so younger people should take advantage of the prime time to build muscle, while middle-aged enthusiasts should also pay attention to adjusting their diet and routine, so that they can no longer build the same as they did at their peak. If you have the conditions, you can have some testosterone promotion products.
As shown in the chart, testosterone production capacity decreases with age.