Learn about the principle hormones for muscle growth, how they work, and their role in the muscle building process.
Muscle growth is what many men strive for – huge biceps, massive chest, the list goes on… But why do some men often struggle in their quest to achieve that? Failure to control hormones can often be the answer to that question.
Hormones are important aspect of the muscle building process, as they all contribute to bodily functions in their own way.
It’s important not to overlook the power of hormones for muscle growth, and in this article, we will explain why.
Before we delve into the finer details of hormones, first you need to know exactly what they do. Well, here’s a definition for you bros:
Hormones are special chemical messengers in the body that are created in the endocrine glands. These messengers control most major bodily functions, from simple basic needs like hunger to complex systems like reproduction, and even the emotions and mood. Understanding the major hormones and what they do will help patients take control of their health.
Now you know what hormones are, now’s the time to learn more about them and how they work.
What better way to start off our list of hormones for muscle growth than to start with arguably the most important of all – testosterone.
Testosterone is responsible for so much more than just muscle growth, it contributes to several important factors of overall health too.
Low testosterone levels can leave you with with a poor sex life, bad mood, and a lack of strength and energy when performing workouts in the gym.
All of these combined will result in a pretty s**t performance in the gym, as well as in the bedroom, which we’re sure you don’t want now do you?
There are two main ways in which you can increase your testosterone, which we will now look into.
Lifting Weights
Pumping iron is a sure fire way to boost your testosterone levels. Incorporating heavy compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts, and the bench press are probably your best option.
Isolation based exercises are also good too, but are best performed after your compound lifts.
The trick is to lift heavy weights a few times a week, but remember to lift with strict form and don’t lift too heavy too soon. This will help you avoid injury and get the best out of your workouts.
Natural Testosterone Boosters
Regular strength training will send you a long way if you’re looking to boost your testosterone naturally.
They will help to accelerate your muscle growth, improve your overall strength and mood, and last but not least, ensure that you don’t disappoint your girl as your libido increases.
Essentially, they can help to send your testosterone levels to the next level, resulting in those mad gains you’ve always wanted.
If you want to learn more about testosterone boosters and their benefits, then visit the following link, which also contains a list of our top 10 testosterone boosters.
High growth hormone levels can help you not only improve your fat loss potential, but also it stops you from losing all your gains when cutting.
Performing regular strength training workouts can contribute to an increase in growth hormone massively.
Other ways of increasing growth hormone are to get plenty of sleep, drink green tea, and consider taking supplements. Visit this link to view our top 10 supplement lists.
Insulin helps the body to remove sugar from the bloodstream, and is released by the pancreas when food is consumed.
It’s important to elevate insulin only post-workout, as this sends glycogen to your muscles to repair them after an intense lifting session.
Any other time, then it’s beneficial to keep insulin levels low to allow the body to burn calories at an increased rate.
How Do I Control My Insulin Levels?
You can control your insulin levels by eating low carb foods. This ensures that there is no insulin spike within the body.
The only time you want your insulin levels to spike is post workout as already stated, where it’s beneficial to consume a high carbohydrate, protein rich meal.
When it’s your goal to gain mass, it’s important to take into consideration the vital role of your thyroid hormones.
When they are underactive, they can leave you feeling fatigued and have a slow metabolism, reducing your body’s ability to burn fat.
Conversely, an overactive thyroid hormone can leave you with potential brittle bones, which of course isn’t desirable!
You can regulate your thyroids, and stop them from being under or over active by ingesting a daily amount of iodine.
This is found in foods such as eggs, seaweed, iodized salts, cod, and dairy products.
The recommended daily intake of iodine for healthy adults is 150 micrograms.
Otherwise known as a stress hormone, cortisol is a glucocorticoid steroid. It’s important to let your cortisol levels not get too high, otherwise this can start to break down the muscle tissue and decrease your metabolism.
When cortisol levels are normalized, then this can lead to increased fat burning potential.
To ensure that your cortisol levels don’t get too high, you can increase your intake of foods such as oats and rice as part of your post-workout meal.
In addition, you could avoid consuming foods with high amounts of sugar after you’ve trained such as sweets and cereals.
This is a hormone which is produced mostly in females, but also in men, albeit to a lesser extent.
When estrogen is elevated, it can wreak havoc on the body, having largely negative effects. In the worst case scenario, it could even contribute to prostate and breast cancer.
For optimal muscle growth, it’s important to keep estrogen levels low, and your testosterone levels as high as possible.
It’s been proven that those with a higher body fat percentage are likely to suffer from higher levels of estrogen. So if you were looking for a reason to lose a few pounds, then now you have one.
Limiting alcohol consumption and eating more vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are also ways to reduce estrogen. So take it easy on the beers, and eat your greens brah.
If you want to learn more about blocking estrogen naturally, then here’s a guide to the best estrogen blockers for men.
In order to obtain the best results, then hormones need to be regulated appropriately, as an imbalance can lead to poor muscle growth, and negatively impact your overall health.
By this point, you should know the functions of hormones, and the roles they play in the muscle building process.
So now’s the time for you to take the bull by the horns and put your new found knowledge into practice!
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