Muscle and Hormones
Build Muscle by
Manipulating Hormones
• http://weighttraining.about.com/od/succeedi
ngwithweights/a/hormones.htm
– By Paul Rogers, About.com Guide
– Updated June 14, 2007
Testosterone, Growth
Hormone, Insulin
• Several hormones play a critical role in
exercise in general and strength training in
particular.
• Testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like
growth factor (IGF-1) provide strength and
muscle growth stimulus;
Testosterone, Growth
Hormone, Insulin
• cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine and
glucagon control access to fat and glucose
fuels by manipulating the release of stored
fuel when needed in addition to other
important functions;
• and insulin provides the storage impetus for
the fuels derived from the food we eat.
Testosterone, Growth
Hormone, Insulin
• Getting these hormones to work so that you
can maximize muscle and strength is one of
the secrets of natural weight training.
• In this article I’ll concentrate on how you can
get the most from the muscle building
hormones we all share.
Testosterone
• Testosterone is for the most part a male
hormone produced by the testicles, although
a smaller amount is produced by the adrenal
glands.
• This hormone is responsible for the
development of male physical characteristics,
muscle mass, strength, fat distribution and
sexual drive.
Testosterone
• Smaller amounts of testosterone are also
produced by women in the ovaries and the
adrenal glands.
• Testosterone production is stimulated by
hormones such as leuteinizing hormone
further up the chain starting at the
hypothalamus in the brain.
Testosterone
• To be more definitive, testosterone is an
androgenic, anabolic, steroid hormone.
• ‘Androgenic’ means pertaining to male
characteristics and ‘anabolic’ means building
up or synthesizing body tissue.
• ‘Catabolic’ means breaking down tissue.
Testosterone
• Another important hormone, cortisol, is a
catabolic hormone.
• A ‘steroid’ in broadest terms is a class of
similarly structured chemicals produced by
the body.
Testosterone
• Testosterone is the number one hormone for
bodybuilding and weight training, especially
for the development of strength and muscle
although this is not always the primary goal of
weight training.
Anabolic steroids
• The use of supplementary anabolic steroids to
build muscle bulk and strength has been
popular in bodybuilding and other sports
requiring bulk and strength for many decades.
• They do work spectacularly well.
Anabolic steroids
• That’s why in most sports, taking ‘steroids’ is
illegal under the World Anti-Doping Agency
protocols, although not all sports are
referenced by this organization.
Anabolic steroids
• Illegal supplemental steroids include natural
testosterone or the very many natural or
synthetic molecules based on testosterone or
anabolic hormone precursors.
• Some examples include testosterone
enanthate, nandrolone, trenbolone,
oxymethalone, stanozolol and the various
trade names under which they are marketed.
Anabolic steroids
• The adverse effects or taking these substances
carelessly have been well documented.
• Although oral formulations of some anabolic
steroids are available, they are usually injected
once or twice a week.
Growth Hormone and IGF-1
• Human growth hormone is produced by the
pituitary gland and stimulates the liver to
produce IGF-1 which is ultimately responsible
for the growth promoting and anabolic effects
of growth hormone.
• Like testosterone, this production declines as
we age and is probably responsible for at least
some of the decline in muscle mass seen in
older people.
Growth Hormone and IGF-1
• These hormones seem to have an inverse
relation to body fat : the less you produce the
more body fat you accumulate. . . so there’s
the first call to action.
• Enhancing growth hormone and IGF-1 delivery
may be possible with nutritional and exercise
manipulations.
Growth Hormone and IGF-1
• GH and IGF-1, testosterone and cortisol are all
increased with intensity of weight training and
high-intensity sprint cycling or running.
Insulin
• Insulin is the storage hormone.
• The pancreas produces insulin in response to
food.
• When you consume food, enzymes break it
down into constituent glucose, fatty acids and
amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
Insulin
• Insulin responds to carbohydrate and protein
by storing glucose in muscle and liver, fat in fat
cells and by the utilizing amino acids from
food protein in body building and repair.
• It’s incorrect to think of insulin as only
responding to carbohydrate foods because
some protein foods such as fish and beef elicit
a very strong insulin response in their own
right.
Insulin
• In diabetes, insulin is either insufficiently
produced or is available yet fails to store
glucose efficiently.
• This is called insulin resistance.
Insulin
• Combining pre- and post-exercise foods or
sports drinks containing protein and
carbohydrate elicits a very strong insulin
response in the refueling period after an
exercise session.
• The value of this is that along with the glucose
storage and amino acids synthesis in new
protein, you get a powerful anabolic, muscle
building response.
Insulin
• Insulin is an important anabolic hormone.
• Manipulating insulin is one of the main tools
described here for bodybuilding.
• See further down for nutritional approaches.
Cortisol
• Cortisol is a very important hormone that’s for
sure.
• It is produced by the adrenal glands and is
often called the ‘stress hormone’ because it
responds to stress, either physical or
emotional.
Cortisol
• Cortisol helps control inflammation, makes
glucose available by breaking down muscle to
amino acids, suppresses the immune system
and is likely to enhance fat storage at the
expense of protein and muscle.
Cortisol
• Cortisol rises when blood glucose gets low : in
the early morning and during exercise,
especially prolonged endurance exercise.
• Cortisol is a catabolic hormone.
• In manufactured form it’s called
hydrocortisone or cortisone.
Epinephrine (Adrenaline)
• We all know it as adrenaline but epinephrine
is considered the ‘fight and flight’ hormone
because it acts quickly on cue to constrict
arteries and raise blood pressure and dilate
the airways to enable your heart to beat faster
and you to breathe more efficiently – all of
which are important if you suddenly need to
run away from an attacking lion!
Epinephrine (Adrenaline)
• As well, epinephrine elicits the muscles and
liver to give up stored glucose (glycogen) so
that you have instant energy to fuel that
survival run.
• In this sense epinephrine is a catabolic
hormone like cortisol.
Glucagon
• Glucagon could be considered a mirror
hormone of insulin.
• When you fast or eat a low-carb diet glucagon
will be more active than insulin because of
low blood glucose.
Glucagon
• Glucagon tells the liver to give up its glucose
stores to the bloodstream and also to break
down those amino acids from muscle that
cortisol sent to the liver to make more
glucose.
• If insulin is an anabolic hormone then
glucagon is a catabolic hormone.
Natural Anabolic Enhancement
• I trust the bigger picture of hormone action
and metabolism is starting to make sense.
• You can see from the discussion so far that we
have a task ahead of us here.
Natural Anabolic Enhancement
• We want to keep those anabolic hormones
high and the catabolic hormones as low as
possible while still providing basic
functionality.
• It's not useful to regard cortisol or any other
hormones as 'bad guys' because we couldn't
live without them.
Natural Anabolic Enhancement
• In the ‘natural’ bodybuilding movement and
for sports where compliance with drug-testing
protocols is essential for competition legality,
finding a way of training or eating that will
maximize or enhance testosterone and
androgen-related muscle and strength is
keenly sought.
• Alas, this is not a process that is easily
manipulated and there is much still to learn.
Natural Anabolic Enhancement
• However, that has not stopped supplement
manufacturers claiming to have products that
can do just that with herbal extracts or
combinations of vitamins or ‘legal’ steroids.
Natural Anabolic Enhancement
• Examples of such products are the herb
Tribulus terrestris, zinc-magnesium tablets,
ginseng, bovine colostrum, beta-alanine,
HMB, and DHEA, a prohormone banned in
most sports but not in baseball.
• Tribulus has become popular in the
bodybuilding community even though there is
no evidence that it provides any advantage.
Natural Anabolic Enhancement
• A recent study of elite rugby players published
in the May 2007 issue of the Journal of
Strength and Conditioning Research did not
find any advantage in muscle enhancement or
performance from supplementation with
Tribulus.
• This seems to confirm the result of previous
studies.
Natural Anabolic Enhancement
• There are no specific non-food supplements
other than creatine that have been shown to
enhance bulk and training similar to the
anabolic steroids -- and creatine is a
component of meat foods.
• Yet even creatine has an uneven performance
as a supplement.
What You Can do to Enhance MuscleBuilding Hormones Naturally
• Here are several approaches to diet and training
that can go some way toward maximizing your
anabolic hormone response and building and
protecting muscle mass and strength.
• Although the following is based on recent
research results, there is still much to learn about
the complex web of hormone interactions
involved in strength and muscle enhancement, so
don’t be too surprised if something changes
soon.
Pre- and post-exercise nutrition
• Consume about 20 grams of protein in an
easily digested source up to 45 minutes before
a workout.
• Skim milk with a little sugar will do fine.
• About 20 fluid ounces (600 mls) or a little less
is about right.
Pre- and post-exercise nutrition
• Sip a sports drink during the workout at
regular intervals, especially if you go beyond
60 minutes.
• Within 30 minutes of finishing the workout
consume another 20 grams of protein with
about 40 grams of carbohydrate.
• Again, skim milk seems to work well.
Pre- and post-exercise nutrition
• Choose your favorite protein-carb powder or
even a commercial flavored milk if you prefer.
• Increase the carbs up to about 3 or 4:1 carbs
to protein ratio if you’ve had a heavy or long
session with cardio or intervals or circuit.
Pre- and post-exercise nutrition
• Taking carbohydrate during exercise has been
shown to minimize the rise in cortisol (Bird
2006).
• Testosterone, growth hormone, epinephrine
and cortisol all increase during exercise with
intensity.
• With blood glucose topped up, cortisol
doesn’t get the signal to supply glucose, so
muscle doesn’t get burned up in the process.
Pre- and post-exercise nutrition
• Even after your session, testosterone and
cortisol levels move around quite a bit and
testosterone levels may drop.
• The testosterone to cortisol ratio is the key.
Keeping testosterone as high as possible and
cortisol as low as possible when you don't
need it is to your advantage.
Pre- and post-exercise nutrition
• It's worth stating that you don't need any
cortisol-reducing supplement tablets.
• There is no proof that they work and
carbohydrate manipulation seems to do the
job for little added cost.
Macronutrient composition
• Eating a diet that’s not too low in fat and not
too high in protein may enhance testosterone
production according to a recent study
(Sallinen 2004).
• A diet that is in the range of 20-25% fat and
20-25% protein should be in the range for this.
Macronutrient composition
• Fat should be mostly unsaturated fat – nuts,
avocados, olive oil, and polyunsaturated and
monounsaturated oils rather than saturated
fat in meat and cheese.
• Lean protein is still best.
Macronutrient composition
• The ultra low-fat Pritikin or Ornish diets or the
high-protein low-carb type diets may not be
the best choice.
Protein
• Now I don’t agree with the guys or gals who
want to eat 40 percent protein in their diets.
• It’s way beyond what is scientifically proven to
be required, expensive, not necessary and
may even be unsafe in the long term.
• However, heavy weight trainers can probably
justify extra protein up to about 1
gram/pound bodyweight.
Protein
• Don’t make it all beef dripping with fat
though.
• Get plenty of white meat, dairy protein and
soy as well for healthy eating.
Protein
• Get some advice if you even think you have
dysfunctional kidneys.
• Just for the record, 4 ounces or 100 grams of
lean grilled chicken breast or beef has about
30 grams of protein.
Protein
• Creatine and zinc are potentially important
components of an anabolic diet.
• Creatine builds bulk and re-supplies the
phosphocreatine energy system which is
important for those fast heavy lifts and zinc is
necessary for testosterone production.
Protein
• Meat protein is a good source of both of these
elements.
• Vegetarian bodybuilders may need to ensure
sufficient intake.
Workout Strategy
• Heavy lifting and high-intensity workouts raise
testosterone, growth hormone and IGF-1 but
cortisol goes along with them during intense
exercise.
• This applies to sprints and other high-intensity
programs as well as weights.
Workout Strategy
• Planning your nutrition is likely to be helpful but for
training programs I can’t do better than to quote the
review by Kramer and Ratamess in Sports Med. 2005
when it comes to suggesting a strategy in the gym.
– "Protocols high in volume, moderate to high in intensity,
using short rest intervals and stressing a large muscle
mass, tend to produce the greatest acute hormonal
elevations (e.g. testosterone, GH and the catabolic
hormone cortisol) compared with low-volume, highintensity protocols using long rest intervals. Other anabolic
hormones such as insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1
(IGF-1) are critical to skeletal muscle growth."
Workout Strategy
• So what does that mean for individual
exercises?
• Okay, at the top end that means heavy squats,
deadlifts, and even the more advanced power
cleans, hang cleans and pushes or at least
some serious hard work at perhaps 5x5 sets
and repetitions if you do a standard full-body
session with a mix of free weights and
machines.
Workout Strategy
• Squats and deadlifts are known to be the
quickest way to build bulk and strength all
round, so try to build these into your program
in some form if that's your objective.
• Don’t beat yourself up though, the difference
is probably not that necessary for someone
just doing a fitness program.
Other Tips on Hormones and Muscle
Building
• If you do aerobic training like running or even
anaerobic interval training, you’re probably
better off doing it on separate days or at least to
separate it from your weights session by at least a
half day to allow normalization of hormone
response.
• At least one study has shown that a high-intensity
cycle session before weight training blunts the
testosterone response during the weights
session.
Cortisol
• Cortisol peaks in the early hours of the
morning, so many bodybuilders train in the
evening to ensure a more suitable hormone
profile.
• This is probably not necessary if you take
some carbohydrate before you train in the
morning.
• Even so, trialling different training timetables
is worth a try.
Alcohol
• Alcohol consumption increases cortisol during
drinking and even in the withdrawal period,
particularly in heavy drinkers.
• So, no soup for you!
• However, a glass of wine or a beer in
moderation is probably not going to make
much difference.
Sleep
• A poor sleep pattern does not provide an
optimal environment for anabolic processes to
occur.
• Human growth hormone is at its peak during
deep sleep.
• Interrupted or poor sleep could be a
contributing factor to a less than optimal
muscle and strength response to exercise.
Summing Up Hormones and
Bodybuilding
• If you are looking to make the most all the
hard work you put into weight training -- and
why wouldn't you -- the techniques described
above are definitely worth following up.
• In some ways we are slaves to our hormones,
but you can make a difference.
Sources
•
Rogerson S, Riches CJ, Jennings C, Weatherby RP, Meir RA, Marshall Gradisnik SM. The Effect of Five Weeks of
Tribulus terrestris Supplementation on Muscle Strength and Body Composition During Preseason Training in Elite
Rugby League Players. J Strength Cond Res. 2007 May;21(2):348-53.
•
Sallinen J, Pakarinen A, Fogelholm M, Alen M, Volek JS, Kraemer WJ, Hakkinen K. Dietary Intake, Serum Hormones,
Muscle Mass and Strength During Strength Training in 49 - 73-Year-Old Men. Int J Sports Med. 2007 May 11.
•
Ahtiainen JP, Pakarinen A, Alen M, Kraemer WJ, Hakkinen K. Muscle hypertrophy, hormonal adaptations and
strength development during strength training in strength-trained and untrained men. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2003
Aug;89(6):555-63.
•
Sallinen J, Pakarinen A, Ahtiainen J, Kraemer WJ, Volek JS, Hakkinen K. Relationship between diet and serum
anabolic hormone responses to heavy-resistance exercise in men. Int J Sports Med. 2004 Nov;2 (8):627-33.
•
Bird SP, Tarpenning KM, Marino FE. Effects of liquid carbohydrate/essential amino acid ingestion on acute
hormonal response during a single bout of resistance exercise in untrained men. Nutrition 2006 Apr;22(4):367-75.
•
Kraemer WJ, Ratamess NA. Hormonal responses and adaptations to resistance exercise and training. Sports Med.
2005;35(4):339-61. Review.
•
Wilkinson SB, Tarnopolsky MA, Macdonald MJ, Macdonald JR, Armstrong D, Phillips SM. Consumption of fluid skim
milk promotes greater muscle protein accretion after resistance exercise than does consumption of an
isonitrogenous and isoenergetic soy-protein beverage. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Apr;85(4):1031-40.