If you take any process in your body – digestion, sleep, muscle synthesis, etc – you’ll find that most of them are controlled by hormones.
Hormones are basically chemical messengers.
This means that, when a hormone is released, your organs get a message on what they should do.
For example, a high amount of testosterone will signal your body to synthesize muscle.
And the release of melatonin is a signal to shut down and go to sleep.
So if you’re looking to get jacked and become the strongest version of yourself, you need to optimize your hormones.
This is how you’ll make your body develop in the best way possible.
But how can you influence your hormone production without using steroids and other illegal compounds?
If you keep reading this post, I’ll give you a bunch of simple tips to optimize the production of the four hormones that are directly or indirectly involved in muscle synthesis.
Testosterone
The best thing you can do to increase your testosterone levels is to engage in high-intensity resistance training.
Apart from that, it’s important to eat a well-balanced diet with enough protein.
You should also aim to get 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
The last but not least, check your vitamin D and zinc levels.
Both are needed for testosterone production.
If you discover that you’re deficient in any of them, you can take a supplement to boost their level in a short period.
Growth Hormone (HGH)
Just like testosterone, HGH is an anabolic hormone.
This means that high-intensity resistance training will have a positive impact on HGH production.
Since HGH is produced in sleep, it’s crucial that you get as much deep sleep as possible.
Also, don’t eat at least two hours before going to bed.
That’s how you’ll keep your blood glucose level low while asleep, which is necessary for HGH production.
Insulin
Most people don’t know that insulin plays a huge role in hypertrophy.
Not only it can increase the rate of muscle synthesis, but it also increases blood flow into the muscle.
To keep your insulin in check, you have to remove processed sugar from your diet.
It’s also a good idea to lose a bit of weight.
And you also want to make sure you get enough sleep while keeping your stress levels as low as possible.
If nothing else helps, try adding more fiber to your diet.
Fiber will increase your insulin sensitivity which means you’ll better respond to it no matter how little of it is available.
Cortisol
Unlike all the other hormones we’ve mentioned, cortisol is catabolic.
This means that a high level of cortisol in your system will lead to muscle breakdown.
But the increase in cortisol has some other adverse effects as well.
So you should definitely keep track of your cortisol levels and make sure to keep them low.
How do you do that?
There are several ways.
Once again, quality sleep is of the utmost importance just like with other hormones.
You can also try meditation because it is proven to decrease stress.
And the last tip is – get yourself a pet!
It doesn’t matter if it’s a cat, dog (the dog above is my pug Frankie), or something else, because every pet can calm you down and lower your cortisol levels.
In this post, I’ve mentioned a lot of tips so hopefully, you’re not overwhelmed.
But if you want a really short version you can easily remember, then you should write this down.
Make sure you get enough sleep each night.
Quality sleep will take care of most anabolic and catabolic hormones and thus help you build muscle more effectively.
Stay fit my friend,
Michael
Founder & CEO