6 Ways To Increase Growth Hormone Levels
A lot of people know that lifting heavy weights builds muscle, that’s simple enough. Do you really know what process in the body is responsible for this muscle growth? HGH (human growth hormone) is the hormone in the body that is responsible for the growth of all its tissues. When you get older, your HGH levels naturally start to decline, which is why it becomes harder and harder to maintain and grow muscle mass with age.
If you completely lack HGH in your body, you’ll be suffering from dwarfism. The reason why some people are born as dwarfs is that they lack functioning receptors for HGH in their body, preventing growth. There is also the opposite condition gigantism, where people have too much HGH because of an overactive pituitary gland.
You might think that too much HGH sounds awesome right? Wrong, too much-generalized HGH unrelated to specific muscle growth processes will cause the heart to grow too big, and eventually, you run the risk of a heart attack because the heart outgrows its system. Next time you consider taking large amounts of synthetic HGH injections (somatropin) consider your heart first. HGH injections in normal physiological doses are however safe and an excellent anti-ageing remedy.
To show you just how anabolic of a hormone HGH is, here is the benefits of high HGH levels:
- Increases insulin sensitivity
- Inhibits the stress hormone cortisol (anti-catabolic)
- Stimulates bone growth (healing)
- Increases core strength
- Burns fat regardless of exercise
- Repairs muscle mass and increases protein synthesis (muscle growth)
If you want to make sure you keep your HGH levels at a healthy max or want to reverse the age-related decline, there is many natural treatments and lifestyle changes you can apply to reap these benefits.
Here’s our top 6:
Velvet Bean (Mucuna Pruriens)
Velvet Bean is a natural source of the dopamine precursor L-dopa. L-dopa is usually produced in the body from the amino acid L-tyrosine, which is abundant in foods such as hard cheese and other dairy products. Dopamine is essential for many functions in the body and especially affects mental processes such as focus, motivation, sex drive and ability to experience pleasure from everyday activities. Dopamine is also highly correlated with the hormones testosterone and HGH.
Supplementing with Velvet Bean has been shown to increase levels of testosterone and growth hormone because of its direct effects on dopamine production. Velvet Bean is included in our sleep formula Fade Out.
Body Fat & Intermittent Fasting
The amount of body fat you have is closely related to how much HGH your body can produce. Meaning, the more fat you have, the less HGH you will have. Weight loss is a simple strategy for increasing HGH levels, and one of the best ways to do it is through the use of another HGH increasing strategy, intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting is when you limit your daily eating hours within usually an 8-hour window. Meaning, you eat all your daily calories during this time frame. Eating in this way is not only a more natural way to eat (3 meals per day are the invention of an industrialized society, do you think stone age humans could eat like that?), it also helps you burn more fat and keep your insulin levels down. Insulin and HGH are directly correlated, the less insulin you produce, the more HGH you can produce. Persistently high insulin levels are also the source of many modern chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
The following study found that from 3 days of fasting, HGH levels increased over 300%, and after 1 week a massive 1250% increase was seen. This clearly shows that eating less often equals more HGH.
Reduce Simple Sugars
Some bodybuilders are under the impression that you can build muscle eating just about anything, and even though it is true to some degree, you will mess up other processes in your body if you try to bulk on only Twinkies for example. A clean and targeted diet is king for building muscle. As we mentioned previously, insulin levels and HGH are highly correlated. If you want more HGH to maximize your muscle growth, stay away from simple sugars and foods of high glycemic index. Focus on complex carbs and don’t eat too close to bed time. HGH is produced during your sleep, and eating before bed means you will be surfing on a wave of insulin through half of the night, inhibiting HGH.
Whey Protein
A diet high in protein is beneficial not only for your HGH levels but also thyroid hormones and insulin sensitivity. The most popular fitness supplement of all time, Whey protein, is one of the best additions you can include in your diet for naturally maximizing HGH levels.
The following study showed that dairy based protein powders increased levels of IGF-1, helping muscle cells expand and multiply. IGF-1 is a hormone that is highly correlated with HGH levels and responsible for the muscle growth effects of HGH. If you increase HGH, you will also increase IGF-1. Aim for consuming at least 100-150 grams of protein per day. We produce a very high-quality Whey protein powder called Isotope.
Get More Sleep:
As we mentioned above, it is during your sleep that hormones such as HGH and also testosterone are produced. In other words, the more you sleep, the more time you give your body for hormone production. Getting by on 6 hours of sleep or less is a sure way of decreasing your levels of not only HGH, but also testosterone.
Anything that increases your sleep quality or time asleep can hence also be seen as an HGH booster. We suggest trying the following:
- Avoid blue lights 2 hours before bed (computer screens, tv, cell phones etc.)
- Melatonin (part of our product Fade Out)
- Don’t consume caffeine too late in the day
- Keeping a cooler temperature in your bedroom increases sleep quality
Focus On HIIT Workouts
Since exercise triggers growth in the body, exercising is one of the best ways to increase HGH. Of course, the increase is dependent on what kind of exercise you do (yoga won’t reap you any godlike HGH powers). Resistance training and anything form of exercise done with very high intensity are the best since it has the largest hormonal effect. Perform heavy weight lifting sessions with limited rest periods and practice high-intensity sprints and interval training (HIIT). It is important to keep sprints in short high-intensity bursts since endurance like cardio training does your hormones no good (decreases testosterone and growth hormone, catabolic). A good protocol is to replace all your current cardio based training with high-intensity sprints and perform them every day in-between your lifting days.
Growth Hormone Levels
Growth Hormone Levels
Growth Hormone Levels
Growth Hormone Levels
Growth Hormone Levels
