The Key Hormone You Need to Create a Lean, Healthy and Youthful Body
10/15/10 - By the time we are in our 30's almost all of us are deficient in HGH or Human Growth Hormone. If you are like me, you've probably noticed that you needed to workout a lot harder and longer than you use to and you still don't get the results you did when you were younger! Adequate levels of HGH are key to producing a lean, fit vibrant, healthy body. One of the reasons that most people see an increase in body fat and decrease in muscle as they age even if they workout regularly, is because of the decline of this hormone. I have found that you can circumvent this problem and stimulate your body's production of HGH by exercising using the principles of exertion and recovery, what I've coined as "Fit Fast" cycles and what Doctor Mercola calls "Peak Fitness." To learn more about HGH and how you can naturally increase your production by exercising properly, read this article below by Dr. Joseph Mercola, MD.
6:30 am – coffee, banana while I read and meditate
9:00 am – breakfast out – veggie omelet w/mushrooms, pepper, asparagus, onion; fresh fruit
11:30 am – "Fit Fast" exertion/recovery cycles at track – 8 sprint/walk cycles (25 min)
12:30 pm – whey protein w/water, ½ banana
2:30 pm – large salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, cucumbers w/olive oil and lemon; chicken
7:30 pm - lamb cacciatore w/mushroom, mixed peppers over smashed cauliflower, green beans
10:00 pm – bed
Are You in Somatopause (Age Related Growth Hormone Deficiency?)
As you reach your 30s and beyond, you enter what's called "somatopause," when your levels of HGH begin to drop off quite dramatically. This is part of what drives your aging process.
It has been my experience that nearly everyone over 30 has dramatically abnormal levels of this important hormone because they begin leading increasingly more sedentary life styles.
Children and most animals in the wild do not run marathons or lift weights, they move at high speeds for very short periods of time and then rest. This is natural and what optimizes the production of growth hormone.
The higher your levels of growth hormone, the healthier and stronger you're going to be. And the longer you can keep your body producing higher levels of HGH, the longer you will experience robust health and strength.
Dr. Harvey Cushing discovered HGH in the form of somatotropin almost a hundred years ago. Many individuals choose to inject it, though it is a banned substance in many professional sports. As I said earlier, I don't recommend doing this as I believe the health risks and cost are in no way justifiable.
Ideally, you really want your body to produce it naturally, as injecting HGH does have side effects. And the way you produce it is by exercising your super-fast muscle fibers.
Exercise to Increase Your Levels of the "Fitness Hormone"
One of the major reasons I am so enthusiastic about peak fitness is that it can actually increase your growth hormone level. Yes, I realize that many athletes are injecting this illegally to achieve fitness, but it is expensive and fraught with side effects. Peak fitness exercises, on the other hand, can actually cause your growth hormone to increase naturally, without any of the expense or side effects.
In order to better grasp the benefits of peak fitness exercises, you first need to understand that you have three different types of muscle fibers: slow, fast, and super-fast. And only ONE of these muscles will impact your production of a vital hormone called HGH, or human growth hormone, which is KEY for strength, health and longevity.
Currently, the vast majority of people, including many athletes such as marathon runners, only train using their slow muscle fibers, which has the unfortunate effect of actually causing the super fast fibers to decrease or atrophy.
In fact, neither traditionally performed aerobic cardio nor strength training will work anything but your slow muscles. These are the red muscles, which are filled with capillaries and mitochondria, and hence a lot of oxygen.
Next you have the fast type of fiber which is also red muscle, and oxygenates quickly, but is five times faster than the slow fibers. Power training, or plyometrics burst types of exercises will engage these fast muscles.
The super-fast ones are the white muscle fibers. They contain far less blood and less densely packed mitochondria. These muscle fibers are what you use when you do anaerobic short burst exercises.
High intensity burst cardio is the form of exercise that will engage these super fast fibers. They're ten times faster than slow fibers, and this is the key to producing growth hormone!
Benefits of Peak Fitness Exercises
Once you regularly participate in these 20 minute excises about twice a week, most everyone notices the following benefits:
Lowers your body fat
Dramatically improves muscle tone
Firms your skin and reduces wrinkles
Boosts your energy and sexual desire
Improves athletic speed and performance
Allows you to achieve your fitness goals much faster
How to Properly Perform Peak Fitness Exercises to Increase Your Growth Hormone Levels
First of all, please remember that you can perform this with any type of exercise. While having access to a gym or exercise equipment will provide you with a larger variety of options, you don't require either. You can easily perform this by walking or running on flat ground.
You will certainly want to work your way up to this point, but ultimately you want to exercise vigorously enough so you reach your anaerobic threshold as this is where the "magic" happens that will trigger your growth hormone release. Whatever activity you choose, by the end of your 30 second period you will want to reach these markers:
It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt
You will start to sweat profusely. Typically this is occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don't sweat much normally.
Your body temperature will rise
Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle "burn"
If you are using cardio equipment like an elliptical or bike, you don't need to reach any "magical" speed. It's highly individual, based on your current level of fitness. But you know you're doing it right when you're exerting yourself to the point of typically gasping for breath, after a short burst of activity.
An added boon is that you'll save a tremendous amount of time because peak fitness will cut your hour-long cardio workout down to a total of 20 minutes or so, including your recovery time, warm-up and cool down. The actual sprinting totals only 4 minutes!
Here's what a typical peak fitness routine might look like using a recumbent bike:
Warm up for three minutes
Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
Recover for 90 seconds
Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times
Be mindful of your current fitness level and don't overdo it when you first start out. If you are not in great shape and just starting this you may want to start with just two or three repetitions, and work your way up to eight, which is where the magic really starts to happen. You may need to start with just walking and when you do your 30 second bursts your legs would be moving as fast as possible without running - and your arms would be pumping hard and fast.
If you can do a peak fitness workout twice a week, and follow the dietary recommendations I'll go over next, you will increase your production of growth hormone.
Dietary Recommendations to Maximize Growth Hormone Release
To maximize your growth hormone release you need to:
Get a good night's sleep
Avoid a high fat meal prior to exercising
Drink plenty of water
Eat healthy carbs (think vegetables) and high quality protein
Optimize your vitamin D levels
Avoid sugar, especially fructose
The last part is absolutely crucial. If you consume sugar or fructose, especially within two hours post-exercise, you will increase somatostatin which will in turn obliterate the production of growth hormone! This is yet another example of why gulping down sports drinks that are chockfull of high fructose corn syrup can do your body more harm than good, and will just shut down your body's production of HGH and negate many of the benefits from your exercise.
Creating a Comprehensive Exercise Plan
You really do need a comprehensive approach to exercise, which is a major part of our peak fitness exercise approach. Ideally you want to have a variety of exercises and avoid doing the same ones all the time, as this will lead to a relative tolerance and you will not provide your body with the variety of stresses it needs to continuously adapt, improve, and grow stronger.
There are four additional types that will turn your peak fitness regimen into a truly comprehensive exercise plan:
Aerobic: No, I didn't say you had to quit straight aerobics altogether, (even though I did, and am reaping greater results than before). Jogging, using an elliptical machine, and walking fast are all examples of aerobic exercise, which will increase the amount of oxygen in your blood and increase endorphins, which act as natural painkillers. Aerobic exercise also activates your immune system, helps your heart pump blood more efficiently, and increases your stamina over time.
Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.
Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability. Pilates and yoga are great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer. Even if a personal trainer is not in the cards for you right now, please watch these sample videos for examples of healthy exercise routines you can do with very little equipment and in virtually any location. http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/videos.aspx Focusing on your breath and mindfulness along with increasing your flexibility is an important element of total fitness.
Stretching: My favorite types of stretches are active isolated stretching (AIS) http://www.stretchingusa.com/ developed by Aaron Mattes. It's an amazing way to get flexibility back into your system, and it's completely different from the traditional type of stretching.
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