INDEX
1. How GH works
2. Why athletes use it (main functions)
3. Dangers of blasting GH
4.Regulation of the GH (should read)
5. How to softmax GH
5.1 STRATEGY 1
5.2 STRATEGY 2
5.3 STRATEGY 3
5.4 STRATEGY 4
5.5 STRATEGY 5
1. HOW GH WORKS (skip if you already know)
1. How GH works
2. Why athletes use it (main functions)
3. Dangers of blasting GH
4.Regulation of the GH (should read)
5. How to softmax GH
5.1 STRATEGY 1
5.2 STRATEGY 2
5.3 STRATEGY 3
5.4 STRATEGY 4
5.5 STRATEGY 5
1. HOW GH WORKS (skip if you already know)
GH is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth
. It´s made in the brain so the hypothalamus makes GH releasing hormone, which travels a short distance to the anterior pituitary gland, that´s the gland who actually makes GH itself. Sometimes when people get a tumor in their pituitary gland they can produce massive ammounts of GH so their body just keeps growing, this condition is called acromegaly, getting really big hands and feet, a really wide face and jaw, thick skin and bigger internal organs. A great example for that is wrestler the great Khali, who has this condition.
But in normal conditions the release of GH is quite tightly regulated, so, as well as GH releasing hormone, the hypothalamus also releases GH inhibiting hormone AKA somatostatin and the balance of these two opposing hormones determines how much GH the anterior pituitary gland releases. This balance is affected by lots of physiological factors which we´ll be taking about later.
GH is released in a pulsatile manner which means it´s not constantly produced at a consistent level, it´s released in big spikes, with several hours in between these spikes. Once it´s released from the pituitary gland into the blood, growth hormone travels to the target tissue and binds to the growth hormone receptor, which is found all throughout the body (scientists thought it was found only in the liver and muscle fibers).
. It´s made in the brain so the hypothalamus makes GH releasing hormone, which travels a short distance to the anterior pituitary gland, that´s the gland who actually makes GH itself. Sometimes when people get a tumor in their pituitary gland they can produce massive ammounts of GH so their body just keeps growing, this condition is called acromegaly, getting really big hands and feet, a really wide face and jaw, thick skin and bigger internal organs. A great example for that is wrestler the great Khali, who has this condition.
But in normal conditions the release of GH is quite tightly regulated, so, as well as GH releasing hormone, the hypothalamus also releases GH inhibiting hormone AKA somatostatin and the balance of these two opposing hormones determines how much GH the anterior pituitary gland releases. This balance is affected by lots of physiological factors which we´ll be taking about later.
GH is released in a pulsatile manner which means it´s not constantly produced at a consistent level, it´s released in big spikes, with several hours in between these spikes. Once it´s released from the pituitary gland into the blood, growth hormone travels to the target tissue and binds to the growth hormone receptor, which is found all throughout the body (scientists thought it was found only in the liver and muscle fibers).
2. Why athletes use it (main functions)
As we know some of the functions of GH is making you taller, especially as a child and a teenager increasing calcium retention which remineralizes your bones making them stronger. Also increases muscle mass, altough there are mixed results from the studies on wheter actually does this, and in my opinion it probably does it indirectly via IGF-1, which I have a thread about it. GH increases lipolysis, which is the breakdown of fats for energy and it can maybe help with fat loss, studies aren´t super clear on this. It causes the growth of internal organs. It reduces the uptake of glucose into the liver and it promotes the production of glucose on the liver. Those two are basically a function on maintaining the glucose levels regulated so they don´t get too low. Related to this GH causes transient insuline resistance, again because the body is trying to mantain blood glucose levels adequated, as insulin´s main job is taking up glucose into the tissues of the muscles and liver. GH also increases the function of the thyroid hormone T4 into the active form T3 and there are a bunch of other functions but I don´t want to make this thread so long. Enough to convince tou about the GH benefits.
3. Dangers of blasting GH
GH can definetly have some uunpleasant side-effects. These are insulin resistance, water retention, carpal tunnel syndrome (on the wrist), organ enlargement and speed up the progresion of cancer if you already have it. By optimizing your natural GH production, like I will be talking about later you´re vety unlikely to take this side-effects.
4.Regulation of the GH
So we know what GH does and some of the benefits it brings along, now the most interesting part: What determines the amount of GH in the body?.
There are many factors that regulate GH secretion, first is sleep.
SLEEP: Most of your GH is produced while you´re asleep, especially in the first few hours of sleep, where there´s lots of deep slow wave sleep. Sleep deprivation can supress GH release.
AGE: GH decreases with age so it´s very high in children and teenagers but no so much in adults.
SEX HORMONES: Sex hormones regulate GH secretion. Testosterone stimulates GH secretion in the brain and estrogen estimulates it indirectly by reducing the inhibitory effect of IGF-1 on GH secretion. IGF-1 is so important, you can check a recent post i made about it. Nicotine increases GH potentially vitamin b3 or niacin, as nicotinic acid as well. Ghrelin (the hunger hormone) increases GH secretion, this is released when your stomach is empty or nearly empty.
LOW BLOOD SUGAR: It increases GH, hopefully it´s becoming clear that GH is part of the response of low energy states (like an empty stomach or low blood sugar) it´s kind of like an anti-starvation type of hormone that keeps glucose in the bloodstream, it makes more glucose from the liver and also reduces muscle breakdown, so it preserves your muscle mass while you´re fasting or starving.
VIGOROUS EXERCISE: I will talk about this one when I get into the practical tips.
You also need a normal functioning thyroid in order to have normal GH secretion. You can probably look GH as a stress hormone, it´s released in response to stressful situations. So all this things I have just talked about can increase your GH, now let´s talk about some things that decrease GH.
GH INHIBITHING HORMONE (SOMATOSTATIN): Earlier I have talked about it, this hormone downregulates GH and several others. You can think of it as an "Anti-hormone". Doesn´t mean it´s a bad things, it just play an important role making sure the hormones don´t get too high. If you wanted to MAXX out your GH theoretically you want to lower somatostatin. A few things that can lower somatostatin include: Arginine, dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, ghrelin and strenous exercise.
IGF-1: I have posted a thread explaining it recently. IGF-1
5.METHODS
5.1 STRATEGY 1
5.1 STRATEGY 1
SLEEP: The biggest spike of growth hormone happens about an hour into sleep. That means that these first hours of the night are the most restorative. You need to get to sleep early, as most of GH secretion happens between 22:00 PM and 02:00 AM. Definetly must sleep during this window. To get good sleep avoid bright and blue lights before bed, and spend a good amount of time outside, especially during the time of sunset and sunrise this will improve your circadian rythm. And avoid to eat 2-3 hours before bed, because the insuline form carbs can reduce the GH release. Sleep 7-9 hours/day with the same bedtime.
5.2 STRATEGY 2
EXERCISE: Specifically strenuous high effort workouts increase GH. High volume-high intensity resistance training using large muscle groups leads always to a big spike in GH. This mean that big compound movements like squat (fairly heavy) seems to be the metabolic demand that leads to the GH spike. Endurance exercise above the lactate threshold can increase GH. This means that lactate as a response for endurance exercise like running starts to accumulate in the blood faster than your body can clear it which means you can´t keep up this type of exercise for very long. Studies have shown that you need to exercise above the lactate threshold for at least 10 minutes to see a boost in GH, this means really brutally hard exercise. SPRINTS are vety good, you might have heard about this workout called "sprint 8" that increases GH by several 100% and some people claim even 600%, however most studies investigating this kind of training showed something like 200-300%. This workout involves MAX effort sprinting for 30 seconds and 90 seconds of active recovery repeated for a total of 8 rounds.
5.3 STRATEGY 3
FASTING: Your body seems to release more GH the longer the fast goes on, probably to mantain blood sugar and preserve muscle. Fasting increases Ghrelin (stomach hormone), lowers blood sugar and insuline, getting more GH release as a kind of protection mechanism. Intermittent fasting where you eat in an 8 hour window and fast for 16 hours, can be a good way to get a GH boost. Not as big as prolonged fasting (24h+), but prolonged fasting becomes kind of counterintuitive if you´re doing this for muscle growth, because it needs energy to grow. I personally don´t do it regularly but I like how sharp fasting makes me feel, I always get a lot of work done while fasting.
5.4 STRATEGY 4
HEAT AND COLD EXPOSURE: You might want to include a sauna into your routine, Andrew Huberman made a sauna protocol for GH which is using the sauna one day per week for 30 minutes followed by 5 minutes of cooling off outside then another 30 minutes in the sauna, if you can only manage 30 minutes or less that´s still pretty good for your health. Cold exposure doesn´t appear to increase GH so no need for ice baths if you´re maxxing out GH.
5.5 STRATEGY 5
SUPPLEMENTS:
-HUPERZIA A: This is an AChE (acetylcholinesterase) inhibitor. AChE is an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, by reducing it´s breakdown huperzine increases GH because acetylcholine increases GH. In a similar note for better understanding APLHA GPC is an acetylcholine precursor that can increase GH, specially when you take it 90 minutes before exercise.
-OTHER THAT INCREASES GH: CDP Choline, L-Arginine (but you should take it away from exercise if you want to ger more Gh secretion), the amino acids L-ornithine, GABA, Glutamine, L-Lysine (especially before workouts). Glycine (before sleep), vitamin B3 (i would just get it from food honestly). Creatine also recommended.
-HUPERZIA A: This is an AChE (acetylcholinesterase) inhibitor. AChE is an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, by reducing it´s breakdown huperzine increases GH because acetylcholine increases GH. In a similar note for better understanding APLHA GPC is an acetylcholine precursor that can increase GH, specially when you take it 90 minutes before exercise.
-OTHER THAT INCREASES GH: CDP Choline, L-Arginine (but you should take it away from exercise if you want to ger more Gh secretion), the amino acids L-ornithine, GABA, Glutamine, L-Lysine (especially before workouts). Glycine (before sleep), vitamin B3 (i would just get it from food honestly). Creatine also recommended.
SUMMARY
DEEP SLEEP
VIGOROUS EXERCISE
FASTING
HEAT EXPOSURE
SUPPLEMENTATION
---------------------------------------------------------Any tags are appreciated--------------------------------------------------------
DEEP SLEEP
VIGOROUS EXERCISE
FASTING
HEAT EXPOSURE
SUPPLEMENTATION
---------------------------------------------------------Any tags are appreciated--------------------------------------------------------
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