There are 2 main reasons professional athletes love Human Growth Hormone.

1. Detection requires a blood test and most professional sports leagues do not require mandatory blood testing of their athletes. Ergo, they can use HGH without fear of a positive drug test.
2. It works.

According to this study, even a low dose of human growth hormone (HGH) was able to significantly improve the sprint capacity in healthy recreational athletes.

The effect was even more pronounced in those athletes who were given a combination of HGH and testosterone.

“We found the enhancement in sprint capacity would correlate to a 0.4 second improvement over 10 seconds in a 100-meter dash.” said Dr. Ken Ho – lead author of the study.

“This improvement could turn the last place finisher in the Olympic finals into a gold medal winner.”

As if that wasn’t enough, researchers found that HGH significantly reduced fat mass among the athletes.

Of course, HGH isn’t without its side effects – the athletes who received HGH also complained of swelling and joint pain.

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But, then again, what’s a little joint pain, if 2-3 months of  HGH therapy turns the average athlete into a leaner, faster, Hulk-like freak of nature.

Is it any wonder HGH is such a popular choice for pro athletes?

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Growth Hormone Builds Better Sprinters is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

For example, women with an excessive percentage of fat on the back of their arms are likely to have elevated insulin levels or low DHEA levels.

Men unlucky enough to be lugging around a generous set of man-boobs are likely to have high levels of estrogen (often combined with high insulin and low testosterone)

So, as a public service to all of my man-boobed brothers out there, we are going to take a look at how to get those hormones back in balance.

(For this post, I will be using a variety of reference sources. Most of the sources are pretty dry and technical, but one that I can heartily recommend to y’all is The Hormone Diet by Dr. Natasha Turner (Canada). It is a great reference that is easy to read and understand. I will be doing a more detailed book review about this book in the coming weeks.)

High Insulin

Causes

• Eating too much over-processed, nutrient deficient carbohydrates – fast food, frozen dinners, pop, fruit drinks, sugary foods, processed diet foods…you know. Crap.
• Eating too little protein – real protein, not processed McNugget protein
• Eating too little fat – real fat, not trans-fat
• Not enough fiber in your diet - no need for supplements, you should get enough protein from fruit & veg
• Unmanaged high levels of chronic stress
• Not enough exercise
• Excessive exercise to the point of muscle wasting
• Steroid based medications
• Poor liver function
• Environmental toxins
• Poor sleep patterns
• Aging – sorry about that one

Solutions

• Diet – Sugar/Insulin control diet – Paleo/Atkins/Medierranean
• Botanical – Cinnamon, Chromium – talk to your naturopath
• Increase consumption of fiber
• Increase consumption of fish oils
• Weight loss
• Exercise
• Reduce exposure to toxins & improve liver function – talk to your naturopath
• Sleep
• Get your hormone levels checked

High Testosterone

While not very common in men, it affects about 10% of women

Causes

• Increased production by the adrenal glands
• Polycystic ovaries caused by Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
• Low Estrogen. Estrogen is a potent inhibitor of testosterone production, so anything that decreases estrogen levels beyond the norm is going to increase the testosterone to estrogen balance

Solutions

• Stress management = lowered cortisol = reduction in adrenal production
• Insulin control diet – Paleo/Atkins/Mediterranean
• Pharmaceutical – Troglitazone and Metformin – talk to your doctor
• Botanical – Saw Palmetto – talk to your naturopath
• Estrogen replacement – bio-identical or conventional – talk to your doctor
• Get your hormone levels checked

Low Testosterone

Causes

• Aging
• Damage  to the testicles
• Radiation
• Testicular or Pituitary tumors
• Serious viral infections
• Vasectomy
• Various genetic conditions – Klinefelter’s, Kallmann’s, Prader-Willi syndromes and Myotonic Dystrophy

In addition to these causes, there are a variety of lifestyle causes. These include:

• Obesity…it’s a vicious circle – low test causes obesity and obesity causes lowered test…sorry
• Exposure to pesticides
• Exposure to hormones used in factory farm meat and poultry production. These hormones act like Estrogen in your body, and…
• Estrogen is a potent inhibitor of testosterone production, so anything that increases estrogen levels beyond the norm is going to negatively impact testosterone production
• Phthalates (found in soap, cosmetics and plastics) are another estrogen like compound that suppresses testosterone.
• Alcohol…especially beer
• Temperature – boxers v.s briefs
• Sleep apnea
• Narcotics

Solutions

Female

• Diet – Dump your low-fat diet and increase your healthy fats
• Botanical – Tribulus – talk to your naturopath
• High Intensity exercise
• Get your hormone levels checked

Male

• Diet – Dump your low-fat diet and increase your healthy fats
• Botanical – Tribulus – talk to your naturopath
• Pharmaceutical – Aromatase blockers and/or testosterone, anabolic steroids – talk to your doctor and/or your lawyer…see Manny Ramierez
• High Intensity exercise
• Get your hormone levels checked

High Estrogen or Estrogen Dominance

Causes

• Pregnancy & menstrual cycle fluctuations
• Unmanaged high levels of chronic stress
• Obesity – obesity causes high estrogen which causes obesity…
• Poor diet – processed foods, a high fat diet, a high sugar diet, excessive caffeine, low levels of magnesium and B6
• Birth control pill
• Exposure to hormones used in factory farm meat and poultry production. These hormones act like Estrogen in your body, and…
• Phthalates and other xenoestrogens (found in soap, cosmetics and plastics)
• Low testosterone
• Impaired liver function
• Poor digestion
• Alcohol
• Lack of exercise
• Lack of sleep

Solutions

• Stress management
• Improve your diet – Paleo/Atkins/Mediterranean/increase your fiber
• Reduce your exposure to hormones and xenoestrogens
• Improve liver function – talk to your naturopath
• Get more sleep
• Exercise more
• Pharmaceutical – Testosterone – talk to your doctor
• Get your hormone levels checked

Low Estrogen

Causes

• Aging – Menopause
• Premature failure of the ovaries
• Surgical menopause
• Unmanaged high levels of stress
• Smoking
• Low-fat diets
• Extremely low body-fat

Solutions

Female

• Estrogen replacement – bio-identical or conventional – talk to your doctor
• Get your hormone levels checked

High Cortisol

We all have stress in our lives. The problems begin when we can’t handle the stresses that are thrown our way. That is when stress starts negatively impacting our health. Chronic elevated levels of corisol is just one symptom of that impact.

Causes

• Unmanaged high levels of chronic stress

Solutions

• Stress management – meditation, breathing techniques, psychiatry, psychotherapy, mindfulness practice, biofeedback + a million more techniques available on late-night infomercials and the inter-web.
• Insulin control diet – Paleo/Atkins/Mediterranean
• Reduce intake of stimulants
• Supplements – Multi-Vitamin/Mineral, magnesium, B5, B6, Phosphatidylserine, adaptogens such as ginseng – talk to your naturopath.
• Get your hormone levels checked

Low Growth Hormone

Causes

• Aging
• Lack of sleep
• Lack of exercise
• Eating before bed
• Sleeping with lights on

Solutions

• Don’t eat before bed
• Sleep in the dark
• High Intensity exercise – low intensity (ie cardio) has little effect
• Intermittent fasting
• Supplements – GHB and the Amino Acids Arginine, Lysine and Ornithine – talk to your doctor/naturopath
• Get your hormone levels checked

Low DHEA

Causes

• Aging
• Unmanaged high levels of chronic stress

Solutions

• DHEA supplements – talk to your naturopath
• Stress management – meditation, breathing techniques, psychiatry, psychotherapy, mindfulness practice, biofeedback + a million more techniques available on late-night infomercials and the inter-web.
• Insulin control diet – Paleo/Atkins/Mediterranean
• Reduce intake of stimulants
• Supplements – Multi-Vitamin/Mineral, magnesium, B5, B6, Phosphatidylserine, adaptogens such as ginseng – talk to your naturopath.
• Get your hormone levels checked

Low Progesterone

Causes

• Lack of ovulation
• Unmanaged high levels of chronic stress
• Low levels of luteinizing hormone
• Hypothyroidism
• Excess prolaction

Solutions

• Progesterone cream – talk to your doctor/naturopath
• Stress management – meditation, breathing techniques, psychiatry, psychotherapy, mindfulness practice, biofeedback + a million more techniques available on late-night infomercials and the inter-web.
• Get your hormone levels checked

Note

I am not a doctor, nor do I pretend to be one on tv. So, if you think something is out of whack with your hormones, go and get them checked.  That doesn’t mean that you have to take the drugs that your doctor is probably going to push on you. But, at least you will have the info to make your best decision.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to shoot them my way. If I don’t feel confident about my ability to answer it, I will try and convince an “expert” to weigh in.

Hormones, Problem Areas and Your Body-Fat Map – Part 2 is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

They start with a little of this:

Add in a little of this:

image credit: Roger Hargreaves

And end up with this:

Occlusion or Kaatsu training.

What is Occlusion or Kaatsu Training?

In a nutshell, Occlusion Training involves applying a tourniquet of some sort (Researchers use a pneumatic tourniquets similar to a blood pressure cuff) to the proximal portion of one of your limbs to restrict blood flow (partially or fully) while you perform low intensity exercise.

And why would you do that?

According to this recent study:

Low intensity occlusion (50-100 mm Hg) training provides a unique beneficial training mode for promoting muscle hypertrophy.

Training at intensities as low as 20% of 1 rep maximum with moderate vascular occlusion results in muscle hypertrophy in as little as 3 weeks.

A typical exercise prescription calls for 3 to 5 sets to volitional fatigue with short rest periods.

The metabolic buildup causes positive phsiologic reactions, specifically a rise in growth hormone that is higher than levels found with higher intensities.

Occlusion training is applicable for those who are unable to sustain high loads due to joint pain, postoperative patients, cardiac rehabilitation, athletes who are unloading, and astronauts.

In fact, during the study, test subjects saw some pretty startling results:

• Lactate increased
• Growth Hormone increased
• Norepinephrine increased
• IGF-1 increased
• Noradrenaline increased
• Myostatin decreased
• One rep maximum strength increased
• Isometric strength & torque increased
• Isokinetic strength & torque increased
• Muscular endurance increased
• Cross-sectional area of the muscle increased
• Slow twitch fibers changed into Fast twitch fibers

And all you need to turn yourself into a muscle-building Kaatsu warrior is some bondage gear and the ability to ignore the stares and giggles of your fellow health club members.

So, what do you think of that?

I may come back and expand this post with more data in the next few days. I just received a full copy of this latest study and I am poring over the details. But, I couldn’t wait to share this with you.

Looking forward to the comments.

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

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Related Posts

• 1,000,000,001 Different Ways to Squat
• Mechano Growth Factor
  
• Do You Wanna Get Big and Strong?…Phase 1
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• Tabata Training 101
• HIIT: The Aerobic version
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Reference

• Kaatsu
• Japanese Kaatsu Training Society
• NSCA – SCJ study

Occlusion / Kaatsu Training: The easiest and fastest way to build muscle mass OR health club kink? is a post from: Health and Fitness articles

Scientists in the UK and Denmark have shown that elderly men are capable of dramatically increasing their muscle mass.

All it takes is some growth hormone and some deep knee bends (elderly man speak for squats).

Growth hormone???

Isn’t that the same stuff Barry Bonds was (allegedly) self-medicating with?

Well, yeah, but it’s okay because….because the doctor says so.

In fact, study researcher Dr. Geoff Goldspink says that this reseach “raises the question: Can age-related loss of muscle strength and increased fragility be ameliorated by the therapeutic application of mechano growth factor (MGF)?”

Question 1:

Is it morally acceptable to demonize athletes for taking GH or MGF or all manner of anabolic steroids and then turn around and put Grandpa on the juice?

Answer:

Next Question

Question 2:

What the heck is MGF?

Answer:

According to the Dr. Goldspink, MGF is a local muscle growth/repair factor (MGF).

This  means that MGF is produced locally in response to mechanical stress and acts on those muscle fibers that produce it. And once released, that local MGF pulse lasts for a few days.

It  is derived from the insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) gene by alternative splicing, but, owing to a reading frame shift, MGF has a unique C-terminal peptide. After resistance exercise, the IGF-I gene is spliced towards MGF which ‘‘kick starts’’ hypertrophy and repair of local muscle damage by activating the muscle stem cells as well as anabolic processes.

When you stretch your muscles during exercise, they start pumping out your own supply of MGF. That activates the stem cells that are already present in your muscles. And once “activated, these progenitor cells begin to divide, creating additional muscle fibres and increasing the size and strength of the muscle”.

Interestingly, loss of muscle mass in old age and in certain diseases is associated with an impaired ability to express MGF. In these conditions it seems that the muscle stem (satellite) cell pool is not adequately replenished.

Question 3: I’m young and loaded with growth hormone. Where do I get some of this MGF to kick start my anabolic process?

Answer:

• Option 1 – You can buy a synthetic version of MGF on the internet. (link is strictly for illustration purposes. I am not advocating buying MGF on the web) Currently it’s expensive, but the price is expected to drop in the coming months.
  

And yes, this stuff is already popular amongst bodybuilders, strength athletes, professional ball players, old men aching to strut their stuff on the beach… In fact, the combination of IGF and MGF is preferred by many performance enhancement gurus over the use of straight GH as an anabolic agent.

• Option 2 – Research has shown that MGF is a stretch sensitive growth factor. And not just any old 30 second static stretch. Both MGF and IGF respond much more strongly to clclic/dynamic stretching than to static stretching. This research jibes well with the research that shows eccentric resistance exercises to have a very powerful effect on MGF production. This makes sense as it combines muscle lengthening with increased mechanical stress (load).

So, what does this mean to you?

If you want to naturally increase your production of MGF and IGF and get bigger and stronger and more powerful, you need to stretch your muscles under load.

I would like to suggest 2 different methods to achieving this goal.

1. Eccentric weight training.
2. Resistence Stretching ala Dara Torres

But remember, this is bleeding edge science kind of stuff. Listen to your body and don’t do anything stupid. Also, go see your doctor for a check-up…turn and cough

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

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Related Posts

• 1,000,000,001 Different Ways to Squat
• Do You Wanna Get Big and Strong?…Phase 1
• 1,000,000,001 Different Ways to Train your Chest
  
• Tabata Workouts WILL Cause Fat Loss
• Tabata Training 101
• HIIT: The Aerobic version
• 4 Steps to a Great HIIT Workout
• Power training
• Muscular strength made simple
• Components of Physical Fitness

Reference

• MGF Study 1
• MGF Study 2
• MGF Study 3
• MGF Study 4
• MGF STudy 5
• More MGF info
• MGF Study 6
• Science Daily

Mechano Growth Factor is a post from: Health and Fitness articles