Cortisol Stress
Why My Muscles Won't Grow? Cortisol Stress Hormone Destroy Muscle Tissues
There are many reasons why your muscles won't grow or why your muscle growth is retarded. One main culprit for your muscle tissue to in a catabolic and not in an anabolic state is the stress hormone called cortisol. This stress hormone, cortisol, is produced by your body when you are under stressful situations.
Yes, any type of stress, whether they are mental stress, physical stress or just emotional stress will trigger off an increased in the production of cortisol hormones. A high level of cortisol is always a bane for bodybuilders and that in itself, is creating more stress.
When you exercise or especially weightlifting body building exercises, you are placing a tremendous stress on your body. This in turn will cause the cortisol hormone in your body to rise to unacceptable level which may destroy your muscle tissues, bone density and causes weight gain especially abdominal fat. Ohhh...that abdominal fat that would not go away.
This hormone hates your muscles and wants you to grow fat. It takes away protein from the muscles. However to be fair to this hormone, the cortisol hormone has its positive functions.
Cortisol is produced by the adrenal cortex and is commonly known as a stress hormone because the level of cortisol in your body rises sharply when you are under stress. This hormone plays an important role in your body's metabolic function, it facilitates cardiovascular function, carbohydrate metabolism and controls inflammation. After all, it is a steroid hormone.
As more cortisol is being produced, your muscle tissue breaks down further since the amino acids from your muscle protein is being converted into glucose for energy. This hormone also blocks new muscle tissues from growing because it interferes in protein synthesis in your muscles.
How to lower cortisol level?
Get enough sleep - Let your body recuperate from the day's stress and let the body rebuild its wears and tears. A lack of sleep will put your body under further stress and thus increasing cortisol levels.
Avoid stress - Take up yoga, read a book, take a break from whatever you are doing. Learn meditation and breathing techniques to reduce everyday stress. Take a week or so break from your exercise routine after 6-8 weeks of regular training. As your body learns how to relax, the level of cortisol hormone will fall correspondingly.
Do not over train - Over training is a common issue amongst athletes of all types. This is especially so in bodybuilding and weight lifting. You are already damaging your muscles when you lift weights, don't let cortisol hormones rob your muscles of the much needed proteins and preventing muscle repair and growth.
Once your body and mind is free from stress, your cortisol production will be at a healthy level and you will once again see your muscles growing, provided that you are doing other things that are conducive to getting your muscles to grow.
Chris Chew is a fitness personal trainer for fashion models, actors, pageant winner sand other celebrities. He is the author of Lose Fat Build Muscles Quickly! and Singapore Fitness Trainers
How does illness or chronic pain slow the metabolism?
My metabolism slows down whenever I have long term illness or chronic pain. It slowed down when I had mono, chronic sinusitis and now it has slowed down with my daily migraines. Whenever I am healthy my metabolism is super fast but whenever I am sick it slows way down. Does this happen with a lot of people when they are sick? Or is it the rising cortisol/stress hormones produced when sick that slows the metabolism and make us gain weight more easily when sick?
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What's the relationship between cortisol (stress hormone) and personality disorder plus addiction?
My therapist yesterday posited the idea that my brain may have been primed by my developmental experiences to too readily secrete cortisol. I don't quite get it, as I never had any big bad things happen to me when growing up. It just seems to me as like another crazy theory to try to explain why I've gone "off the rails". I've been diagnosed with a personality disorder - unspecified, but from what I can gather, it's a mix of borderline and histrionic. Hope some of you can shed some light on this!
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