Hormones play an important role in human muscle growth. Apparently, having too many or too few hormones in the body, especially male hormones, can cause trouble. Therefore, you should try to increase the content of male hormones in your body within the normal range to facilitate muscle development. How can you do this correctly? What kind of nutrition can make you successful?
Since the main nutrients ingested - sugar, fat and protein have a great impact on the levels of male hormones in the body, reducing caloric intake or increasing training intensity at any time may reduce the levels of male hormones in the body. The following is a high-level diet and exercise plan provided by the American "Muscle Development" magazine, which can help you naturally promote the secretion of hormones in your body.
1. Hormones and exercise In order to verify whether the above results also appear in athletes, researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark conducted similar experiments on vegetarian athletes. They found that not only did vegetarian athletes have lower blood hormone levels than ordinary athletes, they also dropped even lower one hour after exercise. So is vegetarianism bad? That cannot be said. A vegetarian diet can be great for your health, but if you want to maximize hormone levels in your body, it can be difficult.
The only solution is to eat lean meat. In order to develop clearer muscle lines, bodybuilders often limit their fat intake, so that the normal functions of the body are affected. A low-fat diet should undoubtedly be promoted, but to what extent is it appropriate? Is there a compromise point that can maintain hormone levels in the body while reducing body fat? The answer is yes.
2. The relationship between meat and male hormones First of all, under other conditions being equal, meat in the diet is beneficial to increasing male hormones in the body and promoting muscle growth. This is evidenced by the physiques of carnivorous and vegetarian athletes. Meat, especially animal meat, can promote muscle growth and has been confirmed by many studies. Some studies have also found that vegetarians have 18% lower blood androgen levels than meat eaters.
3. Research on fat intake: Fat intake in normal people’s diet should not exceed 30% of total caloric intake. Therefore, excessive intake of fat simply for the purpose of increasing hormone levels in the body will have adverse effects on physical health.
Researchers tested the effects of diets with different percentages of ingredients, ranging from a very low 10% fat content to a high 40% fat content, on hormone levels in the body. They found that a more suitable range is about 25%-30%. And if you change from a diet with very low fat content (about 10%) to a slightlyHigher fat intake will have better effects.
Researchers also found that not only the fat content can affect the body's hormone levels, but also the type of fat. The most relevant fat types are monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and saturated fatty acids (SFA). Monounsaturated fatty acids are very beneficial to health, including reducing serum cholesterol and preventing heart disease. There are two types of diets that contain more monounsaturated fatty acids.
①Mediterranean diet-the main feature is that the main source of fat is olive oil. There are also plenty of fruits and vegetables, as well as high-fiber cereals.
②Sea fish diet-Sea fish contains a large amount of omega-3 fatty acids. It prevents blood clots from forming in blood vessels and protects the heart from coronary heart disease. Eating plenty of omega-3s should be accompanied by vitamin E. As for saturated fat (found in animal fats and oils), we should limit it in our diet because it can lead to coronary heart disease. There is no need to sacrifice our health just to add a few millimeters of muscle fiber.
4. Factors to consider during training High-intensity training will undoubtedly increase the level of male hormones in the blood. Studies have proven that just one set of heavy exercises can increase hormones in a man's body by 25%! Here are some factors that can affect you.
①Aerobic metabolic exercise First, the good news. Aerobic exercise has a significant effect on reducing body fat and strengthening the function of the cardiovascular system. But the bad news is that it's not good for building muscle. No scholar needs to point out this feature. You will naturally notice that most athletes in endurance events are light and streamlined. Bodybuilders, on the other hand, are strong and muscular. This is only superficial. Aerobic exercise also has its two sides.
When you start doing aerobic exercise, such as running, androgens increase. But over time, the density of hormone receptors in muscles decreases. This means that the ability of androgens to stimulate protein synthesis is also reduced.
This does not mean that aerobic metabolic exercise is not good, it just means that if the amount of aerobic exercise exceeds a certain limit and you want to develop muscles at the same time, it requires your body to accept two different stimuli at the same time, one is high intensity for a short period of time, and the other is to develop muscles. It is medium intensity for a long time. The result is that both goals are difficult to achieve at a high level.
②Strength training Strength training also has many variable factors that affect hormone levels. Here are a few things that should be considered.
A. Training time - Total practice time has a great impact on hormone levels. Be sure to remember: the level of male hormones in the blood after high-intensity strength training for more than 90 minuteswill drop significantly. While this doesn't mean your muscles will break down at minute 91, the training effect is much less effective.
Of course, this time is based on serious training and the rest time between groups is not too long. If your entire training time usually exceeds 90 minutes, you may want to make some changes, such as moving some small muscle exercises at the end to another day.
B. Volume and frequency of practice - Of course you are very familiar with this factor. Now ask yourself: When was the last time you increased your reps? Going from four to six times a week, or going from one every five days to every three days per body part? Worst case scenario, maybe You have entered the morning and afternoon training schedule 6 days a week without preparation! In either case, your practice volume has been excessively increased.
If things continue like this, do you know what troubles you will encounter? First, your strength level will decrease, your mood will be irritable, and your attitude towards training will also change. This is a typical symptom caused by too many training reps and too much training volume. The real cause of these phenomena is the decrease in hormone levels in the body caused by overtraining.
At the same time, there is a decrease in male hormones and an increase in cortisone levels. Protein synthesis decreases and protein breakdown increases. Your muscles are in a catabolic state!
To keep the hormone levels in your body within a more ideal range, you must carefully review the number of training sessions and see how many days it takes for you to take a complete rest without doing anything; experience the desire to perform before each practice; Have the muscles fully recovered? If you don't pay attention to these phenomena, which may be caused by overtraining, it will be too late to correct the problems after they occur.