Latest
Science
Article
1: Tweaking Your Gland: Six ways to boost growth hormone output
naturally
Size
may matter, but in some cases the smallest thing can have the
biggest impact. Like that grape-sized organ- the anterior pituitary
gland- nestled within your brain. Despite its small dimensions,
it is the source of powerful juice when it comes to building
height. You see, the anterior pituitary gland is responsible
for secreting a substance called somatotropic hormone, more
commonly known as "growth hormone," into your bloodstream.
Without
that tiny gland, it wouldn't matter how many reps of stretching
exercises you perform. Without it, building your physique would
become an exercise in futility. Why? "It's somatotropic
hormone that dictates how your body will adapt itself from all
your height increasing efforts" says Ed Burke, Ph.D., director
of the Exercise Science Program at the University of Colorado
at Colorado Springs.
Acting
as your body's foreman, growth hormone instructs your skeletal
bone to grow larger and stronger while it speeds the
conversion of excess fats into energy. In other words, get enough
growth hormone floating around in your system and your body
has no choice but to construct itself into something bigger
and badder. Cheat yourself from acquiring your fair share and
your body can only do so much, no matter how much you do.
Although
the amount of growth hormone your body regularly produces is
entirely up to your brain, there are a few things you can do
to trick that thrifty gland into being a bit more generous.
So
now that you've worked hard enough on your body performing the
stretching exercises, pay attention to these six proven ways
to make your body work for you:
1)Get
your shut-eye.
It's simple math really. Add eight hours to the time you went
to bed, then look at your alarm clock before peeling yourself
from the sheets. "Not getting enough sleep regularly can
lower the amount of growth hormone your body produces daily,"
says Walter Thompson, Ph.D., director of the Center for Sports
Medicine, Science and Technology at Georgia State University
in Atlanta.
Even
though excess sleep won't necessarily increase the amount of
growth hormone your body secretes, constantly burning your midnight
oil could be suppressing how efficiently your body distributes
growth hormone during the course of the day. Keeping normal
sleeping habits may let you tap into a certain percentage of
growth hormone that your bones never get a chance to utilize
when sleep-deprived.*
2)Eat
Smarter.
Focus on eating six or seven smaller meals during your day instead
of three or four larger ones. Consuming large meals with a high
glycemic index forces the body to release a high amount of insulin
into the system to aid with digestion. This reaction not only
forces your body to store fat, it may also inhibit the flow
of the growth hormone being released throughout your bloodstream.
Instead, make a point of consuming other low-sugar foods that
will prevent the release of insulin.
The
crossover between what you need to stay healthy and what you
need to release more growth hormone doesn't stop with eating
smaller meals and getting enough shut-eye. All of the same factors
that need to be in place for a healthy lifestyle still hold
true. Training right, eating right, sleeping right and keeping
your stress to a minimum will not only keep you healthier, they
will foster the type of environment that encourages the anterior
pituitary gland to do its job. Deficits in any of these areas
will only slow down how well your body functions as a whole,
which in turn slow down the amount of growth hormone that is
being continually pumped into your system.*
3)
Pre-workout nosh:
Toss back a small chicken salad sandwich a couple of hours before
you exercise. Food Researchers have discovered that consuming
a protein-carbohydrate meal two hours prior to working out and
another meal immediately afterward elicited a significant increase
in both growth hormone an testosterone within the bloodstream.
Even
if you're not hungry a few hours before you exercise, you may
want to consider having a snack to prevent being hungry within
the two-hour window before you work out. Researchers at UCLA
found that subjects who exercised with partially digested food
in their stomachs experienced up to a 54 percent decrease in
the production of growth hormone. Subjects who were fed strictly
carbohydrates prior to a workout still experienced a lower production
of growth hormone by up to 24 percent.*~
4)
Get the most from your training:
What you put your body through during your stretching exercise
routine has a direct effect on what your pituitary gland puts
out to build height. A recent study in the Journal of Applied
Physiology found that the frequency and amount of growth hormone
the body secretes is relative to the intensity of your workout.
Subjects who exercised at a higher intensity experienced greater
and more frequent releases of growth hormone after their workouts.
To
get the most from your training efforts, you need to be sure
that the duration and intensity of your regimen are high enough
to elicit a response. Keeping your workouts focused on short-burst,
high intensity anaerobic stretching exercises and maintaining
a pace that lasts at least 20-30 minutes is a fair standard
to follow.
There
are certain stretching exercises that may help squeeze out a
little extra growth hormone. By utilizing stretches that include
several muscle groups to work collectively, the intensity of
the workout subsequently increases as well, forcing the anterior
pituitary gland to issue more growth hormone to compensate for
the extra effort.
Oddly
enough, participating in intense aerobic exercise can also cause
an increase in growth hormone release. However, what keeps marathoners
from looking like basketball athletes is that their bodies react
differently to the substance because of the activity they participate
in.
It
is like having someone who never lifts weights using a muscle-building
supplement. They have the building blocks within their system,
but unless the endurance athlete is performing a significant
amount of resistance stretching exercises, the body never recognizes
a demand to use these tools effectively to help restructure.*
5)
Supplement strategically:
Taking the amino acid glycine immediately before you work out
can mildly stimulate the release of growth hormone, but only
when taken as a supplement. Trying to achieve the same effect
by consuming glycine-rich foods such as poultry or milk prior
to exercise only inhibits growth hormone by causing you to exercise
on a full stomach, plus the glycine doesn't get absorbed in
the same way.
Being
introduced into the body in the presence of additional amino
acids forces the glycine to compete for transport across the
blood-brain barrier, diminishing its effect on the growth hormone
levels. The only way glycine can cause a reaction is when taken
in isolated supplement form, preferably on an empty stomach
to speed up absorption and prevent outside interference from
other amino acids.
6)
Don't pig out before bed:
Never eat a large meal within two hours of going to sleep. The
reasoning ties into avoiding the same insulin surges you're
trying to prevent during the day, but this abstention is especially
important before bedtime.
The body releases the greatest amount of growth hormone during
the first two hours of sleep. Having excess insulin within the
system after a large meal suppresses this higher output of growth
hormone, preventing your body from taking advantages of it as
you rest.
Nighttime
also seems to be the best time to take additional supplements
to increase the flow of growth hormone. UCLA researchers have
found that taking the amino acid arginine and orthinine together
on an empty stomach right before bedtime can boost growth hormone
levels significantly. However, the amounts required to see a
difference were between 40 and 60 grams, dosages too large to
take in any version besides injectable form.
There
are safer, more accessible supplements you can try, such as
5-hydroxy tryptophan, a safer derivative of tryptophan. This
sleep aid used to encourage drowsiness also helps the brain
release growth hormone.*~
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