Anabolic Hormones Part 2: Growth Hormone

Last week we discussed the anabolic hormone testosterone. This week, part 2 of 3, will focus on growth hormone.

What is Growth Hormone?

Also known as "somatotropin", growth hormone comes from the pituitary gland. It has many different uses and anabolic effects within the human body which can have direct effects or mediated through the production of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) by the liver and fat cells.

What Does It Do?

Growth hormone is present and very important in the growth and development of children, but has also been seen as a result of resistance training. The tissues that growth hormone interact with include bones, immune cells, skeletal muscles, fat cells, and liver tissues. The main physiological roles are:

-Decreases glucose utilization
-Decreases glycogen synthesis
-Increases amino acid transport across cell membranes
-Increases protein synthesis
-Increases utilization of fatty acids
-Increases fat breakdown
-Increases availability of glucose and amino acids
-Enhances immune cell function

How Does it Work?

As one of the most potent anabolic hormones, growth hormone may me mediated by secondary hormones, but for the most part, it acts directly on target tissues. It interacts with tissues and stimulates the release of IGFs which greatly increase the conditions that promote tissue repair.

Growth hormone is released from hepatic (liver) cells as well as non-hepatic cells (fat, white blood cells, muscle, etc.) and enters peripheral circulation. It is transported in this way so that it can attach to specific binding proteins on cells.

Pharmacological Growth Hormone

Due to the varied uses of growth hormone in the human body, it is still unclear as to why pharmacological growth hormone acts differently than exercised-induced growth hormone. One thing that has been researched and documented however is that injecting growth hormone into an individual may increase muscle hypertrophy (size) but this may compromise the quality of muscle being built. For still-unknown reasons, exercised-induced hypertrophy is a much more favorable technique for gaining mass while also maintaining muscle quality and strength.

Program Design

If an individual is training for hypertrophy purposes, their program design is very important in order to reach their goals. Studies have shown that increased blood lactate concentrations increase the level of growth hormone. One thing to note however, is that when individuals were studied using very light weights and exercising in a much higher repetition range, serum levels of growth hormone did not change. There appears to be an intensity limit for individuals to reach in order to stimulate growth hormone production.

On the other hand, individuals who were training with heavy resistance (10 rep maximum) with short rest periods between sets (1 minute) saw greater growth hormone concentration increases when compared to individuals training in the 5 rep maximum range with longer rest periods. This has been studied and documented before and should be of no surprise as strength or power training (very high reps, 5 or fewer reps) works very well to increase and individual's overall strength, but a 6-12 rep range is ideal for muscular growth.

Growth Hormone in Women

Studies have shown that women have higher blood levels of growth hormone throughout their menstrual cycle compared to men. This not only proves that growth hormone plays many different physiological roles within the human body, but also that it is not the single limiting-factor when it comes to muscular growth. This may be due to the fact that women generally have lower levels of testosterone, but other factors must also be at play when determining what causes muscular hypertrophy.

Summary

Although there have been many studies done on the effects of both exercised-induced, as well as pharmacological growth hormone, there are still many variants and observations that need to be done. It is understood that there are multiple interactions that growth hormone plays a role in that determines muscular growth and strength as it has been shown that simply increasing concentrations does not necessarily increase muscle size/strength. Also, understanding how growth hormone concentrations change throughout not only an individual's day to day life, but also over long periods of resistance training can help us further understand the full role this anabolic hormone plays in our bodies.

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition

Anabolic Hormones Part 1: Testosterone

Three of the primary anabolic hormones that are involved in human muscle growth are testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor. There are other factors at play here such as insulin and thyroid hormones, but I will mainly focus on the three primary anabolic ones in a 3-part series here on my blog.

What is Testosterone?

Testosterone is the primary androgen hormone that interacts with skeletal muscle tissue in both men and women. Some individuals may not realize that women too have free-floating testosterone in their blood streams, but they do. They certainly do not have the same levels that men do, but it is present and biologically interacts the same way as men for muscle growth.

When most people think of testosterone, their minds may immediately think of "pumped" weightlifters (see picture above) that have been taking steroids. Yes, testosterone is a well-documented and well-studied anabolic steroid that has been used in the past for muscle growth, but the focus on this blog is about the naturally-occurring testosterone in our bodies. In fact, the direct effects of testosterone on skeletal muscle growth has probably been most notarized from experiences and studies conducted with steroid use but in actuality insulin-like growth factors (IGF's) have a more dramatic effect on the human body (discussed in Part 3 of this series).

Biological Interactions

Testosterone has many direct and indirect effects within the human body. Indirect interactions with other hormones demonstrate the remarkably complex neuroendocrine-immune system in influencing skeletal muscle size and strength. An example of indirect influence on the body would be testosterone's interaction with the neuron receptors. It can interact with receptors on neurons, increase the amount of neurotransmitters, and influence structural protein changes. To explain these changes to a laymen; this means that testosterone can indirectly alter muscular size and force properties of a muscle, but not necessarily both at the same time.

Many factors come into play when studying the size of an individual's muscle, but size does not necessarily correlate to the force that can be generated from said muscle. By increasing the number of neurotransmitters, for example, one can increase a muscle's affinity for force production without necessarily becoming "big". Real-world applications of this can be seen in Major League Baseball pitchers. Many pitchers can generate tremendous force from their shoulder but do not necessarily have large shoulder muscles.

Testosterone also has direct interactions on the body. It can promote growth hormone responses in the pituitary gland which can influence protein synthesis in muscle.

How Does Testosterone 'Work'?

Testosterone is secreted from the testes in men and the ovaries and adrenal glands in women. From here, it is transported to target tissues by transport hormones in the blood. At the target tissue, testosterone enters the cell membrane and directly interacts with the DNA to increase DNA transcription. This is the stage at which protein synthesis is induced and muscles cells can divide.

Testosterone can also bind to cell membrane receptors, although this field of study in to what these interactions actually do is continually growing.

Anaerobic vs. Aerobic Exercise Effects on Testosterone

Anaerobic exercise (resistance training) has consistently shown increases in blood testosterone in both men and women. This is obviously due to the effects of the type of training and therefore the biological response to increase protein synthesis in the muscles but to also increase the indirect effects on the body discussed earlier.

High-intensity aerobic endurance exercise has also been shown to increase blood concentrations of testosterone in both men and women. This may be contrary to some people's current knowledge but there seems to be a definitive reason for this. While anaerobic training may increase testosterone levels to increase protein synthesis, aerobic training causes a catabolic state in the body (tissue loss) and higher levels of testosterone may be present to simply try and keep up with tissue loss, or in other words, trying to replace the tissue that is lost. In fact, studies have shown that oxidative stresses placed on the body during high-intensity aerobic exercise may actually promote a decrease in muscular fiber size to improve oxygen transport to the cells.

Increasing Testosterone Concentrations

-Large muscle group exercises (deadlift, power clean, squats)
-Heavy resistance (85-95% 1RM)
-Moderate to high volume of exercise, achieved with multiple sets or multiple exercises
-Short rest intervals (30-60 seconds)

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition

Overtraining

It seems to be that many people need to spend so much of their time either motivating themselves or others to exercise. On the flip side of this coin, overtraining can be just as dangerous as not training, so this blog will hopefully allow others to understand, identify and avoid overtraining which can lead to short-term or even chronic injury!

What is Overtraining?

Overtraining is defined as excessive frequency, volume, or intensity of training that results in extreme fatigue, illness, or injury (which is often due to a lack of sufficient rest, recovery, and perhaps nutrient intake). To overtrain on a short-term basis is called overreaching. This, however, is often desired by trainees as this causes microtrauma in the body that needs to repair in order to improve. Overreaching can be fairly easily overcome by a few days rest with proper nutrient intake. The problems that arise is when an individual overreaches and does not allow sufficient nutrient intake or recovery time.

The whole basis of periodization or performance training is to overreach on numerous occasions (planned), which can suppress performance, but then the body will adapt and grow stronger, faster, better, etc. during tapering of training. This is also known as the General Adaptation Syndrome, but if there is too much growth stimulus or too-long of growth stimulus, an individual can get injured.

How Long Can it Last?

Overtraining syndrome can last as long as six months, and recovery can then be delayed. For many individuals, overtraining can be caused by doing too much, too soon, or repetitive overuse, but almost all cases can be reversed after proper rest and recovery.

Sympathetic vs. Parasympathetic Syndromes
Scientists believe sympathetic syndrome can occur first which includes increased sympathetic activity at rest such as increased heart rate, disrupted digestion, etc. It is believed that all forms of overtraining will eventually progress to parasympathetic if allowed to.

Anaerobic Overtraining
An example of anaerobic training would be resistance training. Factors that indicate anaerobic overtraining would be a decreased desire to training, or a decreased joy from training. An individual may also begin to feel more jittery than usual during a workout, as if they have an increase in epinephrine. Although having this extra "surge" of adrenaline may sound like a good thing during training, an overtrained individual would see a decrease in performance.

Anaerobic Overtraining Hormonal Markers

Short-term overreaching can cause increased production of testosterone and insulin-like growth factors (IGF-1) which can improve the efficiency of the repair and recovery period, but once an individual reaches their overtrained state of chronic overreaching, their levels of testosterone and IGF-1 can end up back at regular levels decreasing the affinity for proper recovery.

Anaerobic Psychological Factors

Known as the "inverted iceberg" profile, individuals who partake in heavy resistance training programs can result in decreased vigor, motivation and confidence yet heightened levels of tension, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion, anxiety, and irritability as well as impaired concentration.

Aerobic Overtraining

Generally caused by extreme levels of training frequency, volume, intensity, or a combination of these variables without sufficient rest or recovery. Increased resting heart rates and increased creatine kinase levels (indicating muscle damage) are two of the indicators for aerobic overtraining. Also witnessed is: decreased performance, decreased % body fat, altered blood pressure, increased muscle soreness, decreased muscle glycogen, decreased total testosterone concentration, decreased ratio of total testosterone to cortisol, and increased sympathetic stress response.

A well-designed fitness training program will cause some overreaching in an individual to create enough response for growth and improvement. However, proper rest and recovery, as well as proper nutrient intake need to also be addressed in order for an individual to not reach a state of overtraining.

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Sources:
Baechle, Thomas R. and Earle, Roger W. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Third Edition

Be Mindful of What You Are Eating!

I have always been an active person, playing sports year-round growing up. I have also been quite lucky *knock on wood* to have a slim build and never really need to worry about what I eat. Over the past few years, I have definitely put on a few pounds of "comfortable insulation" but nothing too serious.

After I graduated University in 2006 at the age of 21, I still had that lazy mindset that I could basically eat whatever I wanted and drink whatever I wanted because exercise and my metabolism would take care of the rest. Well, a few pounds crept up on me and I decided to nip my bad habits in the butt long before they took hold and overran my life.

In 2008 when I decided to really start to change my lifestyle by exercising more frequently and 'watching what I eat' I really only did one part of the equation. Again, I figured that since I was so active and that I was still young with a blazing metabolism, I could basically eat whatever I wanted to.

Fast forward a few years now, and I have had some pretty good success. I don't necessarily eat/exercise to "look good", because as I have told people in the past, I frankly don't really care what I look like on the beach. I exercise and try to lead a healthy life for a number of reasons including feeling better, being able to do the things that I like to do, be in a better mood, and hopefully all of these criteria for years to come (especially now with my son!).

I will say that in these past few years of exercising more, I have begun to change my dietary habits as well. Not only do I wish to maximize my results and how I feel from being active, but I have also come to learn of the numerous other health effects/benefits a proper diet has. You could say that my diet has been slowly evolving over the years and rather than an overnight resolution to overhaul everything, I have been making small changes over the years that are manageable to me and make sense based on what I learn/read about.

This brings us to November 2011. For my 27th birthday, my wonderful wife bought me an iPad for my birthday/Christmas/Anniversary gift. I played around with the idea of 'tracking calories' for years now but have never wanted to be a slave to what I eat.

Well, to start 2012, I finally decided to download a free app for my iPad that would help me track my calories in a fairly loose sort of way. Now I need to mention a few disclaimers here. One, I have only been doing this for a week. Two, I don't plan on doing this forever, I just wish to educate myself on how my diet is going based on how I currently living my life, etc. Three, I am not being 100% accurate about things, but I am doing my best and am probably 90-95% accurate (I am NOT using a food scale to weigh every single morsel of food).

Well, at the end of my first week with this new endeavor/hobby/goal/whatever you want to call it, I have made some pretty startling observations that I will list below.

First, about me; I am 27 years old, have a pretty fast metabolism, work a full-time job with a few part-time personal training jobs on the side. I am married, have an infant son at home and also exercise 6-7 times/week. I am very active and should be consuming well over 3000 calories/day!

I have done a bit of research and realize that I don't really wish to lose a whole lot of weight, plus I am active and try and keep my lean muscle mass in check so I have been aiming for about 40-50% carbohydrates, 25-30% protein and 25-30% dietary fat (healthy fat as much as possible). This plan seems to work best for me and seems to fit my lifestyle the most, but should still challenge me to meet certain criteria.

Things that I have learned so far:

1. Carbohydrates creep up on you FAST! Holy smokes has this ever been an eye opener for me. There is sugar in nearly EVERYTHING we eat! I cut soda out of my diet a long time ago, so the only beverages I consume is either water, green tea, the daily glass of chocolate milk (post-workout), and the occasional glass of white milk (1%) with dinner. I try and eat as many fruits and vegetables as I can and keep my grains to whole grain and I STILL have absolutely no problems blasting through my daily carbohydrate consumption...and that is even when I am aiming for 50% carbs on a 3000cal+ diet!!!!

This is scary for a few reasons. One, I know I am in a very small minority of people who actually consume this few of carbs. Two, there are many, many people out there who consume carbs with this thought in their heads that it is 'fat free' so it must be good for them...only to pack on more and more and more pounds! Three, as I said, I don't consume any sugary beverages and I still have no problems meeting my daily caloric counts, I struggle to keep my carbs down, and I am highly active. I find this downright scary and disturbing to think of some folks out there who down cans and cans of soda a day or eat carb-full meals then go sit on their butts and watch tv...holy smokes. To be honest, I knew it was bad, but never really knew it was THIS bad!

2. I really am trying to do my best to keep my protein levels up. I do quite well with this as I try and have protein with every meal, I have healthy snacks that I try and squeeze some protein in, as well as having protein shakes (low-cal) throughout the day. I guess this one will be tougher for me to keep my numbers up the more active I am because the higher my daily calorie count goes, the higher my recommended proteins go as well. This is probably my best category though.

3. Healthy fats are out there, you just have to look for them! I try and cook with olive oil, I take a fish-oil supplement and I try and squeeze some avacado into my diet whenever I can. The scary part is seeing the amount of fat in some packaged products at the grocery store. A little bit of fat is good, too much fat is bad, and especially stay away from trans fats. What may be even scarier than all of this however, is that when companies remove the fat from their products, they replace it with sugar...which makes most individuals in our society think its then guilt-free....wrong!

This is going to continue to be a learning curve for me. I have realized that I have actually been doing quite well in my daily caloric intake. I often wondered how far off/on I was before I started tracking, but have come to realize that I am pretty spot-on in that regard. The biggest learning curve for me will be to watch my carbohydrate calories as the higher that goes, the less room there is calorie-wise to get my required proteins and fats in. I will keep everyone updated!

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

Reader Question - Should I do Insanity if I'm a skinny guy and can't keep weight up?

Should I do Insanity if I'm a skinny guy and can't keep weight up?

Visit www.tylerrobbinsfitness.com to learn how you can join my team for FREE and I can Coach you to reach your goals!


First of all, if you don't know what "Insanity" is, you can check it out here. Insanity is a very intense at-home, high-intense interval training program from Shaun T and the company Beachbody.

I often get asked this question, especially on my youtube videos/reviews. No doubt, individuals see the results in the infomercials and want to, "look as good as those guys/girls do". A few things before I start off, yes it is entirely possible to get infomercial-like results from certain home-workout programs. However, everyone's results will be different depending on a slew of criteria including how hard you push yourself, your diet, your genetics, your personal abilities, your history of fitness, etc.


No matter where you begin your health and fitness journey, it is important to set goals for yourself. Goals can range from something cosmetic like, "I want to lose 15 pounds" to something more competitive like, "I want to run 5km in under 25 minutes."


By completing a training program like Insanity, there is no doubt that many calories will be burned during each and every workout. For a skinny guy/girl that wishes to put on some body weight, this may not be the right program for them. Having said that, there are other benefits to be gained from a training program such as Insanity such as aerobic stamina, anaerobic power, etc.


When referencing a skinny guy (or girl), one needs to evaluate exactly why that person is skinny and also what their goals are and why they wish to gain mass (assuming that is their goal). Often times, skinny people can be more genetically predisposed to a leaner frame. These people are often referred to as "hardgainers" or the fact that they have a hard time gaining mass. If an individual truly is having issues keeping weight on, despite being very sedentary, then there may be other factors at play and a visit to the doctor would be highly recommended.


Putting all of that aside and getting back to the topic, being skinny isn't so bad either. I know many guys (and some girls) don't like to be skinny and want to put on weight. I was the same way as a teenager as I really struggled to put weight on and keep it on. At the end of the day, your muscular size is not always directly correlated with your strength, power or athletic ability however, and a skinny person doing a program like Insanity can yield some tremendous athletic benefits such as aerobic conditioning and spatial awareness (balance, coordination, etc.)


It actually would be entirely possible for a skinny person to actually gain mass by doing a program like Insanity as there is a tremendous amount of body-weight resistance exercises here that can stimulate muscular hypertrophy, but it would be incredibly hard for an already skinny person to keep up with the caloric demands, especially if they are already genetically predisposed to have a fast metabolism.

If one would approach this question based on how I am assuming it is to be interpreted, I would say that someone looking to put on body mass in a strictly non-athletic way, then they should stay away from Insanity and look towards more traditional weight lifting routines that stimulate muscular growth (hypertrophy).

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS

2011 My Year in Fitness

Well, 2011 has come and gone and many of you may be waking up this morning with a hangover. I never really understood why people would want to start a year off that way, but I guess that's the fun(?) of New Year's...

Now that we are starting a new year, it is sometimes nice to reflect back on the previous year to think of moments you were proud of and other times where you wish you maybe made better choices. The same can be done for health and fitness, and that is where I feel many people end up making their New Year's Resolutions.

2011 was a great year for me, I managed to complete many of my fitness goals that I set out for myself. On top of that, I spent a good part of 2011 studying for, and attaining, my Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) certification from the NSCA. If all of these aforementioned things weren't enough, my wife and I also welcomed our first-born child Evan into our family.

To quickly summarize all of my achievements from this year, I have listed my events and accomplishments below:

January

-Started my first-ever "Constant Confusion" hybrid consisting of mixing and matching workouts so that no 2 weeks were the same.

April

-Completed "Constant Confusion"

 -Started studying for my CSCS

May

-Started, and completed Insanity: the Asylum

June

-Plan and start "Constant Confusion 2.0"

July

-Compete in my first ever Warrior Dash

August/September

-Finish up "Constant Confusion 2.0" and start my Half-Marathon Training

October

-Complete my 2nd Half-Marathon (while fighting a pretty bad cold)
-Start training for my 1st-ever birthday Challenge

November

-Complete my first-ever Birthday Challenge

December

-Birth of my son Evan :)
-Receive my CSCS certification
-Start P90X2! 

Defeat Your Cravings!

Well, the holidays are almost over, and although many of you probably tried your best to be "good" and not indulge too much, I am sure we all had a few extra snacks while celebrating the holidays with our friends and family.

It is inevitable for anyone to start feeling sluggish and/or crummy after the holidays are over for a number of reasons, including paying off those credit cards, but to also start looking towards the new year and possible "New Year's Resolutions!"

Two of the big issues with eating junk food for an extended period of time is that not only do you begin to feel crummy (from sugar-crashing), but you also tend to get terrible cravings in the wake of your new healthy eating plan. Not to fear, however, as I am here with a few tips to help you shut your cravings up and help you start the year off on the right foot!

Think Short-Term

One of the main reasons many diets and lifestyle changes fail for so many individuals is because they set their goals too high, or too far into the future. For example, someone may say, "I am not going to eat any junk food for 6 months!" When they suddenly come across that piece of chocolate cake for dessert, one little "slip-up" seems like such a small ripple over a 6-month period.

Instead, try and set short little goals for yourself to start out with and plan on expanding them later as you accomplish them. For example, say, "I plan on giving up all sweets for the rest of this week." Once you get to the end of the week and realize that you are still alive, you can then start formulating your next goal.

Keep a Food Journal

Start writing down how you feel each day once you start changing your diet, such as your mood, body aches/pains, etc. You may soon realize how much better you feel just from changing what you eat. You will also realize that the saying, "you are what you eat" really does carry some meaning.

I remember when I used to eat junk all the time, I used to get canker sores in my mouth and heartburn quite regularly. Now that I have cut a lot of the junk out of my diet, I can't remember the last time I got a canker sore, and heartburn only arises on very rare occasions!

One Little slip-up...

So your friend just had their 20th/30th/40th/etc. birthday party and you had a few pieces of cake and a few too many cocktails, so what, move on! One bad meal/snack is not going to totally derail your results. Having said that, do not for a second think that you are fooling anyone (yourself included) if you think you can "reward" yourself every few days for eating healthy.

If you have a cheat meal/snack, make sure you follow that up with at least 9 healthy meals/snacks to counteract your bad behavior. Tony Horton uses an system that I really like called the 90/10 plan. He says that 90% of the time he eats healthy, the other 10% of the time, he allows a little cheat. If you are eating wholesome, healthy foods 90% of time, trust me, that 10% will hardly even seem like a blip on the radar.

Find Your Motivation

If you plan on dieting and exercising so that you can look good in a bathing suit on the beach, guess what? That is never going to last! You need to discover a true motivation inside of yourself that allows you to push through and stick with your goals no matter what.

If you are married and have kids, use them as your motivation. Maybe you want to stay youthful and healthy so you can play with your kids and spend many active years together with them. If you are still young and single, remember that what you do now lays a healthy foundation for the rest of your life. Either way, find something that has actual meaning to you, and use that to keep you going!

Breakfast

You have probably heard of this one before, but I will say it again. When you roll out of bed in the morning, your body is essentially running on an empty tank. If you skip breakfast, by the time you reach mid-morning or lunch time, your brain and body are absolutely screaming for something to eat which usually clogs your judgement as you reach for something calorie-dense.

I know a lot of nutritionists advocate breakfast, which works for a lot of people to help start the day off right, but I know that it is not for everyone (myself included). If you are absolutely dead-set against breakfast, at least do me a favor and try and make sure you are eating something every couple of hours throughout the day. The more you stay on top of your own hunger, the less-likely you are to reach for something unhealthy. Have healthy snacks nearby all day such as fruit, nuts, etc.

Clean Out Your Cupboards

I like to live by the adage that if something isn't in my house, I am not going to eat it. Quite often I get cravings for things late at night. At that point, I have a few options (assuming the stores are still open), I can either drive to go and get something unhealthy to cram into my stomach, or I can just make due and find something healthier to eat in my fridge. 99% of the time, I end up staying home because that is much more appealing to me than to head out.

When you are at the grocery store, stay away from the junk. That way, if its not in the house when you are craving it, chances are, you won't go out at that time to get it!

Here's to a healthy and happy 2012!

-Tyler Robbins
B.Sc. CSCS