Spending hours in the gym to build muscle up and not making progress? Good news! There is every chance that there is just one reason stopping your from masive gains. this knowledge alone will help you enormously in your attempts to build muscle up. For most begiiner bodybuilders and some intermediate trainers this is a little known secret that will help them immensly.

So precisely what is this well kept secret? A new amazing routine or something?

No certainly not. It is a hormone know as cortisol, known about for a long time but ignored by many weight lifters.

What actually is cortisol?

Cortisol is a hormone released by the body steadily throughout the day and is produced in response to stress such as weight lifting. Levels of cortisol decrease steadily througout the day so are lowest in the evening.

What is its role exactly?

Well it enhances your short term memory, aids in regulation of blood sugar levels and helps detox the liver. However it can increase blood pressure and reduce bone density if your cortisol levels are excessive, although this is not normal. However it will decrease muscle mass as it promotes the use of muscle as energy and not fat. This is why your workouts should not be more than one hour in duration. After this time period they will actually be restricting their growth!

Here are a few guidelines to ensure that you are not wasting your time trying to build muscle up:

1) limit your cardio workouts, too much cardio causes the body to release cortisol which as explained is not what we need.

2) Attempt to restrict your caffeine intake as this also makes cortisol levels increase.

3) Keep your workouts down to one hour in the gym. Stay foccussed, consider wearing headphones if this helps.

4) Take it easy and relax because cortisol is produced as a response to stress.

5) Consume small frequent meals as infrequent meals make the body assume it is starving and will thus try and use muscle mass as a form of energy before it makes use of fat reserves by releasing more cortisol.

6) Sleep. This is the time when your muscle mass building hormones are highest and your level of cortisol is lowest therefore attempt to get 8 hours sleep.

With those no nonsense muscle building tips in mind you should be able to give your workouts a great boost now you know how to gain weight fast more efficiently.

 

Tags: build muscle mass, build muscle up, cortisol, how to gain weight fast, muscle building