growth hormones Bann growth hormone analoges banned growth hormone secretogogues banned so clearly athletes think that this stuff is worth using and W thinks that it's worth Banning but what does growth hormone actually do and more importantly why should you care about it the truth is that growth hormone is not as important as testosterone when it comes to muscle growth but it does play a big role in recovery energy and General Health there is a good reason athletes use it in this video I'm going to break down how growth hormone works why athletes use it the risks of injecting it and most importantly how to naturally optimize your growth hormone production for better recovery fat loss and sleep stick around to the end and I'll give you the most effective ways to optimize your growth hormone levels without wasting time or money on nonsense growth hormone is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth surprise surprise it's made in the brain so the hypothalamus makes growth hormone releasing hormone which travels a short distance to the anterior pituitary gland and that's the gland that actually makes growth hormone itself sometimes when people get a tumor in their pituitary gland they can produce massive amounts of growth hormone so their body just keeps on growing and this condition is called acromegaly these people get really big hands and feet they get a really wide face and jaw thick skin bigger internal organs the wrestler The Great Ki is a good example of someone who has this condition but in normal conditions as with every other hormone the release of growth hormone is quite tightly regulated so as well as growth hormone releasing hormone the hypothalamus also releases growth hormone inhibiting hormone AKA somatostatin and the balance of these two opposing hormones determines how much growth hormone the anterior pituitary gland releases and this balance is affected by lots of physiological factors which we're going to talk about in a minute growth hormone is released in a pulsatile manner which means it's not constantly produced at a consistent level but it's released in big spikes with several hours in between these spikes once it's released from the py gland into the blood growth hormone travels to the target tissue and ab binds to the growth hormone receptor which is found all throughout the body although scientists used to think it was only in the liver muscle and fat because that was where most of the early research was focused some of the main functions of growth hormone include making you taller when you're a child or a teenager increasing calcium retention which remineralizes your bones and makes them stronger increasing muscle mass although there are mixed results from the studies on whether it actually does this and it probably does it indirectly via igf-1 which we'll come back to later grow hormone increases lipolysis which is the breakdown of fats for energy and it can maybe help with fat loss although the studies aren't super clear on whether it actually helps with that it causes the growth of internal organs it reduces the uptake of glucose into the liver and it promotes the production of glucose in the liver and basically those two are an attempt to increase or maintain blood sugar levels so that they don't get too low and related to this growth hormone causes transient insulin resistance again because the body is trying to maintain adequate blood glucose so insulin's main job is to take glucose up into the tissues like the muscles and liver so by inducing insulin resistance the result of growth hormone is that more glucose remains in the blood growth hormone increases the transformation of thyroid hormone T4 into the active form T3 and there are a bunch of other functions but I won't bore you with them what we're interested in is why would an athlete want to use growth hormone for muscle growth like I said it probably does this indirectly through igf-1 anab steroids are definitely much better at building muscle than growth hormone fat loss which is obviously good for bodybuilders better joint health from increased collagen improved recovery better sleep all of those are desirable things to have as an athlete but taking exogenous growth hormone can definitely have some rather unpleasant side effects like insulin resistance water retention carpal tunnel syndrome thickening of bone organ enlargement and unfortunately it can speed up the progression of cancer if you already have it unnatural doses of growth hor hormone speed up the growth of those cancer cells so that increases the risk of cancer becoming a problem keep in mind that for these side effects I am talking about super physiological unnatural doses of growth hormone by optimizing your natural growth hormone production like you're going to learn how to do in this video you are very unlikely to get these big side effects so we know what growth hormone does and some of the benefits now the most interesting part what determines the amount of growth hormone in your body there are lots of different factors that regulate growth hormone secretion first is sleep most of your growth hormone is produced while you're asleep especially in the first few hours of sleep where there's lots of deep slow wave sleep and sleep deprivation can suppress growth hormone release age is another one growth hormone decreases with age so it's very high in children and teenagers but not so much in adults sex hormones regulate growth hormone secretion testosterone stimulates growth hormone secretion in the brain and estrogen stimulates it indirectly by reducing the inhibitory effect of igf-1 on growth hormone secretion igf1 is very important so I'll return to it in a few minutes nicotine increases growth hormone potentially nasin or vitamin B3 as nicotinic acid as well gin increases growth hormone secretion this is the hunger hormone that gets released when your stomach is empty or nearly empty low blood sugar increases growth hormone hopefully it's becoming clear that growth hormone is part of the response to low energy states like an empty stomach low blood sugar it's kind of like an anti- starvation hormone it keeps glucose in the bloodstream it makes more glucose from the liver also growth hormone reduces muscle breakdown so it preserves your muscle mass while you're fasting or starving and vigorous exercise is well known to increase growth hormone this is a cool one which I'm going to talk about more when I get into the Practical tips again growth hormone is probably released here for metabolic reasons you also need a normally functioning thyroid in order to have normal growth hormone secretion you can probably look at growth hormone as a stress hormone hormone it's released in response to stressful situations like hunger low energy intense physical exertion and so on so all of those things I've just spoken about can increase growth hormone now let's talk about some things that decrease growth hormone earlier I mentioned a hormone called growth hormone inhibiting hormone or somat Statin which downregulates growth hormone and several other hormones you can think of it as an anti- hormone that doesn't mean it's a bad thing it just plays an important role in making sure that the hormones don't get too high it inhibits the release of growth hormone thyroid stimulating hormone and prolactin if you wanted to max out your growth hormone theoretically you would want to lower somatostatin a few things that can lower somatostatin include Arginine dopamine serotonin acetylcholine gin and strenuous exercise another thing that lowers growth hormone is igf-1 and these two work in a kind of negative feedback loop but before you start hating on igf1 let me tell you more about it igf1 is actually great for athletes it causes muscle growth by stimulating the T pathway it enhances recovery increases collagen for joint health and connective tissues strengthens your bones so some of the best athletic benefits of growth hormone are actually mediated by igf-1 basically growth hormone is released in Pulses from the pituitary gland and growth hormone stimulates the liver to produce igf-1 igf-1 then carries out a bunch of growth promoting and repairing functions as igf-1 levels rise this provides negative feedback to the brain which reduces growth hormone Rel releasing hormone and increases somatostatin and the result is suppression of growth hormone released to prevent excessive growth hormone levels insulin also reduces growth hormone release and signaling the main job of insulin is to take sugar out of the blood into the tissues if there's a lot of insulin that means there's already plenty of blood sugar plenty of energy available which means the importance of growth hormone for energy balancing purposes is decreased so it's downregulated remember growth hormone is usually released in response to an energy depleted or a stress State like low blood sugar or an empty stomach or vigorous exercise and lastly there are lots of drugs and other xenobiotics that can mess with growth hormone and igf-1 now let's talk about some practical tips for increasing your natural growth hormone production assuming that's your goal that's probably what most of you are here for this will be especially useful if you're still going through puberty so you can maximize your height and frame but most of you will be adults and for you it can help with fat loss recovery and sleep the recovery benefits are the main reason why people take growth hormone so the first tip is to sleep well the biggest spike in growth hormone happens about an hour after sleep onset these first few hours of the night are the most restorative there's lots of deep slow wave sleep so you need to get to sleep early most growth hormone secretion happens between about 10: p.m. and 2: a.m. so you definitely want to try to be asleep during this window so do your best to get to sleep before 10: p.m. for me it's usually lights out around 9:30 p.m. to get good sleep avoid blue light and and bright lights before bed spend a good amount of time outside during the day especially around sunrise and sunset to align your Cadian Rhythm keep your bedroom cool silent and dark which will help you reach deep sleep faster don't eat for 2 to 3 hours before bed because the insulin from carbs can reduce the growth hormone release and sleep for 7 to 9 hours every night with the same bedtime and wake up time every day the second method for increasing growth hormone is exercise so it's very well known that exercise specifically Aly strenuous High effort exercise increases growth hormone high volume high intensity resistance training using large muscle groups leads to a big spike in growth hormone so big compound movements like squats fairly heavy high volume this is very demanding exercise and it seems to be the metabolic and energy demand that leads to the growth hormone Spike the lactate buildup metabolic stress and so on endurance exercise above the lactate threshold can increase growth hormone this is very high intens it high effort stuff so hard that lactate begins to accumulate in the blood faster than your body can clear it which means you can't keep this type of exercise up for very long but studies seem to show that you need to exercise above the lactate threshold for at least 10 minutes to see a boost in growth hormone this is really brutally Hard Exercise and of course high-intensity interval training as well Sprints are very good you may have heard of this Sprint workout called Sprint 8 that increases growth hormone by several 100% and some people claim 600 or 700% increase in growth hormone but most studies investigating this kind of training show something like 2 or 300% growth hormone increase and this workout involves Max effort sprinting for 30 seconds and then 90 seconds active recovery repeated for a total of eight rounds So based on these facts here are the best ways to exercise for growth hormone High effort is the most important thing High metabolic demand you should feel a burn in your muscles it should be very uncomfortable and very hard heavy resistance training for quite High volume so big compound lifts like squats dead lifts bench press and barbell rows like 3 to six sets eight plus reps and fairly short rest periods like 60 to 90 seconds and you want to do full body or up a Lower Split 3 to 4 days per week doing a chest day just isn't as metabolically demanding as using all of the muscles in your body this kind of routine is not going to be ideal for muscle growth for that you would want longer rest periods and not quite so much fatigue accumulation probably some isolation exercises for lagging muscles these workouts are just designed for growth hormone that growth hormone is being released in response to the stress of this very demanding workout next high-intensity aerobic exercise above the lactate threshold especially multiple times a day for at least 10 minutes per workout the lactate threshold is hard to estimate and it's definitely best if you have a blood lactate monitor but most people won't have that generally the intensity you need is somewhere around 60 to 75% of your V2 Max but it is very hard to tell and that varies a lot you can make it easier by just going almost as hard as you can for 10 to 15 minutes on an exercise bike or running for example this is going to be a really unpleasant workout and like I said high-intensity interal training works very well too so very high effort almost Max effort you want a lot of lactate buildup so intervals of like 30 plus seconds are good little 6sec Sprints won't Place enough Demand on the Anor robic lactic Energy System the rest intervals shouldn't be too long so unlike with speed or fast twitch training you don't want to fully recover between intervals you want to keep that lactate High keep the effort really high these are very brutal workouts you can follow the Sprint eight workout which is 30 seconds Sprint 90 seconds recovery and you repeat that eight times you can use running cycling or rowing running is probably going to be the best one cuz it's more full body I've done this with running and on the exercise bike and it is very unpleasant but it's definitely effective a week of training purely for maximizing growth hormone might look something like 3 to four days of lifting using the kind of principles that I spoke about a minute ago and two to three days of high-intensity cardio sessions at least one interval session and maybe one continuous aerobic session above the lactate threshold honestly I do not recommend this routine I think the intensity is too high and you won't be able to recover properly I don't think you should dedicate your training entirely to increasing growth hormone but it can definitely be useful to include a couple of sessions per week towards this goal so maybe your interval sessions and and one or two of your lifting sessions and a little extra tip training fasted could amplify the growth hormone Spike that you get with exercise even more obviously keep in mind that your performance is going to be worse when you're fasted most likely and you could run into problems with dizziness Li headedness and that kind of thing and on the note of fasting fasting definitely increases growth hormone even by itself your body seems to release more growth hormone the longer the fast goes on probably to maintain blood sugar and preserve muscle fasting increases grin it lowers blood sugar it low as insulin all those changes mean you get more growth hormone release as a kind of protective mechanism intermittent fasting where you eat in an 8 Hour window and fast for 16 hours every day can be a good way to get a little Boos in growth hormone not nearly as big as prolonged fasting like 24 plus hours but prolonged fasting kind of becomes counterintuitive if you're doing this for muscle growth because your muscle needs energy to grow so if you like intimate in fasting and you want to max out your growth hormone give it a go I personally don't do it regularly but I do enjoy how sharp fasting makes me feel I always get a lot of work done while fasting my brain seems to work very well and some people swear by intermittent fasting for growth hormone I think it can work well if it's done strategically the fourth strategy is heat or cold exposure so interestingly heat exposure seems to increase growth hormone so you may want to include the sauna as part of your routine Andrew huberman made a sauna protocol for growth hormone which is using the SAA one day per week for 30 minutes followed by 5 minutes of cooling off outside then another 30 minutes in a sauna and then a few hours later you come back and do that same thing again for a total of four rounds of 30 minutes in a sauna this is a pretty extreme protocol if you can only manage 30 minutes total or even less that's still very good SAA is great for your health ideally include at least two SAA bouts in each session for some reason this seems to be better for growth hormone than just one bout so you're in the sa for 15 to 30 minutes call off for 5 minutes or so and you do the same thing again and you're done if you doing shorter sauna sessions like 15 minutes then you can go for higher heat like 100 Cel or 212 fah if you're doing longer sessions like 30 plus minutes then slightly lower heat more like 80° C or 176 F cold exposure does not appear to increase growth hormone so no need for ice baths if maxing out growth hormone is your goal heat exposure seems to be better and lastly there are loads of supplements that can increase growth hormone these are the last resort in my opinion you should sort out your sleep excise diet and heat exposure first before trying these huperzine a is one this is an acetyl cholinesterase inhibitor and acetylcholine estray is an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine by reducing the breakdown of acetylcholine huperzine increases growth hormone because acetylcholine increases growth hormone on a similar note Alpha GPC is an acetylcholine precursor that can increase growth hormone especially when you take it like 90 minutes before exercise another supplement is CDP Coline arginine is another one that works but you should probably take this away from exercise if you want to increase growth hormone secretion which is a bit unfortunate because arginine is a nice supplement to increase blood flow during the workout you've got the amino acid ornithine Gaba glutamine line especially before workouts glycine before sleep this can definitely be a useful sleep aid and it's one of the supplements that I'm pretty comfortable recommending niin which I mentioned earlier but this does cause heat flushing I would just get it from food honestly most of these nutrients amino acids and things I would just try to get them from food eat a diet that has an abundance of nutrients and amino acids and I think that will serve you better than using like 10 different supplements to try and squeeze out a little extra growth hormone you can check out my nutrition guide if you want to find out how to get all of the nutrients you need from Foods another supplement is creatine this is one that I do recommend most people take it's very well researched it improves exercise performance and muscle growth there is minimal downside unless you're prone to Bolding because a lot of people do report Bolding of after taking creatine although there are no studies yet that have shown creatine to cause Bolding there's a study about an amino acid supplement called cital which contains lysine L Arginine oxoproline ANL lyine L glutamine and skitso aeta never heard of that one and this supplement increased growth hormone by over 600% in fasted subjects in this study some of the most well supported supplements from this list for increasing growth hormone are alpha GPC and Arginine and with decent evidence Gaba ornithine and creatine those are the ones that I would start with if you're going to experiment with supplementation so there you go these are the best ways to naturally increase your growth hormone deep sleep between 1000 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. High effort workouts like heavy lifting sprinting maybe intimate in fasting or even prolonged fasting sauna and some supplements like Alpha GPC and Arginine but don't expect miracles from them without the basics dialed in with these habits you can improve your recovery burn some fat and improve your sleep growth hormone is pretty awesome but it's just one piece of the hormonal puzzle if you're serious about optimizing your performance energy and physique then testosterone is the king it's the hormone that you really can't ignore honestly way more impactful than growth hormone for muscle growth and overall Vitality I've put together a detailed testosterone optimization guide that breaks down everything you need to know sleep nutrition training supplements and much more click the link below to check it out it's the perfect next step if you're loving this hormone optimization stuff and it's Peds series if you found this video helpful hit the like button subscribe for more content like this and tell me in the comments which one of these strategies for increasing growth hormone is your favorite and which one are you going to start to implement all right I'll see you in the next one