Special Report:

Top 8 Tips for Naturally Increasing Your Growth Hormone

by Doug Jackson, M.Ed.,CSCS

With all of the recent interests by the public in the use of injectable growth hormone as an anti-aging device, I thought I'd share some really beneficial news with everyone.

Actually, bad news first. Injectable growth hormone has many potential side effects in addition to its benefits.

Here's the good news. Researchers have found that we can mimic the effects of therapeutic levels of growth hormone by following certain exercise protocols.

Now let's get into the details...

Growth hormone (GH) is a natural human hormone that diminishes as we age. Growth hormone is considered to be both anabolic (muscle building) and lipolytic (fat burning).

As scientists have found that injectable human grow hormone (HGH) reverses some of the negative side effects of aging including loss of lean body mass and an increase in body fat, it has become a popular treatment for affluent people seeking a fountain of youth.

However, scientific reviews of human growth hormone have been plagued with problems and controversy. First, there has not been that much research done on human populations for fear of side effects. Indeed, there has also been negative side effects reported including insulin resistance, diabetes, high blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, and male breast enlargement. In addition most scientists believe there are negative side effects including growth of internal organs. There is also concern about that injectable HGH increases the risk of cancer and diabetes.

As interest in injectable growth hormone grows, steep prices as well as safety and legal concerns keep people looking for alternatives. This is where the multi-billion dollar supplement industry has come in and developed a myriad of "growth hormone enhancing" products by dozens of companies. My gut feeling is that the VAST majority of these products are a pure waste of money. Even if they temporarily spike GH levels, there is no research indicating that this level of enhancement leads to increased muscle or less fat storage.

In addition, since the dietary supplement industry is not regulated, we have no assurance that what's listed on the label is actually in the bottle. Further, even for brands which maintain strict quality control, we have little evidence that any of the over-the-counter substances currently sold have any beneficial effect on health, fitness, muscle gain, or fat loss.

With all the talk right now about the benefts of growth hormone (known as GH or HGH) it is discouraging to me that people aren't talking about the fact that we can increase this powerful hormone naturally and safely. In fact, I was just reviewing a research article from the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism from 2003. Do you know what the researchers found?

The researchers stated "our findings suggest that exercise training is a feasible intervention in GH-deficient adults"; indicating that exercise could mimic the effects of GH treatment.

I've compiled a special report listing the top 8 strategies to naturally increase your growth hormone levels.

The following are my "Top 8 Tips for Increasing Natural Growth Hormone Production."

To release growth hormone naturally:

1) Take a high quality multi-vitamin/mineral complex: You can eat well and exercise as hard as you want, but a deficiency in key vitamins and minerals can halt the optimal production of hormones and enzymes you need to maximize results from your workout efforts.

2) Get plenty of sleep: Adequate sleep is crucial for optimizing your hormonal profile. Through experience I can tell you that if you are waking up to an alarm clock every morning and need coffee to get out of bed, you are not getting enough sleep. And if you got more sleep you would probably lose fat and increase your muscle within a few weeks. Poor sleep habits and interrupted sleep can reduce your growth hormone release.

3) Strength Train: Strength training has shown more growth hormone enhancement than long distance running or other long distance aerobic activities.

4) Be Aware of Exercise Rest Periods: Research from William Kraemer, one of the preeminent scientists who study strength training has found a few key rules of maximizing growth hormone release through strength training. First, he has found that resting one minute between sets of exercise causes a greater release than resting three minutes between sets. Second, he's found that performing ten repetitions at the maximum weight you are capable of performing ten reps with, is more beneficial for growth hormone release than performing five reps with the maximum you weight you can complete the five reps with. To sum it up, stick with sets of around 10 repetitions and rest for approximately one minute between sets.

5) Emphasize Multi-joint exercises: To get the benefit, you have to do the hard work. Anybody who has strength trained knows that some exercises are infinitely more fatiguing than others. As a general rule, multi-joint exercises (ie. squats) are more effective at releasing growth hormone than "isolation" exercises (ie. leg extensions).

6) Do Interval Training: Further, high intensity interval running has been shown increase growth hormone release more than traditional steady-state aerobic activities as well. It appears that there is a direct correlation between the amount of lactic acid that our training efforts induce and our body's increases in growth hormone release. Click the link below to access my favorite interval running routine: My Favorite Interval Routine

7) Avoid pre-workout or pre-sleep carbs: Carbohydrates, while essential for healthy insulin production, as a general rule, inhibit growth hormone release in the body. The reason for this is that insulin and growth hormone are antagonistic. When growth hormone is high, insulin is low. When insulin is high, growth hormone is low. So when we consume carbs before exercise, the insulin response blunts any growth hormone release that may occur. The same goes for couple hours before we go to sleep. If we take in too many carbohydrates at this time, we stimulate insulin and thus blunt the critical night-time release of growth hormone.

8) There’s no magic bullet: Don't think that taking one nutrient or one drug will make all the difference in your program. Your body's hormonal controls are so complicated that the top researchers are still struggling to understand the intricacies of the system. The endocrine (hormonal) system seeks balance. Artificially increasing one hormone or substrate will cause a down-regulation of key processes in the body that support the hormone you are trying to boost.