How To Lower Cortisol Levels If Your Muscles Are Not Growing?

Your muscle growth can be retarded due to many reasons. One of the reasons this can happen is due to the excessive amount of the hormone cortisol in your body. This muscle is produced in the body when it is in a stressful condition and causes it to be in a catabolic state instead of an anabolic state.

Bodybuilders feel that any kind of stress, whether mental, physical, or emotional, can hinder the growth of the muscle and should be avoided. Weight lifting also poses extreme stress on your body and causes the release of this hormone.

The high levels of this hormone can cause the destruction of muscle tissues, reduction in bone density, and a significant gain in abdominal fat.

Cortisol has an opposite effect to weight training; an increase in its levels causes weight gain, while weight lifting is geared for weight loss and muscle mass formation. Therefore, if you are worried about your muscles not getting bigger, you need to have the information about how to lower cortisol levels and promote muscle growth.

You may wonder what purpose this hormone has in the body if it has such a negative effect on muscle gain.

This stress hormone is produced by the adrenal cortex and is known as the stress hormone. When your body is facing any kind of stress, the level of this steroid rises in the body and has an effect on the body's metabolic function, cardiovascular function, rate of inflammation, and carbohydrate metabolism.

The body needs more energy when you are undergoing a period of stress- cortisol breaks down the amino acids from muscle protein and utilizes the glucose or energy obtained from it for the body. It also inhibits protein synthesis and stops the muscles from growing.

Below are some tips on how to lower cortisol levels in your body and promote muscle growth:

• Take measures to reduce the stress in your life. Whether it is physical stress or emotional stress, you need to take measures to keep calm and remain tension free. The techniques that can help you do this include yoga, meditation, and regular exercise. As you learn to relax, the level of this hormone will gradually fall.

• Sleep. Some people do not get enough rest and end up feeling tired and stressed during the day. 6-8 hours of sleep everyday is essential for the body and helps repair the muscles.

• Maintain optimum workout sessions and avoid overtraining. Everyone is in a hurry to build a muscular body. However, you need to remember that in order to have a muscular body, you need to give it the proper time and training, and overworking your muscles and lifting more weights early on can end up stressing your body and damaging your muscles as well.

Rather than worrying about your muscles not growing, concentrate on keeping yourself fit and maintain an exercise routine; you will see the difference in your body when the time comes.