Why and how cortisol hormone damage your muscles

There are many reasons why your muscles don't grow or have stopped growing, but we will only touch on one important aspect in this article. One of the main reason why your muscles stopped growing is because of cortisol. Cortisol a stress hormone produced by your body when you are under stressful situations and conditions.

Your body reacts to any type of stress whether they are mental stress, physical stress or even emotional stress. Hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline are produced by your body in much larger quantities to cope with stress.

When you exercise, especially in weightlifting body building exercises, you are exerting tremendous stress on your body. This physical stress causes the cortisol hormone in your body to rise to an unusually high level which destroy your muscle cells, break down bone density and causes weight/fat accumulation especially abdominal area.

Fats stored in the abdominal or abs area, besides being ugly, it is also dangerous as most of these fats stored are visceral fats. Click here if you desire to get rid of belly fat and get 6 pack abs. The cortisol hormone hates your muscles and wants you to grow fat. It takes away protein from the muscle cells, in other words, eating away your muscle mass.  In bodybuilding lingo, it is catabolic. However to be fair to this hormone, the cortisol hormone is produced for a reason and has its positive factors.

The cortisol hormone hates your muscles and wants you to grow fat. It takes away protein from the muscle cells, in other words, eating away your muscle mass.  In bodybuilding lingo, it is catabolic. However to be fair to this hormone, the cortisol hormone is produced for a reason and has its positive factors.

 
Cortisol is produced by the adrenal cortex and is commonly known as a stress hormone because the level of cortisol in your body rises sharply when you are placed under stress. This hormone plays an important role in your body’s metabolic function, it facilitates cardiovascular function, carbohydrate metabolism and controls inflammation since it is a steroidal  hormone.

 
As more cortisol is being produced, your muscle cells breaks down further because the amino acids from your muscle protein is being converted into glucose for energy. The cortisol hormone also blocks new muscle cells from growing because it interferes in the protein synthesis of muscles.

How to control and lower cortisol production?

• Get enough sleep – Let your body recuperate from the day's stress and let the body rebuild its wears and tears. Lack of sleep will put your body under further stress and thus increasing cortisol hormone levels. Get at least 8 hours sleep or more every night for your body to repair damaged muscle cells.
  

• Avoid stress to avoid cortisol – Take up yoga, read a book, take a break from whatever you are doing. Learn meditation and breathing techniques to reduce everyday stress. Take a week or so break from your exercise routine after 6-8 weeks of regular training. As your body learns how to relax, the level of cortisol hormone will fall correspondingly. Hey, just take things easy, will ya?
  

• Stop over training – Over training is a common issue amongst athletes of all sports. This is especially so in the sport of bodybuilding and weight lifting. You are already damaging your muscles when you lift weights, don't let cortisol hormones rob your muscles of the much needed proteins and preventing muscle repair and growth. Get out of the gym within an hour! Pronto.

Once your body and mind is free from stress, your cortisol production will be back at a healthy level and you will once again see your muscles growing. That is of course you are doing other right things to promote muscle growth.




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