There are a lot of reasons why your muscles won't grow or why they aren't growing as fast as they should. The stress hormone cortisol is one of the main reasons why your muscle tissue is in a catabolic state instead of an anabolic state. Cortisol is a stress hormone that your body makes when you are under a lot of stress.
Yes, any kind of stress, whether it's mental, physical, or just emotional, will make your body make more cortisol hormones. Bodybuilders always have trouble when their cortisol levels are high, which adds to their stress.
When you work out, especially when you lift weights to build muscle, you put a lot of stress on your body. This will cause the cortisol hormone in your body to rise to an unhealthy level, which can damage your muscles and bones and make you gain weight, especially around your middle. Oh, that fat around my middle that just wouldn't go away.
This hormone wants you to gain weight and hates your muscles. It strips the muscles of protein. To be fair, though, the cortisol hormone does do some good things as well.
Cortisol is made by the adrenal cortex. It is often called a "stress hormone" because your body makes a lot more of it when you are stressed. This hormone is an important part of your body's metabolism. It helps your heart work, controls inflammation, and breaks down carbohydrates. It is a steroid hormone, after all.
As your body makes more cortisol, your muscle tissue breaks down even more because glucose is made from the amino acids in your muscle protein. This hormone also stops new muscle tissue from growing because it gets in the way of your muscles' ability to make protein.
How do I lower the level of cortisol?
- Get enough sleep Let your body recover from the stress of the day and repair the damage it has taken. If you don't get enough sleep, your body will have to deal with more stress, which will raise your cortisol levels.
- Avoid stress Do yoga, read a book, or just stop what you're doing for a while. Learn how to meditate and control your breathing to deal with everyday stress. After you've been working out regularly for 6 to 8 weeks, take a week or so off. As your body learns to relax, the amount of cortisol hormone will go down in the same way.
- Don't train too much All kinds of athletes have trouble with overtraining. This is especially true when building your body or lifting weights. When you lift weights, you already hurt your muscles. Don't let cortisol hormones steal the proteins your muscles need to grow and repair themselves.
Once your body and mind are no longer stressed, your cortisol levels will be at a healthy level, and your muscles will start to grow again, as long as you are doing other things that help your muscles grow.
