Human growth hormone

9 Ways to Hack Your HGH (Human Growth Hormone) —  And Put the Brakes on Aging

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The idea of the Fountain of Youth has been around for thousands of years, with writings on the subject going as far back as the 5th century or so. Throughout history, explorers have gone in search of it and some have even died trying. You, however, don’t have to. Instead, you can tap into one of the best anti-aging ‘fountains’ out there that doesn’t require any travel at all. Best of all, it’s actually inside you – HGH, or Human Growth Hormone. Here’s a quick look and this powerful anti-ager and how to put it to work for a more youthful you: 

Anti-aging from the inside.

Secreted by the pituitary gland, HGH (also referred to simply as GH) is pumped throughout the body abundantly throughout childhood and adolescence, helping to spur muscle growth and cellular repair. It also plays an essential role in bone, cartilage, and organ growth, and helps regulate important aspects of metabolism including insulin and blood sugar levels. Stepping back from the biochemistry, it’s a key ally in aiding athletic performance and recovery.

But as you enter the 30-something zone, HGH production slowly starts to taper off. As levels slide, risk for disease increases as does the speed with which aging really starts to take off. HGH helps increase the synthesis of proteins, our body’s essential building blocks, so these lower hormone levels make themselves known inside and out with all-too-familiar aging signs like increased body fat and wrinkles, and decreased muscle mass, energy and immunity. 

To combat the downturn and capitalize on the powerful anti-aging effects of HGH, some people will even go so far as to take injections of it! While I have significant concerns about the safety and wisdom of artificially supplementing HGH – and strenuously do not recommend injections – I am completely in favor of promoting your body’s natural production. Why pay for an expensive jab and risk dangerous side effects when you can power up the youth fountain naturally, simply by cultivating a few healthy habits? 

Harmonize your hormones – including your HGH.

There’s a reason why we in the integrative health world are always banging the ‘heathy habit’ drum. In short, it’s because at every moment of the day, every cell in your body works in concert – interacting, exchanging information and, generally, getting stuff done. Their mission? To keep you healthy and well for as long as possible. So, not surprisingly, the more healthy habits you’ve got, the better that plan is going to work out. 

While every cell and system has its role to play, you really want to pay attention to your hormones if you want slow down the aging clock. But first, it helps to understand how a few of the key hormonal players – insulin, cortisol and HGH – interact on the daily:

1. Cortisol: Early in the morning, your levels begin to rise, helping you to wake you up and letting your liver know it’s time to fuel up your muscles by releasing more glucose into the bloodstream. Your adrenals release another shot of cortisol as you roll out of bed, keeping your energy up until those levels tail off in the afternoon and evening. When life stressors kick in, so does more cortisol. If the stressor is a momentary challenge, that extra cortisol will help you rise to the challenge. 

However, cortisol has a considerably less appealing side when it comes to unrelieved stress. Chronic stress keeps cortisol levels high (think, constant drip), aided and abetted by fight-or-flight adrenal hormones like epinephrine (or, adrenaline as it’s sometimes still known). The result? You’re left feeling low, exhausted and wrung-out. Making matters worse, that stress-triggered cortisol sends even more glucose into the bloodstream, which, if not quickly burned off with exercise, winds up getting stored as fat. (Any wonder why chronic stress and fat gain go hand-in-hand?) 

2. Insulin: In the morning, when cortisol pushes glucose into the bloodstream, your pancreas gets into gear. It secretes the hormone insulin which guides the glucose into your cells, especially your muscle cells, burned for energy to keep you moving through the day. All good, that is, unless you’re over-doing it with fast-acting carb bombs – like pasta, bread bagels and beyond — which drown your bloodstream in sugar and puts your pancreas in overdrive, as it tries to clear the sugar out of the bloodstream and into your cells. Over the long haul, a diet heavy in carbs will eventually turn on just about everyone (yes, even you) and push you into insulin resistance and, all too often, type 2 diabetes – a must to avoid.

3. HGH (Human Growth Hormone): Here’s where HGH fits into the hormonal balancing act. Cortisol and insulin have a yin-yang relationship with “androgen” hormones like HGH, DHEA and, especially in men, testosterone. Those hormones do their valuable thing when you’re asleep, maintaining or building muscle and encouraging fat breakdown — move your body during the day and build it up at night! That is, unless high stress and high carbs have pushed up your nighttime cortisol and insulin levels, tamping down HGH and the other build-you-up hormones. The result? You get sluggish and flabby, in other words, you’ve speeded up the aging process. Consider, that as we head into our 30s, HGH starts to decline at about 1% with each passing birthday and, typically, cortisol and insulin levels start to spike higher, more often and for longer – making early middle age a highly advisable time to get very serious about cutting carbs and getting moving. (The sooner the better!)

Banish the bad (habit) apples.

If you want to keep HGH pumping, banish the bad apples, as in the crappy lifestyle habits that take a big bite out of your body’s natural production (not to mention screwing up your cortisol and insulin levels). Among the lifestyle baddies to jettison:

1. Poor sleep – which messes with the timing and release of the hormones you need to keep you on a healthy, balanced hormonal track. Here are 9 sleep-well-tonight tips.

2. Unrelieved stress – again, it ramps up cortisol and insulin, which has a negative impact on HGH levels, suppressing those very necessary, sleepy-time secretions. Here’s how to bust stress fast.

3. Excess body fat –  which is, unfortunately, closely correlated with lower levels of HGH. Lose the fat and your HGH can return to healthy levels.

4. Sugar – the stuff is a killer, and a wicked insulin-booster. You have to lose it, no excuses. Here’s how to ditch the sweet stuff.

5. Alcohol – it’s just sugar in liquid form. The occasional glass with dinner is one thing, but ditch the half a bottle a night habit which will have you aging much quicker than your tea-totaling buddies.

Cultivate the good apples.

To turn up the volume on your HGH production, and keep the dreaded signs of aging away from your door for as long as possible, I recommend adding a few of these body-loving behaviors to your heathy habit mix:

1. Time Restricted Eating (TRE) or Intermittent Fasting (IF) – They might just be the express train to increased HGH, with a number of studies showing that eating within a limited number hours during the day can have a major impact, even raising levels in one study by an astonishing 1250%. Another reason to try TRE/IF? Both are great for keeping insulin and cortisol levels on an even keel, which helps combat the baddies of poor sleep, excess stress and body fat. Start here to more about TRE and IF.

2. Move it – ideally, multiple times a day – With all those gyms to fill and cycling studios to spin in, the fitness industry has fostered an all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to moving the body. Granted, there’s nothing wrong with a regular fitness routine – I encourage everyone to get into a consistent movement groove. But you still must move throughout the day, ideally as much and as often as possible, particularly if your work is sedentary. Maximizing moments of daily movement, be it a quick walk to the corner and back on your lunch break; a sprint or two up and down the stairs in your house; or a few planks between Zoom calls – it all counts, and will help nudge HGH levels up. Here’s how to work more exercise in to your day.

3. Go hard and fast – To make your HGH really sing, add HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, as well as strength training. That will directly stimulate HGH production. (Count us in!) Here’s how to get started on a HIIT routine.

4. Eat healthy, whole foods – They’ll help balance all your hormones, keep insulin and body fat under control – and will never steer you wrong! Among the foods commonly associated with increased levels of HGH are items like: preferably organic, or farmer’s market beef, chicken and eggs from healthy animals; spinach; full-fat, unsweetened yoghurt; nuts and seeds. Dig in!

Plyometrics: Build Lean Muscle, No Weights Required

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Story at-a-glance

  • Plyometrics are a form of bodyweight exercise that requires no equipment and involve quick, explosive types of movement
  • Plyometric exercises help improve leg strength, muscle power, acceleration, balance, agility, and vertical jumps
  • Because plyometric exercises are so intense, you should only do 2-3 sessions a week

Plyometrics are quick, explosive types of movement that can help you burn large amounts of calories in minimal time while also strengthening your muscles.

As a form of body-weight exercise that requires no equipment (other than your own body), plyometric movements have been around virtually forever, although they didn’t start out as “exercise.”

The explosive movements involved in plyometrics, such as vertical jumps, were certainly invaluable to the survival of ancient humans. And such movements were later coveted by athletes at the first Olympics.

As the American Council on Exercise (ACE) put it, plyometric exercise has been in use “since the first Olympians in Greece donned white robes and grape leaf crowns.”1 Later, plyometrics were valued by Eastern European Olympians during the 1970s, who used the moves to build strength and power.2

What Makes Plyometrics Such a Good Workout?

When done properly, plyometric exercises have been shown to improve leg strength, muscle power, acceleration, balance, agility, and vertical jumps.3 There’s also evidence that they may help build bone density, particularly in younger adults, while also helping with weight control and lower the risk of sports-related injuries.4

While once thought of as an exercise strictly for adults, plyometrics can be safely performed by adolescents and children, too. As the American College of Sports Medicine noted, “plyometrics are a natural part of most movements, as evidenced by the jumping, hopping, and skipping seen on any school playground.”5

Many of the benefits of plyometrics come from the muscles’ cycle of lengthening and shortening, which increases muscle power.6 ACE explained:7

“The premise behind using plyometric exercise to improve reactivity and power output comes from what’s called the ‘stretch shortening cycle.’ This term refers to the change a muscle goes through when being eccentrically loaded and then concentrically contracted.

What is actually being trained while doing plyometics is the very short period in between the eccentric (lengthening) and concentric (shortening) phases of this muscle contraction.

This is called the ‘amortization phase’ and it is a very quick moment in time when the muscle goes from being eccentrically contracted, or stretched while under load, to concentrically contracted, which is what we normally think of as flexing a muscle.

When plyometrics are done quickly, as intended, the amortization phase should last less than one-quarter of a second… The shorter the amortization phase, the quicker a muscle goes from a long muscle to short muscle, which allows for increased force production.”

Four Simple Plyometric Moves

Many familiar exercises can become plyometric movements if you add an explosive burst. To do a plyometric push-up, for instance, once your sternum touches the floor hold your position and breathe for about three seconds, then perform an explosivepush upward. You can also try jump squats or jumping on and off a small box.

If you’re looking for something different to try, fitness and nutrition coach Adam Rosante, author of The 30-Second Body, shared four simple plyometric moves with Yahoo Health.8 These are appropriate for most fitness levels.

1.Pile Jumps

“…standing with your feet wider than shoulder-width apart, toes turned out wide, and arms lifted in front of you. Press your knees out over your toes, then explode straight up and land softly.”

2.Squat Push-Ups

“…come into a squat position, drop your hands to the floor, shoot your feet back, and complete one push-up. Hop your feet forward, lift your chest, and repeat.”

3.Deep Mountain-Climbers

“…start at the top of a push-up position and step your right foot to the outside of your right hand. Keeping your core tight, explosively switch feet.”

4.Table Saws

“…starting on your butt with your hands and feet flat on the floor. Press hips up and kick up your left foot as you swing your right hand up and over. Alternate sides.”

Plyometrics for Your Upper Body and Trunk

Plyometrics are often thought of as a lower-body workout, but they can be used for your upper body, and even your trunk, too. Jacque Crockford, MS, CSCS, an ACE certified personal trainer and an ACE exercise physiologist, shared the following plyometric exercises:9

Supine Vertical Chest Toss (Upper Body)

Vertical Chest Toss
Chest Toss Position When Catching the Ball

“Lie supine on a mat with your arms extended upward (shoulders at approximately 90 degrees of flexion). Have a partner stand on top of a box and hold a 2- to 8-lb (1- to 3.5-kg) medicine ball above the exerciser’s arms. When the partner drops the ball, catch the ball using both arms and immediately toss the ball back up to the partner.”

Lateral Med Ball Wall Throw and Catch (Trunk)

“Grasp a medicine ball and stand sideways about 2 to 3 feet away from a wall. Using the hip as a starting point, rotate the body and throw the ball toward the wall, catching it back at the hip while returning to the starting position.”

More Is Not Better with Plyometrics – Be Careful to Avoid Injury

Because plyometric exercises are so intense, you should only do two to three sessions a week to give your body time for adequate rest and recovery. And as you exercise, pay attention to proper form and quality of movement over quantity. Certain plyometric movements, such as depth jumping and drop jumping, can exert a force of up to seven times your own bodyweight.

In short, plyometrics can be dangerous if not correctly, and they may even pose a higher risk of injury than other forms of exercise. For instance, it’s not unusual for ankle or other injuries to occur during plyometric jumps. As ACE reported:10

“If you are considering plyometrics, proceed with caution. A sports medicine physician or therapist can advise you on whether this training technique is suitable for you, and may even help you get started or recommend someone who can. But, if improving athletic performance is not a high priority, the additional risk associated with this activity may not be worth the potential benefits.”

So it’s important to start out gradually and, ideally, under the supervision of a personal trainer, at least for your first few sessions. Listen to your body and do the exercises you feel comfortable with – avoid pushing yourself too much at the start of a plyometrics workout, as it takes time to build coordination and strength. You can lower your risk of injury when performing plyometrics by following some simple ground rules from ACE:11

  • Only do jumps from ground level, ideally onto soft grass or a padded gym mat
  • Use safe-landing techniques, such as from toe to heel when doing vertical jumps
  • Landing on your entire foot (as a rocker) helps dissipate landing forces over a greater surface area
  • Picture yourself landing “light as a feather” and “recoiling like a spring” after impact to help reduce the landing forces
  • Avoid excessive side-to-side motion of the your knees when landing; according to ACE, “Landing forces can be absorbed through the muscles that help support and protect the knee joint (quadriceps, hamstrings, and gastrocnemius) more effectively when the knee is bending primarily in only one plane of motion.”

Plyometrics Won’t Produce Human Growth Hormone (HGH)

One reason why exercise is sometimes regarded as a real-life fountain of youth is because, when done intensely, it boosts your body’s natural production of human growth hormone (HGH), a synergistic, foundational biochemical that addresses the serious muscle loss and atrophy that typically occurs with aging. However, not all types of exercise boost its production. Your body has three different types of muscle fibers:

  1. Slow (red, oxygen-rich muscle)
  2. Fast (also red muscle that oxygenates quickly, but is five times faster than the slow fibers)
  3. Super-fast (white muscle fibers that contain far less blood and mitochondria)

The super-fast muscle fibers are the only muscle fibers that have any major impact on your production of HGH. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people, including many athletes such as marathon runners, only train using their slow muscle fibers, which can actually cause the super-fast fibers to decrease or atrophy.

It’s important to understand that neither traditionally performed aerobic cardio nor conventional strength training will work anything but your slow muscles. Power training with plyometrics will engage your fast muscle fibers, but still will not affect HGH production to any great degree.

The super-fast muscles, which are 10 times faster than slow fibers, are what you use when you do high-intensity interval training, such as Peak Fitness, and these are the muscle fibers that will affect HGH production. In fact, your production of vital human growth hormone increases by up to 771 percent during a high-intensity interval workout like Peak Fitness.

Generally, the higher your levels of HGH, the healthier and stronger you will be. So in addition to plyometrics, be sure you are also engaging in high-intensity interval training. This is especially important once you hit the age of 30, which is when you enter what’s called “somatopause.”

At this point your levels of HGH begin to drop off quite dramatically. This decline of HGH is part of what drives your aging process, so maintaining your HGH levels gets increasingly important with age. Whether you seek to optimize your athletic performance or health and longevity, incorporating one to three sessions of high-intensity exercises per week will help you achieve your aims by significantly boosting HGH production. In addition to Peak Fitness, super slow weight training is another form of high-intensity exercise that will significantly boost your HGH production.

Source: http://fitness.mercola.com

Human Growth Hormone in Your Body Can Transform Your Health – Takes Just 20 Minutes

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A recent study published in the journal Mechanisms of Aging and Development confirms the “anti-aging” effect of high-intensity training.

Telomere shortening occurs as you age, however the factors involved are not entirely understood as of yet. The study was conducted to determine whether age-associated telomere shortening is related to habitual endurance exercise and maximal aerobic capacity.

The results suggest there’s a direct association between reduced telomere shortening in your later years and high-intensity-type exercises.

The authors’ state:

“The results of the present study provide evidence that leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is related to regular vigorous aerobic exercise and maximal aerobic exercise capacity with aging in healthy humans.

LTL is not influenced by aerobic exercise status among young subjects, presumably because TL is intact (i.e., already normal) in sedentary healthy young adults.

However, as LTL shortens with aging it appears that maintenance of aerobic fitness, produced by chronic strenuous exercise and reflected by higher VO2max, acts to preserve LTL.

… Our results indicate that leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is preserved in healthy older adults who perform vigorous aerobic exercise and is positively related to maximal aerobic exercise capacity. This may represent a novel molecular mechanism underlying the “anti-aging” effects of maintaining high aerobic fitness.”

But that’s not all.

High-intensity interval-type training also boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production. A 2003 study published in the journal Sports Medicine found that “exercise intensity above lactate threshold and for a minimum of 10 minutes appears to elicit the greatest stimulus to the secretion of HGH.”

The studies listed above scientifically confirm the phenomenal “anti-aging” power of short burst, high-intensity type exercises. It’s a commonly ignored exercise technique that can make a most dramatic difference in your health.

The two primary anti-aging effects created by these types of exercises are:

  1. Reduced age-related telomere shortening, and
  2. Increased production of human growth hormone (HGH)

I will review the implications of both of these effects in this article, and will give you a run-down of the type of exercise that will achieve these benefits.

What is a Telomere?

Your body is made up of some 10 trillion cells, and according to one theory, you age because your cells age. Therefore, if you can control the aging process in your cells, you should be able to control your aging, and this is where stopping age-related telomere shortening comes in.

Many anti-aging experts agree that this approach is, without question, one of the most exciting methods that holds great promise to not only slow the aging process but actually REVERSE it!

Each of your cells has a nucleus, which contains the chromosomes that in turn contain your genes. The chromosome is made up of two “arms,” and each arm contains a single molecule DNA, which is essentially a string of beads made up of units called bases.

Telomere

A typical DNA molecule is about 100 million bases long, and at the very tip of each arm of the chromosome is where you’ll find the telomere.

Your telomeres shorten every time your cell divides, starting at the moment of conception. If you were to unravel the tip of the chromosome, a telomere is about 15,000 bases long at the moment of conception, and once your telomeres have been reduced to about 5,000 bases, you will essentially die of old age.

For a more in-depth explanation of telomeres and the shortening process, please see this previous article.

There is a certain intrinsic rate of telomere shortening that occurs just to keep you alive. That is why even with a perfect diet and exercise program no one lives past 120 years old.

However exposure to environmental insults like free radicals, trans fats, obesity, smoking and other toxins can actually accelerate this basal telomere shortening considerably so you can die of “old age” at 70.

It was previously believed that this telomere shortening process could not be affected or stopped by healthy eating habits or exercise. Now, researchers have discovered that both diet and specific training may indeed be able to do just that!

Good News – – High-Intensity Exercise May Limit Age-Related Telomere Shortening

In an exciting study published earlier this year, the researchers discovered that there’s a direct association between reduced telomere shortening in your later years and high-intensity-type exercises—a perfect example of which is Sprint 8, which I’ll review below.

This is very exciting, as the prospect of being able to reduce telomere shortening—essentially stopping the cellular aging process that eventually kills you—is one of the most promising anti-aging strategies we know of to date.

Sprint 8 Exercises Effectively Increases Human Growth Hormone Production

The other exciting benefit of Sprint 8-style exercises is its ability to naturally increase your body’s production of human growth hormone (HGH), which also plays a significant role in the aging process.

I recently ran an interview with fitness expert Phil Campbell, in which he further expounds on this important topic. Campbell is the author of the book Ready Set Go, which explains how exercises that engage your super-fast muscle fibers can increase your HGH levels, and I had the great pleasure of meeting him at a fitness camp in Cancun, Mexico, earlier this year.

He taught me how to apply this high-intensity exercise technique, and it has literally transformed my physique and physical health the way no other form of exercise ever has!

It is called Sprint 8 because if you graph your heart rate, you will see that it peaks eight times during the workout. (A sample chart of my heart rate is below.)This technique is exponentially superior to regular cardio workouts and you’re doing yourself a great disservice if you ignore it.

I’ve been doing Sprint 8 exercises two or three times a week now since April of 2010, and so far I’ve lost over 17 pounds of fat and gained over 5 pounds of muscle.

5-6-2009
12-22-2010
  • Lowered overall Body Fat % from 17.4% down to 9.1%
  • Melted17.4 lbs. of fat
  • Gained 5.4 lbs. of muscle
  • Lost 3 3/16 inches off my waistline

 

Please note that there are many ways to measure body fat. Mine was done with skin fold calipers and by the same person every time. MRI and DEXA scans are likely far more accurate but they were not convenient for me The important element in monitoring body fat percentage is consistency as you are looking to monitor the changes that occur. Some may also complain about the different lighting in the photos but I can assure that was not intentional and merely an artifact of the personal trainer, not a professional photographer, using his inexpensive digital camera.

The reason why this form of exercise is so effective is largely due to what the researchers found in the second study listed above: high-intensity Sprint 8-exercises promote human growth hormone (HGH), also known as “the fitness hormone.”

That study, published in 2003 found that “an exercise intensity above lactate threshold and for a minimum of 10 minutes appears to elicit the greatest stimulus to the secretion of HGH.”

As you will see later, this is exactly what you do when performing Sprint 8 exercises. If performed correctly, meaning intensely enough, you’ll feel that muscle “burn,” which is a sign of lactic acid being released.

Another study published in 2002 also found that there’s a “linear relationship between the magnitude of the acute increase in growth hormone release and exercise intensity.”

In young women, “chronic aerobic training at an intensity greater than the lactate threshold resulted in a 2-fold increase in the growth hormone released over a 24-hour period.” Here’s where the regularity of your exercise comes into play, as ideally you’ll want to maintain this HGH release continually elevated. That said, doing Sprint 8 more than three times a week can be counterproductive.

Human Growth Hormone (HGH) for Health and Longevity

HGH is a synergistic, foundational biochemical underpinning that promotes muscle and effectively burns excessive fat. It also plays an important part in promoting overall health and longevity.

If you’re over the age of 30, especially if you lead an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, you’ve likely entered a phase known as somatopause (age-related growth hormone deficiency). As your HGH levels decrease, your levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) also decrease. This is another important part of what drives your body’s aging process.

Interestingly enough, telomere length is also modulated by the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor system, which confirms the beneficial influence of high-intensity exercises on physical aging.

According to a study published in 2008, the two interventions most consistently associated with increased lifespan in animal models are caloric restriction and repression of the HGH/IGF-1/insulin axis.

The authors explain:

“In humans as well as other species, a reduction in the GH/IGF-1 axis is correlated with increased percentage of total body and visceral fat, decreased muscle mass, decreased physical fitness, decreased immune function, and physiological declines in estrogen and androgen concentrations.

Thus, the natural declines in GH and IGF-1 that accompanies age-related degenerative processes implies that the GH/IGF-1 axis may be a causative determinant.”

Why Sprint 8 Exercises are the Only Type of Exercise Capable of Increasing Your Levels of the “Fitness Hormone”

If you watch children (and most animals), you’ll see perfect examples of natural movement. They don’t run marathons, but rather sprint about at high speeds for short amounts of time, resting in between spurts. Essentially, they’re performing “Sprint 8” exercises instinctually.

Your body was designed for this type of movement, and in response it produces growth hormone! HGH is what helps children grow, and in adulthood it’s helps you maintain optimal health and youthful vigor.

In order to better grasp the benefits of Peak Fitness exercises, you first need to understand that you have three different types of muscle fibers:

  1. Slow (red, oxygen-rich muscle)
  2. Fast (also red muscle that oxygenates quickly, but is five times faster than the slow fibers)
  3. Super-fast (white muscle fibers that contain far less blood and mitochondria)

The super-fast muscles are the only muscle fibers that have any major impact on your production of HGH.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people, including many athletes such as marathon runners, only train using their slow muscle fibers, which can actually cause the super-fast fibers to decrease or atrophy.

It’s important to understand that neither traditionally performed aerobic cardio nor strength training will work anything but your slow muscles.

Power training, or plyometrics burst types exercises will engage your fast muscles, but still will not affect HGH production to any great degree.

The super-fast muscles, which are ten times faster than slow fibers, are what you use when you do Sprint 8 anaerobic, short burst exercises, and these are the muscle fibers that will affect HGH production.

How to Properly Perform Sprint 8 to Increase Your Growth Hormone Levels

The nice thing about Sprint 8 exercises is that you can perform them with any type of exercise; with or without equipment. So, while having access to a gym or exercise equipment will provide you with a larger variety of options, you don’t require either. You can just as easily perform Sprint 8 by walking or running outdoors.

Another benefit is in the time it will save you. Instead of doing an hour-long cardio workout, you’ll be done in 20 minutes or so. The actual sprinting totals only 4 minutes!

Keep in mind however that you should only do Sprint 8 exercises two or three times a week.

If you do it more frequently than that, you may actually do more harm than good. Phil Campbell agrees, and also warns against overdoing it. We’ve found that, more often than not, when people do it more than four times a week they’re simply not pushing themselves hard enough.

The key to performing Sprint 8 exercises properly is to raise your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold. Keep pushing at maximum effort for 20 to 30 seconds, and then rest for 90 seconds.

Repeat this cycle for a total of eight repetitions.

Here’s a summary of what a typical Peak Fitness routine might look like using a recumbent bike:

  1. Warm up for three minutes
  2. Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn’t possibly go on another few seconds
  3. Recover for 90 seconds, still pedaling, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
  4. Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

Below is a sample chart showing how my heart rate “peaks” eight times during a Peak Fitness session. Also note how my anaerobic threshold rises with each repetition.

Dr. Mercola's Heart Rate for Complete Peak Workout

You will certainly want to work your way up to this point, but ultimately you want to exercise vigorously enough so you reach your anaerobic threshold as this is where the “magic” happens that will trigger your growth hormone release.

By the end of your 30 second period you will want to reach these markers:

  • It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt
  • You will start to sweat profusely. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don’t sweat much normally.
  • Your body temperature will rise
  • Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle “burn”

Be mindful of your current fitness level and don’t overdo it when you first start out. Also keep in mind that there’s no “magical” speed here. It’s entirely individual, based on your current level of fitness. Some may reach their anabolic threshold by walking at a quick pace, while others may need to perform a mad-dash to get the same effect.

If you are out of shape you may want to start with just two or three repetitions, and work your way up to eight, which is where the magic really starts to happen. If you can do a Sprint 8 workout twice a week, and follow the dietary recommendations I’ll go over next, you will increase your production of growth hormone.

The Anti-Aging Health Benefits of Sprint 8 Exercises

Once you regularly participate in these 20 minute exercises about twice a week, most people notice the following benefits:

  • Decrease in body fat
  • Improved muscle tone
  • Firmer skin and reduces wrinkles
  • Increase in energy and sexual desire
  • Improved athletic speed and performance
  • Ability to achieve your fitness goals much faster

Natural Growth Hormone is Far Better than Injectable HGH

Human growth hormone in the form of somatropin was discovered almost 100 years ago, by Dr. Harvey Cushing. Although still popular with some body builders and other athletes, this injectable version has been banned from many professional sports. Some also inject it to promote health and longevity.

I do NOT recommend injecting HGH as I believe the cost and the health risks involved are unjustifiable.

Ideally, you really want your body to produce it naturally, and the way you produce it is by doing Sprint 8-style exercises.

Remember, this high-intensity short-burst form of exercise is the ONLY exercise that will activate your super-fast muscle fibers, which causes HGH to be produced.

Eat Right to Further Optimize Growth Hormone Release

Aside from incorporating Sprint 8 exercises into your fitness regimen, there are a number of additional lifestyle strategies that will further help you optimize your body’s HGH production, such as:

  • Get a good night’s sleep
  • Avoid a high fat meal prior to exercising
  • Drink plenty of water
  • Eat plenty of vegetables and high quality protein
  • Optimize your vitamin D levels
  • Avoid sugar, especially fructose

The last part is absolutely crucial.

If you consume sugar or fructose, especially within two hours post-exercise, you will increase somatostatin which will in turn obliterate the production of growth hormone!

This is yet another reason to avoid commercial sports drinks, as most of them are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, which will negate many of the benefits from your exercise, including shutting down HGH production.

Sprint 8 is Great, But Don’t Shun All Other Approaches…

Although Sprint 8 offers unparalleled health benefits, you still need a comprehensive approach to exercise. Just because Sprint 8 blasts conventional aerobics out of the water does not mean you should abandon all other aerobic activities. It just means you no longer need to focus on time-consuming aerobics.

Ideally you want to have a variety of exercises. By switching it up and avoiding doing the same exercises all the time you will provide your body with the variety of stresses it needs to continuously adapt, improve, and grow stronger.

In addition to Sprint 8, there are three additional types of exercise that will turn your Peak Fitness regimen into a truly comprehensive exercise plan:

  1. Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you’re really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. Do enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.
  2. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.

    Watch these sample videos for examples of healthy exercise routines you can do with very little equipment and in virtually any location.

  3. Stretching: My favorite types of stretches are active isolated stretching (AIS) http://www.stretchingusa.com/ developed by Aaron Mattes. It’s an amazing way to get flexibility back into your system, and it’s completely different from the traditional type of stretching.

Human growth hormone (HGH): Does it slow aging?

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Human growth hormone is described by some as the key to slowing the aging process. Before you sign up, get the facts — and understand proven ways to promote healthy aging.

Growth hormone is produced by the pituitary gland — a pea-sized structure at the base of the brain — to fuel childhood growth and help maintain tissues and organs throughout life. Beginning in middle age, however, the pituitary gland slowly reduces the amount of growth hormone it produces. This natural slowdown has prompted an interest in the use of synthetic human growth hormone (HGH) to stave off the realities of old age.

If you’re skeptical, good for you. There’s little evidence to suggest human growth hormone can help otherwise healthy adults regain youth and vitality.

Who needs to take human growth hormone?

Synthetic human growth hormone, which must be injected, is available only by prescription. It’s approved to treat adults who have true growth hormone deficiency — not the expected decline in growth hormone due to aging.

Growth hormone deficiency in adults is rare and may be caused by pituitary adenoma — a tumor on the pituitary gland — or treatment of the adenoma with surgery or radiotherapy. For adults who have a growth hormone deficiency, injections of human growth hormone can:

  • Increase bone density
  • Increase muscle mass
  • Decrease body fat
  • Increase exercise capacity

Human growth hormone is also approved to treat AIDS- or HIV-related muscle wasting.

What can human growth hormone do for otherwise healthy adults?

Studies of healthy adults taking human growth hormone are limited. Although it appears that human growth hormone injections can increase muscle mass and reduce the amount of body fat in healthy older adults, the increase in muscle doesn’t translate into increased strength. It isn’t clear if human growth hormone may provide other benefits to healthy adults.

Human growth hormone may cause a number of side effects for healthy adults, including:

  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Swelling in the arms and legs
  • Joint pain
  • Muscle pain
  • For men, enlargement of breast tissue (gynecomastia)

Human growth hormone may also contribute to conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Some research suggests that side effects of human growth hormone treatments may be more likely in older adults than in younger adults. Because the studies of healthy adults taking human growth hormone have been short term, it isn’t clear whether the side effects could eventually dissipate or become worse.

Does human growth hormone come in pill form?

Some websites sell a pill form of human growth hormone and claim that it produces results similar to the injected form of the drug. Sometimes these dietary supplements are called human growth hormone releasers. There’s no proof that these claims are true. Likewise, there’s no proof that homeopathic remedies claiming to contain human growth hormone work.

What’s the bottom line?

If you have specific concerns about aging, ask your doctor about proven ways to improve your health. Remember, healthy lifestyle choices — such as eating a healthy diet and including physical activity in your daily routine — can help you feel your best as you get older.

  • Source:Mayo clinic.