Stress and bodybuilding

Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by the adrenal cortex, which is part of the adrenal gland. It is a hormone that is often referred to as the ‘stress’ hormone which increases both blood sugar levels and pressure, while also reducing the effectiveness of your immune system.

Perhaps the most important thing about cortisol is that it has been indicated that when it is produced in excess amounts (i.e. in response to increased stress or tension levels), it can reduce muscle mass while aiding the deposit of additional body fat.

From this observation, it naturally follows that if you are trying to become a more successful bodybuilder, you need to reduce cortisol levels if at all possible.

The first thing that you can do in an attempt to reduce cortisol is to reduce the stress that is present in your everyday life.

For example, try to teach yourself time management skills and how to keep every day, whether working or at leisure, completely under control.

Instead of leaving everything to the last minute so it becomes a panic filled rush, plan everything you do every day well ahead of time. In addition, give yourself plenty of time to make sure that you achieve everything you want to achieve, because there is nothing more likely to cause stress and tension than either having to leave a job uncompleted or having to finish it in a mad rush in order to get everything done.

Consider learning additional skills that will help to keep your stress levels under control such as yoga, meditation and how to breathe properly, as an aid to keeping self-control. All of these practices will greatly assist you in reducing the stress levels that you currently feel every day and as a result, the level of cortisol circulating in your body will naturally decrease.

Another thing that can help to reduce stress and therefore the levels of cortisol that your adrenal cortex is producing is to make sure that you get enough sleep. Most experts recommend that a healthy, restorative good night’s sleep is made up of 8 hours and 15 minutes of solid rest.

However, while you are trying to reduce the stress levels in your life, it is often not possible to make everything perfect, simply because there are not enough hours in the day for each of us to pack in everything that we want to do. Hence, if 8 hours and 15 minutes of sound sleep is not possible, you should aim for at least 7 hours of total rest every night, and make up the rest either with a late afternoon nap or at the weekend.

This is important, because it is scientifically proven that a lack of sleep greatly increases the production of cortisol, which will significantly hinder the effectiveness of your bodybuilding efforts and add fat to your torso at the same time.

Happiness and balance is an important factor in your bodybuilding success as well. This is because bodybuilding is a 24 hour activity, something that you cannot pick up and put down as you see fit. It requires a certain degree of dedication and a lot of determination, but living a balanced life is important too because doing things away from the gym that you enjoy doing makes it easier to put up with the training when it is hard.