Howdy,
Hormones are your body’s chemical messengers. They are extremely important for the entire body function. They travel in your bloodstream to tissues or organs. Hormones are powerful. It takes only a tiny amount to cause big changes in cells or even your whole body. That is why too much or too little of a certain hormone can be serious. One hormone that particularly caught my attention is Cortisol. Here is why…
It seems that this hormon’s purpose is to “destroy” the body. Cortisol has many key functions though. It increases wakefulness, focus, energy and drive – by raising adrenaline. Cortisol increases the level and activity of one enzyme that converts noradrenaline into adrenaline. This has direct impact on your state of mind (and increased muscle contraction strength).
Cortisol also increases heart contraction strength and rate. This helps with oxygen transport to muscle and the clearance of metabolites. This is also done via the increase in adrenaline.
Cortisol mobilizes stored energy (it will free up stored glycogen, fatty acids, and even break down muscle tissue to have energy available to fuel muscle contractions). It does so to keep you from running out of fuel when you’re fighting tiger or fleeing from it. This is an non-selective process, meaning that all the potential energy sources can be broken down and mobilized by cortisol (muscle and liver glycogen, fatty acids from body fat, and amino acids from muscle tissue).
Cortisol inhibits the immune system. This happens so you will have more resources to fight the enemy. For example, during times of fight, the immune system will be inhibited. As soon as cortisol goes down, it will be brought back to full force to repair the damage from the battle.
Cortisol is actually quite necessary (when it’s elevated, all of the aforementioned things will happen). It’s essential to have a boost in cortisol when you are fighting a tiger, deadlifting a PR, or trying to tackle a running back. But, if it stays elevated for too long it can have negative effects. Let’s see what could happen in that case…
When cortisol becomes chronically elevated it can severely hurt muscle growth via several mechanisms. It directly increases muscle breakdown. The amount of muscle you build depends on the difference between protein breakdown (catabolism) and protein synthesis (anabolism). If you increase protein breakdown, it becomes a lot harder to be in a significantly positive balance. It decreases nutrient uptake by the muscles. This makes it harder to shuttle amino acids to the muscle to build new tissue and restore muscle glycogen stores. It increases myostatin. Myostatin is a protein released by the muscles which limits muscle growth (chronic cortisol elevation will limit your potential for growth). Over time, cortisol can decrease testosterone levels by decreasing the amount of available pregnenolone that would otherwise make testosterone (T and Cort. are both made of P). Cortisol slows muscle tissue repair. Repairing damaged muscle tissue after a training session (important for m. growth) is heavily dependent on the immune system. Chronic cortisol elevation weakens the immune system making muscle damage repair less efficient.
So, when you need fuel (when you currently don’t have enough), cortisol will lead to a breakdown of the tissue to make amino acids that can then be transformed into glucose to be used for energy (gluconeogenesis). This is one of the main functions of cortisol.
After a workout, protein synthesis is elevated above baseline for 24-36 hours (although significantly only for 24-30 hours). This is the time frame you have to repair the damage and add new tissue. If your immune system is weak, it might take you the full duration just to repair the damage you caused. This means you don’t have time in that enhanced state to add muscle. It can make muscle growth a very slow process.
Cortisol increases blood sugar levels. If blood sugar increases while we are sedentary, it just stays there, leading to hyperglycemia. The body doesn’t want that, and it will release insulin to bring blood sugar back down to normal levels. If this repeats often (if cort. is chronically elevated), that can lead to insulin resistance. Frequent releases of insulin is never good long-term. Insulin can also make it harder to mobilize stored fat. As long as insulin is elevated above baseline, it will be harder for you to mobilize fat efficiently.
Cortisol will have negative impact on your recovery when chronically elevated. Cortisol leads to elevated adrenaline levels. Great before a workout, but not so much when you want to go to bed. The body doesn’t want to run on adrenaline all the time; it’s not safe. It leads to high blood pressure and can have serious cardiovascular repercussions. Cortisol inhibits growth hormone production. If cortisol is high at night – when you are supposed to get your natural growth hormone spike – you will severely hurt your recovery and progression. Cortisol can decrease muscle glycogen storage (this can be an important part of recovery from training). Cortisol can slow muscle repair. This element of recovery ties back to how it affects muscle growth.
If adrenaline is non-stop up, you risk desensitizing the beta-adrenergic receptors (protection against constantly elevated adrenaline). So, when you stop responding to your own adrenaline, it can lead to low energy, no motivation, self-esteem issues, lower performance, less competitiveness, laziness, and depression.
So, short spurts of cortisol at the right time (in the morning and when you are lifting) is very useful, but chronic elevation can quickly become problematic if you want to look and feel good.
When it comes to training volume, the more work you do, the more energy you need. The more energy you need, the greater the cortisol release will be to help you mobilize the required resources. Also, the higher you go on the rate of perceived effort (RPE) scale, the more likely it is a set that will release a lot of cortisol. If you go to failure, you are more likely to produce a lot of cortisol that if you stop 3-4 reps short. Also, when a set or an exercise is perceived as stressful you will release more cortisol. For example, if you are attempting a personal best on the squat, you will get a big spurt of cortisol.
Complex exercises like a squat, deadlift, or even the Olympic lifts will release more cortisol than curls or machine work. Less complexity means less psychological stress. And when you learn a new exercise, you can also have a significant boost in cortisol production, especially if that movement is complex. When you see people sweating a lot when first practicing some complex exercise (not high intensity), it means that sweating comes from the release in adrenaline stimulated by cortisol.
As we already mentioned, one of the functions of cortisol is to maintain a stable sugar level; cortisol increases it when it’s too low. One way of minimizing cortisol is eating carbs. Or more specifically, maintaining a normal blood sugar level. That’s why I don’t like very low-carb diets for people who are chronically stressed. It can easily lead to chronic cortisol production. Sure, you can create glucose from amino acids to maintain a stable blood sugar level. Just because you go keto doesn’t mean you will be flooded with excess cortisol. But eating next to no carbs, especially if you are very active, is likely to lead to higher cortisol levels. A super high-carb diet isn’t better though. It can lead to greater blood sugar swings. But certainly, consuming around 30% of your caloric intake from carbs, ideally low glycemic ones, will help keep cortisol under control. I especially like having carbs around workouts and in the evening to decrease cortisol (and adrenaline). Remember, you want to lower cortisol in the evening to facilitate sleep and recovery…
PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS
- if you don’t want a huge spurt of cortisol, there is some practical tips you can apply: If you do a high volume of work, decrease how hard you push each set; If you do a lot of complex movements, decrease the overall volume; Avoid pushing big compound lifts close to failure; If you include very hard work (around 93%+ range), keep the volume low; If you introduce a new exercise, decrease overall volume until the exercise is mastered; If you push yourself hard or do a good amount of volume, don’t change your exercises too often or use too many exercise in a workout; If you do high training volume, high RPE and very stressful exercise (all the 3, or 2 of these factors, in the same session), reduce the number of training sessions you do per week. Aim low (3 per week) or you will need frequent deload weeks. You notice that these tips are highly recommended in general. Of course, you will push very hard every now and then (depends on goals and periodisation), but if you do it often and more than your body’s ability to adapt to – you will probably have problem not only with cortisol, but CNS fatigue and all the negative adaptations that are coming along the way. …Short spurts of cortisol at the right time (in the morning and when you are lifting) is very useful, but chronic elevation can quickly become problematic if you want to look, perform and feel good. …So, when it comes to training volume, the more work you do, the more energy you need. The more energy you need, the greater the cortisol release will be to help you mobilize the required resources. Many coaches talk about less being more when it comes to training, but the length of your sessions is also another place where people miss the mark and train for far too long. The cost of doing this comes from more of a hormonal perspective; serum testosteron levels decrease after 60 minutes of training and cortisol increases. This will help you incur the opposite of what your goals are. With that said, have a plan before stepping into the gym, and make sure you’re in and out in under an hour. Also, the higher you go on the rate of perceived effort (RPE) scale, the more likely it is a set that will release a lot of cortisol. If you go to failure, you are more likely to produce a lot of cortisol that if you stop 3-4 reps short. Also, when a set or an exercise is perceived as stressful you will release more cortisol. For example, if you are attempting a personal best on the squat, you will get a big spurt of cortisol. Complex exercises like a squat, deadlift, or even the Olympic lifts will release more cortisol than curls or machine work. Less complexity means less psychological stress. And when you learn a new exercise, you can also have a significant boost in cortisol production, especially if that movement is complex. When you see people sweating a lot when first practicing some complex exercise (not high intensity), it means that sweating comes from the release in adrenaline stimulated by cortisol.
- Working out at night has to do with cortisol production. Training spikes cortisol. It should be high in the morning, and low in the evening (it wakes you up on your own). Cortisol naturally decreases in the evening. It puts your system in parasympathetic mode. It means you will fall asleep more easily, recover better, get more time in deep sleep, have a higher production of growth hormone… Otherwise, it would be much harder to both fall asleep and get quality deep sleep. If you train at night regularly and have restless sleep as a result, it could lead to chronically elevated cortisol – which is bad for gainz (at least). I am not saying that cortisol is the only cause, but at least you should consider it. Some people can fall asleep easily even if they had a hard workout 2 hours prior. They normally have a high level of GABA or serotonin – allowing them to shut CNS down as soon as the workout is over (putting them in parasympathetic mode). If you know that you’ve made a mistake of working out at night by accident (you know it badly affects your sleeping), you can drink 1 glass of an alcoholic drink in order to reduce adrenaline levels and help you fall asleep. Ingesting carbs (ideally low glycemic ones: Apple, banana bread, fat-free milk – which has a calming effect as well, macaroni, tomatoes, whole wheat spaghetti, spinach…) in the evening (post-workout) can also help lower CNS activation and decrease cortisol if you train at night. Cortisol increases blood sugar level when it’s too low. That’s why we should eat carbs in order to minimize cortisol. Too much stress with too much cortisol lowers growth hormone and testosterone levels (tissue healers when you sleep). Stress increases cortisol too. Cortisol breaks down collagen. Type 1 collagen is found in most connective tissues with bone, ligaments, tendon and skin. So, maybe your pain issues are because of that… So, any kind of meditation along with relaxed pre-sleep routine will help a lot. Try not to think about problems few hours prior to sleep (overthinking is one of the biggest enemies in general), try “living in the moment” hours before sleep… Of course, fully dark and colder room, as well as turning off all the electronic devices 2 hours before sleep (and all the tips you can easily find online), will help as well. Let’s mention something one more time as it’s very important: One of the functions of cortisol is to maintain a stable sugar level; cortisol increases it when it’s too low. One way of minimizing cortisol is eating carbs. Or more specifically, maintaining a normal blood sugar level. That’s why I don’t like very low-carb diets for people who are chronically stressed. It can easily lead to chronic cortisol production. Sure, you can create glucose from amino acids to maintain a stable blood sugar level. Just because you go keto doesn’t mean you will be flooded with excess cortisol. But eating next to no carbs, especially if you are very active, is likely to lead to higher cortisol levels. A super high-carb diet isn’t better though. It can lead to greater blood sugar swings. But certainly, consuming around 30% of your caloric intake from carbs, ideally low glycemic ones, will help keep cortisol under control. I especially like having carbs around workouts and in the evening to decrease cortisol (and adrenaline). Remember, you want to lower cortisol in the evening to facilitate sleep and recovery.
- When it comes to supplements, there are many strategies you can use to keep cortisol at bay. You don’t want to completely kill it; you need it to train hard. But you must be able to bring it back down when needed. You can use workout nutrition. Easily-absorbed carbs during workouts can reduce cortisol by providing fuel. If you have carbs already available, you won’t need to mobilize as much, which will mean there is less of a need to produce cortisol. This is especially effective when you are doing higher volume training plan. Also, using vitamin D is important during periods of high stress. Vitamin D prevents excessive adrenaline production – which can help prevent CNS fatigue. Taking magnesium post-workout and in the evening can be very useful as well. It decreases the binding of adrenaline to the adrenergic receptors and can help you calm down while protecting your beta-adrenergic receptors. You can also use glycine post-workout and in the evening. Glycine is a neurological inhibitor. It slows the nervous system down when it’s too amped up, which by extension decreases cortisol and adrenaline. Furthermore, glycine increases circulating serotonin (the feel-good neurotransmitter and the mood balancer) and activates mTOR, which will increase the protein synthesis from the workout – just make sure to intake enough amount of protein (around 30g each meal is a good solution – if you have 3-4 meals a day, and 1-2 times the same amount between the meals…). Did you actually know that I wrote an eBook on Nutrition? Contact me if you would like to know more…
For the love of movement,
Luka