HGH stands for ‘Human Growth Hormone’ and along with testosterone is one of the very most important chemicals in the human body for building muscle and burning fat.
The general purpose of growth hormone is to encourage the body to build tissue and as you might guess by the name, it is particularly important during early childhood at which point it stimulates natural growth and increases height.
This isn’t something that happens in adults unfortunately (as much as some of us could use an extra inch or two!) as our growth plates close at a certain age thus preventing further growth.
Nevertheless, the regenerative effects of growth hormone are still very useful as they enable us to heal wounds and rebuild damaged tissue. For bodybuilders this means rebuilding those microtears that get created when we’re straining against the weights. It’s the constant tearing and repairing of our muscle fibres that leads to the growth that we covet and so the more growth hormone we can get in our system, the better.
The good news though is that you don’t need to turn back the clock to increase your levels of growth hormone. In fact there are numerous ways you can boost levels of this miraculous hormone quickly, safely and effectively. Some of them might surprise you!
Sleeping
This goes first on the list because it is the number one way to increase growth hormone. Our body produces by far the most growth hormone while we’re asleep, so if you want to naturally and easily increase your GH levels then you need to make sure you’re getting a good quality and quantity of huteye. Simply making some basic changes around your room can make a great difference here, so try covering up any bright LEDs that might be ruining the darkness and finding ways to better soundproof your room.
An interesting possible way to further capitalise on this is to take power naps to give yourself a quick spike of growth hormone during the day. Keep your naps under 40 minutes and you won’t wake up feeling groggy.
Working Out
Bodybuilders don’t need to be told the numerous and wondrous benefits of working out having had the opportunity to experience them for themselves. Another great benefit to add to that list though is increased growth hormone. When you train this essentially signals to the body that you’re going to need to repair more during the night and so it will stimulate the production of more growth hormone.
What’s important to recognise here too though is that the quantity of growth hormone produced is proportional to the amount of muscle you train. Thus a compound movement that trains multiple muscle groups at once – such as squats or bench presses – will result in far greater production of growth hormone than isolation movements like the preacher curl. Exercises that target the legs are particularly useful seeing as the legs contain such large muscle groups compared with the upper body. Squats really are king!
Occlusion Training
Some bodybuilders also claim that occlusion training can help to further stimulate the production of growth hormone. This is training in which you use a tourniquet to ‘cut off’ blood supply to the targeted muscle and thus ‘trap’ the blood there. Studies and opinions vary on this one so it’s not whole-heartedly recommended at this point. Nevertheless it’s certainly an interesting area to watch.
Hot Showers
A hot shower or bath is another surprising tool you can use to increase your natural production of growth hormone. Take a hot bath right before you go to bed and you should find that you have a deeper sleep during which your body better recovers from the training you subjected it to the night before.
Supplements and Diet
There are a number of things you can get in your diet and a number of different supplements you can take that will all aid in your production of growth hormone. One popular supplement is Mucuna Pruriens which is also useful for increasing dopamine. L-arginine is also a useful supplement for boosting HGH as well as testosterone, creatine and nitric oxide.
Laughter
Laughter is one of the more surprising things that appear to be able to increase growth hormone. Back in 1989 a study looked at this effect and found that watching a comedy for sixty minutes could boost HGH by 87%! Something else to consider working into your bed-time routine then…
Natural HGH Supplements:
Natural HGH supplements are a huge hit when it comes to raising your growth hormone levels. These supplements can help increase your HGH levels without any side effects since they do not contain any artificial hormone in them.
Some of the best HGH supplements include:
- Somatropinne HGH from HGH.com
- HGF Max from HGH.com and
- HyperGH 14 X
Check out the table below to compare each of these HGH supplements before you make a buying decision:
