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Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is one of the most critical hormones in our body for growing from children to full size adults.
Once you’re a fully grown adult, it is still really helpful for muscle and bone growth, body composition, fat metabolism, and whole lot more.
HGH may prevent age related decline in our body as you age, improve your energy and skin quality.
Want to get back to feeling more youthful and energetic? HGH can help. You don’t need to invest in costly and unproven synthetic injections or pills. You can improve your HGH naturally, and reverse aging from the inside and out.
So what is Human Growth Hormone (HGH)?
Human Growth Hormone is a hormone produced by the human pituitary gland. HGH plays a major role in growth in children and teens and is key to maintaining the health of all human tissue, including the brain, muscles, and other vital organs.
It also contributes to body composition, sugar and fat metabolism, and cell repair.
HGH also has various anti-aging properties. Higher HGH levels have been shown to prevent age-related degenerative diseases, increase sex drive, help with mental sharpness, increase energy in the body, increase muscle gain, and it can promote a general sense of well-being. And this is why it’s been hailed as the “Fountain of Youth”.
This knowledge may tempt you to call the nearest “anti-aging” doctor and get on HGH supplements or HGH injections.
Before you take that route, consider this—there are alternative, natural methods to increase your HGH levels without costing thousands of dollars, or risking the potentially dangerous side effects, like those found in supplements and injections.
So what are some of the ways you can naturally increase your Human Growth Hormone?
1. Fit In Some HITT (High Intensity Interval Training)
The debate over which type of exercise is best for the human body has been a long and sometimes contentious one—some experts swear by strength training, while others recommend cardio and endurance training, and then there are those that recommend high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts.
While the debate rages on, two things are clear—any type of exercise is beneficial for improving HGH levels in the blood, but not all exercise types produce the same level of results.
In several studies, researchers have found that a minimum of 10-15 minute bursts of high-intensity, endurance-based workouts, consistently increased circulating HGH more than any other type of exercise.
Now pair the HGH benefits with the metabolic effects of HIIT training, and you will be feeling great all day. It’s recommended to work in some HIIT training at least three times a week.
Caution: Be aware of HIIT workouts that involve too many sideways twists and turns, as those carry a higher risk of injury. This is where keeping your HIIT workouts simple with linear muscle movements will pay out in dividends. Examples of simple, linear HIIT exercises include sprints, jump rope, cycling, rowing, and light weights.
And if you are new to HIIT training, start with longer recovery time between exercises. For example, if you do a sprint for 20 seconds you should rest for 90 seconds before repeating the sequence.
Once your body adapts, then you can decrease the length of your rest periods. Shorter rest periods in your HIIT sessions have the most impacts on HGH.
Takeaway: Exercise plays a big role in spiking growth hormone levels. Use high-intensity exercise to get the maximum HGH boost.
2. Maintain a Healthy Diet and Body Weight
Diet
We’ve all been told that a healthy diet and exercise promotes overall well-being, but it’s not always clear why. One of the reasons why is insulin. Yes, you have all heard of insulin, but what does it actually do, and why does that matter when trying to maintain a healthy diet?
Basically, your body breaks down food into sugar or glucose. When you eat, the insulin hormone allows your body to utilize that sugar by depositing it into the cells to create energy. Eating refined carbs like baked goods, candy, or carbs with a high glycemic load cause insulin levels to spike.
When there is excess sugar in the bloodstream, insulin will convert the excess sugar into glycogen for future use, but here’s the catch—while insulin isn’t inherently a bad hormone, in fact, it’s a vital hormone for survival, high insulin levels in the blood cause a drop in the production of HGH.
OK, so what kinds of carbs should you eat? A variety of research suggests limiting carbs altogether is the best option, but if you’re going to eat carbs, eat complex carbs that have a low glycemic load. That means they break down slowly in the body and do not cause blood sugar and insulin to spike.
Body Weight
Sometimes, the weight just adds up over the years—the beer gut, we like to call it.
Indulging too often can have consequences. Cheesecake, beer, french fries, and fried chicken could start to add pounds to the midsection over time. When those excess pounds add up, they impact your body’s ability to create HGH. In fact, researchers found that an excessive amount of belly fat causes a drop in the secretion of HGH and IGF-1 levels (you may recall that IGF-1 is a growth related protein.
Takeaway: Proper diet and body fat levels are important for growth hormone release. Limit eating carbs altogether, or consume complex carbs with a low glycemic index to keep the HGH flowing.
3. Sleep, Oh Wonderful Sleep
You’re probably wondering what sleep has to do with HGH?
Sleep is the time of rest and rejuvenation for the body, and we now know that HGH plays a major role in repairing and restoring the body. So it makes sense that the two would work hand-in-hand.
Studies have shown that the majority of HGH gets released during our sleep. The release happens in pulses, and these pulses are based on your body’s internal clock or circadian rhythm.
This seems too straightforward, so what’s the catch?
Here is the catch. All the benefits with HGH secretion in the body appear with the onset of deep sleep. We all sleep, but most of us do not sleep well. Too much stress, noise, sleeping in a room with light, sleeping late, eating right before bed, and many other factors contribute to less than optimal sleep.
As a quick primer, humans have four stages of sleep: Stage 1 and stage 2 are light sleep, stage 3 is deep sleep and REM sleep is where we dream. We naturally cycle through all the stages of sleep multiple times every night. Therefore, it is essential to get yourself into stage 3, or deep, uninterrupted sleep as much as possible.
Since so many of our body’s regenerative systems depend on good quality sleep, here are some tips for improving your sleep quality:
- Eat 2-3 hours before bed, so that you are able to go to sleep quickly
- Stop drinking water two hours before going to bed. Waking up to the go the bathroom at night disrupts your sleep cycle
- Sound-proof your bedroom, or introduce ambient noise so you are not jarred awake by sounds at night. Ambient noise could be as simple as a fan or an AC
- Block out all the light from your room. If you cannot do that, then wear a sleep mask. Artificial light disrupts the circadian rhythm
- Unplug from looking at your laptop and mobile screens 1-2 hours before bed. The blue light in these screens disrupts melatonin production in your body which delays your ability to fall asleep
Takeaway: Sleep is the time when the majority of growth hormone is released. Getting into deep sleep is essential for the release of HGH.
4. Consider Intermittent Fasting
You may have heard of Intermittent Fasting, or IF as the go-to technique among individuals who want to perform at peak levels. First of all, intermittent fasting or fasting, in general, may seem unnatural to you, but we should take a step back and recognize that fasting routinely exists in the animal kingdom (bonus points if you watch BBC Earth series). Before we discovered agriculture, our ancestors had to wait for long periods before feasting again (killing those woolly Mammoths was no easy task). So you see, fasting is as natural to the animal kingdom as night and day.
But consider this, intermittent fasting can have a wide range of positive impacts on your, including insulin sensitivity (we know from above insulin is an HGH killer), focus and cognitive function, weight loss, and you guessed it, human growth hormone.
According to research, fasting plays a major role in increasing the levels of HGH in the body. While HGH spikes the most at night and in the morning, during periods of fasting your body produces more spikes for a longer period of time. In one study on human participants, fasting caused participants’ HGH levels to spike a huge and unexpected 500%, or 5 times normal.
Above, you can see a large increase in the levels of HGH while fasting versus eating three meals a day. Notice the multiple spikes in HGH as the fast goes on.How Should You Fast?
There are different variations of intermittent fasting, but the two common ones are whole-day fasting and time-restricted feeding.
Whole Day Fasting: This method involves fasting for a full 24-hours once or twice per week.
Time Restricted Eating: This method involves fasting for 16 or 20 hours daily and eating during an 8 or 4-hour window.
If you are new to fasting, the 16/8 method may be the best way to start. Slowly work your way up to the 16-hour window.
For example, start eating breakfast one hour later each day until you reach the 16 hours between dinner and your first meal the next day. Also note, during the fasting time, you are only allowed to drink very low to no-calorie drinks. Water, black coffee, and green tea are your best bets when fasting. Otherwise, you risk breaking your fast, which will end its positive effects.
Takeaway: Intermittent fasting can play a big role in spiking growth hormone levels. Longer fasts have the best effect, and more research is needed on shorter fasts.
5. Sweat it out in the Sauna
This might be the hidden HGH secret that most people don’t know about.
Stress on the body caused by heat, when in a controlled environment can have significant positive health benefits, including a huge release of HGH.
So you just could sit in the sauna for a few minutes and get a massive release of HGH?
Not quite that simple. But here is the good news:
One 20-minute sauna session at 176F (80C), then a 30-minute cooling period, followed by another similar 20-minute sauna session elevates growth hormone 200%.
Going even further, one 15-minute sauna session at 212F (100C) dry heat, then a 30-minute cooling period, followed by another similar 15-minute sauna session elevated growth hormone 500%.
Studies also show, the growth hormone effects generally last for a couple of hours after your trip to the sauna.
Want to make the benefits of the sauna even more effective? Hit the gym before you sweat it out—the benefits of both acts incrementally explode growth hormone release in your body.
We can now agree that the Scandinavians know what they are doing when it comes to the Sauna.
Takeaway: Stress on the body from heat does wonders for the release of growth hormone. Use a sauna in the way described above for maximum benefits.
Note: You may also like our newest article on how to boost male sexual performance, treat ED and peyronie’s without pills or injections – from the comfort of your home.
Conclusion
- Human Growth Hormone or HGH levels start dropping off after puberty.
- Having optimal HGH levels are key to delaying the effects of aging.
- You can boost HGH levels in the body, naturally, without resorting to pills and injections, which can have devastating side effects, and cost you a ton.
While each of the above ways works to boost HGH, we recommend combining multiple of these, weekly, to become a natural HGH powerhouse (and unlock that Fountain of Youth).
Have you noticed an improvement with any of these techniques? Leave us a comment below on your experiences.
Now go out there and be handsome!
