If you’re looking to bulk up, then you need to increase your anabolism. Anabolism is the term used to describe our capacity for entering the ‘rest and digest’ state. This is a state that is the polar opposite of ‘fight or flight’ where our heart rate slows down, our metabolism slows down and our body starts to focus more on repairing and rebuilding tissue rather than breaking it down and providing us with energy.
This anabolic state is triggered by the release of specific hormones in the system and the two biggest ones for this by far are testosterone and growth hormone.
Testosterone is, of course, the hormone that is increased when people take steroids. And while you should never do this (there’s a risk of impotence, apart from anything else…), you can’t argue with the results.
Let’s take a look at how to raise it naturally…
What You Eat
What you eat plays a massive role in how effectively you can increase your testosterone. Testosterone is actually made from cholesterol and as such, eating saturated fat is the very best way to increase levels. Saturated fat is best eating right before bed to this end, seeing as you produce the maximum amount of testosterone at 4 am during the night. Fuel your body with the raw materials to synthesize it and make sure they’re available right when they’re needed!
Also important is to eat more carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are important for muscle building for numerous reasons and apart from anything else, they provide you with the pure energy for working out and adding mass.
At the same time though, carbs also help you to increase testosterone by helping you avoid low blood sugar. This is important because low blood sugar triggers the production of cortisol. Cortisol is the stress hormone and it is also correlated with lower testosterone. When one goes up, the other goes down… so avoid cortisol!
It’s a State of Mind
With that said, it also follows that you should avoid psychological stress if you’re going to maximize your strength and size. Cortisol is also produced when you’re anxious or depressed, so you need to relax both physically and mentally.
This is true to the extent that holding a powerful ‘pose’ (known as a power position) can actually trigger the release of testosterone. See yourself as an alpha male, it would seem, and you increase your chances of actually becoming one.
Rest more, sleep more and feel the confidence that comes from training.
Lifestyle
More sleep is very important because – as we said – sleep is when the lion’s share of your testosterone is produced.
What’s also important is to make sure you get plenty of exercise. Specifically, you should be training the muscle using large compound lifts. The more muscle you can involve in a lift, the more testosterone you’ll produce!
Finally, you should aim to get plenty of sunlight. Sunlight not only helps regulate your circadian rhythms for better sleep but it also increases vitamin D which will trigger the release of more T.
