Introduction to the Upgrade Your Health Series to the Upgrade Your Health Series Upgrade Your Health is all about taking where you’re currently at with one aspect of your health

Copyright © 2015 Legendary Strength LLC. 1

Introduction to the Upgrade Your Health Series Upgrade Your Health is all about taking where you’re currently at with one aspect of your health and bringing it up to a higher level. It’s not a matter of doing it wrong, or doing it right. While some things are clearly bad or clearly good, this isn’t a game of black and white. Instead there are many shades of grey. There is lots of room for better or worse. Sometimes there will be a best and worst, but when you look at that, the answer can be malleable and changing over time, especially when it comes to you as an individual. Ideally, you’d want to be at the top end of the spectrum, but for a variety of reasons you may not be able to get there immediately. If you can, great, make that leap. But even if you can just climb one rung up the ladder, that step will improve your health. Then after some time you can make the next step, and so on, until you reach the top. In some cases there may not always be a clear answer on what is the best. And since everyone is individual you have to experiment and find what works best for you and your lifestyle. Either way, by taking the incremental approach, or the big leap to betterment, you can work towards the goal of “Radiant Health”. I first heard of this Daoist idea from one of my teachers, Ron Teeguarden. The idea behind this is that you reach a place of “health beyond danger”. That means a place where sickness and disease cannot effect you. It’s a good place to be at! And you get there by upgrading all the different areas of health. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as take this pill, or eat this, not that. There’s much more to health than that. And I would argue that the majority of people are spending too much time on the wrong things. For instance, what you eat, while important, isn’t the whole picture. The truth is if you upgrade every other area of health then what you eat won’t be that important. And doing so can be both fun and easy to do. It can become a challenging exploration that gives you bountiful rewards. Furthermore, by upgrading your health you can also upgrade your performance. By having all of your bodily systems working for you, rather than against you, you’ll find that gaining strength, skill and the body you desire becomes much easier to do. By doing all the things that best support your health you’ll find your body will automatically move towards looking its best. This is because form follows function. Optimize the function of your systems and “the system” will look and work great. Your energy will improve. So will your cognition and your


ability to be productive and hit any goal you desire. Great health is one thing many successful people have in common. Most of what we focus on in this series could be called the basics. However as you’ll come to see, there are lots of details that can go into these basics. We’ll dive deep into each topic giving you every detail I can give from all of my research and personal experimentation to help you upgrade where you‘re at. In my earlier books 101 Simple Steps to Radiant Health and 101 Advanced Steps to Radiant Health, I delivered a bunch of tips to upgrade your health. While there may be a collection of tips on a specific topic, it wasn’t structured in a way like this series is designed to be. Here you can dive into one topic deeply to bring it to the next level. Yet looking with this much detail can often be overwhelming. But by diving into this reductionist view then zooming back out to the bigger picture we can learn many things that we can than implement into our lives. As always this guide ends with a condensed action plan of what to do to really upgrade this area of your health. So without further ado…

DISCLAIMER The exercises and training information contained within this book may be too strenuous or dangerous for some people, and the reader should consult with a physician before engaging in them. The health advice contained within this book is for educational purposes only and is not intended for medical purposes. The author and publisher of this book are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for the use, misuse or dis-use of the information presented here. All images, unless otherwise noted, are from my private collection. They are reproduced here under the professional practice of fair use for the purposes of historical discussion and scholarly interpretation. All characters and images remain the property of their respective copyright holders.


Upgrade Your Growth Hormone Welcome to Upgrade Your Growth Hormone. Sometimes this hormone is referred to as Human Growth Hormone (HGH) or just simply Growth Hormone (GH), and also more scientifically as somatotropin (STH). For the sake of brevity I’ll typically be using GH throughout this book. This hormone is the main topic of this guide, though when it comes to hormones you can’t just talk about one. Our primary focus will be on GH and with that we also need to talk about Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF1), which will be our secondary focus. And along the way you’ll be introduced to a myriad of different hormones used in the feedback loops and related functions of these two. While we will deep fairly dive into the technical details, know that you don’t have to remember these in order to get results. There will be no test at the end. Instead, as is typical with the Upgrade Your Health Series, you’ll be delivered an action plan of the different steps you can take. I’ll also introduce you to a sample routine that effectively combines just about everything in here for a compounding raise in GH. GH is released from the pituitary gland, with its biggest release of the day occurring within an hour of onset of sleep. In healthy individuals GH is released in pulses five or six times throughout the day. In older people, this can diminish to only occur two to three times per day. GH then tells the liver to produce IGF-1, which actually produces many of the growth stimulating effects GH is known for.


Some of the basic ideas behind boosting GH include fasting and other forms of nutrient timing, quality and quantity of sleep, and the right kinds of workouts. As typical this can be further amped up with certain supplements and super foods. We’ll be covering all the details of these different methods. In Grow Young with HGH by Dr. Ronald Klatz there is a preface that I found interesting. He states that medicine is considered and called a “practice” because it requires re-education and skill. Everything covered in that book was the best knowledge and insight up to that time. And as such it changes over time. Since the edition of that book was written before the turn of the century, many things are outdated. Many are changed or tweaked for better results. The same is true with this book. The goal is to update this over time to always contain the latest and greatest. Even so if you grasp the main principles rather than the small details, those are not likely to change. GH is often called the “Fountain of Youth”, though that statement is made for some other hormones as well, like DHEA. Like many other hormones, there is a natural decline with age. GH got its name because it causes growth in children and in puberty. And after that it begins to decline.

What really brought the importance of GH to light was a study by Dr. Daniel Rudman covered in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1990.1 Twenty-one men aged 61-80 receiving GH injections over 60 months had the following benefits on average:


8.8% increased muscle mass 14.4% decreased fat 7.1% increased skin thickness 1.6% increased lumbar spine bone density That’s a pretty miraculous list. But the benefits extend even further. There is a long list of different benefits of having optimal levels of GH which include:

• Increased Fat Loss • More GH typically leads to better Testosterone • Better Sexual Function • Improved Insulin Sensitivity • Lowers Cortisol • Improved Muscularity • Better Skin and Collagen Production • Better Use of Protein • Improved Sleep Quality • Improved Recovery • Strengthens Bones and Bone Marrow • Immune Protection • Lessens Pressure on the Liver • Better Concentration and Memory • Increased Energy • Restoring Lost Hair • Increased Cardiac Output • Better Vision • Normalized Blood Pressure • Enhances Availability of Vitamin D • Helps Depression

Some research even points that GH is correlated with longer telomeres (the end caps on DNA, which are involved in one of the leading theories regarding aging and how to limit it). After accounting for age one study found that high GH levels correlated with a ten percent increase in telomere length. 2 Of course there is a case of too much GH. A disease known as acromegaly occurs with the hyper-production of GH leading to gigantism. A famous example of this was the wrestler and actor Andre the Giant. That being said, I don’t think you have to worry about becoming a professional wrestler from what you’ll learn in this book. Simply working for your natural production and optimization of growth hormone and related factors you too can experience all these benefits.


Relationship to Testosterone and Cortisol In Engineering the Alpha, John Romanello and Adam Bornstein state that “If testosterone is the Batman of masculinity, then you could say GH is your Robin.” You’ll notice many of those benefits listed for GH are exactly the same as those that are listed for testosterone. It’s important to note that for best androgenic effects you’ll want to work with both testosterone and GH. For much more on testosterone, including all its related hormones and other molecules, be sure to grab the comprehensive Upgrade Your Testosterone. And, in general, the steps found throughout this guide will tend to do both, though they are more focused on GH. Many of the same steps will work for both of these anabolic hormones, though there are some specific differences. Like with strength training, you’ll see a slightly different focus for each of these two. One studied showed injection of testosterone to lead directly to higher levels of IGF-1 even in normal men, leading to support of the idea that these anabolic hormones work together.3 GH also has an inverse relationship with cortisol, the stress hormone. That means the more GH you have leads to less cortisol, which in most cases is a good thing. (Like anything else, too much of a good thing, or too little, can be bad, so there aren’t absolutes when it comes to hormones.) Too much cortisol appears to wreak havoc on just about the whole endocrine system, so making sure to keep that in moderation is essential here. Cortisol specifically will be covered much more in an upcoming volume called Upgrade Your Adrenals and Cortisol. Differences between Men and Women Unlike testosterone, GH is roughly equal in amounts in both men and women. So right in line with that, the same steps will be applied to both genders, at least for the most part. Due to the higher complexity of their hormones, women can have some added challenges. For instance, some women don’t respond as well to fasting, as most men do. That being said, not every man seems to respond well to fasting either. This is something you’ll have to experiment with for yourself. In much of the research done with nutrients and GH release some different effects were observed in men and women. These will be pointed out in a few cases throughout this guide.


Growth Hormone Injections GH is a large and complicated protein molecule. It cannot be absorbed through the digestive tract, which is why injections are given rather than any oral form. This is true of most hormones. Early on GH was extracted from the pituitary of human cadavers. This led to some significant problems with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, basically a human form of mad cow disease. So nowadays it is made synthetically, although it is bioidentical, meaning there are no added parts and it has the same shape as the GH we produce within our bodies. Although GH injections have shown benefits, as was listed above, I still lean towards a more natural source. Instead of getting this hormone injected into your body, why don’t you simply trigger your body to produce much more? This minimizes the risk of side effects as your body works all hormones on feedback loops. You’re much less likely to get into the excessive range. As with any hormonal therapy there is some debate and controversy. Often times some scare tactics come from the medical establishment, while rogue doctors do it anyway and see great results with patients. That being said, even with bioidentical hormones, there can still be some issues. In any case, adding hormones in this way is still pretty new in the grand scheme of things. GH injections are correlated with some side effects including joint aches, carpal tunnel syndrome, raised blood pressure, increased blood sugar levels and edema. These seem to only occur in people taking too much GH. Later studies seemed to reduce the incidence on most side effects with better timing and lower doses. Some people try to link GH injections with cancer, though most studies actually show a lower incidence of cancer. Because the body releases GH in spurts throughout the day, GH injections are typically done twice a day, every day, which does work better than a large amount once or twice a week. To do this, people are shown how to inject themselves so they don’t need as frequent doctor visits. Injections may be suitable for some people. But the idea is always to approach something with the least invasive approach first, and that means mostly dealing with lifestyle and diet. So that is all we’ll say about injections here. If you feel like it’s the best option for you find a qualified doctor to help you. But if you don’t want injections keep reading. This book will focus on all the things you can do to produce your own supply.


Blood Testing I am a fan of blood testing, along with other forms of testing as well. There’s something great about seeing real numbers and getting an idea of exactly what is going on. However, what many people don’t realize is that even testing of this form can be limited. This is one of those cases. GH is hard to measure directly. Instead IGF-1 is what is typically used to find the levels in the body. These typically track with each other, but it is not always the case. Here are some of the situations in which this may not occur:

• People with thyroid issues are going to have low GH, sometimes independent of IGF-1.

• High cortisol levels can cause a high IGF-1 level.

• Exercise and fasting lower IGF-1, although they both increase GH.

In general the normal ranges of IGF-1 are 114-492 ng/mL with optimal ranges being 200-300ng/mL. IGF-1 will be included in most hormonal panels of blood testing. Many people say that anything below 160ng/mL is likely deficient in GH. More specifically here is a male and female breakdown by age group from the Mayo Clinic showing reference values.4 Some doctors like to also look at the ratio of IGF-1 to IGFBP3 (that’s insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3, of which there are six of these different proteins). This is being investigated for having correlation to cancer risk. Average ranges of IGFBP-3 are around 2800-2900 ng/mL. Currently these hormones can only be tested in the blood though there is investigation for a GH or IGF1 test in the saliva or urine.


The Pathway of Growth Hormones You can’t really talk about a start in the hormone pathway because all hormones work on feedback loops. Still we need to start somewhere so we’ll start with the pituitary, the master endocrine gland. Be prepared, this section can be a mouthful, but remember you don’t need to know all these details in order to get results. Still it can be helpful to have an overview of how these hormones communicate with each other. The pituitary produces many hormones that then trigger the rest of the body to get to work. These include GH, adrenocorticotropic hormone, thyroid-stimulating hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, oxytocin, vasopressin, prolactin and more. GH is a large protein molecule. In fact, it is made up of 191 amino acids in a single chain polypeptide. It is synthesized, stored, and secreted by the somatotroph cells in the sides of anterior pituitary gland. GH then travels to the liver where IGF-1 is made, also sometimes called somatomedin C. IGF-1 is also involved in the feedback loop. There is also an IGF-2, which appears to function much the same, though more focused on fetal development so it is far less studied. Smaller amounts of IGF-1 are also made in the skeletal muscle and other tissues, though the liver is its main site of production. Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 is an anabolic hormone. As the name implies it is potent in stimulating growth in the cells. Its “insulin-like” job is primarily to bring nucleic acids into the cell nucleus for repair, including of the DNA and RNA and for use in cell division. As such IGF-1 is primarily affected by the release of GH as well as protein intake. High levels of IGF-1 are correlated with a lower life expectancy. However, this probably isn’t so much an issue of high GH levels (which are correlated with longer life), but the several different ways that IGF-1 can be elevated. These include obesity, inactivity, various diseases and chronic stress. It also goes to show why blood testing of IGF-1 may not be the most accurate test. IGF-1 lowers apoptosis which is the programmed cell death. This can be useful if it means repairing cells so they run properly longer. It can also be problematic if faulty and dysfunctional cells aren’t being destroyed when they should be. GH also triggers a wide variety of other growth factors. This is just a partial list:

• Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) • Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) • Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF)


• Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) • Platelet-Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) • Transforming Growth Factors (TGF-A and TGF-B) • Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)

These growth factors are responsible for a large list of functions in the body mostly having to do with repair and regeneration of tissues, focused in different areas or tissues of the body. Thus, it’s not surprising that GH plays its role in so many functions of health. Based on the amount of GH and IGF-1 circulating around your body, the hypothalamus produces two hormones that regulate GH. These are aptly named Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone (GHRH) and Growth Hormone Inhibiting Hormone (GHIH). GHIH is also known as Somatostatin, which is similar but different from the alternate name for GH, somatotropin. In the chart below you can see how the GH-related hormones, with the + or – signs can increase or decrease GH.

That’s the basics of it, way simpler than testosterone. The Health of Your Glands One piece of this puzzle that I don’t think a lot of people focus on is that good hormone production depends on the health of the glands that produce them. If they’re not healthy, then they certainly won’t be able to produce optimal amounts of any hormone. From some genetic diseases we know that a deficiency in the pituitary gland will cause lowered GH. This is clear in clinical deficiencies. Of course, there are a lot of sub-clinical deficiencies that will do the same, just to a smaller degree. While people talk about the calcification of various organs, this process could happen to some degree in the endocrine glands like the pituitary as well. There is lots of talk of


hypo- and hyperthyroidism, but little talk of hypo- and hyper-pituitaryism.

Some of the nutrients that are critical in support of the pituitary are:

• Amino Acids • Iodine • Iron (not too much, not too little) • Manganese • Magnesium • Vitamin D • Vitamin E • Omega-3 fatty acids

You will notice on this list are several things many people are chronically deficient in including vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and iodine. This is also a list of micronutrients that have thousands of different functions in the body. I like to strive to get as much from regular food as possible, but for many people supplementation of these may be necessary. Also at play in the feedback loop is the hypothalamus. Supporting the health of this organ can be done much the same as the pituitary. The list of supporting nutrients is virtually the same, with the addition of the B vitamins, most notably B1 and B12. That covers what is located in the brain. As GH is released remember that one of the places it goes to next is the liver to create IGF-1. You’ll want to make sure your liver is running well for these reasons (among others). Because of the overly toxic environment and food supply most people have some degree of liver stagnation. Doing one or several things to support the liver should make just


about all hormones work better.

• Milk Thistle • Schisandra - http://supermanherbs.com/schisandra/ • Green Leafy Vegetables • Anything Bitter • Dandelion Root • Burdock • Bupleurum • High Quality Fats and Oils (as opposed to low quality)

There is so much more that can be done for the liver. Because of the importance of this organ for digestion, detoxification as well as its role in the endocrine system there will be an Upgrade Your Liver in the future. One of the obvious, though not necessarily easy, answers to supporting the health of these organs is to eat these organs from animals. While liver is a common one, getting the other endocrine glands is also possible. These are often called glandulars and are available in supplemental form. Those with thyroid issues often take thyroid from pigs. Similarly hypothalamus and pituitary glands are available in capsule form. I personally haven’t used these, besides eating liver and some of the other common organ meats, though it is an option that in my mind makes a lot of sense. These glands will have the similar nutrients and energetics of exactly what you’re looking to support. Support the health of the organs that create and manage hormones and you’re guaranteed to have those hormones work better. Repair Hormone GH got its name because of its involvement in growth for children and at puberty. And it does trigger growth in several ways, like with muscular and bone mass. But as I was meditating on the nature of this hormone, it came to me that its main function, in adults, isn’t so much growth as it is recovery and repair. Once I saw these, it lined up why the various things that boost GH, do exactly that. We’ll be diving into four main subjects on proven ways to increase growth hormone. And looking at this repair function helps us to see why. The first is sleep. You’ve probably heard the old adage that sleep is where your body repairs. Part of this is because that is when growth hormone is released in its biggest supply. Your body is going into recovery mode to repair from the day and get ready for the next.


Secondly, we’ll cover fasting. This might be counter-intuitive at first. It would appear that eating has more to do with growth. But you need to understand that digestion is one of the most energy intensive activities of the human body. When you stop eating, and enter a fasted state, your body can then use that energy for other purposes like repairing. Of course, you can’t always be fasting. But the right balance of eating and not eating will give you the best GH. Third we look at exercise. This one is pretty obvious. You trigger the body, through work, for the need to recover and repair. This also shows why a bit more intensity in training is needed, then what appears to be required with testosterone. For me, I see testosterone as being about feeling strong in your workouts. With GH it’s basically about causing breakdown and getting fatigued. Then we move onto some specific foods, herbs and nutrients. This took a while to come into focus on why so many different amino acids triggered GH release. What are amino acids besides specific types of protein? And what does the body need to do most of its repair? So when the body is flooded with a massive amount of purified amino acids it makes sense that it can be triggered to go into repair mode. GH is primarily thought of as an anabolic hormone. It helps the body to grow and repair with a focus on muscle, bone and other important tissues. But that’s not all. In one sense it is also catabolic, in that it triggers the mobilization of lipids or fats. Fat cells have GH receptors and when they’re triggered this causes lipolysis.5 This works opposite of insulin which triggers the growth and formation of fat cells, lipogenesis. For this reason insulin is inversely correlated with GH.6 This helps show why some of those other benefits of GH come about, especially the reduction of fat. It also shows why obese people have less GH. Often times as weight gain goes up, meaning insulin typically goes up along with insulin resistance, it becomes harder, not easier, to use that fat as fuel. This also shows why sleep, fasting and exercise all help with GH production. The body needs to use its fat stores for fuel in all of these cases. GH triggers this to happen. Basically, GH is anabolic to muscle and catabolic to fat. In this sense, it’s no wonder it is something that everybody wants. Hormones are also called chemical messengers. Having to do with communication it must go both ways. While it may be natural for this hormone, and others, to go down with age, communicating with you that you’re not producing as much, which leads to symptoms, you can do something about it. Communicate to your body that you’re healthy and young and the GH will follow. Now, let’s dive deeper into these four areas with specifics on what to do.


#1 - Sleep As with everything else the quality and quantity of your sleep will matter. There is a direct correlation between deep or slow-wave sleep and GH. Tons more detail about sleep can be found in Upgrade Your Sleep. Here we’ll just be focusing on the GH component of it. As your drift off into sleep your body goes into repair mode. Typically, the biggest burst of GH occurs somewhere between 39 to 165 minutes after sleep. This starts to occur only 20-40 minutes in. At the peak, this part of sleep is also where you tend to be in the deepest sleep. Whether these are causally linked we can’t say for sure, though it is definitely possible. Much of this information, as well as the charts, comes from research by Takahashi, Kipnis and Daghaday at the Washington University School of Medicine.7

Small interruptions in sleep do not seem to effect growth hormone that much. But if you split your sleep with an hour or two gap you’ll see two big spikes in GH. I’m not necessarily recommending this, although there is evidence that people use to sleep in this bi-phasic manner. They went to sleep when the sun went down, got up after a few hours hanging out around the fire, having sex, making conversation, and then went back to sleep. What does seem to be bad for GH is delayed sleep. If you stay up past midnight it can dramatically lower your GH spike. Whether this has to do with the actual timing, or that GH adapts to whatever you’re used to, is not known. At the very least this cautions you to sleep at the same time every night. And as many people recommended you may want to try to get a couple hours before midnight in. It’s been said that an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after.


Here you can notice the GH spike is only about one quarter of the size of the above one without delayed sleep. As the night goes on GH goes down and cortisol begins to rise. Later time of sleeping is also marked with less slow-wave sleep and more REM sleep. Of particular importance for recovery is the slow-wave or deep. These stages coincide with the release of human growth hormone. When you look at the below chart it looks like Stage 2 has a lot, but this is mostly because of the amount of time (over 50%) spent in it, with a much lower frequency. Stage 3 and 4 are where it is much higher.


Naps do seem to aid in GH release as well. In short naps you’re not likely to enter deep sleep, so if you’re really aiming for more GH, then shoot for a 60-90 minute nap, rather than the quick nap, though that probably helps to some degree still. What is interesting is another study that compared GH responses in people that slept normally vs. those that were sleep-deprived along with exercise. By exercising the body appeared to “make-up” for the lack of GH release in sleep in those sleep-deprived. (SLD refers to sleep-deprived.)8

So exercising after a night where your sleep is disrupted may be useful. Of course, this could only go on so long without throwing all your hormones out of whack. One of the components behind why sleep is so important may be the GH regulating effect that melatonin, the sleep hormone, has. There is a direct correlation between melatonin release and GH, as well as prolactin. Optimizing your sleep for this reason is obvious and some people may wish to supplement directly with melatonin, which also acts as a strong antioxidant in your body. Once again, going back to our idea of GH as our principle repair hormone this data all makes sense. When we go to sleep for the night the body immediately goes into its repair mode. If you delay this, your body will not repair as well. Naps can aid in additional repair. When put under the stressor of lack of sleep, and then intense exercise, the body is going to have to do more work to repair work, thus more GH.


#2 - Fasting Besides sleep, which is something you have to do, we next turn to fasting as our second big GH booster. GH is involved in autophagy which is the turnover of old cells and the formation of new ones. The best way to ramp up autophagy is through various forms of fasting. The more time you spend eating the less time your body will spend in the autophagic process. This is at least one of the reasons why, when growth hormone production tends to be biggest while you sleep, your body is best at repairing and recovering itself. You can extend this further with intermittent fasting where you don’t eat as soon as you wake up, but extend your fast further into the day. We can also look to the diurnal rhythm of the liver for more insight. The liver has two main functions, digestion and detoxification. Extending the fast longer can allow more time for the latter function leading to improvements of health in many ways. It appears that fasting really starts to occur after about 12 hours. That’s when we start seeing an increase in growth hormone. A big part of this seems to be the work of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. In fact, it was named after its GH promoting effects, with reference to the root word ghre, meaning to grow (Growth Hormone Release-Inducing = Ghrelin). It seems to operate in feedback with GHRH, which then triggers GH. Ghrelin is released when the stomach is empty. This means that actually becoming hungry is something that is good for GH. But because of rampant over-eating this mechanism tends to have resistance along with leptin and insulin. Fasting is a way to reset this function.9 So working with ghrelin, by becoming hungry, we can gain more GH. We see another spike in growth hormone about two hours after waking, if it hasn’t been stopped by eating breakfast, most notably carbohydrates, the rise in insulin blunting GH completely. Fasting helps with other hormones too. It can lower cortisol production, and regulate leptin levels, which work in opposition to ghrelin. This in turn helps regulate insulin and keeps you better satisfied from what you do eat. In recent years intermittent fasting has come on the scene, like with Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat and other programs. Skip breakfast and wait until lunch time to eat. That would be a basic intermittent fasting plan. But going beyond 12 hours may be even better. In a study at the Intermountain Heart Institute, a 24 hour fast brought about a 2000% GH increase in men and a 1300% increase for women.10


A very healthful practice, recommended by Paul Bragg as well as others, is to do a 24 hour water fast once a week. You eat dinner one night and then don’t eat the whole next day until dinner time once again. This would definitely support GH levels. And sometimes going even further might help more. A five day fast was shown to not just increase overall GH, but the frequency of it releasing and the amount released per pulse to a higher amplitude.11

Long fasts were reported to raise GH to acromegaly levels! These longer fasts may be a good way to reset the consistent and numerous pulsing of GH, which also lowers with age. Of course five day fasts are not something to jump right into. While 24-36 hour fasts can be great for many people, doing five days is something you’ll have to build up to, or work with professionals with. I would say that going up to 24 hours should be sufficient for most to support GH, though if you need a reset something longer could work. It appears that eating fat does not take you out of the fasted state, at least as far as many of the hormones are concerned. Thus, you could also do the popular Bulletproof intermittent fasting, and variations therein, which involves coffee, butter and MCT oil. For best results you would fast until sometime around noon, do your training in a fasted state to peak GH more, and then eat afterwards. But more on this idea later. When you do eat there are some important factors to come into play. As was discussed, and will be more so, protein is needed to repair the body. Therefore that will be useful to eat in adequate supplies. Probably the most important nutrient in this discussion is carbohydrates as they appear to have a blunting effect on GH. Sugar and carbs, especially various refined forms, increase insulin which in turn, lower GH. Of course insulin is helpful in that it shuttles nutrients, most notably glucose, into the cells for use. This is important for repair, but is not something that has to be running all of the time. Therefore, the best time to eat carbs appears to be during the night time, before you go to sleep. But it’s important not to eat too close to sleep time. Some evidence suggests GH will not start its upward swing until after insulin has come down. For best results you may want to go to bed slightly hungry. Then keep that hunger going in the morning and you will get a decent second spike on GH.


#3 - Training Hard training is the name of the game for GH. This seems to trigger its release better than anything else.12 This makes sense because with higher intensity work your body is going to need to rebuild and recover from it. The higher the intensity, it appears, the better GH response. Different people have referred to this in a few different ways, and although there are some differences here, note what lies behind them all.

• Lactic acid style training – Where the goal is to feel the burn. • Time under tension – The more time the better (up to a point obviously). • Slower cadence lifting – Emphasize the concentric and minimize the negative. • Oxygen debt training – Also known as anaerobic. That means without oxygen but

you’ll be huffing and puffing. Once again if we look at the big picture this type of training appears to trigger the breakdown of muscle to some degree, more so than many other forms of training. Thus recovery and repair are needed in those tissues. Hence GH goes up to trigger IGF-1 to go to work. How is this different than training for testosterone? While resistance training is very important in both, I see testosterone as more of a hormone about “feeling” strong. And this can be done while minimizing the burn and/or the fatigue. Testosterone based training will increase GH to some degree. And GH based training will increase testosterone, but there are some differences if you’re trying to focus on one or the other. As I covered in the T-Boosting Workouts portions of Upgrade Your Testosterone, one of the main principles is feeling stronger and more energized when you finish training than when you began. That’s obviously going to be a bit different than feeling the burn and getting fatigued. Thus for best results, to optimize both of these hormones, you might want to alternate workouts. One is more T based and the next is GH. Or start off a workout with more T focused training and then move onto GH training towards the end. One study compared GH response on the bench press in two groups. Those that did the movement with fast eccentric velocity (FEV) vs. those that did it slow (SEV). There was a large difference in response as is shown on the next page.13

Slow is good, but fast can still work great, just differently. My favorite GH exercise is, without a doubt, hill sprints. It’s anaerobic. It burns. It’s intense. For these reasons I think of it as the best GH exercise and there is also data to back me up.


My standard protocol here is sprint up a hill that takes roughly 30 seconds then walk down, which usually takes about two minutes, and go again. That’s the natural interval. Repeat this 4 to 10 times and you’ve got a solid GH workout. Twice a week will be sufficient for most. Close up on its heels would be other similar exercises like stair running or flat land sprints, if hills aren’t readily available in your area. When we move into weights you’ll find a similar list as was used with the testosterone exercises. But remember here you’d want to focus probably on 8-20 rep sets and doing several of those.

• Back squats • Front squats • Deadlifts • Push Press • Bench Press • Military Press • Bent Rows

The classic 20-rep squat routine certainly is a growth hormone promoting workout. Several studies tend to look at the 8-12 rep range and doing several sets of each. One study looked at the response of both men and women with back squats. It is interesting to note, that while both saw GH increases, women had higher amounts, while men had a lower, but longer, response.14 Kettlebells, doing the explosively ballistic exercises, will also be a good option. While you can use kettlebells for many of the exercises listed above, these are really where the beauty of kettlebells shine.

• Kettlebell Swings • Kettlebell Snatches • Kettlebell Clean & Jerks


For bodyweight exercises again the basics are going to work. The important thing would be modifying these movements to suit your level so you can work at that rep range and with a slower cadence.

• Bodyweight squats • Pushups • Pullups

Odd objects and strongman training, which usually involves events from 30 seconds to 2 minutes also fit the bill quite nicely. Any sort of carrying like with stones, kegs or logs, as well as more specialized ones like the farmer’s walk or yoke walk are perfect GH exercises. Isometrics are also a great option for GH. They really allow you to control the time of the exercises you do. Various isometrics in any and all of the positions for the previously listed exercises will work. Doing any form of circuit can be good. Remember to go for the burn. That means higher reps, without going too high. That also means you can do two or more similar exercises back to back. The more muscle mass you use typically the better, but that doesn’t mean to exclusively use your legs and back. Make sure you cover the whole body. You’ll notice the commonality between all of the exercises listed here is that they focus on big muscle groups and using several of them at once. Isolation exercises aren’t going to trigger GH like these will. I don’t think the training has to be too long. Although you will get fatigued I don’t think getting exhausted is going to help. Remember that cortisol seems to inhibit GH so if you raise that too high from your training (from too much effort in one session or even worse doing this high intensity work day after day) you won’t get the results you want. A marathon is an endurance event but it certainly isn’t great for GH. But you should get out of breath. You will probably start sweating. And you will definitely be getting fatigued to some degree. Somewhere between 10-60 minutes is probably going to be the best. That’s a pretty big range but most people would find their workouts last within those time frames anyway. Doing workouts like this three or four times each week should be sufficient to optimize GH levels without doing too much. I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail into how to do these exercises or workouts here. I assume most people reading this will have some experience with at least some of them. But if you need more instruction, I have several books and videos available to coach your through the exercises and workouts. Check out http://legendarystrength.com/books-videos/


#4 – Secretagogues and Nutrients GH is not something you’re going to get directly from food or herbs. The only way to get it exogenously is through injection as it is such a big molecule it would be broken down into its component amino acids inside digestion. But we can use various foods and nutrients that are known as GH secretagogues because they trigger our own endogenous secretion or release of GH. We’ll start with amino acids as they’re the most research and proven to increase GH. Then we’ll turn to a couple other nutrients and foods, finishing up with my favorite herbs. The two most well-known and established amino acids for this purpose are L-arginine and L-ornithine.15 Many others are also used. L-arginine appears to have an effect in lowering GHIH, the inhibiting hormone. Arginine is also one of the molecules used to create creatine in the liver and it also supports nitric oxide production, which is quite useful in exercise and sex.16 Some interesting research with mice showed the L-ornithine worked on GH, melatonin and cortisol, based on a diurnal rhythm. That means that it appeared to be more effective when taken at night, rather than early in the day.17 One more amino acid, not covered below is L-citrulline. This is a precursor to arginine and appears to help function much the same.18 These high amounts of amino acids can cause some stomach discomfort, nausea, diarrhea and other possible side effects. It is recommended to start with about a quarter of the recommended dose and work up so your body can adjust. The following recommendations come from the Life Extension Foundation for use in boosting GH.

• L-arginine (2000-3000mg) • L-glutamine (500-1000mg) • L-ornithine (2000-6000mg) • Lysine (250-600mg) • Glycine (2000-6000mg)

The following chart from Vitamin Research Products showcases some of the studies and results of different amino acids and their combinations. It is important to note that combinations of two or more amino acids generally results in a better response. This is because some of them may work through different mechanisms.


19


As mentioned previously, I think the reason these may work to trigger GH is because they’re amino acids, the individual components of protein. Protein is needed for growth and repair. Thus it may trigger 700% increase in GH because the body is “tricked” into thinking there are massive amounts of protein available. Other possible action for some of them may be in how they affect lipolysis, which as we’ve seen, is a trigger for GH. In any case, the more natural option is focusing on getting these amino acids from food. While you’re not likely to get these very high supplemental amounts, for regular GH release and health you’ll want to be sure to include many of the following foods in your diet to ensure adequate supply of these amino acids.

• Nuts (all kinds tend to be high in L-arginine) • Gelatin • Eggs • Dairy Products • Meat of any kind • Whey Protein • Algaes like Spirulina, Chlorella, Blue-Green Algae • Raisins (high L-arginine) • Watermelon (high L-citrulline)

Other nutrients besides amino acids can also stimulate GH production. There is evidence that that neurotransmitter GABA can raise GH.20 This has been used before workouts but others also use it before bed. Another nutrient that has been shown to trigger big GH releases is niacin, also known as vitamin B3. A dose of 250-500mg, which will typically trigger a flush, can do this, though some people use even more. In one study, by taking niacin, in much larger doses of 1000 to 3000 mg, growth hormone levels raised beyond the control amounts significantly when combined with sprinting. In fact GH was about five times the amount.21 How does this occur? It does this in some way by changing how the body uses free fatty acids for energy. The larger GH surge was hypothesized to be because of the suppression of lipolysis, which is the breakdown of lipids into glycerol and free fatty acids. Niacin inhibits the use of fat as an energy source. But this effect is only temporary. Niacin brings not only a large increase in growth hormone, but also of cortisol and glucagon. This may put you into ketosis, the burning of fat for fuel, after the short period in which it is inhibited. (Glucagon increases blood glucose levels, the opposite of insulin, and causes the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose.)


Taking niacin in large doses while fasting or on an empty stomach often makes you feel weak because of the decrease of free fatty acids and ketones which you‘d normally be using for energy. It is best to wait 3 to 5 hours after taking for heavy exercise. Thus, when used for the release of growth hormone, you’re going to take much more, and also 3 to 5 hours before exercise. But if we go back to our ideas about fasting, and especially combining them with exercise, you may be able to get similar large spikes in GH without the use of niacin. After all, there is no way you could get these levels of niacin from food alone. For any of these secretagogues that trigger higher release of GH, it is probably wise to cycle their use. Dr. Vincent Giampapa recommended to take them for three weeks with one week off. So we’ve discussed isolated nutrients and foods that can support GH. Here we’ll also discuss the use of various herbs for better GH production. I like to use these over individual nutrients because they’re closer to foods and thus are less likely to throw other things out of balance. One of the most promoted herbs for IGF-1 is deer antler. While we mostly think of herbs as plants, the Chinese use a broader definition that often includes animal parts and minerals. The idea is that since deer antlers grow at a rapid rate each and every season, there has to be special components inside that make it so. These are called ectosaponins and are the same compounds found in geckos and starfish that allow them to regrow tails and limbs. Studies in Russia, China and elsewhere show that taking deer antler supports IGF-1 and other growth factors, aiding in healing and much else. Though human trials in the West have not shown this to be the case.22 I believe that the Chinese wouldn’t have deer antler listed as one of their overall top three herbs, along with reishi and ginseng, if it didn’t work. This is likely because they’re using a low quality deer antler product. The best ones are only made with the tips, like the last inch that is growing, rather than the basically inactive bone that is left. It could also be from too low of a dose or since they used powder rather than the recommended tincture form. Another possibility is that antler is having healthful effects without necessarily working through IGF-1. In any case, good quality deer antler is expensive. Whether you choose to use this or not is up to you. Fortunately there are a few other useful options that also tend to be cheaper. Mucuna, as a rich source of L-dopa, a precursor to dopamine, and may be one of the best herbs for GH. L-dopa has been shown to trigger the release of GH.23


And mucuna has been shown to increase testosterone as well. This may be because dopamine is antagonistic to prolactin which seems to play an inhibitory role in both of these anabolic hormones. In addition, L-dopa seems to restore the sensitivity of the hypothalamus to hormonal feedback signals, which should lead to better hormone levels all around. As this then leads to better signals to the pituitary, this could show how mucuna helps with so many different hormonal aspects. This is fast becoming one of my favorite herbs: http://supermanherbs.com/mucuna/ Goji berries have compounds call sesquiterpenoids, which appear to directly stimulate your pituitary gland to release more growth hormone.24 They’re also a complete protein having good amounts of L-arginine, L-glutamine and others which, as we’ve seen, play a role in GH production. They’re considered a longevity food because of all the nutrition they contain, plus because of this GH production. Those I would say are the main three herbs that can help in GH production. Of course there are many more that will likely promote it in some way, it’s just that the research is lacking. The adaptogen class of herbs, are likely to play a role. They help your body to better adapt to what it does. This means better handling of stress. This also means better recovery from workouts. With these benefits they’ll certainly have some effect on GH. Adaptogens include eleuthero (which also appears to be good for the pituitary directly), cordyceps, rhodiola, ashwagandha and several others. Another group of herbs that is likely to support GH is what in Chinese medicine they call Jing herbs. Jing is sometimes referred to as our primal essence. It’s the most important energy within us. You’re said to die when you run out of jing, thus supporting your jing is going to help with longevity.


Some of the best herbs for this include shilajit, he shou wu, rehammania, eucommia and others. It’s important to note that deer antler, mucuna and goji berries are all considered jing herbs as well. You can find several of these herbs at http://supermanherbs.com/


Bonus Step – Hyperthermia There is another big trigger of growth hormone that is not nearly as well known as the previous four. That is hyperthermia, otherwise known as heat acclimation, which is most often done with the use of a sauna. Heat stress on the body triggers the formation of heat shock proteins. These in turn prevent protein degradation while aiding in protein synthesis. These proteins in turn are great at repairing damaged proteins in the body. Sounds to me like a similar function as what GH triggers in some ways.25 The studies on this show similar GH responses as some of the other topics we’ve covered. Here it looks like the more heat and longer time the better. Two twenty minute saunas at 80°C (176°F) with a thirty minute cooling period between them showed a doubling of GH. Two fifteen minute saunas at 100°C (212°F) dry heat, again with a thirty minute cooling period between them, resulted in a five times increase in GH. An even more extreme two one hour saunas a day saw as high as a 16-fold increase on the third day. 26 Now, I know that most people don’t have two hours to sauna each day, but as you saw shorter time periods still worked great. And when this is combined with another GH trigger like exercise, the results may be even better. While both heat and exercise alone produced a rise in GH, the combination of the two produced a synergistic effect. 27 This involved exercise while in a heated area. The hot Bikram yoga may be onto something. Whether similar effects could be gained by doing exercise and then a sauna before or after remains to be seen. My guess is that it will still work together synergistically to some degree, though maybe not as much. GH isn’t the only benefit of saunas either. A wide range of effects, from improving endurance to supporting body detox, even supporting brain health and improving insulin sensitivity may this a powerful health protocol.28


Growth Hormones in Animals? One of the problematic issues with our food supply is the introduction of many hormones, including growth hormones, into animals, which we then eat. The most well-known one of these is rBGH. Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone is a genetically engineered hormone that is injected into cows to force higher production of milk. There has been opposition to this but it is still used commercially in the USA. It is not legal in Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Israel, and Japan or anywhere in Europe. But the FDA, WHO and NIH all say it is safe. Fortunately, within the states it is fairly easy to find dairy that is free of it in stores. Any organic milk products will be free of rBGH. Also many that aren’t organic can still be rBST-free and will be labeled as such. But it’s not just about rBST. The fact is that dairy cows have been bred for hyper-active pituitaries and forced high protein feeding to produce more growth factors which in turn increases their dairy production. Today each cow produces roughly four or more times the amount of what was done one hundred years ago. Along with this the health of the cow goes down. These and other hormones, not to mention antibiotics used to keep the cows alive, are likely contributors to health issues, in the cow and thus in the human that uses them for food. You might be thinking that with this guide we’re generally trying to increase growth hormone, so wouldn’t it be nice to get extra from food sources? And that might be okay, but this is a genetically engineered and/or excessive amounts. It’s also cow hormones, not human. This also typically leads to elevated (meaning beyond healthy) levels of IGF-1. Dairy of this kind is theorized to be one of the main contributors to that fact that boys and girls both hit puberty earlier than they use to in the past. Even though only trace amounts of hormones may survive all that processing, it only takes trace amounts of hormones for some pretty big effects. In my opinion this is best avoided as completely as possible. These growth hormones tend to stay in the water fraction of milk, thus you’ll find much more in milk than you would in cheeses or butter.


GH Synergistic Booster Routine As you saw in some of the research behind the steps already covered, you can really ramp up GH quite high by the combining several of these different ideas. Although you’ll need to experiment to find what works best individually for you here is what a sample combination routine would look like.

1. Intermittent fasting from your dinner meal until around eleven. 2. Take a hot sauna. 3. Take L-arginine (2000-3000mg) and L-ornithine (2000-6000mg) on an empty

stomach. 4. Do hill sprints for less than half an hour. 5. Post workout shake or meal with herbs.

Any one of these steps by itself increases GH. When you put them together you get a multiplier effect. Make sure you follow it up with quality sleep (which having done sprints should help with for sure) and you will be good to go. Several studies show that the combination effect of exercise and fasting did raise levels higher than either one alone.29 Although amino acids definitely cause an increase in GH, they’re often used in combination with exercise. Sometimes this proves to have a bigger effect than exercise alone. The case with niacin above and several other studies displayed in the earlier chart show this. But there is also conflicting evidence about amino acid use, like L-arginine, along with exercise. Some early studies were using intravenous dosage, which isn’t something you or I is likely to do. A more recent study looked at oral dosing. While both exercise and arginine increase GH, the combination of them was less so than exercise alone.30


So, as always, I recommend experimenting for yourself to find what seems to work the best for you. A better option may be to take these amino acids before sleep, rather than exercise. Maybe do the following combos:

1. Fasted Workout 2. Protein, Amino Acids and Sleep

Of course, substitutions can be made. You don’t have to use those specific amino acids but can work with any of the other supplements. Try using niacin. Or take some mucuna or deer antler beforehand. And while hill sprints are my personal favorite, any intense exercise will work well. If you can’t train in this way around noon, you’ll just fit the appropriate time into your schedule. You might not be able to pair it best with the intermittent fasting in this form, but that’s okay. For some time now my morning routine typically involves sitting in an infrared sauna. Although the heat doesn’t typically get as high as those shown in the earlier studies, I imagine it still assists in the GH action to some degree. This is then followed by exercise and I only eat after that is done. Think back ancestrally. Younger men would go out hunting and they might not have anything to eat. Maybe just a little bit, like a handful of goji berries, would be available. The hunt would likely require movement all day long with bursts of action, similar to sprinting. They carry the hunt back to the people and have dinner. If you act like a young man or woman in this manner, you can help trigger your body to act in this way and act younger.


Growth Hormone Action Checklist This checklist is meant to give you a quick place to go for the action steps you can take from this book that will help support GH in a variety of ways. While it covers most of the items discussed it can’t cover everything for the sake of brevity.

Get Around 8 Hours of Sleep

Go to Sleep Before Midnight

Take Naps

Intermittent Fasting from 12-16 hours

Weekly Fast of 24-36 hours

Multi-Day Fast to Act as Reset

Eat Carbs at Night Instead of Morning

Manage Blood Sugar Levels

Eat Adequate Protein

Intense Sprint Type Exercise

Intense Slow Resistance Exercise

Lower Your Stress and Cortisol

Take Amino Acids or Other GH Secretagogues Before Working Out

Take Amino Acids or Other GH Secretagogues Before Bed

Take Deer Antler

Take Mucuna Pruriens

Eat Goji Berries

Take Other Adaptogenic and/or Jing Herbs

Sauna

Avoid Commercial Dairy Especially with rBGH

Support Pituitary and Hypothalamus Health

Eat Liver and Glandulars

Take Liver Herbs like Milk Thistle, Schisandra, Burdock, Bupleurum, Dandelion

Eat Bitter Vegetables

High Quality Fats and Oils

Combine Several Steps into Your Own Optimal GH Routine


Recommended Reading: • Grow Young with HGH, Dr. Ronald Klatz (Harper Collings, 1997) • HGH Age-Reversing Miracle, Rita Elkins, M.H. (Woodland Publishing, 2004) • Engineering the Alpha, John Romanello and Adam Bornstein (HarperOne, 2013) • The Immortality Edge, Dave Woynarowski MD, Michael Fossel MD, PhD, Greta

Blackburn (John Wiley & Sons, 2011) • The Life Extension Revolution: Philip Lee Miller MD and the Life Extension

Foundation (Bantam Books, 2005) References:

1. Effects of Human Growth Hormone in Men over 60 Years Old http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199007053230101

2. Higher Circulating Levels of IGF-1 are Associated with Longer Leukocyte Telomere length in healthy subjects http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19913048

3. Testosterone administration increases insulin-like growth factor-I levels in normal men. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7690364

4. Mayo Clinic IGF1 reference ranges http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/interpretive-guide/?alpha=I&unit_code=35100

5. Nutritional state modulates growth hormone-stimulated lipolysis. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25957918

6. The effect of glucose on growth hormone (GH)-releasing hormone-mediated GH secretion in man. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3919046

7. Growth Hormone Secretion during Sleep http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC297368/pdf/jcinvest00244-0147.pdf

8. Exercise‐Induced growth hormone during acute sleep deprivation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4254093/

9. Role of endogenous ghrelin in growth hormone secretion, appetite regulation and metabolism. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17195943

10. Routine periodic fasting is good for your health, and your heart, study suggests http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/imc-sfr033111.php

11. Fasting enhances growth hormone secretion and amplifies the complex rhythms of growth hormone secretion in man. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/?page=1

12. The exercise-induced growth hormone response in athletes http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12797841

13. Acute effects of movement velocity on blood lactate and growth hormone responses after eccentric bench press exercise in resistance-trained men. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25609886

14. Acute resistance exercise stimulates sex-specific dimeric immunoreactive growth hormone responses. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25934139

15. Arginine and ornithine supplementation increases growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 serum levels after heavy-resistance exercise in strength-trained athletes. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20300016

16. Arginine stimulates growth hormone secretion by suppressing endogenous somatostatin secretion. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2903866

17. Effects of time of L-ornithine administration on the diurnal rhythms of plasma growth hormone, melatonin, and corticosterone levels in mice. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25286138

18. L-citrulline-malate influence over branched chain amino acid utilization during exercise. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20499249

19. Growth Hormone: Amino Acids as GH Secretagogues http://www.vrp.com/amino-acids/amino-acids/growth-hormone-amino-acids-as-gh-secretagogues-a-review-of-the-literature

20. Growth hormone isoform responses to GABA ingestion at rest and after exercise. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18091016

21. The growth hormone response to repeated bouts of sprint exercise with and without suppression of


lipolysis in men http://jap.physiology.org/content/104/3/724.full 22. The effects of deer antler velvet extract or powder supplementation on aerobic power,

erythropoiesis, and muscular strength and endurance characteristics. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14669926

23. Stimulation of human-growth-hormone secretion by L-dopa. http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1971-27285-001

24. Research-Supported Uses of Goji http://www.gojihealthsingapore.com/Research-Supported%20Uses%20of%20Goji.pdf

25. Endocrine effects of repeated sauna bathing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3788622 26. Haemodynamic and hormonal responses to heat exposure in a Finnish sauna bath.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2759081 27. Effect of hyperthermia and physical activity on circulating growth hormone

http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/H08-073#.VXHDNc93mM8 28. Benefits and risks of sauna bathing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11165553 29. Growth hormone signaling in human adipose and muscle tissue during "feast and famine";

Amplification of exercise stimulation following fasting compared to glucose administration. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26034073

30. Oral arginine attenuates the growth hormone response to resistance exercise http://jap.physiology.org/content/101/3/848

About the Author Logan Christopher has been called a physical culture renaissance man for his work in many different areas of fitness and strength training. While many people become experts in one specific area he seeks to master them all. As a performing strongman he has pulled an antique fire truck by his hair, juggled kettlebells that have been lit on fire, done weighted back flips, supported half a ton in a wrestler’s bridge position, and many of the more typical oldtime strongmen feats like phonebook tearing and nail bending. Being born without genetic gifts for strength he sought out the best training information to develop his strength. In addition to learning from top trainers he went outside the field of strength training. This led him into mental training and sports psychology which he has explored in depth, becoming an NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer. Not satisfied with just that he’s also studied various forms of energy medicine and psychology becoming a Certified Eden Energy Medicine Practitioner and a Certified Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner. That’s also how he got started in the field of health and nutrition which inevitably led into herbalism. Some of his many teachers include Ron Teeguarden, the foremost expert in Chinese Tonic Herbalism in the West and Sajah Popham at the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. His personal philosophy is to bring together the best movement skill, health information, and mental training to achieve peak performance. He is the author of many books and video programs to help people increase their strength, skills, health and mental performance. You can find more information at his main website, www.LegendaryStrength.com.

Other Books in the Upgrade Your Health Series: Upgrade Your Testosterone http://legendarystrength.com/testosterone/ Upgrade Your Water http://legendarystrength.com/upgrade-your-water/ Upgrade Your Sleep http://legendarystrength.com/upgrade-your-sleep/ Upgrade Your Fat http://legendarystrength.com/upgrade-your-fat/ Upgrade Your Vitamins http://legendarystrength.com/upgrade-your-vitamins/

For a full up-to-date of titles in the Upgrade Your Health Series plus more books and videos from Logan Christopher go to:

http://www.LegendaryStrength.com/books-videos/

Documents

Introduction to the Upgrade Your Health Series to the Upgrade Your Health Series Upgrade Your Health is all about taking where you’re currently at with one aspect of your health