If there’s one thing you’ll want to ensure as you go about your health and fitness goals, it’s that you are keeping your cortisol levels in check. Simply put, cortisol is only going to work against you.
Not only can it lead to catabolism taking place in the muscle tissues, but constant high levels of cortisol can also lead to the accumulation of fat in the abdominal region as well.
Cortisol is a stress hormone that is released in the body so anything that elevates your stress level is also likely to elevate cortisol as well.
This said, what steps can you take to decrease cortisol? Apart from better managing stress, what actions will help keep it as low as possible so you don’t see unwanted side effects?
Let’s look at a few ways to lower your cortisol levels.
Sleep More
Sleep is mandatory to survive, but yet, most people are not getting as much as they should. While you may not have the luxury of being able to clock 9 hours of sleep each and every night, do your best to get at least 7, if not 8.
If you’ve been running on six hours of sleep or fewer, this could be significantly increasing your total cortisol levels.
Focus on going to bed before the hours of midnight as well as this sleep tends to be more restorative due to the natural circadian rhythm you move through on a 24-hour basis.
People who often struggle with sleep resort to sleeping aid supplementation. LEAN PM by Jacked Factory contains 5mg of melatonin, along with other great ingredients at effective dosages to promote deep sleep as well as increased fat loss, metabolism, and more to leave you feeling well rested for the day ahead.
Take A Close Look At Your Workout Program
Next, be sure that you are taking a closer look at your workout program. Are you overdoing cardio training? Too much cardio training – either steady state or interval training can increase cortisol levels.
Likewise, too much heavy weight lifting work can do so as well.
The moral of the story? Rest is key. Overtraining can really mess with your natural hormonal levels, causing cortisol levels to surge.
To help minimize this, aim to have at least one day off per week and then at least one or two days that are lower intensity.
Also, avoid doing endless hours of cardio each week. Even if it’s low-intensity steady state, it can still take away from your recovery and cause overtraining to set in. If you feel like you need that many to achieve fat loss, chances are your diet needs some improvement.
Try Ashwagandha
Finally, you’ll also want to consider utilizing Ashwagandha as part of your supplement regime. This herb is going to help to optimize the adrenal gland, which is the source of many stress-related issues in the body.
When you’re under extreme stress, your adrenal glands pump out extra adrenaline, and this can eventually cause you to become overwhelmed and burnt out, thus causing cortisol levels to rise.
Ashwagandha can help you avoid this by keeping your adrenal glands healthy and preventing that feeling of burnout.
Try them in a product like Primasurge, which contains 250mg of Ashwagandha (5:1 ratio) per serving, along with other science-backed ingredients. This will help not only lower cortisol levels, but also enhance the natural testosterone in your body as well.
So keep these three tips in mind and make sure that cortisol is not going to be an issue for you and achieving your health and fitness goals.
