THE CORTISOL ERA
Ugh...
Talk about the most misunderstood and unfortunately, abused hormones by the supplement industry today. One of the proposals for the importance of pre-workout nutrition has been its anti-catabolic capabilities via suppression of cortisol if it is not increasing energy output via increased glycogen concentration (which remains rate-limited).
The problem with the aforementioned thinking is, the effects of cortisol aren't all bad. Some of its actions are positive and tend to help BUILD muscle. So instead of looking for ways to suppress cortisol secretion, you should strive for dynamic cortisol control.
1st PARADOX: CORTISOL AND FAT
I will avoid its abuse as a fat-loss supplement which is beyond the scope of this topic. However, it is worth mentioning one or two points here to illustrate how poorly understood it is.
In a test tube, cortisol is shown to be lipolytic, although people who are obliged to use synthetic cortisol to treat various illnesses build up fat at a tremendous rate, even if their diets don't change. It's almost impossible to get rid of fat gained due to synthetic glucocorticoids, so, if there's a rationale for suppressing cortisol, its the hormone's effect on adiposity.
The amazing thing is that suppressing cortisol production won't make you any leaner. That's the first paradox of cortisol. An excess of cortisol will make you fat; a lack of it, if anything, will also make you fat.
2nd PARADOX: CORTISOL AND CATABOLISM
It's true that studies have shown that animals or sedentary people given cortisol see their muscle mass shrink. Muscle cells contain receptors that bind to cortisol. When that happens, it activates a very strong proteolytic pathway called the ATP-dependent ubiquitin/proteasome pathway which causes the body to literally eat its own muscles.
The good news is that weight training impairs some of the direct catabolic actions of cortisol. By putting regular tension on your muscles, your prevent the muscle cortisol receptors from working properly. It isn't a complete inhibition, though, because training tends to stimulate cortisol release. That's the second paradox of cortisol: training both reduces cortisol's direct catabolic impact on muscle and increases the body's secretion of it. The more you train, the less cortisol-based muscle loss you'll experience. Unfortunately, more training also means more cortisol secretion, and the extra cortisol overrrides the natural defense exerted by training. Well, wait a minute - what exactly am I trying to prove then? Be patient.
CORTISOL AND ANABOLISM
Another nasty effect of cortisol is that it slows the anabolic drive. Part of that antianabolic action is mediated directly through the muscle cortisol receptors, and training prevents that action. The problem is that another part of cortisol's antianabolic activity is indirect. Cortisol inhibits the release of numerous anabolic hormones, including GH, IGF-1, and testosterone. It has also been shown to fight the androgen receptor upregulation induced by nontraumatic workouts.
While training can partially inhibit some of the direct antianabolic effects of cortisol by impairing cortisol receptor responses, such preventative effects are localized in the trained muscles only. Training cannot overcome the unwelcome indirect effects of cortisol on the various anabolic hormones. What the heck am I trying to prove here? Again, be patient.
CORTISOL SUPPRESSION
If cortisol can promote protein degradation and at the same time impair protein synthesis, you'd be wise to get rid of it by any means necessary, including the idea pre-workout nutrition, wouldn't you? There's some scientific basis to that reasoning. Animal-based studies reveal that suppressing the release of cortisol or inhibiting its actions by blocking cortisol receptors leads to increased muscle mass.
Example:
Canadian Study
4 groups:
Group #1: 10 rats (control)
Group #2: 10 rats (severely burned)
Group #3: 10 rats (burned +
given RU486 - abortion
pill that blocks cortisol
receptors)
Group #4: 10 rats (uninjured + RU486)
Which group had the most muscle at the end of the experiment? Group #3, even more than Group #4. That means that RU486 not only eliminates the muscle loss due to stress, but it also promotes muscle gains. The problem with this study is that as with most of supplement company ads, rats don't respond to cortisol in the same way that humans do, so the results proved to not necessarily apply to humans.
Bodybuilders have used this synthetic cortisol receptor blocker without much success, and RU486's failure was attributed to its properties that stimulate cortisol release. When cortisol receptors are blocked, the body rapidly increases its cortisol production until the blocking properties of RU486 are overwhelmed.
Many attribute the potent muscle-building effects of anabolic effects fo anabolic steroids to their so-called ability to block cortisol receptors. That's unlikely to be true, however, as most studies have failed to demonstrate a connection between androgens and cortisol receptors.
This kind of blocking the cortisol receptor effect has also been propsed in the anticatabolic mechanism of action proposed by some researchers of the pre-workout meal. Well, what then is the explaination for why many bodybuilders who partake in this activity are unable to pack on muscle mass.
CORTISOL AND PROTEIN ABSORPTION
Scientists have known for a long time that eating a meal triggers the RELEASE OF CORTISOL. They've also discovered that proteins are the most potent cortisol releasers of the macronutrients. So the more protein you eat, the more cortisol release you trigger. Scientists have now uncovered the pathways used by proteins to induce cortisol secretion, and they figured out how to block them. It's easy to do - you just block your alpha-1-adrenergic receptors.
Giving alpha-1 blockers to humans before a protein meal blunts cortisol release, but it also blunts protein absorption. The sad-but-true fact is that you need cortisol in order to assimilate your dietary proteins properly. It's also a fact that the protein-induced cortisol rise is very short, unlike stress-induced cortisol secretions.
So lets suggest you have protein in your pre-workout meal, you do not suppress cortisol, in fact, you increase it. This synergistically combines with the stress-induced cortisol production to make you even that much more catabolic. But wouldn't ingestion of protein have a greater effect on suppression of stress-induced cortisol production? Actually, because you have solely a short-term increase of cortisol post-protein ingestion...stress-induced + protein-ingestion has been shown to have additive properties.
Well, isn't sipping a protein drink or drink like Surge ok DURING the workout at least? We'll get to peri-workout ingestion in the next installment.
CORTISOL AS ANTI-INFLAMMATORY
Some effects of cortisol are very beneficial to bodybuilders. Weight training induces various degrees of trauma to the muscle fibers, damage that triggers some inflammatory reactions. The more severe the trauma, the more serious the inflammation, which will cause the body to manufacture more of such harmful substances as tumor necrosis factor (TNF). The muscles have TNF receptors, and when the TNF molecule activates a receptor, it activates the ubiquitin/proteasome catabolic pathway. In other words, TNF has an almost direct catabolic effect on muscle cells. Cortisol can inhibit the TNF secretion due to an inflammation, which means that cortisol possesses both catabolic and anticatabolic properties. If you suppress cortisol release, your body will manufacture more TNF and the catabolic effect of cortisol will be unopposed.
Whoa! Think about it then, if we ingest protein, we increase cortisol, thereby decreasing TNF...problem solved, right? - gimme my pre-workout drink. Hang on still, because it is that complex. Interestingly enough, it has been shown that post-protein digestion cortisol secretion has NO effect on TNF, whereas stress-induced cortisol does.
CONTROLLING CORTISOL SECRETION
Your goal is NOT to INHIBIT normal cortisol secretion, but to CONTROL its secretion and effects, but after this discussion - I am not sure I cleared up how to do that.
Some have had success with taking synthetic cortisol and other exogenous glucocorticoids which strongly inhibits their natural cortisol secretion. Instead of having fluctuating cortisol levels, they establish an artificial baseline. This is tricky though and most likely you are hoping there is a way to control cortisol without resorting to exogenous hormones - hence, why the jump was made to pre-workout nutrition.
The one thing that is often left out of the equation is anti-inflammatory agents in a pre-workout drink. I am not talking NSAIDs nor massive dosages of BCAA's which is not even economical for most.
I would love to keep the discussion up, however, I am getting a bit tired of typing for now and will leave you until next time when we see the pre-workout formula perfected as well as "ACCURATE" timing. The principles will conveniently spill over into peri-workout nutrition, which would solely leave us to talk post-workout which will probably be the biggest no-brainer to many of you because it is what has been talked about most frequent - however, look for a few surprises yet still there.
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