Training Volume
Control your workouts. Training volume can have a direct impact on cortisol levels. If you’re overtraining, you’re taking your body past the point where you can make the best gains. Follow these rules to make the most of your muscle-building regimen.
* Limit weight training to four sessions per week. Training more frequently prevents the body from attaining a full recovery.
* Keep sessions to about an hour. When you perform too many sets and exercises in a given session, you can break down your muscle tissue too much. Limiting the length of your training sessions helps avoid this.
* Emphasize multijoint movements. Exercises such as squats, deadlifts and bench presses are the most effective at stimulating muscle growth while helping to limit total training volume. They also best stimulate growth hormone (GH) and testosterone, which can help blunt cortisol.
* Avoid excessive pumping and finishing movements. When you perform numerous sets and reps of these types of exercises, you can raise your cortisol levels too high without stimulating as much muscle growth. Try to keep pumping and finishing movements to no more than three sets per bodypart at the end of the workout.
Excessive Cardio
Be careful with your cardio, If cardio exercise burned only bodyfat, then you could hop on a bike and cycle your way into the record books as the most ripped human ever. The problem is, though, that prolonged and excessive cardio causes an increase in cortisol, and this situation can begin to prioritize muscle tissue as an energy source, tearing it down instead of helping to build it.
How much is too much cardio?
I’d say anything more than five sessions a week and try to keep it to no more than four times per week when you’re not being strict with your diet. Thirty minutes per session is also enough, except when you’re trying to get really ripped.
Eat Six Meals A Day
The benefits of eating multiple meals per day are numerous. Besides allowing you to stay lean, a diet strategy of smaller and more frequent meals has been shown to keep cortisol levels lower than less-frequent feedings. Multiple meals at any calorie level will result in greater cortisol control than less-frequent meals, and we know keeping cortisol in check yields less fat, more muscle, better recovery and more energy.
Strive to take in six meals per day throughout all phases of your training program.