The Role of Hormones in Performance

💡 Today in a sentence:

Today, we’ll take a look at what hormones are, explore their impact on performance, and round it off with a little bonus!

📖 4-minute Read

“In order for your training to be effective, your body must respond to the training load placed upon it in a positive way. It is the body’s internal mechanisms that bring about change and progression. And this is where hormones come in.” — Dr. Nicky Keay

This quote really sums it up nicely to kickstart today’s post. Today we want to take a look at hormones and touch on points like their impact on performance as well as a little Bonus at the end! A quick note, the following will be about natural hormones, i.e. the ones only produced by your body, as everything else surrounding this topic would deserve a publication itself. But what exactly are hormones now? Let’s get this out of the way first and build a little knowledge foundation.

In essence, hormones are chemical messengers which make it easier to stimulate certain proteins to better build muscles or synthesize enzymes, that improve glucose handling (= from a performance perspective: the fuel for your muscles). Also, hormones are only released after exercise and during recovery acting as part of the cause of somebody’s performance improvement.
To get a little more intricate, let’s take a look at where the hormones come from. They are produced by the endocrine gland and are controlled in a certain area of the brain (hypothalamus) which handles internal messages from the body and external factors (e.g. exercise and sleep) to regulate the production and release of hormones. The hypothalamus is by the way also responsible for the immune system-, sexual-, and vital functions of the body.

With that out of the way, let’s get started on the actual topic: How and which hormones impact performance in which way? For that, we’ll take a look at a few of the most recognizable.

The one, most are familiar with is the growth hormone (GH), which supports bone health and a healthy body composition as well as governing height, bone length, and muscle growth. This is also the easiest one to have an impact on by yourself, as two of the main stimuli for it are exercise and sleep.
Testosterone has a similar effect but occurs in larger quantities in men. However, low levels of the hormone in both men and women may lead to an increased risk of injury as bone density may decrease and cause osteoporosis (i.e. a skeletal disorder) or higher chances of fractures.
Moving on with cortisol which may be significant for athletes. Something worth knowing is that levels of cortisol vary throughout the day, being higher in the morning and lower during the night or sleep. Now, in cases of overtraining or other causes of stress, that can disrupt this pattern of cortisol release and lead to remaining elevated levels. This may not only lower immunity but also impose effects on other hormone systems.

For the sake of the length of this article, you can find further hormones to read about and explore their effects in the first reference below.

As promised, a little Bonus: Hormone Imbalances

As you might have already guessed, the definition of a hormone imbalance is having too much or too little of one or more hormones. You differentiate between temporary and chronic imbalances as well as ones requiring medical treatment and others that don’t necessarily but still affect the quality of life. Hormonal imbalances may lead to conditions like acne, but also thyroid diseases which may cause Sleep disorders, rapid heartbeat, or atrial fibrillation. For a more detailed view, you can find the bonus source below in the references and have a closer look!

Alright, that wraps it up! A quick note aside: It is possible to test hormone composition and find solutions to current problems, etc.!

References

1. Hormones: https://www.forthedge.co.uk/knowledge/the-role-of-hormones-in-athletic-performance/

2. Osteoporosis: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoporosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351968 (overview)

3. Bonus:https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22673-hormonal-imbalance

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