Many things have been written about it. But let´s see what we know:
All patients taking mineralocorticoid, meaning hormones derived from cholesterol and produced by adrenal glands, have the same effect on the body; except they all have an emphasis on one characteristic. They all retain fluids by absorbing sodium, metabolize proteins and possess anti-inflammatory properties. We have names for the three different end products: cortisol, aldosterone and testosterone. As one can see, naming can deceive the person who thinks. I prefer converting the verb (action) in substantive; like aspirin-like-effect when encounter with drugs that affect the body temperature, pain and the “inflammation” of the body. But aspirin-like-effect drugs do not derive from cholesterol. As one knows testosterone is used as a doping hormone because it improves healing, strength and muscle-fat percentage and distribution. Cortisol can be used and I believe nobody has tried aldosterone; but it can have some doping effect depending on the dosage and the type of sport. I do not advocate doping; I am trying to explain the effects of “steroid” on the body. This is a graphic from Wikipedia regarding mineralocorticoids:
Steroidogenesis, showing mineralocorticoids in ellipse at top right. Note that it is not a strictly bounded group, but a continuum of structures with increasing mineralocorticoid effect, with the primary example aldosterone at top.
What to do with this knowledge, how to apply it? All these hormones are in a cybernetic balance. Experimenting with hormones can be done while training. Instead of dividing the training in “zones,” I will use the hormones as the markers for training using a cybernetic model.
When stressing the body the muscles suffer change according to the amount of Growth Hormone (GH) released by the body, which also depends on the amount of cortisol released by the body. At a certain limit cortisol inhibits the release of growth hormone but cortisol is necessary to release GH. Too much cortisol knocks out the growth hormone production and as a consequence the changes we are looking for do not take place. That is why the stress should be according to our objectives and level of training. If one wants to run 30 minutes-10k; one needs to increase the time on the stress zone progressively until being able to run five minutes at the same speed, in the scale of 1-10, 7-8 effort makes the trick. Keeping technique and cadence is very important (please, read previous 1, 2 and 3 parts); as I said, training is very specific and the improvements made would be according to the training cadence and technique. At the same time neurological training should take place. Neurons do not use fat or proteins as fuels. They depend on glucose. In order to keep firing as a “plug” for the muscles, neurons need training which can be gotten at the regular muscular training, but one needs specific training to increase the firing rate if one pursues a different performance level. How can the neurons keep firing if one does no train neurons to fire at high speed for a long period of time? If one´s pulse is high or low depends on the neurological training, and this is the main player in our speed, not so much the muscles. When one trains and the pulse remains low even when we try to increase it by increasing speed; it means that the neurons are tired, and the muscles could be o.k.
Every muscular change takes two weeks approximately to be in place. It is a gene induction what we do and it needs recovery and nutrition to happen. Depending where one is when starting--regarding the working load, increasing it slowly follows keeping recovery and nutrition at the best. It takes at least 10 years to create a junior champion, keeping the best recovery and nutrition in place and 15% increment of the work load per year. That is why talent has to do more with perseverance than to physical attributes.
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