Peak Fitness session increases HGH by of 771 percent! | Phil Campbell Interview
Peak Fitness Exercise Benefits | Phil Campbell Interview
Here's a summary of what a typical Peak Fitness routine might look like:
- Warm up for three minutes
- Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
- Recover for 90 seconds
- Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times
As you can see, the entire workout is only 20 minutes. Twenty minutes! That really is a beautiful thing. And within those 20 minutes, 75 percent of that time is warming up, recovering or cooling down. You're really only working out intensely for four minutes. It's hard to believe if you have never done this that you can actually get that much benefit from four minutes of exercise. That's all it is.
Human growth hormone is often referred to as "the fitness hormone." The higher your levels of growth hormone, the healthier and stronger you will be. Once you hit the age of 30, you enter what's called "somatopause," at which point your levels of human HGH begin to drop off quite dramatically. This decline of HGH is part of what drives your aging process, so maintaining your HGH levels gets increasingly important with age.
The longer you can keep your body producing higher levels of HGH, the longer you will likely experience more robust health and strength. Some athletes choose to inject it for this very reason, though it is a banned substance in nearly every professional sport. I do not recommend injecting HGH however, due to the potential side effects, the cost and, more importantly, it is likely to cause more long-term harm than good. Fortunately, your body produces HGH naturally when you exercise your super-fast muscle fibers during vigorous, high-intensity exercise like Peak Fitness.
Phil explains:
"You know, walking is a great thing, but it only works the aerobic process of your heart muscle. It doesn't work the anaerobic process. It only recruits your slow-twitch fibers. So those two other muscle fiber types are meant to be used to exercise is necessary to release growth hormones.
… If we look at the body and say, how do you want us to exercise? When you do this – when you do Sprint 8 – it's almost like the result is screaming this: When you do this, I release this hormone that's so powerful, that if you're an Olympic athlete, your test goes positive for injecting growth hormone. That's how significant Sprint 8 is when you look at growth hormones."
In fact, an eight-week study conducted by Phil and colleagues found that a Peak Fitness session resulted in an average HGH increase of 771 percent! This also translated to increased fat burning among the study participants. Phil states:
"At the end of the eight weeks, results were phenomenal. The average body fat loss was 31 percent. Sprint 8 was designed to replicate the growth hormone production, which in the average case increases 14.4 percent. Basically, Sprint 8 in this one study on middle-aged workers shows that it's twice as effective in body fat loss as injecting growth hormone."
Summary of a Typical Peak Fitness Workout
Here's a summary of what a typical Peak Fitness routine might look like:
- Warm up for three minutes
- Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
- Recover for 90 seconds
- Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times
As you can see, the entire workout is only 20 minutes. Twenty minutes! That really is a beautiful thing. And within those 20 minutes, 75 percent of that time is warming up, recovering or cooling down. You're really only working out intensely for four minutes. It's hard to believe if you have never done this that you can actually get that much benefit from four minutes of exercise. That's all it is.
Keep in mind that you can use virtually any type of equipment you want for this – an elliptical machine, a treadmill, swimming, even sprinting outdoors (although you will need to do this very carefully to avoid injury) -- as long as you're pushing yourself as hard as you can for 30 seconds. But do be sure to stretch properly and start slowly to avoid injury. Start with two or three repetitions and work your way up, don't expect to do all eight repetitions the first time you try this, especially if you are out of shape.
Phil states:
"There are many different ways you could do Sprint 8. As long as you can get totally exhausted in 30 seconds or less. That's the key. If you can't go longer than 30 seconds -- no matter if you're a professional athlete or just starting -- that means you're doing it correctly. It has to be so intense that after 30 seconds, you're just praying for those last seconds to go by … "
Phil also mentioned that his study showed doing Peak Fitness on an elliptical machine led to a higher release of growth hormone, and he suspects that it is the most challenging type of equipment to use.
One caveat: a treadmill may not be the best choice for Peak Fitness because of the time it takes for the machine to adjust intensities. So instead of the 30-second sprint, by the time the machine calibrates it will only be 20 seconds.
I really discourage people from using the treadmill because I don't believe it is ideal due to lag time to adjust intensity levels and an increased risk of falling off the equipment and injuring yourself. The elliptical is probably close to the best in my opinion. But if you don't have access to a gym or your own equipment, then you can improvise. You can use virtually any type of cardio exercise, as long as you get your knees up and your heart rate up, that's the key.
I would strongly recommend that you invest in a chest strap heart rate monitor to make sure your intensity is on target. If you are able to exceed your calculative maximum heart rate, which is 220 minus your age, by five or 10 beats, then you know you have trained. And you really need to be accurate within a few beats per minute to get the best results. There's a big difference between 166 and 168, but you're not going to be able to calculate that manually. You need an electronic version.
If funds are limited and you can't join the gym or get a piece of equipment, invest in a heart rate monitor. That's going to give you the information you need to make sure you're doing the activity properly.
