ABSTRACT
The endocrine system includes all tissues and glands that secrete hormones into the circulatory system. In this chapter we focus on those involved in resistance training, mainly the anabolic hormone (those that directly or pervasively promote tissue building) testosterone and (2) the primary catabolic hormone (promoting tissue degradation or repartitioning of energy reserves) cortisol. To a large extent, these hormones can influence our motivation to train, the loads we lift, performance gains and our ability to cope with large volumes of training stress. Naturally, then, understanding their effects as part of a periodised strength and conditioning (S&C) programme is important if increases in strength, hypertrophy and general performance are to be optimised; providing this information is therefore the aim of this chapter.
