Tuesday Jul 29, 2025

Are You Building Muscle or Breaking Down? Let Bloodwork Decide

If you’ve hit a plateau with your workouts… if you're gaining fat despite training hard… or if you're feeling constantly tired and inflamed, your bloodwork might have the answers.

In this episode, we dive into:

What the DHEA-to-cortisol ratio really tells you about stress, recovery, and resilience
The exact numbers you want to see (with examples)
Key blood markers like CK, AST, LDH, CRP, and what they reveal about muscle breakdown
How to interpret patterns that signal overtraining or burnout

Because you don’t build muscle in the gym—you build it when you're recovering properly. Let's make sure you're set up to build, not break down.

🔬 DHEA-to-Cortisol Ratio: What It Means

Hormone Ratio	What It Means
✅ ≥ 10:1	Healthy recovery, strong stress resilience, good environment for fat loss & muscle gain
⚠️ ≤ 5:1	Stress outweighs recovery; may stall progress, impair sleep, increase fat storage
❌ ≤ 2:1	Burnout, poor training response, HPA axis dysfunction, inflammation, fatigue

🧮 Example Calculations:

DHEA-S 150 / Cortisol 10 = 15:1 ✅
DHEA-S 90 / Cortisol 18 = 5:1 ⚠️
DHEA-S 40 / Cortisol 22 = 1.8:1 ❌

💪 Blood Markers That Reveal Muscle Breakdown

Marker	Optimal Range	Concern Threshold	What It Indicates
DHEA-S	W: 100–200 / M: 150–300 mcg/dL	<70 (W), <100 (M)	Anabolic status / stress buffer
Cortisol (AM)	8–15 mcg/dL	>23 (stress), <6 (burnout)	Stress response or adrenal fatigue
Creatine Kinase (CK)	30–150 U/L	>500 = intense training, >1,000 = concern	Muscle breakdown marker
AST / ALT	AST <40 / ALT <56 U/L	AST >80 without liver issue = muscle strain	Post-exercise stress or liver burden
LDH	140–280 U/L	>400 U/L	Chronic tissue stress or poor recovery
CRP (hs-CRP)	<1.0 mg/L	>3.0 = systemic inflammation	Inflammation, potential overtraining
Urea / Creatinine	Urea: 10–20 / Cr: <1.2	Depends on hydration, protein, renal function	Contextual clues for stress and protein turnover

🧠 What Affects These Markers?

Overtraining or lack of deloads
Low-carb or low-calorie diets
Emotional stress and poor sleep
Hormonal changes (especially in midlife)
Poor gut health or chronic inflammation

These markers give you insight into whether your training is building your body—or breaking it down.

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