Growth According to the Phases of the Moon

A while back when I googled astrology & the lunar cycles I stumbled upon a few sites that talked about growing hair according to the phases of the moon. (here's one site: http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/articles.php?f=tip001.htm

Some of the notions:

Grow hair faster ~ Trim ends during the New Moon or during the First Phase of the Moon when the light of the moon is increasing. The best astrological signs for faster, longer and healthier hair is the New Moon in Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio, Capricorn or Pisces.

Grow hair slower ~ Trim ends after the Full Moon when the light is decreasing. This is true during the 3rd and 4th quarters of the Waning Moon. This is especially true when the Moon is in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius or Aquarius, which also slows growth.

Then I found a bit about growing vegetables according to the moon:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/gar.../Do-plants-grow-better-garden-light-moon.html

excerpt on carrots:
He found that the most striking results were with the carrots. When he pulled them up in June, he found that the ‘waxing carrots’ weighed a total of 7.8kg, whereas those planted when the moon was waning weighed just 4.8kg — a significant difference.

All of this is very interesting... but what I'm really interested in is growth in the human body.

Is it possible that a person working out & strength training could have better results building muscle if he did his work out routine in accordance to the cycles of the moon?

I don't want to limit this thread to just that question though. I'm interested in any experience people have with hair, gardening or whatever in relation to the moon.

Hey friend,
I found your post while trying to do my own research about the same topic. I found nothing else besides your question.
It's amazing that no research has been done on the effect of the lunar cycle on human physiology, especially given how much has been done on the daily and annual cycles.
Anyways, about a year ago, I started to notice that my physical energy levels seemed to be effected by moon phase... I'd often feel good approaching the full moon, and ****** approaching new moon.
I recently decided to try synching my strength training (free weights and calisthenics) and supplement use with the moon phase. After finding absolutely no information about the topic, I decided to do 2 week "growth" cycles from New to Full moon, and 2 week "recovery" cycle from Full to New. I've just finished one cycle only, and I'm not being scientific about it, but it seemed to work great. I happened to peak on the first quarter and was able to lift a LOT heavier than usual.

So friend and any others reading this, if you do find any helpful literature, please do post it here or get in touch.
Thanks!
Erik

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARTICLE

SOME U.S. FARMERS INSIST ON PLANTING BY PHASES OF THE MOON

http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2001/06/0614_wireplanting_2.html

I've never run across any physical training schedules based on astrology, so this might be a new field of medical astrology to study. I also did a project for my ag science class to analyze how moon phase affects the growth speed of kale(a type of cold-weather crop) earlier this year. Unfortunately, I don't have the paper any more, or I'd post my findings. It proved my hypothesis, and you can develope your own tests on the subject using the information in any farmer's almanac. My project only tested moon phase, but moon sign also impacts the speed at which plants grow.

erikandelman said:

Hey friend,
I found your post while trying to do my own research about the same topic. I found nothing else besides your question.
It's amazing that no research has been done on the effect of the lunar cycle on human physiology, especially given how much has been done on the daily and annual cycles.
Anyways, about a year ago, I started to notice that my physical energy levels seemed to be effected by moon phase... I'd often feel good approaching the full moon, and ****** approaching new moon.
I recently decided to try synching my strength training (free weights and calisthenics) and supplement use with the moon phase. After finding absolutely no information about the topic, I decided to do 2 week "growth" cycles from New to Full moon, and 2 week "recovery" cycle from Full to New. I've just finished one cycle only, and I'm not being scientific about it, but it seemed to work great. I happened to peak on the first quarter and was able to lift a LOT heavier than usual.

So friend and any others reading this, if you do find any helpful literature, please do post it here or get in touch.
Thanks!
Erik

Click to expand...

Dude! Really cool info! I was just thinking today about how good I was feeling until a few days ago and sure enough the moon's starting to wane. Just curious, what type of training are you doing? How do you implement supplements & calories between the waxing & waning fazes? It's great to hear that synching with the moon helps.

I've wondered too if the moon phases could also be a useful application for weight loss as well. I would love to get a study up and running at my college.

Hey everybody, and thanks for the replies.

One more thing I can add: Like the "waxing carrots" mentioned above, I definitely weigh more during the waxing moon. I'm a yoga teacher -- HOT yoga -- so I'm acutely aware of my level of hydration, which I regularly check by weighing myself. This past month I've consistently weighed about 4-5 lbs more/less during the waxing/waning moon. That's from 147-152.

And now one more thing I'm trying to understand:
I decided to try my hard training during the waxing moon, because I generally feel stronger and am better hydrated. However, as those of you who train hard already know, hard training *breaks down* the body. It is then the body's response to this which makes us stronger. This aspect of training makes me think I should be training hard during waning moon, and resting more -- allowing my body to rebuild -- during the waxing moon.

Thanks again and please let's keep working on this!
Erik

Blacknight,
Re supps and calories:
Creatine and caffeine pre-loading, whey post workout. I go off of creatine and don't caffeine load during waning moon. I use less whey in waning, because I'm not working out as much or as hard.
Calories I haven't tracked, but I probably get less during waning, simply because I'm not working out as much or as hard.
Workouts are a variety of free weights with a focus on deadlifting and other hamstring/glute exercises. Planks, bridges, pull-ups and lots of bodyweight exercises too.

Thank you for the info & definitely keep us updated.