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[L156]Lean Muscle Building Supplements

by Marc David, Mar

Glutamine: The BasicsGlutamine is 1 of 11 nonessential amino acids. Just because it's nonessential doesn't mean it's not necessary. Simply put, the body can produce what it needs. 60% of all free form amino acids come in the form of glutamine. During times of stress (stress not defined), glutamine reserves are depleted.Many studies have already proven that despite all the hype about how glutamine supplementation might help increase muscle mass, strength and prevent the dreaded OT (overtraining) syndrome, research articles that can be found today (2006) that examine glutamine supplementation benefits on performance, body composition and protein degradation have shown that it offers no noticeable, scientifically proven benefit to the weight lifter.

[There goes that popular theory that glutamine helps preserver your precious muscle after workouts or in general.]

Face it... nobody makes any money proving a supplement doesn't work.

Obviously when I received the original article about glutamine's super muscle building benefits, I was curious myself. After finding the research done by David Barr, I was so excited I couldn't wait to tell you. I'm not going to provide a full reference list - they're all right at the end of David Barr's article which will be included here for your reference.

[Thank you, David Barr, for doing all the leg work so I can pass along your research.]To summarize some of the key points that David Barr found in his original research:

A high protein diet or that of a well-fed bodybuilder who is following the standards for protein consumption, will be adequately supplied with all the dietary glutamine they need. About 10% of your total dietary protein intake is comprised of glutamine (3-10% from milk proteins; 15% from mean sources). In my case, given my stats and dietary intake, I'm getting around 29g of glutamine a day from my diet. More than most supplement companies would ever recommend I supplement with anyway.
A lot of theories hold onto the belief that because glutamine helps with clinical stress, it will help with exercise induced stress. But keep in mind that exercise has nothing on real clinical stress. Nitrogen loss in real clinical stress is vastly more prevalent than the leg workout you just did.
In a 2001 study by Candow et al, they concluded that 0.9g of supplemental glutamine/kg/day during resistance training had no significant effect on muscle performance, body composition or muscle protein degradation in healthy adults. At my current weight, that is 75g of glutamine a day![Re-read this: Candow et al (2001) just blows the presumption that glutamine is somehow an anti-catabolic agent for the bodybuilder and going to preserve all that muscle you are working so hard to keep.]
Most of the studies on endurance athletes have shown little to no significant benefits in terms of immune system enhancements or functions.[Dang it! There goes the other popular belief that glutamine is going to enhance your immune system and keep you healthy or recover faster from those stressful workouts.]" More importantly, there are several studies showing that glutamine supplementation doesn't alter exercise-induced suppression of the immune system! The bottom line is that blood glutamine levels, whether they drop or not following exercise, don’t seem to affect immunity to any greatextent, which precludes the use of glutamine for this reason." - Hiscock N, Pedersen BK. Exercise-induced immunodepression- plasma glutamine is not the link. J Appl Physiol 2002 Sep;93(3):813-22
In regards to glutamine's ability to increase the hydration state of cells, Dr. John M Berardi, Ph.D. did some preliminary testing and found that glutamine supplementation has no effect on total body water, intracellular fluid volumes, or extracellular fluid volumes. - Dr. John M Berardi, Ph.D., Appetite For Construction, JohnBerardi.com 2002 Nov 8
The jury is still out on glutamine enhancing glycogen stores following resistance exercise. Most bodybuilders have a post-workout plan of high glycemic carbs anyway which replace any glycogen lost making further supplement unnecessary.
In the study by Welbourne (1995) they demonstrated that a small 2g oral dosage of glutamine is capable of significantly elevating alkaline reserves as well as growth hormone. But does this affect the bodybuilder in any measurable way? According to the Cadow et al (2001) they didn't find any lean body mass gains. It might raise your growth hormone significantly but it begs the question..." does it actually DO anything for me when I'm trying to gain muscle?"[More research is needed in this regard and how glutamine's growth hormone increase affects your muscle.]
Finally, in regards to protein synthesis (muscle preservation and building) the most current research shows no direct correlation that glutamine increases the rate of protein synthesis at all. Even in some of the worst cases, it has little measurable effect. There goes the muscle building theory!One study even went as far to test on people, the effects of adding glutamine to an amino acid mixture. They concluded that the original amino acid mixture increased protein synthesis by 48% but adding glutamine to the mixture had no additional protein synthesis effects.

At this point you're probably thinking that glutamine is a worthless supplement.

Am I right?Glutamine isn't a worthless supplement and my intention is to only show you the other side of the coin so that you can decide for yourself. Even David Barr points out there are instances when glutamine supplementation might be beneficial to the bodybuilder, certain trauma instances, postoperative patient or for total parenteral nutrition (TPN) during severe illness.

Steroid users improperly coming off a cycle. At this time, testosterone can be very low. There's a risk of increased catabolism regardless of the diet of the bodybuilder. At this point, glutamine supplementation might be beneficial
When on a cutting diet and trying to get very lean, some bodybuilders will further increase a calorie deficit AND increase exercise volume. This can lead to an increase state of exercise induced stress and catabolism beyond that of a normal bodybuilder on a fat loss regime. Competitive bodybuilders come to mind in this instance. Glutamine may help reduce the stress and exercise related catabolism because it's beyond that of normal exercise induced stress.
In elite endurance athletes or people who train under extreme conditions several times a day. These are cases where extreme stress (not clinical) but much more intense then regular exercise comes into play and glutamine may be beneficial.
Under certain circumstances where catabolic waste is extreme (Alcoholism, Chemotherapy side effects, Food allergies, HIV/AIDS, Irritable bowel syndrome, Candida yeast overgrowth, Post-exercise colds and flu, Severe burns Ulcerative colitis). These are situations where a person is injured and trying to prevent catabolic waste.

David Barr makes a final comment after all his research that glutamine isn't a worthwhile supplement to the resistance trainer who is on a proper bodybuilding diet with post workout nutrition. Of course he doesn't call glutamine a dramatic supplement with muscle building benefits. He does show some instances where glutamine might be beneficial in legitimate wasting conditions. It's not exactly a black and white answer.

David said, "Since then I've had a while to let the results sink in. I know that most believers in glutamine will also have a hard time accepting the reality of the situation, which is why I didn't just try to convincingly show that glutamine wasn't as great as everyone thought; I tried to overwhelmingly demonstrate it."

The bottom line?

Glutamine supplementation probably won't do anything for you if you are a bodybuilder on a proper dietary plan. Spend your money on more food if you are looking to build muscle.

At this point, I would really encourage you to do your own research. Granted, David has done a bang up job! Even I believed in glutamine for bodybuilding until I was faced tolook at real evidence and not a magazine ad or a myth from a big guy at the gym.

"When someone wants to believe something you can’t convince them otherwise." - David BarrIf you don't believe any of this, that's okay. But until future research can shown that glutamine has dramatic muscle building effects, the current literature available doesn't support those theories...

References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1. Barr, David J., CSCS, MSc. Candidate.

Glutamine Destroying the Dogma,

Part 1

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do'id=461188

Part 2

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do'id=459884

2. Berardi, Dr. John M, Ph.D.

Appetite For Construction, JohnBerardi.com 2002 Nov 8

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/qa/afc/afc_nov082002.htm

Shortcut # 1 - Training More Often

A lot of times aspiring bodybuilders think they are not training enough and fall into the more is better mentality. One would think doing more workouts would lead to greater muscle gains?

It is not uncommon to find less experienced bodybuilders to start spending more and more time in the gym. Daily workouts become the norm and the length of those workouts gradually gets longer and longer. They usually think they are doing themselves good, and sometimes even brag about how they workout "everyday".

Is there a better way?

Your body can only recover and grow so fast. Training a muscle again before you have fully recovered from your previous workout will lead to overtraining. Generally the most you can train a bodypart is twice per week and still recover and grow.

While there are some rare exceptions to this rule. You should limit yourself to working each bodypart at most twice per week and take at least 2 days off from weight training each week for optimal muscle gains.

Shortcut # 2 - Doing More Sets

Making the transition from a beginner, to intermediate, to an advanced lifter usually involves increasing your workout training volume to some extent. The better shape you are in physically, the higher your work capacity, and the more volume of training you can handle.

For example, a beginner workout may consist of 6 sets per bodypart. An intermediate workout may consist of 9 sets per bodypart. And an advanced workout may consist of 12 sets per bodypart. While this is all good general training advice, it breeds the "more is better" mentality. After all no one wants to be a newbie for long so they jack up the training volume too much, too soon.

Another problem with this train of thought is that if 12 sets per bodypart are good for an advanced lifter, will more sets be even better? How about 15 sets, or 20 sets, and beyond...?

Is there a better way?

Generally it takes at least 3 years of training to progress from the beginner, to the intermediate, and on to the advanced levels of training. Once you reach the advanced levels adding more sets and training volume beyond this is often counterproductive.

While there is no hard set rules for exactly how much training volume you should do, there are some general guidelines that you can follow. 9 sets per workout should be adequate for smaller muscle groups like biceps, triceps, calfs, and abs. And around 12 sets per workout will be enough for larger muscle groups like chest, back, and thighs.

Once you are at the advanced training level the key to more muscle growth is using progressive overload and by adding variety to your workouts. NOT from adding more training volume.

Shortcut # 3 - Training Less Often

The world of bodybuilding is full of extremes, for a lot of guys it is either all or none... there is no middle ground. So after learning about the negative impacts of training too often, as outlined above, many bodybuilders make a complete U-turn and go the opposite direction and drastically cut back on their workouts figuring that "less is more".

Some experts have gone over the deep end with the fear of overtraining. Mike Mentzer and his Heavy Duty style workouts were one of the biggest influences of the "less is more" idea. Overall the basic principles of this workout were good because it implemented a solid plan of action, used progressive overload, monitored your progress, etc.

But one major flaw of the system was that if you weren't making progress with your workouts it was automatically assumed that you were "overtraining", so your workouts were cut back. Sometimes going to the point of working out once a week or less.

Is there a better way?

For some extremely hardgainers training less often (i.e. every second day) may be the best frequency for muscle gains. But most people will respond well to more frequent workouts (i.e. 2 days on, 1 day off).

There are no hard set in stone rules that work for everyone, but a general guideline of working out 4-5 times per week and training each bodypart twice per week is a good place to start. As you get more experienced you be able to find out exactly what your body responds the best to and customize your workouts to fit your specific needs.

Shortcut # 4 - Heavy Weights & Low Reps

One of the basic bodybuilding principles is a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle. So in order to get bigger, you need to get stronger. The cornerstone of all productive workout routines is progressive overload. You need to gradually increase the weights you are lifting over time in order to make progress.

During the early phases of a starting a workout program beginners can make fast gains because all training stimulus is new at this stage. Most of the initial strength gains come about from better lifting technique and improved coordination. In addition to actual muscle strength gains.

But once you get past the initial beginners phase, your strength gains come more slowly. When this happens a lot of lifters will simply do fewer reps so they can continue to increase the weights.

For example, if I can lift 100 lbs. for 10 reps, maybe I could drop the reps to 8 and lift 120 lbs., or drop the reps to 6 and lift 140 lbs., etc... While this may work to some degree initially to get you growing again, there comes a point where it can back fire and bring your gains to a screeching halt.

Is there a better way?

Lifting heavier weights for lower reps increases your odds of getting an injury such as a muscle tear. When you are doing fewer then 5 reps per set you lose the mind muscle connection. The lift becomes an end in itself and no longer a means for building muscle. Lifting too heavy makes it harder to concentrate on the muscles you are working, your focus switches to simply moving the weight and not getting crushed under a heavy barbell.

For bodybuilding purposes try to stay within the 6-12 rep range. This is the "sweet spot" for keeping your muscles under tension long enough to stimulate growth, while still allowing relatively heavy weights to be lifted.

Shortcut # 5 - High Intensity Techniques

A lot of hardgainers think the key to making faster gains in the gym is to simply work harder. So they increase the intensity of their workouts with various advanced training techniques such as forced reps, super sets, drop sets, and so on... Mistakenly thinking that the harder they train, the more muscle they'll build.

Is there a better way?

For the average drug free lifter using advanced training techniques and pushing yourself to the limit will quickly lead to burnout, overtraining, and possibly injury.

A very common mistake that you can witness pretty much any day of the week in the gym is to see a couple of eager young lifters doing bench presses with WAAAYYY too much weight on the bar. One guy will be getting ready to bench while his trusty spotter is standing by ready to assist the lift. After pacing back and forth getting all psyched up he'll start his set and some how manage to push out 2-3 reps with the most hideous form imaginable. Then he gets his spotter to assist him with an addition 3-5 reps.

At the end of the set you wonder who worked the hardest, the guy benching or his buddy pulling the bar off his chest...?

Once you reach failure with an exercise you have stimulated the muscle. More then this is simply a waste of your time. Not only that, but you increase the risk of injury which could actually set you back. Simply doing your sets to positive failure is intense enough to stimulate your muscles to grow.

After each workout record it in your training journal. Each workout strive to do better by lifting an extra 5 lbs. or doing an extra rep with the same weight. By gradually increasing your strength over time by using progressive overload you'll make consistent muscle gains.

The Real Shortcut To Fast Muscle Growth

Gains in muscle and strength don't come overnight. They take consistency over the long term. By taking things at a manageable pace and making small frequent improvements week after week with your workouts your muscle size will increase faster then you ever thought possible... Inch by inch life's a synch... Yard by yard life is hard...

Article Source : Glutamine

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Both Marc David & Lee Hayward are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Marc David has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gym, Fitness and Get Ex Back. To learn more about these supplements and where you need to go for your own research, you'll want to see what all the fuss is about in the Beginner's Guide to witness and Bodybuilding. This 250 page jam-packed book is full of insights like this and many m. Marc David's top article generates over 18100 views. Bookmark Marc David to your Favourites.

Lee Hayward has sinced written about articles on various topics from Build Muscle, glutamine & cysteine and Fat Loss. About The Author:Since 1999 Lee Hayward has personally helped hundreds of people from all over the world and all walks of life to transform their bodies and take their fitness to the next level.Check out his website at:. Lee Hayward's top article generates over 2400 views. Bookmark Lee Hayward to your Favourites.