Part One – “For the great majority of us are satisfied with appearance as though it serves as reality and more than often, these seemingly things influence more so than those that are.” – Niccolo Machiavelli, 1527
When you review the quote above by one of histories most influential management and political theorist they imply that in many cases individuals of a specific society or company become comfortable with the ways things are versus making changes that represent what they need to be. When you put these comments in the context of moving the body from its present state to that of an elite body builder, the message resonates loudly in reference to the unintended state of complacency some individual resistance training enthusiasts fall into. For example, while whey protein, creatine, and arginine may serve as solid foundations to any sound body building supplemental program, what other products are needed to support recovery, growth hormone production, insulin modulation, reduction of pain and inflammation, generation of energy, reduction of body fat, protein synthesis, nitric oxide production, detoxification to the reduction of exercise induced cortisol levels?
Solving This Anabolic Puzzle Diversely
When you review this short list of anabolic parameters and add in the complexity of managing and sustaining the physical and emotional stamina necessary to reach your goals, general appearances can begin to influence versus individual needs. However, the reality versus the appearance of the best approach to take here is to take advantage of a complement of past, present and emerging products across various supplemental categories versus limiting your choices to products that appear to only fit the general body building mold. Forward thinking sports medicine researchers today have adopted this attitude as more products once considered to be strictly medicinal in nature have been found to offer an array of benefits to resistance training individuals. The goal of this report is to outline a few of these globally researched and unfortunately underutilized supplements that definitively do the job as advertised, despite appearing to be second best and or a non-categorized resistance training supplement. Incidentally, this list is extensive and can’t be covered in one article two or three for that matter. Correspondingly, this report is divided into two parts. However, the goal here is to reinforce and establish the need to search and find the right combination of products that meet your individual needs.
Some Atypical and Typical Ergogenic Products
Section I: Endurance and Recovery
Co-Enzyme Q10
CoQ10 is an energy molecule found in all cells, however more abundantly in heart and muscle cells. Incidentally, to generate energy the body uses four different fuels, ATP (adenosine-tri- phosphate), glucose, glucose stored as glycogen and fat. These sources differ in the amount of energy they contain and how fast they’re released. Biologically, ATP stores, supports and recycles cellular energy with 95% of the body’s physiological energy needs being dependent on the presence of CoQ10. For these reasons researchers speculated that CoQ10 could benefit individuals engaged in strenuous workout routines. This was recently validated by researchers at the Doctoral Program of Sports Medicine at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. These researchers divided participants into 4 groups: rest group [control], exercise group, rest group with CoQ10 supplement, and exercise group with CoQ10 supplement. The exercise groups were run on a treadmill until exhaustion. The CoQ10 supplemented groups received an oral administration 300 mg of CoQ10 for 4 weeks.
Inhibiting Muscle Damage Definitively
The results of this study indicated that the CoQ10 exercise group increased total CoQ10 concentration in the slow-twitch muscles, improving workload capacity, muscle recovery and reduced exercise-induced muscular injury. These researchers attributed these benefits to CoQ10’s ability to stabilize muscle cell membranes and accelerated regeneration of ATP.
Suggested Dose: 300-600 mg/d.
Glycerol
Glycerol, also known as glycerin, glycerine and 1,2,3-propanetriol is an metabolite of alcohol known to enhance thermoregulation and improve performance. During all types of exercise the body’s ability to thermo-regulate is challenged, meaning excess heat produced from muscle contractions and all of the internal reactions occurring simultaneously. The problem here, core internal temperature can dangerously rise above 40 °C (104 °F). This is why proper hydration before workouts is so important. However, researchers of the School of Human Movement Studies at the University of Queensland in Australia discovered that by combining glycerol to water extends and super hydrates the body up to four hours. This lowers the heart rate and accelerates the rate of blood flow to the skin to help with cooling things down. This is the essence of glycerol’s thermo-regulating abilities, improving body hydration by creating a greater capacity to tolerate fluid loss, while maintaining a constant and safe internal body temperature.
Suggested Dose: 1.2 g/kg BW in 26 mL/kg BW of fluid over a period of 60 minutes, 30 minutes prior to exercise and 1.0 g/kg BW to each 1.5 L of fluid consumed following exercise to accelerate the restoration of plasma volume.
Phosphatidylserine (PS)
PS reduces exercise induced elevation of the hormone cortisol, known to accelerate muscle wasting. Equally, researchers at the University of Mississippi state that when PS is taken prior to workouts it speeds up recovery and prevents muscle soreness. This was validated by Italian scientists at the University of Naples who reported that 400 mg and 800 mg of phosphatidylserine lowered plasma cortisol by 16% and 25% respectively. In a similar trial, researchers at the University of California put participants through vigorous whole-body workouts four times a week. These subjects were given 800mg of PS daily prior to exercising. These scientist reported that phosphatidylserine reduced cortisol levels after workouts by 20%. More compelling here, testosterone levels which generally decline after workouts remained elevated, which was attributed to the presence of PS.
Stress Testosterone and PS
Ironically, because it comes from the same steroid hormone pool, physical and mental stress induced elevation of cortisol would equate with testosterone levels dropping in the process. However, due to PS’s ability to modulate the stress response researchers contend that it increases the testosterone to cortisol ratio. As you know testosterone is an important hormone to muscle growth as it binds to receptors on the surface of muscle cells and accelerates protein synthesis or the creation of new muscle.
Suggested Dose: 400mg-800mg 30 minutes before working out and at post workout.
Resveratrol
Resveratrol, the active compound found in grapes and red wine has shown the ability to extend life, reduce inflammation and has anti-cancer properties. Resveratrol appears to activate some of the same metabolic pathways that are stimulated by exercise without actually working out. This was corroborated in a study published in The Journal of Physiology showing that resveratrol up-regulated physiological changes comparable to that of endurance training, in fact at a 25% higher rate. These researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada, found that subjects exhibited not only improvements in aerobic capacity, but greater strength in their leg muscles. They attributed this to resveratrol’s ability to improve the function of mitochondria in muscle cells, the energy powerhouses that supply ATP to hard-working muscles.
Section 2: Fat Burners
Melatonin
Melatonin is best known as a natural sleep aid. Recently, researchers at Baylor University reported that 5 mgs of melatonin one hour before and after workouts stimulates growth hormone (GH) releases at a greater rate than at sleep while simultaneously lowering SST (somatostatin), the hormone that inhibits the release of growth hormone. Correspondingly, scientist at the Medical College of Wisconsin found that males who supplemented melatonin had fat reduction levels of 14% with a corresponding 9% increase in lean muscle development.
Suggested Dose: 5mg one hour before workout or at bedtime.
Section III: Growth Agents
GABA
GABA is short for gamma amino butyric acid. While Gaba a amino acid isn’t involved with building proteins, its impact on growth hormone (GH) production is unparallel. This is accomplished physiologically via its regulatory impact on the pituitary gland, the organ that actually governs the synthesis of growth hormone and its secretion. In fact, researchers at the First Medical Clinic at the University of Milan in Italy concluded that gaba’s impact on plasma growth hormone levels was significant when they administered 5grams of it, which in 90 minutes produced a five and one half (5-1/2)% increase in the production of GH.
Suggested dose: 1g to 3g after exercising or 3g to5 g on empty stomach 30 minutes before bedtime. GABA can cause a tingling, itchy feeling of the skin and usually dissipates in about 15 minutes. To minimize this researchers suggest working up to the 5g intake with lower dosages over a 2 to 3 week period.
Glycine Propionyl-L-carnitine (GPLC)
GPLC is a molecular-bonded form of L- carnitine, the fat-burning amino acid and the amino acid glycine. Glycine is used to help create muscle tissue, convert glucose into energy and construct normal DNA and RNA strands of genetic material. While not highly publicized glycine helps prevent muscle catabolism by boosting the body’s levels of creatine. Conversely, researchers at the Department of Health and Sport Sciences at the University of Memphis discovered that 4.5 grams of GPLC increased blood levels of NO (nitric oxide) in resistance-trained men, having a direct impact on muscle growth and repair.
Suggested Dose:1.5g to 4.5 g/d.
Last Words Here
As stated above the goal here is to move you toward becoming your own individual supplement guru. You and what you do are the key to you reaching your individual goals. Please review part two of this report, as your possible supplemental combinations are endless.
Bio – Dr. Redmon has been associated with the vitamin and health industry for over 25years, having served as The National Product and Education Director for one of the countries largest retailers of nutritional supplements. He has been widely published in many major bodybuilding, fitness and alternative medicine publications. He is the author of
Natural Born Fat Burners, Energy for Life and is a member of The National Academy of Sports Medicine and The International Society of Sports Nutrition.
