Weekly Supplement BS Report #5

Glutamine: Keep it or Crap It

“Glutamine is a key factor in muscle growth, and controlling the skeletal muscle/whole body glutamine gradient is critical in maintaining and building muscle tissue.* The higher the muscle glutamine levels you can maintain, the less chance you have of falling into catabolism and the faster muscle will grow.*”
- AST GL3 description

“Following an intense workout your body needs to replenish glutamine stores to aid in recovery.* L-Glutamine can help increase muscle cell hydration and aid in protein synthesis.”
- EAS L-Glutamine description

“70% of it never reaches muscle tissue and 90% of it is gone in 1 hour, leaving you with a low dosed short supply of Glutamine. The end result is very little anabolic activity and can actually lead to catabolic muscle wasting because you’re relying on your glutamine supplement to supply and replenish the glutamine needed and it just isn’t delivering.”
-MHP Glutamine-SR description

Why so many people have fallen in love with this amino acid, I’ll never know. Maybe because it’s the most abundant amino acid within the muscle? Or maybe it’s because the supplement manufacturers have led us to believe that it not only helps prevent muscle breakdown, but it also improve muscle synthesis, aka the double whammy of muscle hypertrophy? Or just maybe it’s because one study found oral glutamine to increase growth hormone 4 fold? Who knows. And honestly, how could you not want this supplement in your arsenal after reading the above claims. Even yours truly went through 4000g before finally retiring it to the BS files.

Anabolic Potential

Over the last few years, it’s become blatantly obvious its anabolic benefits were grossly exaggerated. (some may even call the claims a bold-faced lie) The current research just doesn’t support any anabolic/anti-catabolic benefits. So now the question becomes, does it have any potential benefits for athletes/weightlifters?
And the quick answer for those that suffer from ADHD: absolutely not. Unless of course, you’re an 80lb marathon runner with less muscle mass than a 5 year-old girl.

Glutamine and the Immune system

Let me explain.
Glutamine’s proposed immune-enhancing ability is probably its most sought after benefit (after the anabolic/anti-catabolic claim of course). And coincidentally, that claim also has the most research supporting it. That’s until you actually look closer at the studies. It seems as though the supplement manufacturers extrapolated data from a few positive studies that were done on rats, critically-ill patients, and patients with various muscle-wasting diseases, and marketed those results toward healthy, muscular trainees, all while ignoring the studies that actually related to this group that showed little if any benefit. Apples and oranges my friends. Apples and oranges!
Yes, it’s true that leukocytes (a key component of the immune system) need glutamine to function properly. It’s also true that leukocytes can’t synthesize glutamine like the muscle can. And it’s also very likely true that a severely low plasma glutamine level probably results in a depressed immune system (you’re more likely to get sick).
However, that doesn’t mean glutamine will benefit us. Why? Because it’s false that an intense weightlifting session lasting less than an hour will decrease plasma glutamine levels low enough to depress the immune system. In fact, the large majority of research suggests that it’s long, intense aerobic exercise lasting over 2 hours that leads to low levels of plasma glutamine. It’s also false that an overtrained athlete with low plasma glutamine levels will be more susceptible to infection. And on the very same note, it’s false that an intake of oral glutamine will prevent exercise-induced immune depression even though it will raise plasma glutamine levels.

The Result

So would you or I benefit from a $30 container of glutamine powder? Not a chance. The only athlete that could possibly benefit from oral glutamine supplementation would be a marathon/cyclist/ironman-type athlete. Then, just maybe, it may improve an overworked immune system.
By the way, if you’re interested in its ability to improve glycogen synthesis, just consume more carbs. It was one study, and they only used 61g of carbs. You’ll save a lot more money and get identical results.

And the congregation said…… B_LLSH_T

Weekly Supplement BS report #4

Weekly Supplement BS Report #4

October 6th, 2009 Volume I Issue 5

This last week has been kind of crazy at Muscle Geeks so I’m a little behind schedule. Our facebook app has moved from the planning stage to the development stage, we’ve decided to give our website a complete makeover, and we’re adding product descriptions to every product in our store. Plus, we’re also preparing for an advertising launch at 10 major colleges over the next 3 months. On top of all of that, my deadline for an article in Fitness and Physique Magazine was due this past weekend.

Now that all is back to normal, I can get back to the real BS.
This week’s article is going to be a little shorter than the rest. It’s not because of time constraints though. It’s actually because I’m not really for sure what I believe just yet… I don’t know if I really can call it BS. But if I can, my diet will be forever changed.

I first came across this topic around 6-8 months ago on a bodybuilding message board. The members were debating the topic of “protein pulsing.” Apparently over the last couple of years, there’s been a growing amount of research supporting its benefits for bodybuilders. According to its supporters, muscle protein synthesis slows almost to a halt if the muscle is constantly supplied with amino acids, similar to how Type II Diabetes develops. They theorize that’s it’s better to let your body reach a catabolic state (almost zero amino acids in the bloodstream), and then quickly flood your bloodstream with amino acids via a fast-digesting protein. This way, your muscles do not become “desensitized” to amino acids and muscle protein synthesis is improved above and beyond that of a normal protein intake. If this theory holds true, the old way of thinking about protein intake (1-2g per pound of body weight) may vary well be sent to the the BS box along with creatine ethyl ester, serum creatine, etc.

 

After I had read the entire discussion and reviewed some of the studies, I thought I’d try it out. So I developed my own protein pulsing protocol, and have been using it for the last 3 months. I’ve been consuming between 150-180g daily instead of my usual 250g daily. Thus far, I must say I have been impressed. It appears as though I’ve lost a little flab, while subsequently adding a little size (via the mirror, no objective tests). I’m also hovering around 205 lbs, 5-7 lbs over my average weight. I’m most happy with my weights though. On almost every major lift, I’ve either hit my all-time max even though I’m 15-20 pounds lighter than when I hit them prior to, or I’ve surpassed my all-time maxes. That’s pretty impressive, especially when you consider my diet really hasn’t changed (other than the decrease in calories from less protein) and I haven’t added any other supplements than what I normally take. And even my weight routine is relatively the same.

 

However, even with my own personal results, I still wasn’t convinced protein pulsing was superior. There’s just too many factors involved in strength training and bodybuilding. I could easily be overlooking something that I’m doing now that I wasn’t doing before. Sometimes the most trivial things can make the biggest difference. Then two things crossed my desk. I was perusing Function Ingredients magazine, and there was a small article about a doctor out of Texas who wholeheartedly believes that the body cannot digest more than 20g of protein per sitting. According to him, anything more the 20 grams, and you’re wasting it. However, there was no supportive material with it, just the doctor’s opinion. Then a fellow Geek brought the following study to my attention:

Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men.

Moore DR, Robinson MJ, Fry JL, Tang JE, Glover EI, Wilkinson SB, Prior T, Tarnopolsky MA, Phillips SM.

Exercise Metabolism Research Group, Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jan;89(1):161-8. Epub 2008 Dec 3

BACKGROUND: The anabolic effect of resistance exercise is enhanced by the provision of dietary protein. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine the ingested protein dose response of muscle (MPS) and albumin protein synthesis (APS) after resistance exercise. In addition, we measured the phosphorylation of candidate signaling proteins thought to regulate acute changes in MPS. DESIGN: Six healthy young men reported to the laboratory on 5 separate occasions to perform an intense bout of leg-based resistance exercise. After exercise, participants consumed, in a randomized order, drinks containing 0, 5, 10, 20, or 40 g whole egg protein. Protein synthesis and whole-body leucine oxidation were measured over 4 h after exercise by a primed constant infusion of [1-(13)C]leucine. RESULTS: MPS displayed a dose response to dietary protein ingestion and was maximally stimulated at 20 g. The phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 kinase (Thr(389)), ribosomal protein S6 (Ser(240/244)), and the epsilon-subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2B (Ser(539)) were unaffected by protein ingestion. APS increased in a dose-dependent manner and also reached a plateau at 20 g ingested protein. Leucine oxidation was significantly increased after 20 and 40 g protein were ingested. CONCLUSIONS: Ingestion of 20 g intact protein is sufficient to maximally stimulate MPS and APS after resistance exercise. Phosphorylation of candidate signaling proteins was not enhanced with any dose of protein ingested, which suggested that the stimulation of MPS after resistance exercise may be related to amino acid availability. Finally, dietary protein consumed after exercise in excess of the rate at which it can be incorporated into tissue protein stimulates irreversible oxidation.

Hmmm… Do we really need all that protein? Is timing more important than quantity? Has the bodybuilding community been wrong all these years? Does the average (non-enhanced) gym rat really need to be consuming 1-2 grams per body weight?

Honestly, I don’t know. I think this is a no-win argument. I can probably argue both sides relatively easily from a scientific standpoint and from a real-world standpoint. In fact, both methods have been successful for me. I’ve ballooned up to 225-230 lbs while consuming 300-350g of protein daily, and I’ve quietly grown to 205 lbs with just 0.73g per pound of body weight. During both of those stages, I’ve achieved my all-time maxes in all three of my major lifts.

I’ll take the easy way out though. I won’t call BS on it just yet. I think they both have their places in a transformation. It’s just something to think about, and possibly experiment with especially if you’re in a rut.

Just be warned, you’ve probably already been beat down with the various carb cycling diets out there. Protein cycling is next…