Making Your Muscles Visibly Larger
Creatine, a lifelong buddy
As someone who pursues strength and muscle growth, if you haven't tried creatine, it's really time you did. This affordable and effective supplement has been talked about countless times, so why not give it a shot?
What Can Creatine Do?
- Enhance protein synthesis metabolism.
- Increase muscle cross-sectional area.
- Support higher intensity workout loads.
- Improve anaerobic exercise capacity.
- Reduce fatigue.
- Accelerate recovery after high-intensity training.
1. Muscle Growth
Creatine can boost water content within cells, increase the speed of muscle fiber growth, and enlarge muscle size. It stimulates protein synthesis, enhancing muscle's synthetic metabolism, ultimately achieving the muscle size sought in bodybuilding.
2. Strength and Explosive Power
Creatine can increase the storage of phosphocreatine in muscles, raising the load capacity in high-intensity training, resulting in faster sprint speeds. This boost in power translates to improved explosiveness in anaerobic exercises. During training, creatine supplementation can enhance one's maximal strength, i.e., 1RM.
Additionally, creatine offers benefits for increasing anaerobic and aerobic endurance.
Creatine allows muscles to store more energy, providing more available energy when the body needs it during intense moments. It also improves the rate of phosphocreatine resynthesis during the post-workout recovery period, reduces reliance on anaerobic glycolysis, and minimizes muscle lactate accumulation, thus delaying the onset of fatigue.
As a "shuttle" for energy exchange between mitochondria and muscle fibers, creatine helps generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), contributing to improved aerobic endurance performance.
Activating Sperm Is Just the Beginning
Arginine, an underestimated gem
Arginine plays a key role in cytoplasm and nuclear protein synthesis and is considered an inducible factor for muscle growth and immune protection. It's a conditionally essential amino acid, meaning the body can synthesize a part of it but may require additional amounts from external sources.
What Can Arginine Do?
1. Benefiting Reproductive Health
Arginine is a significant component of sperm proteins and promotes sperm production. A deficiency in arginine may lead to a delay in sexual maturation. Arginine also stimulates the natural secretion of testosterone, helping males maintain normal testosterone levels.
2. Stimulating the Secretion of Various Hormones
In addition to testosterone, arginine can stimulate the secretion of various hormones in the body, including growth hormone, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Substantial literature suggests that supplementing extra arginine can promote the secretion of growth hormone from the anterior pituitary. Nitrogen retention is vital for effective bodybuilding, and arginine's ability to dilate blood vessels and participate in protein synthesis is also important for muscle growth.
3. Promoting Muscle Growth
Arginine plays a crucial role in cytoplasm and nuclear protein synthesis, considered an inducible factor for muscle growth and immune protection. Nitrogen retention is essential in bodybuilding. Arginine is a precursor to nitric oxide (NO), which enhances the production of NO, widens blood vessels, improves nutrient transport to muscle cells, and supports protein synthesis, contributing to muscle growth.
4. Benefits for the Cardiovascular System
This is achieved by increasing the release of nitric oxide. Supplementing with arginine can significantly increase the body's nitric oxide levels, which dilate arteries, improve blood circulation, and help alleviate conditions such as high blood pressure. Arginine is thus used to treat some related conditions, such as hypertension.
Lend a Helping Hand for Your Stamina
Citric Acid Malic Acid, stamina boosters
Citric acid malic acid, commonly found in the nitrate pump, are somewhat niche supplements. It's rare to see standalone citric acid and malic acid supplements; they're often present in a 2:1 or 4:1 ratio (citric acid to malic acid).
Their impact is one of enhancing endurance performance:
1. During high-intensity anaerobic exercise, the body accumulates a significant amount of lactic acid. Citric acid helps buffer lactic acid and reduce DOMS.
2. Taking 8g of citric acid malic acid one hour before high-intensity anaerobic training enhances muscle endurance, effectively improving performance in resistance training.
3. The body produces three times more ammonia than usual during high-intensity training. Citric acid malic acid helps remove ammonia to clear metabolic waste from muscle tissue.
4. Supplementation with 8g of citric acid malic acid enhances performance in upper and lower body 60% 1RM fatigue-resistant exercises.
5. Supplementing with 8g of citric acid malic acid improves 80% of bench press performance.
Boosting 1-4 Minutes of Power
Beta-Alanine, aiding the journey of champions
Beta-alanine is a common ingredient in the nitrate pump that causes a tingling sensation. It's a precursor to carnosine, found in skeletal muscles, which affects fatigue formation and oxidative stress factors. Increasing carnosine concentrations can prevent changes in muscle acidity during exercise, reducing fatigue and extending time to exhaustion.
1. Enhancing Anaerobic Exercise Performance
It mainly targets short-term, high-intensity muscle exercises, particularly in exercises lasting 1-4 minutes. For example, in exertion exercises lasting more than a minute, such as endurance resistance training, time to exhaustion is extended.
For exercises lasting less than a minute or more than four minutes, such as strength development weightlifting, which generally lasts for around 30 seconds, or a 10-minute 800-meter swim, beta-alanine also has an effect, but it's not as noticeable as in 1-4-minute exercises.
Muscle-building training in fitness, however, falls perfectly within the effective time frame, making it ideal to benefit from beta-alanine.
2. Reducing Neuromuscular Fatigue
Supplementing beta-alanine can improve training volume and fatigue index in resistance exercises, reducing neuromuscular fatigue, particularly in the elderly. It also participates in high-intensity interval training, enhancing the improvement of fatigue threshold. When you get older, this stuff might become a regular part of your routine.
In Summary
Four key elements that contribute to making men bigger, stronger, and more enduring:
Creatine, Arginine, Citric Acid and Malic Acid, Beta-Alanine
● Use creatine to focus on building muscle.
● Use arginine to regulate hormones, protect your heart and support your body.
● Citric acid and malic acid can enhance your endurance, with citric acid reducing fatigue, and malic acid focusing on short, high-intensity exercise.
Of course, this isn't limited to men. Creatine is also necessary for women seeking muscle volume, while arginine is applicable to women for its protective effects on fertility.
Reference：
[1]Jobgen WS, Fried SK, Fu W, Wu G. Arginine and Muscle Metabolism: Recent Advances and Controversies. The Journal of Nutrition. 2006;136(1):295S-297S.
[2]Hobson RM, Saunders B, Ball G, Harris RC. The Effects of Beta-Alanine Supplementation on Muscle Endurance: A Review. Amino Acids. 2012;43(1):25-37.
Post time: Oct-20-2023
