Does L-arginine (nitrate) give you much boost or not?

[omega3]

What are you experiences with L-arginine pure or binded with nitrate for example? How many gram do you take (on empty stomach?) and what do you feel afterwards?

Apparently alot of the L-arginine you take is destroyed in the stomach and some people recommend L-citrulline instead. I've tried 5 gram doses of citrulline but it doesn't do much.

 

[deadlyapp]

I haven't been using it for a bit now, but for a while my pre workout dosage included ~2g L-arginine and ~2g L-citrulline as well as BCAA, creatine, and beta alanine. I didn't notice much of a pump, but I also don't engage in workouts that give much of a pump (eg high rep isolated movements). I was too cautious to go above those dosages based on some things I had read at the time, but you can probably go a bit higher with each together, or higher still with each separately.

https://examine.com/supplements/citrulline/
https://examine.com/supplements/arginine/

 

[omega3]

Why did you take the arginine and citrulline combined? Any benifits to that? Did you try them seperate?

 

[deadlyapp]

Why did you take the arginine and citrulline combined? Any benifits to that? Did you try them seperate?

Never tried them separately but I do have quite a bit of Arginine left that I could experiment with. I had read some things about combining the two, and there is some research around stacking the two, but since citrulline is just converted to arginine in the cycle, there probably isn't a huge reason for combining vs using each individually.

Here's a link to some research into combining the two, although it is purely animal testing. It essentially shows that the combination of the two increases peak response and makes it much more rapid when compared with each supplement individually.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X14018178

 

[omega3]

If you have some arginine left, maybe try 3 to 5 grams on an empty stomach and no food afterwards if possible and see if it does something to you and let us know here? Thanks.

 

[deadlyapp]

If you have some arginine left, maybe try 3 to 5 grams on an empty stomach and no food afterwards if possible and see if it does something to you and let us know here? Thanks.

What are you more interested in - the effect of food before? I can do a control based on my normal pre-workout meal 2-3 hrs before workout and then do a fasted, identical workout later in the week. Will probably focus on arms and will measure diameter for both.

 

[omega3]

.

 

[omega3]

What are you more interested in - the effect of food before? I can do a control based on my normal pre-workout meal 2-3 hrs before workout and then do a fasted, identical workout later in the week. Will probably focus on arms and will measure diameter for both.

Have you tried it yet? The effects of food before seems the most important. You could try day 1 without food before and day 2 with food to see if it makes a difference an hour later.

 

[deadlyapp]

Have you tried it yet? The effects of food before seems the most important. You could try day 1 without food before and day 2 with food to see if it makes a difference an hour later.

Sorry - got really caught up last week and didn't have an opportunity. I'll check it out this week and report back.

 

[snarfbot]

https://examine.com/supplements/arginine/
https://examine.com/supplements/citrulline/

this website compiles data from every research study conducted on supplements, generally geared towards exercise, and then lists its results and the magnitudes of its effects and its consistency, from which you can infer whether that particular result was significant or anomalous.

you can see that those results that were tested rigorously, the effects are minor in magnitude in the arginine studies, and non existent in the citrulline studies.

citrulline appeared to show statistically significant effects at a greater magnitude in single studies, or those that were for whatever reason deemed less reliable.

so, these things are supposed to promote the "pump", it may or may not actually do that. whether that helps to build muscle or lose weight is also not well studied.

personally id save my money.

 

[deadlyapp]

So here are my preliminary results - I'll follow up with the last piece later this afternoon.

Control: No supplementation
Test 1: 5g supplementation of L-arginine, with no food in previous 4 hours, taken 45 minutes prior to workout
Test 2: 5g supplementation of L-arginine, with food in past hour, taken 45 minutes prior to workout

Workout: 4x8 single bicep curl with band resistance, 4x8 single tricep extension with band resistance, 4x10 barbell bicep curl (45lb)

Measurement: Bicep measured in unflexed and flexed state prior to supplementation & workout, then immediately after workout


Control:
Prior to workout: 29.8cm unflexed, 33.6cm flexed
After workout: 31cm unflexed, 34.9cm flexed
Change: +1.2cm unflexed, +1.3cm flexed

Test 1:
Prior to workout: 29.5cm unflexed, 34cm flexed
After workout: 32cm unflexed, 36cm flexed
Change: +2.5cm unflexed, +2cm flexed

Test 2:
Prior to workout: 29.6cm unflexed, 34.3cm flexed
After workout: 31.5cm unflexed, 35.5cm flexed
Change: +1.9cm unflexed, +1.2cm flexed

Unmeasured effects:
Noticeably more "Swollen" feel, high pump, noticeably more vascularity in bicep and forearm when taken on empty stomach vs full stomach.

Will compare vs food shortly.

 

[deadlyapp]

Updated with the "full stomach" option. Interesting results.