There are tons of supplements available on the market, claiming to be incredibly useful for bodybuilders. However, only a few of them are backed up by reliable science. Glutamine supplements are one of them. Famous among athletes and bodybuilders from all over the world glutamine supplements help prevent tearing down of muscle, promote muscle growth and enhance the immune system.
What is Glutamine?
Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid. This means your body produces it. It is the most abundant amino acid within your body, found in your plasma (blood) and skeletal muscle, and it plays many important roles within your body. One of them is immune system function. Illness, infection and exercise all can result in decreased glutamine levels, which can contribute to immune system suppression. For instance, after an intense workout, your glutamine levels get depleted and this can make you susceptible to infection. During these times of stress, glutamine becomes essentially, meaning that you need to take in foods or glutamine powder supplements to help replenish your levels.
How Glutamine Benefits Athletes and Bodybuilders?
When stress levels are high, such as during an intense workout, cortisol hormone levels get increased. This reduces amino acid absorption and stimulates protein catabolism, which in turn affects muscle building. Glutamine helps counteract protein and muscle breakout during periods of increased cortisol hormones.
During contest preparation, athletes tend to experience high cortisol levels due to restrictive dieting and long cardiovascular sessions to reduce body fat. For many of them, supplementing with glutamine powder helps stop the rise in cortisol levels during and after a hard workout allowing muscle synthesis to continue to occur even during the recovery phase. Another way glutamine supplements benefit athletes is by keeping their immune system strong while dieting allowing it to ward off illness. There is nothing worse for an athlete after months of dieting and training to become ill and never hit the stage.
Although different types of glutamine supplements are available, many athletes prefer supplementing with glutamine powder. By combining a spoon of the powder with a fresh juice or protein shake, you get a significant amount of nutrients that provide energy for exercising or engaging in some type of physically strenuous activity. Because the nutrient is in liquid form, you start to notice the benefits right after finishing your drink.
Another common type of glutamine supplement is glutamine capsules. For some, supplementing with capsules are more convenient, though this method doesn't provide the immediate rush of energy that powder does. With glutamine capsules, glutamine is released into your system throughout the day. This can be especially beneficial if you have a daylong project to manage, or need to be very alert and focused in order to successfully complete your project.
Whether you choose to go with powder or capsules, know that there is no difference between the level of nutrition you get from each. Your choice should be based on the goals you are looking to achieve. For a burst of energy to help you get the most from your workout, use the powder blended with a nutrient-rich drink. If you need to stay sharp throughout the day, take the capsules.
Capsules and tablets generally come in 500 mg servings; you can safely take 1-3 servings a day. If you decide to go with the powder, you can use 1-3 teaspoons a day safely.
What Esse Can Glutamine Do for You?
Energy Production
Glutamine supplements also aid in the creation of muscle glycogen from blood glucose. This increases energy production and availability during exercise. That increased availability of glucose to your skeletal muscles during exercise helps improve exercise performance, intensity, and recovery. Glutamine also assists in the removal of lactic acid, pyruvate, amino acids and other byproducts of energy metabolism in your muscles, thereby shortening your recovery time between exercise sets.
Weight Control
When you're exercising and following a diet, you may experience different metabolic changes. Glutamine can help you gain metabolism-boosting muscle if you adhere to anti-inflammatory diets or eat foods that give you energy and that speed up metabolism.
Cellular Hydration
Your cells become deprived of water when you undergo intense and strenuous physical exercise. Glutamine supplements keep your cell more hydrated, reducing the time required for injury recovery. In the bodybuilding world, injury is seen as the tearing down and building up of muscle tissue. You can also have a muscle tear, ligament tear or small sprains in the course of intense exercise. Supplementing with glutamine will help with reducing the effects of the stresses and strain on your body by keeping your cells hydrated and malleable.
Gastrointestinal Health
You might be surprised to find out that your intestine uses most of the glutamine in your body. This explains why glutamine is often recommended for individuals with diverticulitis. Research has also shown it to be beneficial for healing ulcers and leaky gut.
It's known that under intense training conditions, blood flow to the gut is cut off for the most part. Many bodybuilders have reported improved GI functioning as another benefit of supplementing with glutamine.
