The Benefits of Nitric Oxide Supplements – Alone and With Creatine
Sunday, February 20th, 2011In order to achieve optimal health, wellness and fitness, you can't simply hit the gym for half an hour each day and then throw common sense, hard work and discipline out the window. After all, there's only so much time you can spend working out and only so much you can get done in the gym - the rest of your life has to complement your efforts in order to reach your goals. Proper rest and adequate nutrition, for example, are essential to finding success in transforming your body.
Perhaps the easiest way to set yourself up for success is to properly prepare for your workout. Setting yourself up for a fat-torching cardio session or a grueling weight training workout puts you that much closer to your goal. A common, and very effective way to do this is priming yourself with pre-workout supplements. Two of particular interest are Nitric Oxide activators and creatine products.
Nitric Oxide supplements are quite powerful, as they produce many effects that benefit both strength and endurance athletes. The main effect, usually caused by the ingredient Arginine, is vasodilation, or the expansion of blood vessels. This improves blood flow, encouraging superior nutrient delivery to working muscle cells, as well as the transport of waste products (carbon dioxide and lactic acid) away from those cells. Additionally, arginine can stimulate creatine synthesis, which leads to ATP (energy) production in cells during intense exercise. And last, but certainly not least, arginine has been shown to influence levels of growth hormone. Specifically, arginine supplementation increases natural Growth Hormone production, which can lead to higher levels of lean mass and a better body composition.
In addition, one study found that Arginine had benefits in as little as one week of use. The first result of the one-week L-Arginine supplementation was the decrease in pulmonary arterial pressure by 5mmHg. Additionally, the researchers found that pulmonary vascular resistance decreased by 16 percent. In some participants, this decrease was even more significant; 10 patients experienced a 20 percent drop in pulmonary vascular resistance. These effects allow for easier blood flow through the body, enabling oxygen and nutrients to be delivered to working cells more efficiently (1).
But creatine has plenty of beneficial effects, too. Creatine is crucial in the production of cellular energy, allowing you to achieve the highest levels of intensity in your workouts. In addition, creatine is a a muscle cell volumizer, and by pulling water into muscle cells, can increase size as well as strength.
And while creatine and nitric oxide supplements can be quite effective on their own, studies have shown that combining the two produces results that are greater than the sum of the two individually. One study compared the effects of a supplement that included both creatine and arginine against a placebo as well as creatine alone. Although the study was just 10 days long, the researchers uncovered significant differences indicated that the combination was very beneficial. Muscular endurance improved quite a bit compared to the creatine alone and the placebo, as did peak power production. This lead the researchers to conclude that supplementing creatine and arginine together "can improve high-intensity exercise performance" and that the combination would be more effective than creatine alone.
The researchers also noted the existing body of research promoting arginine's uses in fatigue resistance and improving maximal strength, as well as studies noting creatine's ability to increase protein synthesis and improve lean muscle mass (1). Based on this research, the combination of creatine and arginine is a one-two punch that is not to be missed.
SOURCE:
1. Nagaya, Noritoshi, et al. Short-term Oral Administration of L-Arginine Improves Hemodynamics and Exercise Capacity in Patients with Precapillary Pulmonary Hypertension. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2001; 163(4): 887-891.
2. Little, JP, et al. Creatine, arginine alpha-ketoglutarate, amino acids, and medium-chain triglycerides and endurance and performance. International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism, 2008; 18(5):493-508.
