Verifying a Need for Glutamine

           Ah, Labor Day. My diet during this past three day weekend was best described as “unsupervised child at a birthday party.” I did donuts, brownies, and pizza for dinner… I really slacked off from the regiment and I did not care one bit. I think we all need those cheat days to get us revamped. But with that behind me, it was time to get back to the regiment. Unfortunately, due to poor planning on my part, I forgot to restock the fridge at work with milk and I didn’t want to swing into Walmart all sweaty and gross. When I am looking my best, I see no one I know. When I am post-workout or fresh from mowing the lawn, I am guaranteed to run into twelve people from my graduating class that I haven’t seen in a decade.

           So, I just decided to go straight home after my workout and I skipped my standard dose of glutamine, amino acids, and my whey protein shake that I keep set up at the office. (I want that whey protein in my system as quickly as possible post-workout.) The problem with certain supplements is that it is hard to tell if they are really working until you have a couple of workouts without them. Given the soreness presented as I was getting ready for bed and again this morning, I do feel it is safe to say that my post-workout cocktail is certainly helping minimize the soreness and helps with the overall recovery process.

           Now, it is possible that this soreness is the result of taking three days off. I am also only running on about six and half hours’ worth of sleep. Those factors could be contributors but the soreness presented as I was getting ready for bed and given how it carried over to this morning, I am hurting. The workout clocked in at just a shade over an hour and I burned over 1,000 calories which is pretty standard for a session. I didn’t stack on super heavy weight. I did fairly normal reps and standard exercises. I didn’t go above and beyond with yesterday’s workout.

           Given that the workout was fairly standard and that three days is not an epic amount of time off and with the only major change being the lack of supplemental support, I have to deduce that the cocktail is living up to the hype and helping my performance by minimizing soreness and downtime for recovery.

Frank "The Chemist" Zane

           So do you NEED all these extra supplements? No. You can survive without them. However, if we look at the research provided by Frank Zane (Mr. Olympia in 77, 78, and 79 – Under 200 lbs. & Overall Winner), he talks about the importance of glutamine and amino acids:

           “Why extra glutamine? Well, it’s a very important Amino Acid Glutamine, this is the Amino Acid that your body pulls out of muscle tissue when you’re starving, people who are on diet or hungry a bit more than normal generally tend to lose muscle mass depending on what else they eat and how hard they exercise.

           So, when you take Glutamine, the Glutamine is pulled out of the chain of Amino Acids in your body and is sent to your liver where it’s turned into carbohydrate. If you take Glutamine in free form, you minimize that effect, so it’s really good for someone who is on diet and wanting to get the most out of the calories they eat and not get anything extra that they don’t need.”

           If I am reading all the research right, once you start trying to work out while maintaining a caloric deficit (i.e. to lose weight), your body starts sucking the natural glutamine out of your muscles. By taking a scoopful of powder glutamine powder, you are telling your liver, “Here take this!” and it leaves the glutamine in your muscles alone. This allows your muscles to repair because the levels of amino acids remain high.  

           And this is why The Mountain on Game of Thrones uses glutamine so much in his diet. So, glutamine doesn’t make you stronger but it helps keep those muscles functioning at a top level. Who says bodybuilding is just for dumb-dumbs? SCIENCE!