Citrulline Malate: Can Lead to Improved Exercise Capacity Levels
( Advanced Supplement Research & Exercise Science ) ..
One of the toughest challenges in bodybuilding is that deathly tired and painful feeling in your muscles as you eke out those last few reps. Your muscles are screaming from the tremendous accumulation of lactic acid that results from the rapid breakdown of muscle glycogen.
So what's the Rx? I'd like to introduce you to citrulline malate (CM), a compound composed of an amino acid (citrulline) with a metabolic intermediate (malate). It isn't part of the hurliing blocks of protein, but citrulline serves an integral role in protein metabolism.
Even though the mechanism for how citrolline malate works isn't entirely known, I did recently review some research conducted on its effects in rats. The cool thing about research is that more questions are always waiting to he answered; in this case, what may the effects
be in humans? New and exciting evidence indicates that citrulline malate may he an effective ergogenic aid for exercises of an anaerobic nature.
Recent work conducted at the University of Porto in Portugal suggests that CM may deserve careful consideration. In this investigation, 30 men (ranging from 20-30 years old) were divided into two groups. Group 1 (high dose) ingested 12 grams of CM for 10 days and 18 grams of
CM for the next three days. Group 2 (low dose) ingested 6 grams of CM for 13 days. When subjects then cycled to exhaustion, researchers found that the high-dose group attained a higher anaerobic threshold than the low-dose group. This means that as you progressively increase
the workload or exercise intensity (in this case on a cycle), your muscles will accumulate more and more lactic acid.
Apparently, if you take enough CM, the point at which you accumulate a significant amount of lactic acid takes hunger to reach (that is, you can exercise longer before you hit your threshold). Furthermore, at these subjects' very highest workloads, the total amount of lactic
acid accumulated was much lower (24%-33% less) in the high- dose CM group. So how does this apply to resistance training? Well, you must remember that weight training is anaerobic and, as such, produces a great deal of lactic acid. If you rest 30-60 seconds between sets, then
you'll eventually suffer from fatigue that is in large part related to the effects of lactic acid accumulation, Will taking citrulline malate offset some of these effects? According to this study it would seem so.
Your body doesn't know or doesn't care if this lactic acid is the result of intense cycling exercise or lifting weights; it has the same basic metabolic effects. So if you take CM, theoretically you should recover between sets more easily. This would allow you to perform a
greater volume of work and, perhaps in the long run, lead to better gains in muscle mass.
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