Have you ever had the experience of taking a dietary supplement, taking
it consistently, making gains in the gym and not being able to connect
the dots? I mean, you're training hard, your eating clean
ninety-percent of the time, your using perhaps one new supplement and
your strength and muscle fullness are remaining more than ever before.
Can it be this mysterious white powder that you are taking a few times
per day, especially on the hard training days, that is making the
difference between the old you and new you? The
amino acid that may just be your ergogenic king is known as glutamine.
Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid circulating in your blood and hanging out in your muscles. There must be a reason why we have so much of this one (of 20) amino acids. Let's examine why this amino acid is special.
It should not be confused with Michael or Bruce Buffer
Do
you watch any of the big prize fights or even the UFC? If so, you know
that the Buffer brothers have the introduction aspects of all major
fighting events locked up. In other words, they are the buffer between
the fighters, promoters, announcers and us fans. Well,
glutamine
is a buffer, a big buffer in fact. When you exercise, given that the
exercise is at some intensity that requires a prolonged effort
(shopping with your girlfriend may be an effort and be as tiring as
running a marathon, but it is not exercise), the body responds by
generating ammonium ions. These ions accumulate in the muscle and
eventually signal the muscle that it cannot peak perform anymore and
that it is getting tired. If you buffer that ion accumulating reaction
to stressful exercise, then the person exercising can train harder and
longer, thus reaping the added benefit of continual stress. As a side
benefit, there is some data that indicates that when lactate and
hydrogen ion concentrations rise, so does the process of inhibiting
muscular activity. Research does demonstrate that if you can buffer the
metabolic acidosis that occurs with intensive resistance training
(weight lifting), then performance output can be improved. Can anyone
think of any sports where this would be a benefit beyond that of just
weight lifting?

Early research in athletes has found that as little as two grams of
glutamine
increased the plasma bicarbonate concentrations -- meaning that yes, it
acts as a buffer in a similar way that using regular bicarbonate does.
When examining raw numbers, actual data from a weight training
performance study, glutamine appeared to have a performance saving
benefit. Let me explain, this study had college-aged males perform
specific weight training exercises to failure two times for two major
body parts after a thorough warm-up. The subjects were taking
glutamine, an inactive amino acid or pure placebo prior to the exercise
testing session. One would expect that the second set of repping to
failure would produce less total reps than any earlier set of the same
load. In this study when examining the raw data, those who received the
glutamine experienced the least reduction in leg press performance,
while not doing especially different than the other groups in the bench
press aspects of the study. From this we can gather that perhaps taking
the glutamine one-hour prior to training and only on one day may not be
totally conducive to whole body performance benefit, but it does aid in
the major muscle groups getting some protection against the decline in
exercise performance. While it is preliminary, this is one reason to
include glutamine in your arsenal.
Over Exercise? Get Sick?
Have you ever had a stretch of time
that you were training hard, beyond hard even and doing this over
consecutive days or weeks? Some people reach such a state after a while
of this type of training (with no real recovery time for neural or
muscular recovery) and they become stale and even stagnant in the gym.
Shortly thereafter, this state of over-reaching becomes official
over-training. Being in a state of overtraining will lead the immune
system to become depressed and to function sub-optimally. Do you want
to know the amino acid that takes the biggest hit when you over-train?
Glutamine.
Suppressed or sub-optimal plasma and intracellular glutamine levels are
a result of too much training. These sub-par levels actually correlate
well with the increased occurrence of upper-respiratory infections
(chest/head colds). Now, since we are all forward thinkers here, it is
time to realize that training more does not always equate into bigger
or even stronger muscles. In fact, train too much and do so without
proper recovery and nutrition and you are training yourself to not look
like someone who works out. Kinda sucks, right? All that effort put
into training and your body does not respond. It is during the stage
where you are either over-trained, getting on your way to this state or
even if you live in a hypoxic area (high altitude) that the
conditionally essential amino acid glutamine is lost. Recall that
glutamine is needed for lymphocyte proliferation and macrophage
phagocytosis. Thus if glutamine levels in the body are too low, then
your defense against opportunistic infections is greatly reduced.
From the above, do you think that anyone who trains hard and does so on
an almost daily frequency would need or should think about
supplementing with glutamine?
I do. Meaning that if you help your body maintain its normal
homeostatic amount of circulating and "stored" glutamine, perhaps you
will help strengthen the immune system by fortifying it with the
nutrition that your immune system needs (it also needs protein,
vitamins, Thione-- and other key factors for ancillary support).
Glutamine also is important for reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines,
improving how the gut (intestines) absorbs other nutrients and, in
fact, can reduce mortality from major illnesses. Some people advocate
taking up to 30 grams of glutamine per day and data from the clinical
nutrition world appears to support these recommendations.
Glutamine increases overall nutrition
We have all seen the television commercials that tell how certain
sports drinks (known as glucose-electrolyte solutions) can replenish
what you lose during exercise. What these commercials have not told you
is that there is a better drink that is not being sold. If you could
improve upon the most popular sports drink (it generates about $1
billion per year in sales) what would you do? Did you know that when
athletes train long and hard that their intestines can temporarily have
a reduced capacity to absorb certain types of nutrition and that
diarrhea can occur? This happens mostly to runners who run longer than
an hour. In addition, athletes and non-athletes do get ill and
sometimes this type of illness requires that fluid be put back in. The
fact is that if you add glutamine to these glucose-electrolyte drinks
(oral rehydration solutions) than it will stimulate the body to absorb
more of the water and other nutrients that are in the drink. Dehydrated
muscle looks flat, well hydrated muscles look full.
Glutamine
may just be what people most overlook when wanting to have the
appearance of a well-developed body. For this reason, if you are a
carbohydrate or sport-drink type of athlete (especially during the
post-exercise time period), it is time for you to think about adding 10
grams or so of glutamine to that drink. Over the long run, your body
will thank and adore you for it. So might those who see you outside of
the gym.
GlutaWraps.
The evidence is clear that including 10 to 30 grams of glutamine per
day, especially during times of hard or excessive training, can help
the body not get sick, contribute towards fuller muscles, enhance
nutrient absorption and support the immune system. For these reasons,
one would have to wonder why more people are not aware of the benefits
of glutamine. Do not expect that glutamine will immediately aid your
efforts in the gym or improve your body overnight, but consistent smart
use of this amino acid can pay off big time.
Douglas S. Kalman MS, RD is a Director in the Nutrition and Endocrinology Department of Miami Research Associates (www.miamiresearch.com) and contributes to the
ProSource Forum.