Thread: Glycerin for pumps?

I recently read in a magazine that got that som powerlifters and bodybuilders laod pure, pharmacutical grade Glycering about one houre before they train to give them that insulin spike and fill thier muscles with blood. The prescribed dosage was 50 milliliters of glycerin and about 20 oz. of water for every 10 mill of glycerin taken. Anyone ever used the stuff to get a major pump in the gym or heard about taking it?

The enhancement of performance of about 20% in these studies was for time to exhaustion at a fixed work load. In a real event, the enhancement of performance (time to complete a fixed distance) is certain to be much less. Until a more realistic test is used in research with glycerol, my best guess for the enhancement in an event is no more than a few percent.

The way in which glycerol enhanced performance in these studies is also not clear. There was no evidence of an increase in blood (plasma) volume, which would improve pumping of blood either to the skin to remove heat or to the muscles to maintain power output. Nor did we see a reduction in core temperature, in contrast to Lyons et al. (1990) in their study. These differences may have been due to the increased heat stress of the Lyons study as well as the higher level of fitness and associated heat acclimation of the subjects in our studies. It's also possible that glycerol works by increasing the amount of fluid inside cells rather than the amount in the circulation, in which case any effects on core temperature and blood would be incidental.

Lyons, T.P., Riedesel, M.L., Meuli, L.E., Chick, T.W. (1990). Effects of glycerol-induced hyperhydration prior to exercise in the heat on sweating and core temperature. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 22, 477-483.