Handful of ornithine caps before strength training boosts GH level

Give a guy who weighs 80 kg a dose of 8 g L-ornithine before a weight training session, and his growth hormone level will increase by a factor of three.
Japanese researchers working for ornithine manufacturer Kyowa Hakko Bio have studied the effects of this amino acid on athletes.

It's not the first time we've written about publications by these researchers. According to their research, endurance athletes can improve their final sprint by taking ornithine, and ornithine also removes ammonia from the bloodstream during physical exertion.

The idea that ornithine supplements can boost the production of growth hormone after heavy training is not new, but it is controversial. Finnish researchers who gave weight lifters 2 g L-ornithine and 2 g L-arginine each day for a couple of days recorded no effect whatsoever on growth hormone levels.

[Int J Sport Nutr. 1993 Sep; 3(3): 290-7.]

Researchers from Syracuse University gave bodybuilders 7 g L-arginine and observed that the post-training growth hormone production actually declined slightly. Polish researchers gave power lifters 10 g of an L-arginine and L-ornithine mixture daily and recorded a rise in growth hormone production. We call this conflicting evidence.

The Japanese gave ten young men, average age 22, 100 mg L-ornithine per kg bodyweight and then got them to do 8 sets of biceps exercises. The protocol is shown below. And for once the typos are not ours.