Thread: glutamine

in my experience, i was able to take it with protein, and creatine and it worked pretty well

I haven't taken Glutamin in about three days, when I go back to our advisor in a week and a half, I'll see if there is any lost lbm. I've heard different things as lately, so trying something a lil different right now.

Originally posted by JLB001
I haven't taken Glutamin in about three days, when I go back to our advisor in a week and a half, I'll see if there is any lost lbm. I've heard different things as lately, so trying something a lil different right now.

yeah, i get enough from just eating protein regardless. you might be in trouble on an iso-caloric diet though. but they suck.

noone has any arguments pro-glutamine??? *surprised*

i took for a while (10g a day) and i didn't really notice anything but that doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't do anything.

I notice that it helps my recovery. I know this because I have taken the basic sups, whey,flax,glutamine, and when I added the glutamine it really helped out with recovery

i think the people that are pro-glutamine... (Prince) have probably already discussed this issue enough, they are happy with their supps and will continue to take them... it's not a matter of needing to prove anything...

Originally posted by HoldDaMayo
i think the people that are pro-glutamine... (Prince) have probably already discussed this issue enough, they are happy with their supps and will continue to take them... it's not a matter of needing to prove anything...

well there are certainly a host of pro articles, but i have never come across any threads claiming it doesnt work, and that is what the majority of studies have come to show, so thats why I made this thread. With all due respect to Prince--why take something blindly based on someone else's oppinion or isolated experience when large scale edvidence proves otherwise? I'm just out to find the truth like the next guy, and if that means I don't have to waste an extra 30$ every month on some sub-par supplement, well thats just a bonus

below is a study that has been performed on a group of athletic adults.


Effect of glutamine supplementation combined with resistance training in young adults.

Candow DG, Chilibeck PD, Burke DG, Davison KS, Smith-Palmer T.

College of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of oral glutamine supplementation combined with resistance training in young adults. A group of 31 subjects, aged 18-24 years, were randomly allocated to groups (double blind) to receive either glutamine (0.9 g x kg lean tissue mass(-1) x day(-1); n = 17) or a placebo (0.9 g maltodextrin x kg lean tissue mass(-1) x day(-1); n = 14 during 6 weeks of total body resistance training. Exercises were performed for four to five sets of 6-12 repetitions at intensities ranging from 60% to 90% 1 repetition maximum (1 RM). Before and after training, measurements were taken of 1 RM squat and bench press strength, peak knee extension torque (using an isokinetic dynamometer), lean tissue mass (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) and muscle protein degradation (urinary 3-methylhistidine by high performance liquid chromatography). Repeated measures ANOVA showed that strength, torque, lean tissue mass and 3-methylhistidine increased with training (P < 0.05), with no significant difference between groups. Both groups increased their 1 RM squat by approximately 30% and 1 RM bench press by approximately 14%. The glutamine group showed increases of 6% for knee extension torque, 2% for lean tissue mass and 41% for urinary levels of 3-methylhistidine. The placebo group increased knee extension torque by 5%, lean tissue mass by 1.7% and 3-methylhistidine by 56%. We conclude that glutamine supplementation during resistance training has no significant effect on muscle performance, body composition or muscle protein degradation in young healthy adults.

The effects of high-dose glutamine ingestion on weightlifting performance

Antonio J, Sanders MS, Kalman D, Woodgate D, Street C.

Sports Science Laboratory, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.

The purpose of this study was to determine if high-dose glutamine ingestion affected weightlifting performance. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study, 6 resistance-trained men (mean +/- SE: age, 21.5 +/- 0.3 years; weight, 76.5 +/- 2.8 kg(-1)) performed weightlifting exercises after the ingestion of glutamine or glycine (0.3 g x kg(-1)) mixed with calorie-free fruit juice or placebo (calorie-free fruit juice only). Each subject underwent each of the 3 treatments in a randomized order. One hour after ingestion, subjects performed 4 total sets of exercise to momentary muscular failure (2 sets of leg presses at 200% of body weight, 2 sets of bench presses at 100% of body weight). There were no differences in the average number of maximal repetitions performed in the leg press or bench press exercises among the 3 groups. These data indicate that the short-term ingestion of glutamine does not enhance weightlifting performance in resistance-trained men.


The effect of free glutamine and peptide ingestion on the rate of muscle glycogen resynthesis in man.

van Hall G, Saris WH, van de Schoor PA, Wagenmakers AJ.

Department of Human Biology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. RH01769@RH.DK

The present study investigated previous claims that ingestion of glutamine and of protein-carbohydrate mixtures may increase the rate of glycogen resynthesis following intense exercise. Eight trained subjects were studied during 3 h of recovery while consuming one of four drinks in random order. Drinks were ingested in three 500 ml boluses, immediately after exercise and then after 1 and 2 h of recovery. Each bolus of the control drink contained 0.8 g x kg(-1) body weight of glucose. The other drinks contained the same amount of glucose and 0.3 g x kg(-1) body weight of 1) glutamine, 2) a wheat hydrolysate (26% glutamine) and 3) a whey hydrolysate (6.6% glutamine). Plasma glutamine, decreased by approximately 20% during recovery with ingestion of the control drink, no changes with ingestion of the protein hydrolysates drinks, and a 2-fold increase with ingestion of the free glutamine drinks. The rate of glycogen resynthesis was not significantly different in the four tests: 28 +/- 5, 26 +/- 6, 33 +/- 4, and 34 +/- 3 mmol glucosyl units x kg(-1) dry weight muscle x h(-1) for the control, glutamine, wheat- and whey hydrolysate ingestion, respectively. It is concluded that ingestion of a glutamine/carbohydrate mixture does not increase the rate of glycogen resynthesis in muscle. Glycogen resynthesis rates were higher, although not statistically significant, after ingestion of the drink containing the wheat (21 +/- 8%) and whey protein hydrolysate (20 +/- 6%) compared to ingestion of the control and free glutamine drinks, implying that further research is needed on the potential protein effect.


Exercise-induced immunodepression- plasma glutamine is not the link.

Hiscock N, Pedersen BK.

Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre and Department of Infectious Diseases, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.

The amino acid glutamine is known to be important for the function of some immune cells in vitro. It has been proposed that the decrease in plasma glutamine concentration in relation to catabolic conditions, including prolonged, exhaustive exercise, results in a lack of glutamine for these cells and may be responsible for the transient immunodepression commonly observed after acute, exhaustive exercise. It has been unclear, however, whether the magnitude of the observed decrease in plasma glutamine concentration would be great enough to compromise the function of immune cells. In fact, intracellular glutamine concentration may not be compromised when plasma levels are decreased postexercise. In addition, a number of recent intervention studies with glutamine feeding demonstrate that, although the plasma concentration of glutamine is kept constant during and after acute, strenuous exercise, glutamine supplementation does not abolish the postexercise decrease in in vitro cellular immunity, including low lymphocyte number, impaired lymphocyte proliferation, impaired natural killer and lymphokine-activated killer cell activity, as well as low production rate and concentration of salivary IgA. It is concluded that, although the glutamine hypothesis may explain immunodepression related to other stressful conditions such as trauma and burn, plasma glutamine concentration is not likely to play a mechanistic role in exercise-induced immunodepression

Originally posted by HoldDaMayo
i think the people that are pro-glutamine... (Prince) have probably already discussed this issue enough, they are happy with their supps and will continue to take them... it's not a matter of needing to prove anything...

hey I am not the only one here that is pro-glutamine! There are many others here, including Eric (gopro).

I no longer respond to these posts asking the efficacy of glutamine. I take it, I feel that it's a beneficial supplement, I will continue to use it, and that's all I will say.

k thanks for the reply though wasnt targetting you

honestly, i am still undecided myself, i just wanted to start a friendly debate, that would adress the recent issues, alot of which have even ended up in the mags.

do a search, there are plenty of Glutamine debates here.

I haven't been around for the glutamine debates, but I will say that the "pro" arguments tend to be based on out-of-context information - for example, "glutamine is involved in protein synthesis," "is essential for the immune system," and so on. However, it is flawed to think that if we give the body what it needs to synthesize protein it is automatically going to do it in the absence of other stimulus. Although glutamine may play an important role in these processes, that does not mean more is better - and this is contrary to the evidence that actually examines that issue, which is the important one. To draw an analogy, most vitamin and mineral deficiencies will hinder our ability to build muscle, but this does not mean that taking even more of these vitamins and minerals beyond what is needed to correct a deficiency will necessarily improve muscle gains. Glutamine "deficiency" only occurs under situations of severe catabolic stress, in all other situations there is plenty to go around and it is in no way rate limiting, since if the body needs it for something it can quickly synthesize it de novo. Just getting my word in.

Hey in my new Cutler DVD he has like 20 jugs of glutamine in his pantry. He takes a shit load of it a day, like at every meal. Obviously it does something, and us glutamine users are not just fooling ourselves into thinking its working.

personally i believe higher doses of glutamine is where it actually begins to do something, i even remember an old old post by GoPro saying he only really noticed an impact from Glutamine when he moved up to 20g a day... which is more than double what most people take... :shrugs:

I take 2 table spoons a day...I am not sure what gram that is....lemme see its 18 grams..thats down from 27 only because its expensive to take a ton of it

I probably started experimenting with glutamine about 6 years ago and it remains as one of my favorite supplements and one that I will take on a daily basis until I am done with bodybuilding, which will probably be forever.

Originally posted by HoldDaMayo
personally i believe higher doses of glutamine is where it actually begins to do something, i even remember an old old post by GoPro saying he only really noticed an impact from Glutamine when he moved up to 20g a day... which is more than double what most people take... :shrugs:

yeah, but it's relative, if memory serves correctly gopro is around 245lbs.

yeah, they only way to know for sure is to test it for yourself, just like anything else, without any changed factors.