Glycerol (HydroMax) for hyperhydration, science versus scams
If you're using a dietary supplement that includes glycerol as an ingredient, you're probably getting ripped off. That's because glycerol requires extremely high doses.
How high?
Meta-analysis of glycerol research indicate that it must be used at 1.2g/kg of bodyweight to achieve hyperhydration. However, a slightly lower dose of 1.0 g/kg BW added to 1.5 L of fluid post-exercise will accelerate the restoration of plasma volume. And a dose as low as 0.125 g/kg in liquid equal to 5 mL/kg BW will delay exercise-induced dehydration.
At the lowest dose a 100kg athlete would be consuming 12.5 grams of glycerol- just under a tablespoon.
And we're talking about pure liquid glycerol here. If you?re using a product that's less than 100% glycerol?well, you can do the math.
Glycerol silicate at 65% glycerol by weight (*more on this later) would require about twenty grams, and that?s if the silicate didn't have a negative effect on the glycerol a pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (a huge leap of faith since silica is a desiccant, i.e. a compound that dehydrates).
My experiments (read: personal use) with glycerol as a dietary supplement began about 20 years ago, as a teenager, when Bill Phillips wrote about it for Muscle Media 2000. In his article, he claimed that it was useful for bodybuilders to consume before going on stage, because of the pump it helped provide ? but in explaining the mechanism of action, he worked in some details about how athletes had been using it as a hyperhydration compound, and that it would help the body hold on to intracellular water.
Not being a bodybuilder, and caring very little (read: not at all) about bodybuilding contests, I used it for the second purpose, at anywhere between 1/4 tablespoons, before athletic competitions (rugby matches).
I believe that glycerol 'sort of' works for both athletes and bodybuilders, depending on what data points we are plotting. This is because while it does appear to enhance hydration, that doesn?t always translate to a great deal of increased performance, either in studies or in the real world.
Dehydrated? Drink more.
I?m betting that for CrossFitters or Strongmen, who may have to compete in hot weather through multiple events, on multiple consecutive days, glycerol can be ergogenic. But for the typical gym-rat or bodybuilder, I just can?t see it having a noticeable effect on performance.
Used appropriately and at the correct dose, glycerol can increase endurance time to exhaustion by up to 24%, and provide a 5% increase in power or work. But again, we are talking about doses many, many times higher than found in powdered dietary supplements (i.e. preworkout drinks).
But what about glycerol silicate (*told you I?d come back to this), which is currently one of the hot ingredients found in PWO and pump products?
Unfortunately, there is no scientific basis to believe that 2 grams of glycerol silicate powder (providing 1.3g of actual glycerol) is somehow going to produce those same results that are seen with 100 grams of pure (liquid) glycerol. Zero.
Glycerol silicate powder is better than glycerol monosterate, but neither allow the user to consume enough to mimic the power and endurance boost achieved in any of the studies where it is shown to have a benefit.
You?d have to ingest half a tub of the average preworkout or pump product to get anywhere near an effective dose.
But what about HydroMax? Aren't there studies proving that it works?
Unfortunately, the only research that suggests it works, is in-house, unpublished, and non-peer-reviewed. Plus, the only benefit they?re claiming in those (dubious) trials is an increased (and subjective) ?pump? observed at 500-2,000mg doses:
"But what about HydroMax? Aren't there studies proving that it works? Unfortunately, the only research that suggests it works, is in-house, unpublished, and non-peer-reviewed. Plus, the only benefit they?re claiming in those (dubious) trials is an increased (and subjective) ?pump? observed at 500-2,000mg doses."
(That?s from the HydroMax white paper, and yeah, I have a copy of the full set of literature they've been circulating)
Although Glanbia currently sells the ingredient, promising hyperhydration, it's group of outside ?scientists? who came up with the idea. And that group is the shadiest of the shady let's just say they've lost medical licenses in more than one state and I consider their work to be some of the worst in the supplement industry, from a scientific perspective.
Sorry, but when the only data suggesting that this miracle ingredient works, is from people we can?t trust, and contradicts all available science, I?m not inclined to give HydroMax the benefit of the doubt. Yes, I know they?re making the case that it's 'synergistic' with certain ingredients, and that it works for a 'pump' but again, I just don't trust them.
The burden of proof is on the shills making the claims, not the skeptic questioning them. But hey, I?m open to being wrong, I just haven?t seen anyone proposing a mechanism of action whereby adding a dehydrating agent to a hydration compound somehow makes it 10x more potent?
So why do I think a few grams of glycerol wont work? Well, in the simplest terms, glycerol works by attracting and holding water. When you ingest glycerol, it is rapidly absorbed (primarily) by the small intestine, and evenly distributed throughout the body?s fluid compartments (except cerebral spine fluid and the aqueous humour). This causes your body to increase the osmolarity of plasma, resulting in an induced osmotic gradient, an increase in total fluid, and an increased abilility to maintain that fluid volume in the tissue. This is hyper-hydration.
But you?ve got a lot of blood in your body, and it takes a lot of glycerol to produce that effect.
My advice?
Buy it for a few cents per gram at your local pharmacy, and use a ton if you want, but don?t waste your time with it in a preworkout.
Source: https://medium.com/@anthonyroberts/glycerol-for-hyperhydration-science-versus-scams-7ee8369a16be
If you're using a dietary supplement that includes glycerol as an ingredient, you're probably getting ripped off. That's because glycerol requires extremely high doses.
How high?
Meta-analysis of glycerol research indicate that it must be used at 1.2g/kg of bodyweight to achieve hyperhydration. However, a slightly lower dose of 1.0 g/kg BW added to 1.5 L of fluid post-exercise will accelerate the restoration of plasma volume. And a dose as low as 0.125 g/kg in liquid equal to 5 mL/kg BW will delay exercise-induced dehydration.
At the lowest dose a 100kg athlete would be consuming 12.5 grams of glycerol- just under a tablespoon.
And we're talking about pure liquid glycerol here. If you?re using a product that's less than 100% glycerol?well, you can do the math.
Glycerol silicate at 65% glycerol by weight (*more on this later) would require about twenty grams, and that?s if the silicate didn't have a negative effect on the glycerol a pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (a huge leap of faith since silica is a desiccant, i.e. a compound that dehydrates).
My experiments (read: personal use) with glycerol as a dietary supplement began about 20 years ago, as a teenager, when Bill Phillips wrote about it for Muscle Media 2000. In his article, he claimed that it was useful for bodybuilders to consume before going on stage, because of the pump it helped provide ? but in explaining the mechanism of action, he worked in some details about how athletes had been using it as a hyperhydration compound, and that it would help the body hold on to intracellular water.
Not being a bodybuilder, and caring very little (read: not at all) about bodybuilding contests, I used it for the second purpose, at anywhere between 1/4 tablespoons, before athletic competitions (rugby matches).
I believe that glycerol 'sort of' works for both athletes and bodybuilders, depending on what data points we are plotting. This is because while it does appear to enhance hydration, that doesn?t always translate to a great deal of increased performance, either in studies or in the real world.
Dehydrated? Drink more.
I?m betting that for CrossFitters or Strongmen, who may have to compete in hot weather through multiple events, on multiple consecutive days, glycerol can be ergogenic. But for the typical gym-rat or bodybuilder, I just can?t see it having a noticeable effect on performance.
Used appropriately and at the correct dose, glycerol can increase endurance time to exhaustion by up to 24%, and provide a 5% increase in power or work. But again, we are talking about doses many, many times higher than found in powdered dietary supplements (i.e. preworkout drinks).
But what about glycerol silicate (*told you I?d come back to this), which is currently one of the hot ingredients found in PWO and pump products?
Unfortunately, there is no scientific basis to believe that 2 grams of glycerol silicate powder (providing 1.3g of actual glycerol) is somehow going to produce those same results that are seen with 100 grams of pure (liquid) glycerol. Zero.
Glycerol silicate powder is better than glycerol monosterate, but neither allow the user to consume enough to mimic the power and endurance boost achieved in any of the studies where it is shown to have a benefit.
You?d have to ingest half a tub of the average preworkout or pump product to get anywhere near an effective dose.
But what about HydroMax? Aren't there studies proving that it works?
Unfortunately, the only research that suggests it works, is in-house, unpublished, and non-peer-reviewed. Plus, the only benefit they?re claiming in those (dubious) trials is an increased (and subjective) ?pump? observed at 500-2,000mg doses:
"But what about HydroMax? Aren't there studies proving that it works? Unfortunately, the only research that suggests it works, is in-house, unpublished, and non-peer-reviewed. Plus, the only benefit they?re claiming in those (dubious) trials is an increased (and subjective) ?pump? observed at 500-2,000mg doses."
(That?s from the HydroMax white paper, and yeah, I have a copy of the full set of literature they've been circulating)
Although Glanbia currently sells the ingredient, promising hyperhydration, it's group of outside ?scientists? who came up with the idea. And that group is the shadiest of the shady let's just say they've lost medical licenses in more than one state and I consider their work to be some of the worst in the supplement industry, from a scientific perspective.
Sorry, but when the only data suggesting that this miracle ingredient works, is from people we can?t trust, and contradicts all available science, I?m not inclined to give HydroMax the benefit of the doubt. Yes, I know they?re making the case that it's 'synergistic' with certain ingredients, and that it works for a 'pump' but again, I just don't trust them.
The burden of proof is on the shills making the claims, not the skeptic questioning them. But hey, I?m open to being wrong, I just haven?t seen anyone proposing a mechanism of action whereby adding a dehydrating agent to a hydration compound somehow makes it 10x more potent?
So why do I think a few grams of glycerol wont work? Well, in the simplest terms, glycerol works by attracting and holding water. When you ingest glycerol, it is rapidly absorbed (primarily) by the small intestine, and evenly distributed throughout the body?s fluid compartments (except cerebral spine fluid and the aqueous humour). This causes your body to increase the osmolarity of plasma, resulting in an induced osmotic gradient, an increase in total fluid, and an increased abilility to maintain that fluid volume in the tissue. This is hyper-hydration.
But you?ve got a lot of blood in your body, and it takes a lot of glycerol to produce that effect.
My advice?
Buy it for a few cents per gram at your local pharmacy, and use a ton if you want, but don?t waste your time with it in a preworkout.
Source: https://medium.com/@anthonyroberts/glycerol-for-hyperhydration-science-versus-scams-7ee8369a16be
