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So the summer is over, and now you’ve gotten back into the gym after some sun and fun with the kids. This is a very common question that we receive in the stores. After a long summer break from resistance training, your body has to go through an adjustment period of recruiting muscles that have been “dormant” for most of the summer. This adjustment period tends to cause muscle fatigue and soreness….just like you are describing. There are many supplement ideas that can help ease you back into your normal routine. Everyone has probably heard of the importance of protein for muscle recovery, but I would like to focus on one that you might not have heard of. Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid that makes up over half of skeletal muscle. In fact, it’s the most abundant matter in skeletal muscle aside from water. So how can supplementing with Glutamine help you through this “soreness” phase and get you back to feeling your normal gym-self? Let’s dig a little deeper into why you are feeling this way and how Glutamine can help.

During moderate to intense training, your muscles recruit and use Glutamine to maintain energy levels. When Glutamine is depleted and not replenished quickly, lactic acid builds up into the tissue and can cause the muscle to fatigue and get sore. Our bodies manufacture Glutamine, but not fast enough or in quantities (specific for muscle recruitment) to prevent this from happening. So if we can supplement with additional Glutamine, we not only provide more “muscle fuel” during training, we replenish those depleted Glutamine stores after training. This allows the muscle to recover faster and act as a buffer for lactic acid buildup that cause soreness. Another recovery benefit of Glutamine is its ability to promote the production of human growth hormone. Growth hormone levels peak while we are asleep, which is the most beneficial time for our bodies to recover. So by supplementing with Glutamine, we maximize our bodies “self-healing” properties by elevating hGH levels.

Glutamine comes in capsule and powder forms. I recommend powdered Glutamine because it’s easier to dose in the quantities that will provide the benefits I described above. I recommend taking between 10 to 15 grams per day, split in 3 doses. Those doses would be best taken first thing in the morning, after your workout, and right before bed. We carry several brands of Glutamine in the stores, here’s one of our top sellers:

AllMax Nutrition Glutamine 400gram

Hope this information helps answer your question and gets you back to feeling great in the gym. If you have any other questions, feel free to email us from the web or visit any of our 4 locations in the Charlotte area. Take care.

 

 

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