Now with more pump action: adding GPLC to your plan is another way to boost NO

Muscle & Fitness, July, 2009 by Jordana Brown

ARGININE

There's a reason arginine is one of the most popular supplements on the sports-nutrition market, and it has a lot to do with your inborn reward system. After killing yourself in the gym day after day, you want to see results. Take arginine before your workout and you'll see almost immediate effects in the form of a pump that not only shows up in the gym as you're attacking the iron but also helps your muscles grow.

Arginine works because it's converted into nitric oxide (NO) in the body. A vasodilator that relaxes blood vessel walls and allows more blood to pass through, NO pushes fluid and nutrients into muscle tissue, making them temporarily larger. What more could a gym rat ask for? Well, research now shows that another amino acid compound--glycine proprionyl-1-carnitine (GPLC)--holds promise for increasing NO. The best part is that taking it along with arginine can seriously augment NO levels.

GPLC

How does GPLC work? Glycine, a nonessential amino acid, synthesizes creatine, boosts growth hormone levels, aids nerves in signaling muscles to contract and increases NO levels. Carnitine, though not technically an amino acid, behaves like one and is responsible for enhancing testoster-one's anabolic effects, and increasing fat-burning and NO levels. Put the two together and you have the potential for quite a bit of muscle-building benefits.

When scientists at the University of Memphis (Tennessee) gave GPLC or a placebo to trained subjects for four weeks, those taking GPLC exhibited NO levels that were 30% higher than those in the placebo group. Even better, the researchers postulate that GPLC boosts the activity of nitric oxide synthase, the enzyme tasked with converting arginine into NO. So it follows that increasing GPLC while taking arginine will send NO levels skyrocketing. It may also reduce the breakdown of NO.

To experience the mega-pump promised by this potent compound, keep taking arginine daily (3-5 grams on an empty stomach), adding 2-3 grams of GPLC to your pre- and post-workout meals or two other meals on rest days.