What Are Nitric Oxide Supplements And How Do They Work?
You may have heard of nitric oxide supplements, but what are they and how do they work? Read our article to find out what you need to know.
Keyword(s): nitric oxide supplements
Feeling fatigued at the gym?
It’s normal to feel like this at the end of your week. You’ve probably worked hard during the day then hit the gym hard afterward.
Your body is trying to repair itself in many ways.
You’re fighting thinks like inflammation from workouts. You might even be fighting the lack of sleep.
If you’re a body builder, your muscles are synthesizing proteins and taking energy and resources to do this.
Our bodies don’t like being worked as much as we tend to work them. And this is why we get fatigued.
So, we turn to some pretty unhealthy ways of dealing with this symptom.
We down energy drinks and caffeine supplements in hopes that we can boost our energy.
But we’re only artificially augmenting our perception with these drugs. Our bodies still remain tired and we don’t invite the gains that we would otherwise.
We really do need a more healthy solution to our problem of fatigue after a long week. And it’s not going to be found at Starbucks.
Of course, there are ways to do with without taking anything. Rest and the basics of a good diet and lots of water will help.
But sometimes, despite these things, we are still tired.
This is where Nitric Oxide supplements come in.
But what is it? And how does it work? Well, let’s find out.
What Are Nitric Oxide Supplements?
Nitric oxide is already a natural substance in your body. It works to regulate the communication between cells by transmitting signals through the body.
To make it, your body breaks down an amino acid called arginine.
In it’s pure form, nitric oxide is a gas. It’s given to babies to help them breathe.
It essentially smooths the muscles in their blood vessels and does this primarily in the lungs.
Back when Alfred Nobel was alive, doctors were prescribing nitroglycerine for heart diseases.
The man was pretty skeptical of the prescribed chemical. It is a volatile substance that explodes with the slightest amount of force applied.
But, what the chemical did was release nitric oxide in the body. And this helped with his oxygen and blood flow
But nitric oxide isn’t what’s inside your Nitric Oxide supplements.
What’s In Your Nitric Oxide Supplement?
What’s inside your nitric oxide supplements is actually arginine, an amino acid you can find in various foods.
You can find it in sesame seeds, spinach, crab, shrimp, and white meat turkey. You can also find it in eggs, milk, soy proteins, peanuts, and walnuts.
It’s one of 20 amino acids in your body. And it’s semi-essential to the function of your body.
You may not always need it in your body, but there are times when you will.
It’s necessary for several processes in the body. Included in these are processes such as hormone secretion, growth hormone output, toxic waste removal, and immune system health.
Outside of bodybuilding, they are actually used to treat heart failure and chest pain associated with heart disease.
This is because, like the nitroglycerine example above, your body turns it into nitric oxide. And nitric oxide helps with blood flow in the body indirectly.
Of course, with increased blood flow there is increased the function of certain blood filled organs and tissues. So there are other benefits of Arginine outside the gym.
But what are all the benefits of Nitric Oxide Supplements? Let’s find out.
The Benefits Of Nitric Oxide Supplements: Increased Recovery Rates
You’re probably working extremely hard in the gym. It takes a lot of commitment to build muscle.
But one of the problems is that you might not recover as fast as you’d like.
Recovery is a big deal in the muscle building world. And rightly so.
If you can recover faster, you can hit the weight again much quicker.
Nitric oxide supplements can help with your recovery time.
Nitric oxide increases the amount of blood flow to your body. It dilates your blood vessels thus widening the blood passageways.
The more blood that gets to your muscles, the quicker your body can flush out toxins such as lactic acid. And the more blood that gets pumped to your muscles, the faster protein synthesis can happen.
When you lift weights, you tear and stretch the muscle. Your blood helps in repairing those muscles.
You want to get as many nutrients to your muscles during this process. And this makes blood flow very important in muscle recovery.
Nitric oxide supplements are meant to be used in conjunction with other methods.
If you aren’t downing a post workout shake and then going home to a solid meal, you’re not going to get the full benefits of nitric oxide supplements.
With these things combined, you can really decrease the time between workouts.
But don’t push your body beyond its limits. Not allowing your body to recover will result in bad results and injury.
Recover fully, then workout. And repeat.
Nitric Oxide Supplements Reduce Fatigue Levels During Higher Rep Protocols
Fatigue during a workout, even if you didn’t feel it when you started, is a problem.
You can’t get the reps in that you need. It really is a limiting factor when it comes to lifting weights.
Nitric Oxide supplements could help you with this problem.
When you lift weights, you quickly deplete the oxygen in your body. When you go anaerobic like that, you build up lactic acid in your muscle tissues.
This then translates into muscle fatigue.
When you’re trying to increase your rep protocols, this kind of fatigue can be highly discouraging.
But there is a way to get more oxygen to your muscles and delay muscle anaerobic lactic acid buildup.
Take nitric oxide supplements early in the day of your workout. As the day progresses, your body will turn the arginine in your supplement into nitric oxide. And the nitric oxide will increase blood flow to your muscles.
Blood, as you well know, carries oxygen. And by increasing blood to your muscles, you increase oxygen.
The more oxygen you have, the less lactic acid you have. Bingo! Less fatigue and more reps!
Nitric Oxide Supplements Increase Athletic Performance
We’ve talked a lot about bodybuilding. But did you know that nitric oxide helps in other sports as well?
If you compete in an endurance sport, you should use nitric oxide supplements.
It really is a mistake to relegate this supplement to the bodybuilding only club.
Endurance performance relies heavily on the production of oxygen and it’s delivery to your muscles and other tissues.
People train and live at higher altitudes to make their body produce more red blood cells.
Once they come down to a lower elevation for a race, they have more red blood cells delivering oxygen to their muscles than anyone who lived and trained there.
Nitric oxide works in a similar way.
While it can’t help you produce more blood cells, it can increase the blood flow to your muscles.
This, in turn, increases your performance on either the track or the trail.
Nitric Oxide Supplements Increase Overall Energy
When you have more blood flow, you get more nutrients to your brain.
You will have an ability to think faster and feel more energized.
Your blood also acts as a thermoregulator.
If you are overheating, your blood works to take heat away from your vital organs.
And transversely, if you are getting too cold, your blood brings heat.
Either end of the spectrum depletes your energy.
But if you have a balanced temperature you’ll feel more energy as you work out.
Nitric oxide helps your body regulate temperature by helping it communicate across the way. Increased blood flow and increased communication between cells will help as well.
Nitric Oxide Supplements Increase Glucose Uptake
If you’re looking to decrease your body fat, look no further than nitric oxide.
The effects of nitric oxide on glucose metabolism is great.
When you take nitric oxide supplements, you have a higher glucose rate of appearance and disappearance.
This means that your body uses and eliminates glucose much faster.
Glucose is responsible for fat production in the body. And if your body uses it, it doesn’t store it as fat.
Thus, if you take nitric oxide supplements, your body will use the substance that creates your fat instead of making fat.
So, if you’re looking to burn fat while working out, which is hard to do sometimes, this supplement is for you.
Nitric Oxide Supplements Increase Muscle Pump
You know that awesome feeling when you stand in front of the mirror after a good hard workout. You’re muscles stand out like they’re rocks and crags.
If you want more of that, you should grab some nitric oxide.
That muscle pump is due to increased blood from working out. (Why do you think it’s called “muscle pump”?)
It stands to reason that increased blood flow will increase muscle pump.
And your reasoning would be correct.
Conclusion:
If you’re looking to increase performance and gains, taking nitric oxide supplements will definitely help.
Have you had positive experiences with nitric oxide supplements? Let us know in the comments below.
Alex Rogers is a supplement manufacturing expert. He has been formulating, consulting, & manufacturing dietary supplements since 1998. Alex invented protein customization in 1998 & was the first company to allow consumers to create their own protein blends. He helped create the first supplement to contain natural follistatin, invented whey protein with egg lecithin, & recently imported the world’s first 100% hydrolyzed whey.
