muscle breakdown and glutamine

[anabolictonic]

hi guys yer this should be in the supplement section but questions take forever to get answered there!! mods just let it sit here for an hour or so

I read that you should take glutamine before a workout but doesnt glutamine prevent your muscles from breaking down/tearing as much which is the point of the workout isnt it?

why would u take it before a workout then?

[Big]

59...58...57...

[kaberle_15]

36..35..

Glutamine is an amino acid and you have a lot of it in your body from high protein foods. It's good for preservation of muscle mass and the supplying of an alternate energy source when glucose levels are low (and many other benefits) which makes it more practical to take when you are cutting.

I take it after my workout with my BCAA's and trust me it will not make a big difference when it comes to tearing tissue down. If it prevented us from doing our job correctly bodybuilders wouldn't take it.

[anabolictonic]

thanks.. ya can move it now :P

[Phate]

i agree with kaberle

glutamine makes up roughly 60% of the amino acid structure in muscles and therefore is the single most abundant amino acid in the body

it can be converted to alanine via your liver and gluconeogenesis, which is where you your body breaks down muscle to be converted to glycogen, and converted to glycogen for energy

glutamine has nothing to do with the muscles breaking down from what i've read, though it can be used to repair them

taking glutamine with your post workout shake can be counter productive as most protein powders contain glutamic acid, which is the precursor to glutamine and thus when both are taken they fight with eat other for absorbtion

here's a post i wrote a while back that should help explain how it can be used to decrease muscle loss during cardio

How to Keep from Losing Muscle on Empty Stomach Cardio

i see a couple options to keep you from going catabolic with empty stomach cardio, btw i use both of these in conjunction and they work very well..

1) if you can, order some bulk glutamine (around 15-20$ for 500g) and take around 5-10g before cardio, this will give your body a large amount of glutamine to use to replenish it's amino acid pool. The reason this is important is because when your body enters a catabolic state it breaks down muscle tissue into it's constitute amino acids and transports those to your liver where they are broken down into alanine and converted into glycogen via gluconeogenesis. But this can be avoided by providing your body with either protein for it to break down into amino acids or the aminos themselves. Btw, glutamine makes up about 60% of the aminos in muscle tissue and therefore is the most used amino during gluconeogenesis, that's why i recommend it.

2) Drink a whey protein shake before cardio (i prefer whey for this because whey is a fast acting protein so the aminos in it are digested within 45 minutes), this will supply your body with the aminos it needs and will spare your muscle from being burned for energy, and if your wondering if it will be counter-productive to drink a shake because the protein will be used and you won't be burning fat, don't worry, it won't unless your training with high enough intensity for it to be used to fuel gluconeogenesis, cool huh, lol. Btw, most protein shakes are infused with amino acids, just look on the jug and you'll see a list of the aminos in it, so you're getting glutamine from it.

i normally will drink a small shake (about 20g of protein), made with water and add glutamine and caffeine(if you didn't know, caffeine increases fat-oxidation, lowers perception of workout intensity, and spares muscle glycogen, making it a perfect companion during cardio), this combination increases my ability to perform cardio in both duration and intensity and gives me peace of mind knowing that my muscle has very little chance of being tapped into for energy.

[ab037]

thats an awesome post phate!