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As the sport of MMA becomes bigger, more competitive and more lucrative, athletes are training harder and more often with more on the line.
With more and more fighters hoping for a career in MMA and only a handful of companies able to stay in business, the pressure on the pro mixed martial artist to keep winning to keep their job is higher than it has ever been. Fortunately, there are supplements on the market that can be a huge asset to the mixed martial artist, and one of those is glutamine.
As you may already know, your lean muscle tissue is made up of amino acids. The most common amino acid found in muscle tissue is glutamine.
This critical amino provides a spectrum of benefits that can enhance the results that you get from your various training sessions while also providing general health benefits that many fail to associate with this amazing amino acid. Let's dig a little deeper and see what glutamine can do for you.
The Training Benefits Of Glutamine
General Health Benefits Of Glutamine
How Much?
With more and more fighters hoping for a career in MMA and only a handful of companies able to stay in business, the pressure on the pro mixed martial artist to keep winning to keep their job is higher than it has ever been. Fortunately, there are supplements on the market that can be a huge asset to the mixed martial artist, and one of those is glutamine.
As you may already know, your lean muscle tissue is made up of amino acids. The most common amino acid found in muscle tissue is glutamine.
This critical amino provides a spectrum of benefits that can enhance the results that you get from your various training sessions while also providing general health benefits that many fail to associate with this amazing amino acid. Let's dig a little deeper and see what glutamine can do for you.
The Training Benefits Of Glutamine
- When you workout, whether you are doing cardio, rolling, striking or weight training, glutamine levels in your muscle tissues become severely depleted, slowing recovery and recuperation and limiting strength levels.
What could be worse for a MMA athlete than slow recuperation between workouts, especially when doing several sessions per day in preparation for a fight? And lowering strength results is another disaster for a fighter.
Given that, supplementing with glutamine becomes critical if you want to get the most out of the training session you just completed, as well as the one you have planned for later today or tomorrow. But that's just the beginning of how glutamine will help make you a better fighter.
- Glutamine also plays an important role in protein synthesis because it is the main transporter of nitrogen into the muscle cell. Keeping your body in a state called "positive nitrogen balance" is a key to enhancing lean muscle tissue and glutamine is necessary to maintaining that positive internal environment. This will also minimize the potential breakdown of muscle tissue, the last thing that any of us wants to happen.
Glutamine has another wonderful benefit that can make a huge impact on your body composition and potentially give you more muscle and less fat. It increases your body's ability to secrete its own human growth hormone ("HGH") from your pituitary gland into your bloodstream.
- This is a much bigger benefit than most people realize because your natural HGH levels start to aggressively decline between the ages of 21 and 30. Lower levels are linked to many signs including strength loss, less muscle, lower energy and slower recuperation. However, naturally higher HGH levels will allow your body to promote lean muscle tissue, strength and recoverability while stabilizing body fat much more effectively.
General Health Benefits Of Glutamine
- The performance oriented benefits of glutamine are enough for any MMAer to get some right now, but there's more. The rigors of intense MMA training can wreak havoc on the immune system and make a fighter more susceptible to breaking down and getting sick. Couple that with rolling with teammates who have been sweating up a storm and it's easy to see how a lot of guys get sick. And sick equals time out of the gym, time not training and improving your game while the guy you're fighting in two months is getting ready to kick your @ss.
Thankfully, in addition to the full spectrum of benefits we've already discussed, glutamine has the potential to support your immune system function, promote wound and burn healing and even promote mental sharpness and acuity. Perfect for keeping the fighter in the game and mentally sharp. As if all that wasn't enough, it also may benefit those with gastrointestinal disorders by promoting a healthy intestinal tract.
How Much?
- Glutamine is an essential amino acid that must be obtained from food or nutritional supplements because your body either cannot produce it on its own, or it cannot produce it in sufficient quantities. Athletes should use 10-20 grams per day, but keep in mind that most of the protein powders on the market have anywhere from three to ten grams of glutamine per serving.
Make sure to get some glutamine in your system right after every workout to start the recuperation process and check the recommended usage section of the product you use.
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