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Your guide to Nitric Oxide: find out what every bodybuilder should know about NO
Ask any bodybuilder how creatine works, and you'll most likely hear a detailed answer describing how this nutrient helps you
pack on size and add pounds to your lifts. Same thing applies for protein. But ask how Nitric Oxide works, and you may be
looking at one speechless bodybuilder. And who's to blame them? The merits of Nitric Oxide supplements have only recently
come to the attention of the bodybuilding community. That's why so many bodybuilders don't know how Nitric Oxide can help
them jack up their strength, add slabs of rock-hard muscle to their frames, and improve their recovery time. What follows is a
comprehensive guide to one of the most important molecules known to bodybuilders today.
What Is Nitric Oxide?
Nitric Oxide is a compound made up of one nitrogen atom and one oxygen atom. In order for the body to create Nitric Oxide, it
must do so with the help of arginine (an amino acid) and a family of enzymes called Nitric Oxide syntheses (NOS). When
arginine and a NOS enzyme come in contact with each other, the reaction produces Nitric Oxide along with citrulline (another
amino acid). Interestingly enough, citrulline can be reversibly converted into arginine through a two-step process requiring the
amino acid aspartic acid (aka aspartate). Therefore, if your aim is to amplify Nitric Oxide levels in your body, it would be in your
best interest to take a supplement that provides a generous supply of all three of these amino acids. In doing so, you'll provide
yourself with the precursor to Nitric Oxide (arginine), while supplying the precursors (citrulline and aspartic acid) to support and
increase arginine production. Thus, your body's total arginine pool is improved.
What Does Nitric Oxide Do?
Nitric Oxide travels freely from cell to cell in your body directing and ordering a wide variety of functions within the body.
Depending on the situation, Nitric Oxide can act as an intracellular messenger, a hormone, or a neurotransmitter. However, for
the purpose of bodybuilding, we'll focus on the role of Nitric Oxide as an intracellular messenger regulating one of the body's
most important processes--blood flow.
How Does Nitric Oxide Work?
Nitric Oxide is produced within the flat endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels. When the endothelial cell is
stimulated--such as when the muscle contracts--it synthesizes and releases Nitric Oxide. Once released, Nitric Oxide diffuses
across the endothelial cell membrane into the adjacent smooth muscle tissue of the blood vessels, causing them to relax and
widen (a process called vasodilation). The result is an increase in blood flow to the stimulated area, which ultimately causes your
muscles to get pumped and stay that way for around 40 minutes after training.
So why do your muscles get pumped? Well, basically, the pump is one of the body's fail-safe mechanisms for preventing a
decline in muscle function and performance. Blood, which is the body's primary transport medium, carries all the vital nutrients
(e.g., amino acid, creatine, glucose, and oxygen) to the muscle, which are required for energy production, growth, and
maintenance. Additionally, blood carries away the byproducts of metabolism (e.g., carbon dioxide and lactic acid) that fatigue the
muscle and inhibit performance. Therefore, increasing blood flow to the muscle enhances growth, strength development, and
recuperation. And remember, Nitric Oxide is what helps make the pump possible. However, as powerful as Nitric Oxide is, you
must keep in mind that it does have its limitations, but there are ways of getting around them.
The Limitations of Nitric Oxide
First off, as mentioned earlier, Nitric Oxide production is limited by the available supply of arginine. However, as also mentioned
earlier, supplementing with this amino acid, along with citrulline and aspartic acid, can increase arginine availability.
Nevertheless, there's a caveat here, which brings us to the next issue.
1958 Dell Range Blvd. Cheyenne, WY 82009 / P 307-634-6361
Nitric Oxide production is also limited by the availability of NOS enzymes. There are only so many enzymes present, so enzymes
activity may be limited. Flooding your body with too much arginine and arginine precursors could be overwhelming. However,
there are two ways to combat this: (1) Supplement with Pycnogenol[R] (French maritime pine bark extract) and ginsenosides (the
active component in American ginseng extract), as they both stimulate and enhance the efficiency of the NOS enzymes, and (2)
ensure your supplements of choice are time-released. In doing so, your body will be able to generate and sustain Nitric Oxide
production longer, while making your pumps last longer too. The result? The short-term window of opportunity to benefit from
the pump becomes long term. (Remember, the pump you get from training only lasts around 40 minutes.)
Now, before you run out and buy individual arginine, citrulline, aspartic acid, Pycnogenol[R], and ginsenosides in an attempt to
make your own Nitric Oxide-increasing homebrew, consider the following: MuscleTech researchers have recently released a
supplement called PUMP-TECH[TM] that contains all of these ingredients in its patent-pending formula. On top of this, PUMP-
TECH also contains tricreatine malate for additional support in muscle growth, increases in strength, and recuperation. And yes,
the PUMP-TECH[TM] formula is time-released.