Drained after completing a long workout? Feeling those aches and pains from a pulled muscle, a sprained ligament, or a strained tendon? Injuries are fairly common with sports and exercise, especially once you start to tire.
But what if there was a way to replenish your energy while speeding up your body’s natural repair process at the same time?
Enter Glutamine: The Supplement For Weekend Warriors
Glutamine is among the most common of the amino acids found in your muscles. More than 61% of the skeletal muscles in your body are composed of glutamine. It is a nitrogen-rich amino acid, meaning that it helps to infuse your muscle cells with nitrogen, an extremely important building block of strength. What’s interesting is that the glutamine in your muscles gets depleted when you lift weights, run, or do any sort of physical activity. The more intense the training, the more glutamine is worn away. It can take nearly a week for the levels of glutamine in your muscles to restore themselves, so your muscles are lacking a lot of this important amino acid during this six-day period. Unless, of course, you take a glutamine supplement.The Benefits of Glutamine Supplement
Trainers on sites like Men’s Fitness recommend taking a supplement containing this amino acid, as it can do a lot of things for your body:- Promote Protein Synthesis — This is important because your body needs to be able to synthesize protein for the sake of your muscles. The more protein your body can use, the less muscle breakdown there is. Your body needs glutamine, so if it can’t get it anywhere else, it turns to muscle tissue.
- Speeds Up Healing — Studies have shown that glutamine can help to speed up the repair of cells in the body, increasing the healing process significantly. The amino acid helps to keep the cells hydrated, and can even reduce infections, prevent pathogens, reduce mortality rates among the severely injured, and decrease the length of the hospital stay of those suffering from serious burns.
- Increase Muscle Mass –– If you take a glutamine supplement, you will be giving your muscles the amino acids they need prior to exercise. When you do the workout, the amino acids will be available and thus easily accessible to your muscles. Your body can use the glutamine that is stored in the muscles, enabling it to build new muscle fibers, which produces the muscle mass you’re looking for.
- Relieve Side Effects of Cancer Treatments — Doctors have recommended supplements of glutamine as a means of dealing with the side effects of cancer. The amino acid has helped to reduce diarrhea, sore throats, swelling in the lining of the mouth, and the tingling sensation in your toes and fingers that accompanies radiation treatment. It has proven to be effective in a number of cases!
How to Get Enough Glutamine
Glutamine can usually be obtained through the food that you eat, particularly in the plant and animal proteins. You can find it in:- Beef
- Cottage cheese
- Tofu
- Beans
- Eggs
- Poultry
- Milk
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