Sports Supplement Product Review - EAS Muscle Armor
The Ultimate Armor to Protect Muscle Mass and Power
EAS is the world’s leading distributor of sports nutrition products. EAS is
committed to providing the marketplace with scientifically based sports supplements and
responsible educational information and they support this by fostering a strong
relationship with their science advisory board. According to EAS, a portion of every dollar
consumers spend on EAS products goes to fund additional scientific research that will aid
in identifying new ways to enhance athletic performance.
EAS’s portfolio of nationally recognized brands includes EAS®, AdvantEdge®,
Myoplex® and Body-for-LIFE®. In this article, I will discuss their latest EAS® product,
Muscle ArmorÔ, which is clinically proven to give athletes the “armor” to protect muscle
mass and power. Muscle Armor´s active ingredients are HMB, glutamine, arginine,
branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and taurine.
HMB
Beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) is derived from the amino acid leucine
and its keto acid, alpha-ketoisocaproate (KIC). There’s evidence that HMB
supplementation may play an important role in reducing muscle protein breakdown and/or
increasing recovery of damaged muscle cells. I won’t review all the individual studies.
Rather, I’ll focus on recent meta-analysis (i.e., quantitative statistical analysis that’s
applied to separate, but similar, experiments) published in the Journal of Applied
Physiology (JAP).
The purpose of this JAP meta-analysis was to quantify which dietary
supplements augment lean mass and strength gains during resistance training. The
investigators included peer-reviewed studies between the years 1967 and 2001 if they
met a predetermined set of experimental criteria. Of the 250 supplements examined, only
six had more than two studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis:
chromium, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) androstenedione (“andro”), creatine, protein
and HMB.
A total of nine HMB studies qualified for analysis. All of them involved
supplementation of HMB at three grams per day and resulted in a net increase in lean
mass gain of 0.28 percent per week. Concerning the strength gains, HMB caused a net
increase of 1.40 percent percent of week. The authors concluded that, “only HMB and
creatine supplements have sufficient scientific evidence to conclude that lean body mass
and strength gains accompanying resistance training are augmented.”
Glutamine
Glutamine is one of the most abundant amino acids in the body, composing
about 50 percent of the free amino acid pool in the blood and skeletal muscle. It’s
classified as a nonessential amino acid since it can be produced in the body from other
amino acids. Under certain conditions, however, glutamine becomes a conditionally
essential amino acid. That is, diet and/or supplements may be required to meet the needs
of the body. In situations of stress (e.g., strenuous exercise, clinical trauma), the
concentration of glutamine in the blood is decreased, often substantially. In athletes this
decrease may occur concomitantly with relatively transient immunodepression (i.e.,
suppression of natural immune responses).
In 1995, Dr. T.C. Welbourne at Louisiana State University College of Medicine,
reported that glutamine supplementation can increase secretion of growth hormone. Two
grams of glutamine were dissolved in a cola drink and ingested over a 20-minute period
45 minutes after a light breakfast. The conclusion was that a surprisingly small glutamine
load is capable of elevating blood growth hormone. This study was prominently cited in
the leading bodybuilding magazines, so some gym rats started to ingest supplemental
glutamine like there’s no tomorrow.
More recently, Dr. D.G. Candow and colleagues at the University of
Saskatchewan in Canada assessed the effects of oral glutamine supplementation
combined with resistance training in young adults. A group of 31 subjects were randomly
allocated to groups receiving either glutamine (0.9 grams per kilogram of lean tissue
mass per day) or a placebo (maltodextrin) during six weeks of resistance training.
Exercises were performed for four to five sets of six to 12 repetitions at intensities ranging
from 60 to 90 percent of one repetition maximum (1-RM). Before and after training,
measurements were taken of 1-RM squat and bench press strength, peak knee extension
torque, lean tissue mass and muscle protein degradation.
The results of this study showed no effect of glutamine on any of the dependent
variables measured. However, there was a trend toward a greater muscle protein
breakdown in the placebo group. The authors concluded, “Glutamine supplementation did
not have a beneficial effect on the adaptations to strength training. While glutamine
supplementation has been shown to have beneficial effects following endurance-type
exercise, strength training may not be stressful enough to benefit from glutamine
supplementation. Future research should look at the effect of glutamine supplementation
during training protocols that provide a greater physiological stress, such as combined
endurance and strength training.”
Given the fact that about 50 to 60 percent of dietary glutamine is used by
intestinal cells, very high amounts of glutamine would have to be consumed orally to have
a significant effect on muscle levels. So, glutamine supplementation per se probably
doesn’t have a direct effect on bodybuilding in terms of muscle mass increase.
Nevertheless, it’s possible that supplemental glutamine would have some effect on
muscle glutamine during a low-calorie diet. High doses of intravenous glutamine given to
markedly catabolic patients have been very effective in preventing the decrease in
muscle glutamine that occurs due to muscle wasting.
In situations of stress, the concentration of glutamine in the blood is decreased
and the decrease occurs concomitantly with relatively transient immunodepression, at
least in endurance athletes. There’s a growing body of evidence showing that glutamine
has an important role in enhancing some aspects of immune cell function. Furthermore,
clinical studies have indicated that glutamine supplementation contributes to the
alleviation of infections and improved gastrointestinal function. Also, a reduction in the
incidence of infections in endurance athletes has been attributed to glutamine
supplementation. However, there are no studies examining the effects of glutamine
supplementation on infections in strength-power athletes.
In summary, current scientific evidence indicates that glutamine supplementation
has some benefits (e.g., enhanced immune function, decreased muscle breakdown), but
it probably doesn’t have a direct effect on bodybuilding in terms of muscle mass increase.
I would speculate that glutamine supplementation is most effective when given to restore
glutamine to physiological (i.e., normal) levels at a time of depletion due to stress, for
example, after strenuous exercise.
Arginine
Arginine is classified as a conditionally essential amino acid. Although it has
numerous important physiological functions, gym rats have taken arginine supplements
for two main reasons: 1) to increase growth hormone secretion, and 2) to augment nitric
oxide (NO) synthesis. It’s now clear that oral arginine supplementation alone has little, if
any, effect on growth hormone secretion. However, one study reported that the ingestion
of arginine (1.5 grams) and lysine (1.5 grams) resulted in a 2.7-fold increase in growth
hormone concentration in strength-trained athletes. So, the arginine-plus-lysine combo
appears to be a somewhat effective “GH booster.”
As noted above, another possible ergogenic potential of arginine is its role in the
synthesis of nitric oxide (NO). NO acts as a signaling molecule to faciliate the dilation of
blood vessels; its main effect on muscle metabolism is to increase the delivery and
uptake of nutrients via its vasodilating effects. Recently, nitric oxide boosters (i.e.,
arginine, arginine alpha-ketoglutarate [AAKG]) have become popular among serious
weight trainers. It’s been suggested that these products enhance blood flow to muscle, in
turn leading to greater gains in muscle mass and strength during training.
A recent study at the Baylor University´s Exercise & Sports Nutrition Lab
examined the effects of AAKG supplementation during training on body composition and
training adaptations in experienced gym rats. Thirty-five resistance-trained males were
matched according to fat-free mass and randomly assigned to ingest supplements
containing either a placebo (fake supplement) or commercial AAKG supplement in a
double-blind manner (an experimental procedure in which neither the subjects nor the
experimenters know what subjects are in the test and control groups during the actual
course of the experiments).
Subjects took four grams of the supplements three times daily (12 grams per day)
for eight weeks during standardized training. No significant differences were observed
between groups in terms of changes in body mass, fat-free mass, fat mass or percent
body fat. However, changes in bench press one repetition maximum were significantly
greater in the AAKG group. It’s a mystery how AAKG supplementation added an average
of more than 13 pounds to bench press max over placebo without a concomitant increase
in muscle mass. This seems to suggest that the changes are neural in origin.
In patients with stable angina pectoris (a disease marked by brief attacks of chest
pain precipitated by deficient oxygenation of the heart muscles), ingestion of six grams of
arginine per day for three days has been shown to improve exercise workload during a
treadmill stress test. The vasodilatory properties of arginine may facilitate an increase in
oxygen delivery, which helps meet the increased demands caused by exercise.
Finally, it’s been reported that arginine treatment prevents the development of
high blood pressure (hypertension) in animals prone to this disease and also causes
rapid reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressures when infused into healthy
humans and patients with essential hypertension (a common form of hypertension that
occurs in the absence of any evident cause). So, it’s possible that arginine
supplementation may offer some protective effects in those athletes using drugs.
Branched-Chain Amino Acids
The branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine and valine are so
named because they have a carbon chain, which deviates or branches from the main
linear carbon backbone. They are unusual in that they are catabolized mainly in skeletal
muscle.
The purpose of the recent study by Dr. NA Ratamess and co-workers was to
examine the effects of amino acid supplementation (mainly BCAAs) on muscular
strength, power and high-intensity endurance during short-term resistance training
overreaching (overreaching is a short-term training phase in which the volume and/or
intensity of resistance exercise is increased beyond normal). It was the authors´
hypothesis that amino acid supplementation, by enhancing recovery between workouts,
would maintain muscle strength and power during the initial unaccustomed stress of
resistance training overreaching.
In order to examine this hypothesis, a double-blind randomized study was
employed using two experimental groups (amino acid or placebo [i.e., fake supplement])
who underwent four weeks of resistance training overreaching followed by a two-week
reduced volume/frequency phase. Gym rats assigned to the amino acid group ingested a
total of 0.4 grams per kilogram bodyweight of an amino acid supplement per day divided
into three daily doses. Subjects in the placebo group received the same instructions and
ingested the same number of capsules as the amino acid group.
The results of this well-controlled study indicated that “the initial impact of highvolume
resistance training overreaching reduces muscle strength and power and it
appears that these reductions are attenuated with amino acid supplementation.”
Concerning safety, toxicity studies using animals have shown that BCAAs are
safe amino acids when the three BCAAs are provided in a ratio similar to that of animal
protein (i.e., a 2:1:1 leucine:isoleucine:valine ratio).
Taurine
Taurine is the second most abundant free amino acid in muscle after glutamine.
Published research indicates that it has a potential role in cell hydration, which refers to
the volume of fluid within the cell. Increasing fluid in the cell (i.e., cell volumization) has
been shown to decrease protein breakdown while stimulating protein anabolism. On the
other hand, a reduction in cell volume (i.e., cell dehydration) promotes protein breakdown
and inhibits anabolism. Furthermore, there’s recent evidence that taurine deficiency is
associated with decreased nitric oxide production.
A recent study by Dr. M Zhang and co-workers at the Toyoma Medical and
Pharmaceutical Univerity evaluated the protective effects of taurine supplementation on
exercise-induced oxidative stress and exercise performance. Simply put, seven-day
taurine supplementation resulted in a significantly reduced DNA migration after exercise
and also significantly increased VO2 max exercise time to exhaustion and maximal
workload. The investigators concluded that "taurine may attenuate exe exercise-induced DNA
damage and enhance the capacity of exercise due to its cellular protective properties."
