May 14, 2021
Arginine Vs Creatine – Which Is a Better Pre-Workout Supplement?
T
he right choice of dietary supplements can boost performance and pave the way for unprecedented gains. The rationale for use of dietary supplements is based on the assumption that they will confer an ergogenic effect beyond that afforded by food intake alone.
Some would like to gain weight, some would want to boost their endurance and some may like to go harder in the gym… whatever is your goal, there are supplements designed to suit individual fitness needs.
Today, we are going to discuss in this blog 2 such amino supplements which have long been enjoying the fanfare in the supplement industry.
Arginine and Creatine are related amino, yet different…most of you already know that they are pre-workout supplements, but many of you still need clarity on what each amino does and how they are different.
Before we go ahead and learn about the individual supplements, let’s first understand what it means by pre-workout supplements…
What Are Pre-Workout Supplements? How Do They Help?
Pre-workout supplements contain one or more ingredients/compounds that help heighten your exercise performance. Their mechanism of action in the body produces an ergogenic effect, improve energy, help reduce the perception of effort, boost endurance, motivation, they facilitate longer, harder workout with increased strength output, muscle mass and may also promote fat burning.
Gymmers, bodybuilders, athletes use pre-workout supplements to increase their reps, power through heavy weight lifting, running, or to crank out the final set in the gym.
To go with the current topic, let’s learn the mechanism of function of arginine in the body, later its benefits, and then the mechanism of function of creatine followed by its benefits…
Arginine and Creatine are 2 popular, most-researched dietary supplements suitable for those who want to go longer, harder, and faster in the gym… both help power your workouts in their own unique way…
Mechanism Of Action Of Arginine
Arginine acts as a precursor to nitric oxide, which has an effect on vasodilation. Through efficient vasodilation of smooth muscles, arginine promotes better circulation of oxygen and anabolic nutrients such as protein and amino acids needed for muscle building. The vasodilation effect facilitates your muscles with better supply of oxygen. Arginine helps the body retain nitrogen which is essential for muscle protein synthesis.
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Arginine is known to take part in the production of creatine thereby boost energy and reduce exhaustion.
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Arginine functions as a glucogenic amino acid, meaning it gets converted into glucose through gluconeogenesis.
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Arginine is involved in the detoxification of ammonia, which is produced as a byproduct of the metabolism of protein and is toxic to the central nervous system.
Arginine Benefits
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Enhances Circulation
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Boosts exercise capacity
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Decreases muscle soreness
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Promotes muscle pump
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May promote weight loss
Arginine supplementation is suitable for runners, strength trainers, cyclists, athletes, those who want to stay energized, those who want to improve performance.
Mechanism Of Action Of Creatine
When creatine stores in your muscles are depleted, the production of ATP drops followed by a dramatic decrease in your performance. Here comes the benefit of creatine supplements.
Creatine increases the available ATP to fuel your muscle through performance. How does it do so?
Creatine supplements help elevate creatine stores in the muscle in order to promote faster regeneration of ATP. Higher the creatine stores, more would be the phosphocreatine (PCr) stores in the muscle that would theoretically convert ADP into ATP.
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Creatine supplementation accentuates muscle volumization by causing your muscle cells to store water which makes them appear bigger and fuller.
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Creatine may increase body weight, a part of which may be caused by increased protein synthesis, conceivably stimulated by the cell swelling. Cell swelling has been shown to act as an anabolic signal for the storage of glycogen and stimulating protein synthesis.
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The improvement of the rate of phosphocreatine resynthesis is largely responsible for the improvement in workout capacity. It indirectly contributes to muscle building by enabling you to perform more repetitions and recovery faster between sets.
Creatine Benefits
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Creatine helps create more available ATP
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Aids in muscle endurance & prevents muscle breakdown
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Promotes maximum power output over a short interval
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Helps increase muscle size, strength, and body mass
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Can alleviate tiredness and fatigue
