Nitric oxide is one of the fashionable sports supplements. Do you want to know what it is and what benefits it brings you as an athlete? We explain everything you need to know about this supplement to increase performance.
What is nitric oxide
Nitric oxide is a gas whose molecule is usually produced by our own body when it needs it to react to intensity stimuli such as HIIT workouts to protect cells.
In the body, it acts as a neurotransmitter that relieves the feeling of tiredness. At the muscular level, it is an important recuperator of the muscular damage that the practice of training implies.
Thus, it is an element that helps multiply sports performance in high intensity training.
How nitric oxide works in the athlete’s body
How is it possible to improve performance? To understand the effect and benefits it presents for the body, we must learn more about its composition and release.
This component contains L-arginine, one of the major muscle recuperators through the widening of capillaries or direct action on muscle cells.
Thus, once it is released, on the one hand, blood flow to the muscles increases, circulation that they use to recover from the effort, and, during the exercise itself, so that the damage is less in the short term.
A better recovery in the muscle and a greater circulatory capacity results in the athlete having greater resistance capacity; this, in turn, causes you to be able to exercise more and therefore burn more calories.
On the other hand, arginine itself is a powerful fat burner that accentuates the effect of exercise on them.
Is it a natural component in food or can we only ingest it as a supplement?
Nitric oxide is naturally present in some foods in a balanced diet such as dairy, nuts (some, not all) or lean red meat.
Some fruits such as grapes, berries or watermelon (in summer) are an interesting source of nitric oxide. However, either because our exercise consumes more than we are capable of generating, or because our body does not generate enough, as long as there is collusion with a health professional, some of the oxide sports supplements can be incorporated nitric that is in the market.
Nitric oxide benefits as a sports supplement
Can any athlete take it? Like any sports supplement, it is advisable for a professional to determine if the athlete should take nitric oxide and in what dose.
What is certain is that beyond the objective of your training, the supplement with nitric oxide helps to relax the muscles and prevent them from becoming inflamed after the exercise session.
Perfect for muscle recovery
Increased blood flow to the muscles causes more oxygen (not oxide) to be in the muscle. This increased presence of oxygen causes the remaining ammonia cells in the muscle to be cleaned.
The result : increased resilience from muscle fatigue . This is especially noticeable when we carry out workouts with many repetitions, which generate a greater presence of lactic acid in the tissues. Nitric oxide acts as a cleanser. And its benefits do not disappear after use.
Improves stamina
Despite the erroneous association of sports supplementation with this oxide to sports and strength exercises, where it provides more benefits in improving endurance and sports performance .
In this type of sports, the presence of oxygen in the muscles is even more critical, especially if the training and practice has the ultimate goal of participating in sports competitions .
Is Nitric Oxide A Fat Burning Supplement?
Indeed, it is an interesting fat burner , since L-arginine drags more glucose through the bloodstream to be used as energy by the muscles. But it also acts as an ally of the body to burn the fatty acids that are in the body.
Side effects and contraindications
Like any supplement or extra contribution, we must bear in mind that it can generate side effects in our body, especially if we take a higher dose than recommended for a long period of time.
Experts point out that, as a toxic gas, nitric oxide should not be consumed for a long time. It is advisable not to extend it beyond 2 or 3 months.
What happens if we exceed this time? These are some side effects that occur from the abuse of nitric oxide as a sports supplement.
- Hypotension Do you tend to have low blood pressure? If so, and you also extend the use of supplements of this type beyond three months, you are exposing yourself to suffering a significant drop in blood pressure.
- Accelerates aging . By acting on the cells, releasing more free radicals, these make the first ones age before their time. To avoid this unwanted effect, introduce antioxidant foods into your diet.
- General discomfort, ranging from headaches of varying degrees and intensity, to feeling dizzy and even tachycardias. It is also behind some digestive problems, especially when the time between meals and training is not kept.
Components of the best sports supplements with nitric oxide
How do you know if one nitric oxide supplement formula or another is better? How to Identify the Best Nitric Oxide Sports Supplements? These are the components that the supplement should contain.
- Caffeine in small doses (1 to 3 mg / kg of body weight).
- Citrulline malate , which is the result of combining citrulline with acid salt and malate. Its function is to encourage the muscle to generate a higher level of ammonia in the muscles so that nitric oxide better cleans the muscle cells.
- Creatine , whose function is to increase the primary energy stores during muscular exercise. Consequently, creatine is one of those responsible for improving our power and strength.
- Beta-alanine , which as a non-essential amino acid, supplies the body in terms of resistance and strength, so the body will be better prepared to undertake a more intense training session.
- L-arginine , which we have already seen, has a supplementary function: it is ultimately responsible for gaining more muscle mass with exercises.
- Taurine or L-Taurine is also an amino acid, but in its case, it focuses on the blood, reducing the level of glucose, regulating the pressure of the arteries and improving endurance and our muscular recovery capacity.
