2g Arginine /Day Induce Vasolidation and Increase VO2Max in Male Soccer Players

Regular readers of the SuppVersity will know that - despite the recent bashing of arginine by the some supplement producers - I like this universal amino acid AND studies supporting the notion of athletes being able to benefit from arginine supplementation keep coming. The most recent one was done by Kamil et al. (Kamil. 2010) and investigated the effect of 2g pure l-arginine on vasolidation and VO2Max in soccer players. Their findings were as follows:

Oral supplementation of L-arginine significantly (p<0.01) decreased blood pressure indices and increased VO₂max (p<0.01), blood flow (p<0.05), femoral artery diameter (p<0.05) and urea levels (p<0.05). There was no change in blood lipid levels (p<0.05). No significant changes were noted in the placebo and control groups.

The increase in VO2Max, as shown in Table 1 was relatively low, though. Yet, it's statistical significance stands out of question.

	L-Arginine	Placebo	Control
Pre	56.43 ± 3.7	57.85 ± 6.8	56.52 ± 3.3
Post	57.15 ± 3.3 **	57.48 ± 6.9	56.55 ± 3.1

Table 1: Mean (±SD) pre- and post-study values of VO₂max (ml/kg/min) in male soccer players

If this is no reason not to dump your good old "1st generation"-preworkout products (e.g. NO Xplode, White Flood, Super Pump 250, VPX Shotgun), the main working ingredient of which is - guess what: arginine.On a side note: After trying about every of the new "super-mega NO-booster" from PreSurge-Unleashed to Anadraulic State GT, I have just returned to MHPs Dark Rage, which, to my mind, is still among the most comprehensive and effective pre-workout products on the market - you already knew it: an arginine-based product, as well.