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Do high doses of glutamine really help you build more muscle?

Glutamine is frequently promoted as an anti-catabolic supplement, supposedly helping to speed up muscle growth by reducing the rate at which your muscles "lose" protein.

Although there's a strong theoretical basis for the use of supplemental glutamine, very few studies have examined what happens when high doses of glutamine (more than 50 grams daily) are combined with a regular resistance training program.

To shed some light on the issue, a Canadian research team recently tested the effects of high-dose glutamine supplementation during a six-week resistance training program [2]. Before we review the results, it's important to understand a little more about glutamine, and why many consider it such an important nutrient.

Glutamine

Glutamine is an amino acid synthesized from glutamate. Because various tissues in your body, such as muscle and fat, can make glutamine, it has been classed as a nonessential amino acid. However, some have reclassified glutamine as conditionally essential, mainly because your body's need for glutamine exceeds its ability to make its own under certain conditions.

During periods of intense exercise, for example, blood levels of glutamine can drop. Your body then "borrows" glutamine from other parts of your body to make up for the deficit. This is the basis on which glutamine is promoted as a supplement to build muscle. Because skeletal muscle is an abundant source of glutamine, supplemental glutamine is supposed...

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