You have to remember that gains from glutamine or akg are nonessential what comes to weight training. Sure there are studies were they have help to preserve muscle mass but in those studies subjected individuals are surgery patients etc. And only thing what glutamine gives you is some enhancement to your immune defence system not to your results.
Alpha-ketoglutarate preserves protein synthesis and free glutamine in skeletal muscle after surgery.
Hammarqvist F, Wernerman J, von der Decken A, Vinnars E.
Department of Surgery, Karolinska Institute, St Goran's Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
Serving as a reproducible human trauma model, patients (n = 21) undergoing elective cholecystectomy received postoperative total parenteral nutrition with (n = 9) or without (n = 12) alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG) supplementation. Skeletal muscle biopsy specimens were taken before surgery and on the third postoperative day. The postoperative decreases in the concentrations of free glutamine and basic amino acids seen in the control group were counteracted in the AKG group (p less than 0.05). Muscle protein synthesis was estimated by ribosome analysis. On the third postoperative day the control group showed a decline in the polyribosome concentration (25.8% +/- 4.5%; p less than 0.001). No significant change was observed in the AKG group. On each postoperative day the nitrogen balance was negative in the control group but not in the AKG group. In the control group the cumulative nitrogen balance amounted to -9.9 +/- 1.8 gm of nitrogen and in the AKG group -2.6 +/- 2.6 gm of nitrogen, which was significantly different (p less than 0.05). Administration of AKG, the carbon skeleton corresponding to glutamine, produced results similar to those seen when glutamine is added to postoperative total parental nutrition. The results suggest that the availability of precursors for glutamine synthesis in skeletal muscle is crucial for the degree of muscle protein catabolism after surgical trauma.
Effect of glutamine supplementation combined with resistance training in young adults.
Candow DG, Chilibeck PD, Burke DG, Davison KS, Smith-Palmer T.
College of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of oral glutamine supplementation combined with resistance training in young adults. A group of 31 subjects, aged 18-24 years, were randomly allocated to groups (double blind) to receive either glutamine (0.9 g x kg lean tissue mass(-1) x day(-1); n = 17) or a placebo (0.9 g maltodextrin x kg lean tissue mass(-1) x day(-1); n = 14 during 6 weeks of total body resistance training. Exercises were performed for four to five sets of 6-12 repetitions at intensities ranging from 60% to 90% 1 repetition maximum (1 RM). Before and after training, measurements were taken of 1 RM squat and bench press strength, peak knee extension torque (using an isokinetic dynamometer), lean tissue mass (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) and muscle protein degradation (urinary 3-methylhistidine by high performance liquid chromatography). Repeated measures ANOVA showed that strength, torque, lean tissue mass and 3-methylhistidine increased with training (P < 0.05), with no significant difference between groups. Both groups increased their 1 RM squat by approximately 30% and 1 RM bench press by approximately 14%. The glutamine group showed increases of 6% for knee extension torque, 2% for lean tissue mass and 41% for urinary levels of 3-methylhistidine. The placebo group increased knee extension torque by 5%, lean tissue mass by 1.7% and 3-methylhistidine by 56%. We conclude that glutamine supplementation during resistance training has no significant effect on muscle performance, body composition or muscle protein degradation in young healthy adults.
