Arachidonic Acid - Discuss as a supplement

[willl]

anyone ever tried this? Results? Sides?

W Llewelyn is really pushing this supp as if its the missing link in the plateau/muscle growth equasion

It looks as though he is extremely biased towards it, mentioning it everywhere in his books and funding controversial studies which encouragingly found not much of significance

whats the deal?

[ilalin]

anyone ever tried this? Results? Sides?

W Llewelyn is really pushing this supp as if its the missing link in the plateau/muscle growth equasion

It looks as though he is extremely biased towards it, mentioning it everywhere in his books and funding controversial studies which encouragingly found not much of significance

whats the deal?

don't waste your money

[chess315]

It's supposed to work so so but in theory if it works Omega fats are bad for messing with inflammation the way it works it by causing inflammation don't quote me on this but I was told.this and to not to over do heathy fats recently Idk though

[Van_Bilderass]

This supp is mildly interesting. Would be interesting to see if it increases DOMS noticeably. It's unlikely to do much but if one is trying to maximize every pathway behind hypertrophy it might be worthwhile. This is a supp for Basile 

[doison]

anyone ever tried this? Results? Sides?

W Llewelyn is really pushing this supp as if its the missing link in the plateau/muscle growth equasion

It looks as though he is extremely biased towards it, mentioning it everywhere in his books and funding controversial studies which encouragingly found not much of significance

whats the deal?

I can’t think of a top bodybuilder who doesn’t use it. 

The biggest worry is getting too big too fast.  If that starts happening, just reduce your dose by half.

[spiro]

I can’t think of a top bodybuilder who doesn’t use it. 

The biggest worry is getting too big too fast.  If that starts happening, just reduce your dose by half.

Lol

[rocco-x]

I can’t think of a top bodybuilder who doesn’t use it. 

The biggest worry is getting too big too fast.  If that starts happening, just reduce your dose by half.

must be like therm there steeeroid kinda things...I hear they work pretty good too. Almost as good as whey, creatine and NO boosters.

[Ron]

Don't know much about this.... from Wiki

Arachidonic acid (AA, sometimes ARA) is a polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acid 20:4(ω-6). It is structurally related to the saturated arachidic acid found in Cupuaçu butter. Arachidonic acid is marketed as an anabolic bodybuilding supplement in a variety of products. Supplementation of arachidonic acid (1,500 mg/day for 8 weeks) has been shown to increase lean body mass, strength, and anaerobic power in experienced resistance-trained men. This was demonstrated in a placebo-controlled study at the University of Tampa. Thirty men (aged 20.4 ± 2.1 years) took arachidonic acid or a placebo for 8 weeks, and participated in a controlled resistance-training program. After 8 weeks, Lean Body Mass (LBM) had increased significantly, and to a greater extent, in the ARA group (1.62 kg) vs. placebo (0.09 kg) (p<0.05). The change in muscle thickness was also greater in the ARA group (.47 cm) than placebo (.25 cm) (p<0.05). Wingate anaerobic power increased to a greater extent in ARA group as well (723.01 to 800.66 W) vs. placebo (738.75 to 766.51 W). Lastly, the change in total strength was significantly greater in the ARA group (109.92 lbs.) compared to placebo (75.78 lbs.). These results suggest that ARA supplementation can positively augment adaptations in strength and skeletal muscle hypertrophy in resistance-trained men.

I know Universals Animal Test has this in it, as well as Molecular Nutrition X-Factor.

[chess315]

Oh it's proven to work somewhat but they say healthy fats can make it not work because the reduce the inflammation as dumd as it sounds just eat beef

[willl]

in summary, Llewelyn claims are as follows:

arachidonic (stored in little amounts in our body) will get released as a result of muscle tears following exercise (among all other physiologic activities going on)

next you have the soreness factor, which according to HIM is a direct result of this AA release (Nowhere in his explanation does he mention lactic acid nor lactic acid buildup among other things)

so basically he says AA= soreness, leading to increased recovery (read supercompensation) because of increased catabolism thus increased anabolism later on


then he goes on explaining you cant ingest/metabolize the proper amounts of AA through regular diet and that training for longer periods might actually deplete or lower the sufficient amount of AA stores in body to enhance soreness thus optimal breakdown/construction cycle = PLATEAU

He rationalizes this by saying at the start of training u get tremendous soreness and results accordingly
after period of training this goes away. now he ADDS this is because of AA depletion... 

and then he markets it as a supplement and funds 2 studies with questionable study methods and varying suggestive results

and targets AA extensively throughout the newer versions of his AAS books


so it reaks of an elaborate scam but I wonder if anyone has had real experience with it

you never know there might be some truth to it though and one could use it to his advantage during a cycle as a somewhat (healthier) alternative to breaking "plateaus"

[willl]

IMO he 's grossly oversimplifying the muscle hypertrophy physiology and misguiding customers into thinking AA is THE or one of the most important factors in muscle breakdown->growth


I for one have never had any non-soreness problems because the intensity of my training sessions has always been adapted/rotated and alternated to the increased strenghts/performances i gained

Next, plateau breaking really is more than adding 1 fatty acid to a diet. It involves a whole chain of anabolic promotors/generators which, again, have to adapt to the new increases/demands in energy and bodymass.

This is why, even though Llewelyn swears on this (he should be, he's selling it), i almost completely refute it.

However, I still want to know to what degree AA is infact related to soreness and why.

And also, the correlation between lactic acid and AA. Because it seems to me (and worldwide medical literature) that lactic acid is the primary soreness contributor

But again, i could be missing something small..