Nitric Oxide supplements are very popular, and have been shown to provide an energy boost for extended and intense workouts. Here is an overview of these types of supplements and a few good recommended products.
How important and powerful was the discovery of the body’s ability to use Nitric Oxide?
In 1998, three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the brain’s production of the molecule, and how it allows the body’s 50 trillion cells communicate and work with each other.
Nitric Oxide is a gas that’s naturally produced in the body, but many people choose to increase how much is available in the body, to improve a whole host of physiological (body-wide) and pathological (cell-wide) processes.
We’ll discuss many of the great benefits that Nitric Oxide can have for both avid gym goers and “regular joe’s,” and take a closer look at some of our favorite Nitric Oxide supplements.
Top 3 Recommended:
The Benefits of Taking Nitric Oxide Supplements
After recent research, scientists and medical professionals have discovered that Nitric Oxide has a very important role in processes like:
• Transmitting signals from the brain to nerve cells, helping shape behaviors and memories
• Helping the immune system fight off bad bacteria in the body, and even defend against tumor production
• Regulating blood pressure by dilating (relaxing) arteries, allowing blood to flow easier
• Improving gastric motility: allowing food to be better broken down and flushed through the system
On top of all of those, there is a whole host of benefits that Nitric Oxide provides, in terms of increasing athletic performance and endurance.
At one point, it was hailed as the next great breakthrough in (legal) performance-enhancing supplements, because of how dramatically it can improve a person’s ability to train and recover.
Increased Endurance During Exercise
One of the great benefits of Nitric Oxide is that you’re going to be able to perform harder and longer in the gym than you otherwise might be accustomed to.
When anyone works out, they’re able to do so until fatigue sets in.
That feeling of fatigue when the body — and your muscles — starts to run out of oxygen; that’s why we start to breath harder and heavier as we work out as well.
That oxygen deprivation also leads to the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles, which gives you that “burning” feeling that prevents you from cranking out more time and/or more reps on whatever you’re doing.
Nitric Oxide is all about helping you get more oxygen to your muscles, thereby prolonging the time before you really start to feel tired, and reducing the amount of lactic acid build-up, which also allows you to prolong your workout.
Improved Energy Utilization
In addition to improving your exercise performance by making oxygen more available and diminishing the production of lactic acid, Nitric Oxide also improves how your body utilizes its natural energy supply when you’re working out.
For instance, during a workout, your body temperature begins to rise as a result of your heart rate increasing.
As a response, your body will naturally begin to cool itself down — that’s why we sweat — in order to prevent itself from overheating.
But because Nitric Oxide allows for blood to flow through the system easier and faster, your heart doesn’t have to work quite as hard to get the blood and oxygen where it needs to go, so your body actually devotes less energy to trying to cool itself down, thereby making this energy more available for your workout.
In addition, a study conducted by the American Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism monitored glucose metabolism — in other words: how your body uses stored carbohydrates during exercise — in a set of endurance athletes.
They found that those who had taken Nitric Oxide supplements had a significantly higher rate of glucose appearance and disappearance, meaning their bodies not only began to empty the athlete’s energy reserves but then directly used that stored energy to fuel the workout.
They also found that when the athletes using Nitric Oxide supplements ingested any additional carbohydrates while exercising, their muscles very rapidly used those carbohydrates to fuel their exercise.
This might actually be something of a double-edged sword for a “regular” person looking to improve their performance in the gym, because Nitric Oxide does such a great job of using muscle glycogen (the body’s stored energy reserves); that means that it’ll only use up stored fat as fuel for exercise as a secondary source.
However, that also means that using Nitric Oxide allows the body to burn through stored energy reserves at a faster rate, meaning it’ll then allow the body to reach stored fat reserves at a faster rate, once it’s emptied its glycogen tank.
Faster Recovery Time
The improved recovery process through Nitric Oxide supplementation first starts with the “muscle pump” you’ll feel after a workout (especially a resistance-based one).
That feeling comes from the increased blood flow you’re getting to your muscles, because Nitric Oxide actually causes your muscles to relax, improving the circulation of blood in and out of the muscles; think of it like opening up more lanes on a busy highway, allowing traffic to flow faster and better.
That improved blood flow increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients that are able to be utilized by the muscles to repair themselves and recover.
Since the concept of exercising is essentially based on introducing stress to your body, to help it tolerate and adapt to that level of stress, we need that time for the body to rest from the last stress (exercise session) and prime the muscles to tolerate that level of stress in the future.
The improved flow of blood, oxygen, and nutrients in your body can help reduce that rest and recovery time needed between workouts, allows you to have more frequent exercise sessions, which can result in better results.
Our Top Recommendations
1. VINTAGE BLAST by Old School Labs
- Dual-Stage Drive Without The Crash: Elevate your workout intensity and consistency by experiencing the innovation of our two-stage caffeine-release preworkout. Timed caffeine release propels your...
- Triple-Action Amino Power: Packed with L-Citrulline Malate for improved endurance, Beta-Alanine for reduced fatigue, and D-Aspartic Acid for faster recovery. Get the premium fusion of these amino...
- A Preworkout Above The Rest: Say goodbye to the jitters, unsavory chemical tastes, and digestive discomfort. Enjoy a consistent performance boost, seamless mixability and a taste that’ll have you...
Vintage Blast by Old School Labs is a two-staged pre-workout energy booster that’s designed to elevate nitric oxide levels, in order to deliver sustained energy, strength, endurance, and pumps for the entire duration of your workout.
That’s where their products differ from the other because while other products also help boost pre-workout nitric oxide levels, the effects begin to taper off through the course of a workout, diminishing the impact that the supplement has in the first place.
Vintage Blast’s dual-staged system is designed to capitalize on the different digestive and uptake properties of the ingredients it uses, to provide a steady and reliable performance boost for the entire duration of your workout.
- 100% money back guarantee for those who are not satisfied with results
- Delivers key electrolytes and micronutrients that help with body hydration levels
- Could require taking as many as eight capsules, spread out over two times per day
- Product contains caffeine, which could have side effects including dehydration, nervousness, irritability, and sleeplessness
2. BeetVO2Max by DoctorCare Sports
There’s a growing school of thought that beet root (the juice made out of it) could be another superfood, because it’s a natural source of nitric oxide production.
Along those lines, DoctorCare Plus created a powder from beet root, stating that powders are an efficient delivery system designed for maximum bioavailability of a whole raw food.
Each jar of BeetVO2Max organic beetroot juice powder has 15 pounds worth of fresh beets in it, giving you the maximum nitric oxide boost from the beets, as well as all the other nutrients they contain, like magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin C, iron, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12.
The beets used in BeetVO2Max are 100% organic, as the company promises that the beets are grown in optimum conditions, with only the best all-natural beets used when creating the powder.
- Easy to take: consume 1 or 2 scoops of BeetVO2Max once per day
- Unlike other beet-based supplements, the taste is pleasant; has "berry cherry" flavor, slightly sweetened using Stevia
- 100% money back guarantee for dissatisfied customers
- Getting the powder to mix optimally is a bit complicated
3. NITRIX 2.0 by BSN
- NITRIC OXIDE PRECURSOR - Supports workout performance, endurance, pumps and recovery
- Product Note: Exposure to heat or sunlight may lead to melting/damage of product. Hence customers are expected to be available during the product delivery
- 3G L-CITRULLINE - Supports pumps
Bio-Engineered Supplements and Nutrition (BSN) is one of the most reputable names in sports and exercise nutrition, with over 40 sports nutrition awards.
Their NITRIX 2.0 product is both a nitric oxide precursor — which helps your body to increase its production of nitric oxide — as well as a foundational solution that helps enhance all your other training and supplements.
The product primes your body to create more nitric oxide by providing it with two amino acids — L-arginine and three grams of the amino acid L-citrulline — and then further boosts the energy and pump you get while working out throw the three additional grams of creatine, which has been shown help your muscles produce energy during heavy lifting or high-intensity exercise.
- Caffeine and stimulant-free product which will not cause sleeplessness when consumed alongside evening workouts
- Two servings of NITRIX 2.0 also contains the recommended amount of creatine for individuals weighing up to 170lbs to fully enjoy the benefits of the supplement as well
- Requires users to take six tablets per day: three tablets 60 minutes prior to training, and three tablets post-workout
Conclusion
Growing up, we all remember mom telling us to eat our vegetables, if we wanted to grow up and become strong and healthy. While we’re not 100% sure if she followed her own advice, we know that it was still true.
That’s why we recommend going with the substance that’s made from pure, organic sources that come straight from the Earth: BeetVO2Max.
Why not go with a supplement that you only need to take once a day, has shown a natural ability to increase nitric oxide levels in the body, and provides you with a whole host of other vitamins and minerals along the way?
We know the odd mixing procedure, and multi-colored “leavings” in the bathroom might seem like a deterrent, but we still think that the product is the best and safest way to get the benefits of nitric oxide supplementation.
Our team at The Fitness Tribe often collaborates together to produce content. Many times the content is not written by a single author, instead it is usually a team effort.
Last update on 2023-02-20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API