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Supposedly according to Mark it's the only ingredient in N-Explode that has any value in muscle building.
Just looking for one less thing to buy.
It isn't expensive and I've taken it religiously as early as I can before a workout, but anything I say about the results is purely anecdotal.
I don't notice anything, but maybe I'm not supposed to.

JohnOregon wrote:Supposedly according to Mark it's the only ingredient in N-Explode that has any value in muscle building.
Just looking for one less thing to buy.
It isn't expensive and I've taken it religiously as early as I can before a workout, but anything I say about the results is purely anecdotal.
I don't notice anything, but maybe I'm not supposed to.

Like I just got called out in a subject line...

I am hands-down with Mark on this one (and have yet to find any research that contradicts him in the slightest, so I usually do side with him on everything under the sun). There is one little problem with it - it stacks and absorbs very poorly. You wouldn't know this from what all BSN mixes theirs with, but then BSN makes complete and utter garbage, so I'm not terribly surprised that they would take a legit good supplement and then destroy it with God knows what all. Like, seriously, their "lean mass gainer" is souped-up maltodextrin with whey powder, and their "thermogenic" is caffeine, geranium extract (proven to maybe work), bitter orange extract (proven to not work), yohimbine (proven to not work) and a gazillion different peppers (which I'm sure make it feel like it works, cuz it needs to do something before people figure out it's No Doz).

But enough about purveyors of crap!

The recommendation on AAGK is two doses a day. The first should be bright-shiny in the morning on an empty stomach, with nothing. If it has to compete with other aminos for enzymes, it won't be as readily absorbed. Your second should be 15-20 minutes before your workout, about the same time as you would take your creatine (which is also best absorbed on an empty stomach, but for different reasons, and as such will not compete with the Arginine). You'll also see L-Arginine advertised as the same thing. It isn't. L-Arginine is not stable in the stomach and will break down and end up in your urine. AAKG is a salt of L-Arginine, so your body digests the salt bit (the AKG part, alpha-ketoglutarate if you want to know), and the L-Arginine gets absorbed.

You may notice more of a "pump" using it than not using it, and like so many supplements the benefits from AAKG are still theoretical and may end up disproven, but the theoreticals are pretty strong - studies have shown a significant increase in anabolic hormones in healthy men taking AAGK, and test-tube studies have shown it to increase growth of fibroblasts (which is about as close as you can get to studying muscle in a test-tube). Not everyone gets the "pump" so not everyone notices, but it is cheap, and it might be one of the few that actually bloody works. To me, looks at minimum worth trying, and possibly (if not probably) actually effective for bulking.

very good. I will buy another bottle.