Resveratrol and Bodybuilding
What if I told you there was a naturally occurring supplement that could improve your body composition and also help to improve your overall long-term health and quality of living? As rare as it sounds, Resveratrol may just be the first guilt-free, natural physique-enhancing supplement in a bodybuilder’s arsenal.
What is Resveratrol?
A potent polyphenol compound found in grapes, berries, red wine and cocoa that’s well known for it’s wide range of health benefits.
The supplementation version of resveratrol is known as trans-resveratrol.
What are the Key Benefits?
Insulin sensitivity. Positively improves insulin sensitivity and prevents insulin resistance to help muscle cells take up glucose more efficiently and help you handle carbs better over time.
Fat loss. Acts as a fat blocker by inhibiting the secretion of leptin by adipocytes to get you leaner, faster over time by preventing the accumulation of fat in fat cells.
Testosterone booster. Works as a natural testosterone booster and helps your body make better use of the testosterone it already has.
Anti-Estrogen. Acts as a natural aromatase inhibitor to preventing the excess creation of estrogen as well as blocking harmful artificial environmental estrogens.
Antioxidant support. Powerful antioxidant to fight free radical scavengers and protect cell integrity.
Metabolism. Increases the metabolism more than caffeine without any stimulant effect. It is thought to improve mitochondrial function.
Muscle growth. May speed up muscle growth by upregulating a key anabolic pathway associated with recovery and hypertrophy (IGF-1, AKT).
Muscle Pumps. Boosts nitric oxide synthase activity to improve the vasodilation effect and endothelial function (i.e. better blood flow and pumps)
Training Performance. May increase muscle force production and contractile strength of fast twitch fibers.
Anti-Inflammatory/Anti-Catabolic. Helps to balance the inflammatory response and prevent excessive inflammation which can lead to catabolism and muscle damage.
Cancer prevention. Protects the cellular DNA and helps neutralize any carcinogenic substances.
Immune system. Helps to keep the immune system strong and resistant to minor colds and illnesses.
Blood pressure. Can help lower blood pressure in individuals with high blood pressure.
Heart health. Cardio-protective benefits to improve heart health and prevent disease.
Dosing?
5-10 mg/day for general health benefits in unhealthy, sedentary people.
** 150-500 mg for athletes **
Timing – 1-2 x per day with one dose coming in the pre-workout window. Do not take immediately. post-workout.
Side Effects?
No known side effects.
Coach Additional Notes
Resveratrol is without question a very healthy, safe supplement to consider for overall long-term health and also offers some attractive benefits for bodybuilders interested in improving body composition. Can’t go wrong with this one.
No, you can’t just drink a glass of red wine every day on prep! The supplement forms of trans-resveratrol contains 100 times the active compound as contained in a full bottle of red wine. In other words, it would take more than 100 bottles of red wine per day to get enough resveratrol to obtain the same results as the supplement. Good luck with that.
Does resveratrol limit muscle growth? Some argue that anything which interferes with the inflammation response can theoretically limit muscle growth. This hasn’t been objectively proven in human studies and I feel that athletes have so much inflammation that taking things like resveratrol act to balance inflammation, not shut it down.
For those that say resveratrol can inhibit protein synthesis, I would say don’t take it at the same time as BCAAs or leucine to counteract their effects.
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