Why Bodybuilders Should Say No To NAC
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Suppplements containing N-acetylcysteine as an antioxidant supposedly aid muscle recovery. Now it looks like they do the exact opposite.
N-Acetylcysteine
In case you haven’t yet heard about this supplement wonder, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a modified form of the amino acid cysteine and helps the body make the antioxidant enzyme glutathione.
So far doctors used this effect to treat chronic bronchopulmonary disease, to alleviate toxicity of chemotherapy, help people with weak immune systems due to HIV and to treat acetaminophen (Tylenol) overdose. The rate of success between each of these varies, but it looks promising.
NAC Makes Your Workouts Worse?
However, many people buy NAC despite not suffering from the above ailments. For them the magic is in the word “antioxidant.”
Bodybuilders discovered NAC more than ten years ago, praising it for letting them recover faster. Bodybuilding.com, home to a vast online supplement store, naturally wasn’t shy to pick up on that and have one of their “experts” recommend it:
Naturally training athletes can benefit from supplemental use of NAC because of its ability to protect the immune system from harmful oxidants that result from environmental pollution, regular metabolic functions and intense exercise.
You find similar statements on various other bodybuilding websites and forums, many echoing the “helps you recover faster.” Nobody, it seems, had much incentive to ask if there was anything more than anecdotal evidence. Whatever they wrote about N-acetylcysteine you have to take at face value.
This makes a new piece of research I came across very interesting. It delivers real evidence and comes to a much different conclusion:
Although thiol-based antioxidant supplementation enhances [glutathione] availability in skeletal muscle, it disrupts the skeletal muscle inflammatory response and repair capability, potentially because of a blunted activation of redox-sensitive signaling pathways.
Let me translate this: the muscles of athletes who used NAC didn’t fully recover and their performance got worse. The antioxidant ability of NAC did the exact opposite of what people assumed on bodybuilding forums.
In my opinion, you could also shred old tires, press them in pill form and sell them with a nice profit, as long you put “antioxidant” on the bottle. Someone’s going to buy into it.
No Surprise, Really
Feel free to believe N-acetylcysteine lets you recover faster or even makes your muscles bigger, but if you want me to believe it, point me at some evidence that is at least as reliable as what I linked above.
Given this evidence and the other research about the usefulness of multivitamin supplements and antioxidants, it seems the best thing to do to recover is to simply give your body rest and carry on with a balanced nutrition as usual.
Picture courtesy of “worak“.
9 Comments
So much misinformation out there isn’t there!
It’s possible they were just working out more without taking recovery time which would cause the same problems. The proteins aid in the recovery but they would still need downtime for full muscle recovery so a flaw in that study would be that it was done 8 days straight w/ no downtime I believe.
That study used HIGH doses — 1800-2400 milligrams a day, depending on your weight. Jeez, for some bodybuilders, it would mean 3000-3600 mgs.
A lot of amateur bodybuilders take steroids or sarms. 99% of professional bodybuilders take steroids or sarms. They use NAC as a liver protectant when doing oral cycles. Given that steroids and sarms increase your performance, the decreased performance from NAC wouldn’t change much.
For naturals, I can see this as helpful.
So well said. I completely agree and it’s well said here. The advances you get with the PEDs is going to greatly outweigh those hindrances. Taking care of that liver is priority.
Interesting. This also seems to be the case with other antioxidants, such as Vitamin C and Vitamin E.
This is just my opinion. Whoever wrote this sounds like “that guy” that thinks they are so much smarter than everyone else, and they’re the only one that knows what no one else knows, and wants to make sure you know how smart they are by writing an article more to show off how smart they are rather than help anyone. A Dr Fauci Jr.
I read parts of this study and noticed it was a government funded study. My personal opinion is there is a war against masculinity and anything that would promote maleness.
Whoever wrote this argues like all the closed minded people I’ve had discussions with that had already made up their minds about an issue with LITTLE to NO facts, and will defend the molehill with their lives, and not want to hear facts and ignore evidence that disproves their ideas.
And if I know this type as I believe I do this comment will be blocked, censored, then removed. And I will be attacked personally, berated, and called names, and usually that’s before I’m blocked and censored.
Finally I’ll say, one skewed study done by people (gov and big pharma) with an agenda who often works to create an outcome shouldn’t be trusted without some skepticism, when there’s plenty of other studies and real wold experience shows a different result. Like I read a study once that said caffeine doesn’t give you energy.
And what do you know, recently the government recently pulled NAC off the OTC market for some unknown reason.(Some studies showed it blocked viruses like COVID from replicating) But you can buy dope legally, and some places gov won’t prosecute selling and using hard drugs, but they must shut down a supplement that helps a guy working on being a very fit and healthy MAN!
“Experts” from bodybuilding.com also sell online guides on steroids, how to take them, and where to buy.
I confirm that NAC interferes with your body’s repair mechanism. I was taking it semi-regularly for 6 months. At some point I strained one of my patellar tendons from overuse climbing up a mountain. No big deal, these things happen and the body repairs. However this time it didn’t, for months this went on. I was favouring it and using my other leg which then triggered my other patellar tendon to degenerate, but I wasn’t putting it through any more strain than I would have previously through exercise; in fact significantly less. And a tendon in my wrist wouldn’t heal. Also, I noticed that I couldn’t get “the burn” anymore after muscle strain. Thankfully I found a few search hits like this one explaining that NAC prevents the body from repairing properly after intense exercise. Every Youtube video talks about how great NAC is, well don’t believe it. It may have certain benefits but you need to be careful taking it. I immediately stopped a few weeks ago and my body is now healing nicely and I’m able to hike up the mountain again. Too bad I lost 4 months of my life where I couldn’t do much exercise.