Does taking arginine make you bike faster?
The effects of acute and chronic oral l-arginine supplementation on exercise-induced ammonia accumulation and exercise performance in healthy young men: A randomised, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave guys arginine pills to see if it helped them bike harder or feel less sore. It made some blood chemicals go up and reduced muscle damage, but didn’t help them bike faster or reduce tiredness during exercise.
Surprising Findings
Chronic arginine lowered ammonia compared to acute placebo and acute arginine, but not compared to chronic placebo.
This suggests the drop in ammonia was due to time or repeated testing—not arginine itself. The real comparison (chronic arginine vs. chronic placebo) showed no effect.
Practical Takeaways
Skip L-arginine supplements if you’re a healthy athlete looking to improve cycling or endurance performance.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave guys arginine pills to see if it helped them bike harder or feel less sore. It made some blood chemicals go up and reduced muscle damage, but didn’t help them bike faster or reduce tiredness during exercise.
Surprising Findings
Chronic arginine lowered ammonia compared to acute placebo and acute arginine, but not compared to chronic placebo.
This suggests the drop in ammonia was due to time or repeated testing—not arginine itself. The real comparison (chronic arginine vs. chronic placebo) showed no effect.
Practical Takeaways
Skip L-arginine supplements if you’re a healthy athlete looking to improve cycling or endurance performance.
Publication
Journal
Journal of Exercise Science and Fitness
Year
2022
Authors
Ayano Hiratsu, Yusei Tataka, Saki Namura, C. Nagayama, Yuka Hamada, M. Miyashita
Related Content
Claims (5)
Taking a 5-gram dose of L-arginine won’t help healthy young men cycle better or lower ammonia in their blood, even though it does raise levels of a few other related chemicals in their blood.
Taking a daily L-arginine supplement for two weeks doesn't make healthy young men cycle any harder or faster in a short, self-paced test compared to taking a sugar pill.
Taking a daily L-arginine supplement for two weeks doesn't help lower ammonia levels in the blood when healthy young men cycle hard, because the supplement group and the placebo group ended up with pretty much the same ammonia levels.
Taking L-arginine pills can raise the level of arginine in your blood, but that doesn’t always mean you’ll produce more nitric oxide or get better at exercising—sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t.
Taking a daily L-arginine supplement for two weeks might help young men recover faster from bike workouts by reducing a chemical in their blood that signals muscle damage.