For someone who finds going to the gym a regular struggle, I’ve often wondered how people can stay buff, super fit, and just plain healthy.
I get tired very easily and simply doing crunches or planks is agonizing for me! I can just imagine how doubly difficult it would be for people to continue working out regularly, enough to build and maintain those muscles and that trim shape!
One such person I always think of when speaking of muscles and fitness is Thor of The Avengers. (Purely for science, of course. Ahem.)
You’ve seen him, right? I know he’s supposed to be a Norse god and all (though I doubt that accounts for the looks!), but what could he be eating to enable him to look that good?
I asked that same question while having dinner with a friend of mine and was playfully told, “It’s Arginine!”
That was a joke, sure, but you know what? He could be on to something!
Arginine is actually an amino acid that supports vascularity and muscle build-up. So for all we know, it could be Thor’s food!
Okay, moving on—
Aside from its bodybuilding capabilities, Arginine benefits the body in many other ways—but we’ll focus on three of the most important ones later in this blog!
Do you know that our bodies naturally produce Arginine? Yes, we do, according to selfhacked.com! But only at very low levels. Not enough to maximize all that it can actually do—especially as we age when we experience a slowdown in bodily functions.
And this is why we need to supplement our current levels of Arginine regularly.
One of the ways we can increase it is via food intake. There are many sources of Arginine in food. This can be found in whole wheat, soy, raisins, nuts, fish, poultry, dairy, and even red meat, among others.
Sounds good, huh?
But there’s another—quite powerful—way to amp up Arginine intake in your body. Supplements.
But why Arginine specifically? As mentioned earlier, Arginine has many important benefits aside from its body shaping, bodybuilding properties. Let’s talk about three of the top ones: