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Can this supplement in fact help you to gain muscle and build mass?
If you believe what all the magazines are saying, then I have some land in the Everglades I'd like to sell you.
The bottom line behind nitric oxide supplements (when you shuffle through all the "mumbo-jumbo" sales pitch and hype that are in the ads that promote these products) is that it is a "vasodilator", which simply means that it supposedly dilates, or opens up, your blood vessels.
This "opening" up wider of the blood vessels supposedly will allow more blood to flow to the working muscles, which will supposedly "enhance" the pump, which will supposedly engorge them and make them larger, helping you gain muscle weight.
Well, there are 2 major points that have to be considered here when evaluating how well they truly are in helping you build muscle:
1) Does nitric oxide really open up the blood vessels?
2) Is getting a "massive pump" important if you are trying to gain weight / build muscle mass?
If and how much nitric oxide dilates your blood vessels is still a topic in discussion.
There have been NO un-biased, independent, peer-reviewed studies done on this to make it conclusive.
So, we really can't say "yes" or "no".
However, let's play "make believe" and pretend that "yes", nitric oxide supplements do allow more blood to flow into a working muscle.
If that's the case, then let's consider the next point.
Do you need to get a big blood pump into the muscle to make it grow?
Will it allow you to gain weight and build muscle mass?
Just about everyone thinks that "yes", you must get a pump in a muscle to build it.
However, when you are training a muscle in reality you aren't pushing or sending more blood to the muscle.
What's actually happening is that when the fibers contract the area inside of the muscle gets smaller, which results in the blood that's already in there to become trapped and the pressure increased.
So, in reality, there isn't more blood going into the muscle, there's actually less since the blood that's in there is trapped, cannot leave, nor allow fresh blood to enter.
That's also why as you continue to do reps you begin to feel the "burning" sensation in the working muscle.
That's a major sign that there is no oxygen anymore inside the blood that's in the muscle.
When there is no oxygen in the blood it creates a chemical called lactic acid.
Lactic acid is what causes this "burning" feeling.
There is no oxygen in the blood because fresh blood can't get in there with new oxygen and nutrients!
Plus, you can do 1000 reps of an exercise using a 20 pound dumbbell and get a major pump.
But I guarantee you that you won't build as big a muscle as if you were to use heavier weight, even though it may not make it easier to get as big a "pump".
So all this "hoopla" about nitric oxide supplements allowing you to get a better pump to build more muscle mass is nothing but hype!!!!
It won't help you one bit to gain muscle weight.
You watch and see, shortly all of these "N.O." supplements are going to fade into the shadows and some new powder or pill is going to be the new "talk of the town", I guarantee it!
