What is Nitric Oxide?
Nitric Oxide is a soluble gas that’s continually produced from the amino acid, L-arginine, inside your cells. Nitric Oxide has gotten most of its attention through its cardiovascular benefits because it relaxes narrowed blood vessels increasing oxygen and blood flow. The interior surface of your arteries produce nitric oxide. When plaque builds up in your arteries, called atherosclerosis, you reduce your capacity to produce nitric oxide.
Nitric Oxide acts as a potent vasodilator by helping widen the diameter of your blood vessels to allow a greater volume of blood to flow through.
Healthy blood flow is essential for energy production and optimal performance throughout your entire body, including your brain and muscles.
How does Nitric Oxide specifically benefit athletic training?
- NO has been a little known secret weapon to many athletes to help boost endurance. Nitric Oxide increases blood flow to muscle tissue. The increase in blood flow brings more essential nutrients and oxygen to laboring muscles while also removing metabolic waste, improving muscular function and endurance. NO actually triggers your cells to relax the smooth muscle within the arterial wall causing arteries to open up permitting greater blood flow.
- NO can help along the removal of exercise-induced lactic acid build-up which reduces fatigue and recovery time.
- High levels of nitric oxide in your body ultimately promotes blood flow and lowers the amount of oxygen that your muscles require for exercise.
- These factors help enable athletes to move more efficiently and with greater power.
- NO has the capacity to lower body fat by effectively increasing fatty acid oxidation.
The health benefits of Nitric Oxide
Nitric oxide deficiencies are due to aging, inactivity, smoking, high cholesterol, fatty diets, and lack of healthy foods.
Increasing your NO levels can help increase your energy, vitality and overall wellness!
The most common way to increase Nitric Oxide in the body is through diet, exercise, and sunshine! Foods high in nitrites convert to more nitric oxide production in the body. Spinach, arugula, beets, pomegranates, garlic, cayenne pepper, citrus, and walnuts are all great options. Try to incorporate more of these into your daily diet.
If you are working out hard most days of the week and doing HIIT workouts it may benefit you to take a supplement like this one.
One of the most important molecules for blood vessel health is nitric oxide. Nitric oxide can reduce blood pressure, prevent heart artery blockage, and prevent stroke. Athletes and fitness enthusiasts can benefit tremendously from this endurance booster!
Be Well 🙂
Susie R.