ASHWAGANDHA AND MUSCLE
There's a herbal supplement that's not all that famous in the fitness world - ASHWAGANDHA. It's supposed to have both health and bodybuilding benefits - let's have a look.
WHAT IS ASHWAGANDHA?
Withania somnifera, known commonly as ashwagandha, Indian ginseng, poison gooseberry, or winter cherry, is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family
- Wikipedia
It's a herb found in parts of India, Sri Lanka, and China. It's been used in traditional Indian medicine because of its beneficial health properties.
GOOD FOR ATHLETES?
There's a study looking at the effects of supplementation with this herb on muscle strength and size, from India, back in 2015. It's a raadomized control trial, making this a robust study.
Researchers looked at 50 healthy young males, and assigned them to two arms in the study - with one group taking an Ashwagandha supplement at a dose of 300mg twice a day, and the other group taking a placebo pill (without any medication or supplement in it). Both groups underwent the same resistance training programme.
At the end of 8 weeks, researchers found that participants who took Ashwagandha as a supplement were stronger, had greater muscle growth, greater fat loss, and lower levels of muscle damage indicators (Creatine Kinase - an enzyme found in muscle tissue).
Of note, the participants (who were all young males) had a higher testosterone level if they took Ashwagandha (although resistance training in itself does help optimize Testosterone levels).
Another study in 2018 from the USA looked at the effect of Ashwagandha supplementation on male recreational athletes. Young men (mean age of 26.5 yrs old) took 500mg of Ashwagandha daily, and at the end of 12 weeks, body measurements and strength indices were compared between the 2 groups.
The group of men who supplemented with Ashwagandha were stronger than those who took a placebo pill, although there was no significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of lean body mass and body fat percentage.
A separate study looked at Ashwagandha supplementation in aging men (aged 40 to 75), and found that this supplement produced a significant rise in their testosterone levels (14.7% compared to the placebo group).
An animal study in 2020 in South Korea looked at Ashwagandha supplementation in rats that were fat a high-fat diet, and found that the animal which were given this herbal supplement had significant suppression of fat gain, and they went on to postulate that this was because of higher mitochondrial activity in fat and muscle tissue in the animals which were given the Ashwagandha supplement.
IT'S GOOD FOR
ANXIETY TOO
In addition to it's body composition benefits, it's been shown to reduce levels of the 'stress hormone' Cortisol in your body, and also symptoms of anxiety. We'll look at this a bit more in another article (read it here) under our 'MENTAL HEALTH' section on this website.
IS IT SAFE?
A separate medical study in India in 2021 looked at participants taking a total daily dose of 600mg of Ashwagandha extract, in doses of 300mg twice a day, and compared this with a group taking a placebo pill, over 8 weeks.
Looking at some important markers of health, no significant difference was found in blood pressure readings, or in blood tests like blood counts, liver enzyme levels, and thyroid function tests.
This study concluded that this supplement is safe, but more research was needed to evaluate the safety profile of this supplement in the long-term.
WRAP IT UP
This supplement is not well known, but is something interesting to try, if you're looking to try something new to up your game in the gym. Just look for it online on iHerb.com - they sell health supplements at very reasonable prices.
