Citrulline Malate Extended Product Information

Citrulline Malate

Citrulline Malate is a pre cursor to Arginine. Citrulline Malate can help users increase nitric oxide levels, which may lead to increased strength and endurance through the increase in blood flow, glucose uptake and oxygen delivery to the muscles.

Bulk Nutrients' Citrulline Malate is the more powerful 2 – 1 form and is 100% pharmaceutical grade.

Key points:

Increase workout performance and capacity
Greater fight of fatigue
Nitric oxide ‘pump’ benefits and more blood flow
Erectile Dysfunction support
Solid clinical studies

Dosage:

6 grams before training

Can be used with:

Any Bulk Nutrients amino acid ingredient
Pre Workout
BCAA Recovery

Citrulline Malate Product information

Citrulline Malate is classified as a non-essential amino acid and as such is not traditionally incorporated into proteins or nutritional/infant products.

Citrulline Malate is produced in the body through two main pathways:

It is synthesised from Glutamine by the cells lining the small intestine (i.e. enterocytes)
Via the conversion of L-Arginine to nitric oxide.

Citrulline Malate does not have any direct role in fat metabolism so there is no basis to make any claims for fat loss associated with supplemental Citrulline Malate. Theoretically, Citrulline Malate may positively affect fat metabolism by increasing nitric oxide, but this remains to be studied.

Citrulline is a component of the body’s urea cycle, which is responsible for converting ammonia to urea. Ammonia is a toxic product of exercise that inhibits muscle contraction when exercising at high intensities such as in the gym when doing any type of set with greater than 6-7 reps.

Citrulline Malate can help support urea cycle function and thus relieve any additional stress on the liver resulting from high protein intake in a typical bodybuilder’s diet.

Citrulline Malate increases nitric oxide (N.O) levels. N.O regulates many functions of skeletal muscle including glucose uptake, fat oxidation, contractile functions, blood flow and repair. Increasing N.O levels is thought to have a beneficial effect on these functions.

Scientific research on Citrulline Malate

There have been numerous studies on Citrulline Malate which have measured its effect on a range of different exercise and muscle performance parameters.

One study showed an increase in plasma N.O metabolites in well trained endurance athletes after a cycling competition; these athletes were supplemented with only one dose of Citrulline Malate (6 g) 2 hours before exercise.

Another study using rats have found supplementation with Citrulline Malate to improve the efficiency of muscle contraction.

Lastly, a study of men complaining of fatigue found that L-Citrulline-Malate improved muscle energetics by promoting aerobic function.

So the science is pretty solid when it comes to Citrulline Malate’s positive effect on exercise performance.

A deep dive into Citrulline Malate research

A study of people looking to use Citrulline Malate to increase the intensity of their resistance training program was published in 2010 in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and used repeated sets of Chest exercises to muscular failure to test Citrulline Malate’s capacity to improve anaerobic performance.

The study was of the highest scientific standard possible; it involved 41 male subjects and used a randomized, double-blind, 2-period crossover design. In simpler words, this type of study design is considered the ‘gold standard’ in science.

In each session, subjects completed a total of 16 sets of exercises. The first 4 sets consisted of the flat barbell bench press exercise at 80% of 1RM until repetition failure, with each set separated by 1-minutes rest. The next 4 sets consisted of the incline barbell bench press exercise to muscular failure using the same weight and rest period as the first exercise (i.e. flat barbell bench press).

The next 4 sets consisted of the incline dumbbell flyes exercise at 60% of 1RM for the flat barbell bench press. The last 4 sets were a repeat of the first four, namely, flat barbell bench press exercise at 80% of 1RM to muscular failure.

Each time, the researchers recorded the number of repetitions conducted in the 8 sets of flat barbell bench presses (i.e. 4 at the start and 4 at the end)

In what can be considered very encouraging findings, the number of repetitions showed a significant increase from placebo treatment to Citrulline Malate treatment.

By the time participants reached the last set, there was an average increase of 52.92% in repetitions, with every participant showing a positive response! What’s more, participants reported an average decrease of 40% in muscle soreness at 24 hours and 48 hours after the Chest training session when supplementing with Citrulline Malate prior to the workout.

Citrulline Malate is one of those rare ingredients with a very solid backing in clinical studies.

Nick Telesca

Nick is Bulk's Customer Service team's Technical Support Officer.

Which is our way of saying he's the guy whose job it is to answer your obscenely technical supplement questions.

More about Nick Telesca

References:

Bendahan, D., 2002. Citrulline/malate promotes aerobic energy production in human exercising muscle. British Journal of Sports Medicine, [online] 36(4), pp.282-289. Available at: Citrulline/malate promotes aerobic energy production in human exercising muscle.
Giannesini, B., Le Fur, Y., Cozzone, P., Verleye, M., Le Guern, M. and Bendahan, D., 2011. Citrulline malate supplementation increases muscle efficiency in rat skeletal muscle. European Journal of Pharmacology, [online] 667(1-3), pp.100-104. Available at: Citrulline malate supplementation increases muscle efficiency in rat skeletal muscle.
Pérez-Guisado, J. and Jakeman, P., 2010. Citrulline Malate Enhances Athletic Anaerobic Performance and Relieves Muscle Soreness. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, [online] 24(5), pp.1215-1222. Available at: Citrulline Malate Enhances Athletic Anaerobic Performance and Relieves Muscle Soreness.
Sureda, A., Córdova, A., Ferrer, M., Tauler, P., Pérez, G., Tur, J. and Pons, A., 2009. Effects of L-citrulline oral supplementation on polymorphonuclear neutrophils oxidative burst and nitric oxide production after exercise. Free Radical Research, [online] 43(9), pp.828-835. Available at: Effects of L-citrulline oral supplementation on polymorphonuclear neutrophils oxidative burst and nitric oxide production after exercise.