Agmatine Sulfate: Benefits, Optimal Dosage And Side-Effects

There are a ton of supplements out there. Far too many for any one person to learn about in their lifetime. However, some supplements stand out among the rest and have gained a reputation as being effective and potent. Agmatine sulfate is one of these supplements.

Agmatine sulfate is a chemical compound, which is one of the reasons that the name is a bit of a mouthful: it hasn’t been branded yet.

However, agmatine has also been proven to be useful as a workout supplement, a general health supplement. It can even be helpful for people who are trying to work through drug addictions.

In this article, we’re going to explain what agmatine sulfate is and give you some scientifically-verified information about its benefits.

What is agmatine sulfate?

Agmatine sulfate has only recently become popular in the bodybuilding world, though science has been aware of it for quite a few years. Agmatine is a classic case of a powerful supplement that doesn’t get enough respect because people simply don’t know enough about it.

Agmatine is different from many of the ingredients that you’ll commonly see listed in workout supplements. It’s not a protein or a BCAA, but it is a regular amino acid.

It’s not a steroid, and it’s not made to bump up your hormone levels.

So what exactly is it useful for?

You might already know about L-arginine. Arginine is another amino acid supplement that’s quite common in workout supplements. L-arginine is known to help increase the body’s levels of nitric oxide, which is very important.

Nitric oxide is used to help increase blood flow throughout the body and to the various tissues and muscles that we have. This allows us to work out for harder and longer before we fall victim to fatigue.

Well, here’s the exciting part. Once you consume L-arginine, the body turns it into agmatine sulfate. That means that most of the nitric oxide benefits that you are enjoying actually come from agmatine, not from the arginine.

By using agmatine sulfate directly, you’ll be able to skip the whole process by which your body absorbs, processes, and metabolizes the L-arginine. You’ll get the same benefits except more of them at a higher concentration, for a lower dose.

What are the benefits of agmatine sulfate?

The primary function of agmatine sulfate is to help boost levels of nitric oxide. Most of the benefits associated with both L-arginine and agmatine sulfate are because of the way that they help the body produce more nitric oxide. Some of these benefits are:

Fighting Erectile Dysfunction

One of the main reasons that people like to use nitric oxide supplements, like agmatine, is to help them fight off symptoms of erectile dysfunction.

As you probably know, an erection is caused by blood rushing into the tissues of the penis. If something is preventing the blood from reaching your penis, then you’re not going to be able to get an erection - plain and simple.

One of the best ways to relax the muscles of the penis is to take a nitric oxide supplement. Doing this makes it easier for your penis to fill with blood so you can get rock-hard erections.

Helps Fight Muscle Soreness

Sore muscles following a workout are a challenge bodybuilders have to deal with regularly. In some ways, this soreness is satisfying - it’s a sign of a good workout - but it can also be annoying.

Fortunately, nitric oxide supplements can help to decrease muscle soreness after a workout.

One study was done on another amino acid, L-citrulline, which is basically the same thing as agmatine. How is this possible, you ask?

When you consume L-citrulline, the body converts it to L-arginine. As we discussed earlier, L-arginine is converted into agmatine sulfate, which then boosts nitric oxide.

This study revealed that improved levels of nitric oxide reduced muscle soreness.

After a hard and long workout your need to recover properly to either build muscle or endurance. That's why Agmatine is most of the time in the best post workout supplements.

Improves Blood Pressure

Another useful benefit of agmatine sulfate is its ability to help regulate blood pressure in the human body.

Research seems to suggest that people who have chronic problems with high blood pressure have a hard time using nitric oxide. This is because the walls of their arteries are unable to relax, making it more difficult for blood to travel through them.

Agmatine helps to increase the production of nitric oxide, making it easier for the body to make use of it. This helps to prevent high blood pressure.

Increases Exercise Performance

This is one of the main reasons that L-arginine, L-citrulline, and agmatine are often included in pre-workout supplements: they help to increase exercise performance.

This is because of the way that nitric oxide helps the blood vessels relax. This allows for more oxygen and nutrients to be carried throughout the body. Another great ingredient that does this is Vasodrive AP.

As this happens, the muscles become more nourished and can work harder and for longer.

Research has shown that L-arginine isn’t that effective in this regard, likely because most of it’s broken down by the body before it does anything useful.

However, lots of studies have shown that L-citrulline causes enough change in nitric oxide to boost performance, so it would make sense that L-citrulline does the same.

Why Is Agmatine Sulfate Used In Bodybuilding?

As you can see from the benefits above, nitric oxide is very important for bodybuilders and athletes. This is why bodybuilders use agmatine:

• Agmatine helps to improve your exercise performance. By supplying blood to muscle tissues, agmatine helps your muscles work stronger, harder, and for longer. This will lead to better results in the gym.
  
  
• Agmatine boosts nitric oxide levels. Studies have shown that this boost helps to reduce soreness after a workout, which can make life a lot more comfortable in between workouts.
  
  
• Nitric oxide is important for cellular metabolism. It helps them produce energy. This means that you’ll feel more vitalized and energetic when you’re using nitric oxide supplements like agmatine.

While agmatine and nitric oxide may also help to fight erectile dysfunction, this generally isn’t the main reason that bodybuilders use the supplement. However, if you also struggle with ED, you’ll be happy to find out that this is an enjoyable, additional benefit to using agmatine.

Agmatine is often found in muscle building stacks because of its complementary effects on other ingredients.

Optimal Dosage Information

There is a relatively wide range of safe dosages for using agmatine. The effective dosage range is between 1.6 to 6.4 mg per kilogram of body weight. So, a couple of examples of appropriate dosages would be:

• If you weigh 140 lbs, take between 102 to 407 mg per day.

• If you weigh 160 lbs, take between 116 to 465 mg per day.

• If you weigh 200 lbs, take between 145 to 581 mg per day.

• If you weigh 240 lbs, take between 175 to 698 mg per day.

Remember, these are recommended safe dosages.

Many users like to stack agmatine with other supplements like laxogenin or epicatechin to enhance their performance and results in terms of muscle gains.

Will Agmatine Sulfate cause side effects?

Agmatine sulfate is generally considered a safe supplement.

While it's not as potent as some medications, that's a fair trade-off when you consider safety. Consider Viagra, for example, a popular drug that many men use to help them fight off erectile dysfunction.

Viagra can have some severe and unpleasant side effects. Nitric oxide boosting supplements can provide similar benefits (though not nearly as intense) without causing as much of a risk.

That doesn't mean that it's completely side-effect free, though.

• Some of the study subjects in the studies linked to above found that they were hungrier when they were using agmatine. This could be useful for bodybuilders trying to stack on the pounds.
  
  
• High doses of agmatine have been linked to digestive discomforts like diarrhea or gas. These effects were noted in a study where the subjects took 3.5 grams of agmatine every day for 21 days.
  
  
• If you're taking medication that affects your blood pressure, you should avoid using agmatine. Since the enhanced nitric oxide impacts your blood pressure, this can cause undesirable effects.

Conclusion

Agmatine sulfate is a compound that people use to help them with a variety of different issues. Agmatine helps to increase the amount of nitric oxide available in the blood, which increases energy levels and workout performance for bodybuilders and athletes.

Agmatine is generally regarded as safe and is certainly much safer than alternatives like steroids. If you’re looking for a supplement that can help you improve the results of your workouts without causing any serious side effects, you might want to look into using agmatine sulfate.