Hydration.
It’s an underemphasized, yet critical, component of performance, stamina, and pumps.
Even minor dehydration (1-2%) has been shown to[1]:
- Decrease cardiac output
- Decrease systemic and cutaneous vascular conductance, which further reduces cardiovascular function
- Limit heat dissipation due to reduced blood flow and sweat rates, which results in increasing body core temperature.
- Increase core temperature
- Reduce stamina and performance in mild and hot conditions
Glycerol is a naturally occurring compound that enhances hydration, performance, stamina, and pumps.
In fact, glycerol supplementation has been widely studied and used in sports nutrition for over 30 years.[1]
Let’s discuss all things glycerol, including the best glycerol supplement -- Apollon Nutrition HydroPrime.
What is Glycerol?
Glycerol is an organic compound containing multiple hydroxyl groups that is composed of a sugar alcohol surrounded by three hydroxyl groups. This molecular composition makes it highly soluble in water.
It can be found in the human body as a component of triglycerides, and it serves as an intermediate in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.[2]
How Does Glycerol Work?
Following ingestion, glycerol is rapidly absorbed and evenly dispersed throughout the body, except for the tissues in your eyes and cerebrospinal fluid. When glycerol enters water-holding compartments, it increases osmotic pressure, which results in an increase in the total volume of water in the body. This creates a state of “hyperhydration.”
In other words, glycerol increases water storage throughout your body, which benefits endurance, performance, and pumps.
Furthermore, this extra water can help attenuate fluid lost in sweat and breathing, so that total body water is conserved.[1]
Glycerol can also serve as an energy source, which means that if you consume a large enough quantity of it (far more than what’s offered in a typical pre workout supplement), then your body can oxidize (“burn”) it for energy during exercise.
The Power of Glycerol
As we mentioned above, glycerol has been researched extensively and used for over 30 years (that’s longer than most supplement companies have been around!). Over the years, glycerol has been found to[1,3,4,5]:
- Increase time to exhaustion (endurance) up to 24%
- Increase work output up to 5%
- Boost anaerobic and aerobic power
- Reduce the “thermal burden” of exercise when training in hot environments
- Improve hydration
Glycerol is Great, But…
Traditional glycerol supplements suffer from three major drawbacks:
- They deliver a relatively low amount of actual glycerol (glycerol monostearate delivered only around ~20-25% glycerol)
- They require high dosages (on the order of 0.5-1.0 grams per kilogram of bodyweight), which are never included in powder pre workouts
- They clump which relegates your favorite pre workout supplement to a useless brick that gets tossed in the trash
Over the years, a number of “next-gen” glycerol supplements have been developed, which we’ve personally tested, but ultimately were left still searching.
Lo and behold, a new entry into the glycerol supplement market has emerged…HydroPrime.
What is HydroPrime?
Unlike traditional glycerol powders which clump, HydroPrime® is a stable form of glycerol that delivers 65% glycerol yield, without the clumping or poor mixability issues of its predecessors.
It’s created using a novel spray-drying process that makes it resist the typical pitfalls and follies of previous glycerol supplement offerings, ultimately delivering “more pumps, less clumps.”
Advanced Pump Support
Traditional pump pre workouts address vasodilation, vascularity, and muscle pumps by including agents that increase nitric oxide (NO) production, such as L-Citrulline, nitrates (NO3-T), VasoDrive-AP, and/or grape seed extract.
We’re fans of these ingredients and have included them in many of our pre workouts, including Hooligan, Bare Knuckle, Bloody Hell, and Lionheart.
But, NO-production isn’t the only way to boost muscle pumps -- you can also achieve it by increasing cellular hydration (aka water-based pumps).
Glycerol is among a unique set of ingredients, known as osmolytes, that attack pumps from the “water-based” pathway. It, along with L-Taurine and Betaine Anhydrous, encourage cells to absorb more water, which improves intramuscular hydration and overall muscle volume.
The end result is greater vascularity, better thermoregulation, increased endurance, and (of course) bigger pumps.
Suggested Use
HydroPrime works well as standalone, or stacked with any of our other pre-workouts for a potent performance and pump-enhancing effect.
Some of our favorite products to stack Apollon Nutrition HydroPrime with include:
- Hooligan
- Bare Knuckle
- Bloody Hell
- Lionheart
- Assassin
- Black Tulip
References
- Simon P Van Rosendal, Mark A Osborne, Robert G Fassett, Jeff S Coombes, Physiological and performance effects of glycerol hyperhydration and rehydration, Nutrition Reviews, Volume 67, Issue 12, 1 December 2009, Pages 690–705, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2009.00254.x
- National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Database; CID=753, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/753
- Patlar S, Yalçin H, Boyali E. The Effect of Glycerol Supplements on Aerobic and Anaerobic Performance of Athletes and Sedentary Subjects. Journal of Human Kinetics. 2012;34:69-79. doi:10.2478/v10078-012-0065-x. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3590833/
- van Rosendal SP, Osborne MA, Fassett RG, Coombes JS. Guidelines for glycerol use in hyperhydration and rehydration associated with exercise. Sports Med. 2010;40(2):113-129. doi:10.2165/11530760-000000000-00000. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20092365
- Lyons TP, Riedesel ML, Meuli LE, Chick TW. Effects of glycerol-induced hyperhydration prior to exercise in the heat on sweating and core temperature. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1990;22(4):477-483. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2402207