I'd be interested in knowing more about your feelings on carnitine, how effective you feel it is and why you take it. I just literally last night started and it's never been in my stack before.
I am using injectable, 200mg daily. I purchased Alex Kikel’s ebook as well to better inform my usage - there’s a lot of explanation on the science of it and what certain studies have shown us to better guide our use and extrapolate expectations with different forms of administration (coupled with anecdotal evidence from hundreds of clients testing it).
First, if you are using oral supplementation the studies in the book show 6-18% muscle carnitine level increases (~10%) taking 2,000mg orally split into 3 doses. Taking it all at once was proven NOT to meaningfully raise levels. So you want to eat 650-1,000mg 3x a day. You also really want to consume it with carbs because insulin greatly increases muscle storage. Alex says he hasn’t noticed much meaningful effect on a practical level with oral usage - L-Carnitine is already more of a longterm extra 10-20% kind of compound.
He says better to run it for a very long time than blast it for just a few months. It’s about improving the big picture.
L-Carnitine improves androgen receptor binding affinity while lowering constant. So hormones in your blood bind easier (enacting their effects) then get out faster so they can be freed up to work on other receptors. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am - this makes both your endogenous testosterone or injected steroids work better for the amount you are have/are taking.
It also can increase the time of action in the IGF-1- binding protein 3 complex by about an hour. So your IGF1 works better, and guys taking HGH should get more out of it as well for that reason.
It decreases lactic acid, increasing real and perceived ability to do more work. Less burn, more endurance. This indirectly lets you train more often/harder/more volume which helps build muscle and increases metabolic demand for longterm composition changes. It improves recovery between sets & training sessions.
It allows more fatty-acid to be oxidized for mitochondrial fuel production, sparing muscle glycogen stores, so you stay more full and can ultimately access more ATP. It’s role as a cellular transporter means it drives increased muscle fullness, pumps, and hydration.
It ultimately increases mitochondrial health of sperm, increasing their overall health & motility for increased fertility if trying to conceive.
In the end, consistent usage in an athlete with everything else dialed in should longterm produce a slightly leaner, more muscular, healthier, more capable athlete. The biggest thing is the lack of sides or health cost - this improves health if anything.
One day at a time! Strength is a decision!
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Did some super light legpress instead of goblet squats to give my upper back a break after the carries yesterday.
