The Effect of Consuming Arginine Supplement and Acute Resistance Exercise on the Response of Growth Hormone (GH) in Non-Athlete Men

Rationale for dietary-sport supplements to improve physical and sport performance is based on this assumption that they may have an effect beyond diets and even exercise. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of consuming arginine supplement (at rest) and along with resistance exercise on the response of growth hormone (GH) in non-athlete men. For this purpose, after completing the health and physical activity questionnaire, 16 healthy male university students (mean+SD age: 24.81±0.91 yr, body mass index: 24.20±3.37 kg/m2 and body fat percentage: 14.28±5.33) were selected and divided into two groups of arginine and placebo. Both groups participated in two resistance exercise sessions similarly in a cross-over design. Arginine subjects consumed 7 gr of arginine 30 min. before the resistance exercise. The intra-group test of Friedman and intergroup test of Wilcoxon were used to analyze data at p<0.05. The results showed that consuming arginine supplement alone (at test) and also the combination of arginine and resistance exercise (arginine group) had no significant effect on GH secretion when compared to placebo group. On the other hand, the resistance exercise had a significant effect on the GH secretion compared to the combination of arginine and resistance exercise. It can be concluded that the combination of arginine and resistance exercise had no superiority on GH response over the resistance exercise.