Herbal Ashwagandha Improved Muscle Mass and Strength In Exercise

By Kyle J. Norton

The Muscle is a soft tissue in the body containing protein filaments of actin and myosin that slide past one another, with a function to produce force and motion.

In other words, muscle contraction and expansion that changes both the length and the shape allow us to move and lift.

Muscle mass is the calculation of the weight of the muscles in the body in kilograms or pounds. However, other factors may also interfere with the above calculation including height, ethnicity, and fitness level.

Increased muscle mass is associated with lower fat accumulation and the ability to burn calories/energy.

Some researchers suggested, by boosting your muscle mass, you will also improve your health, including

* Boosts your metabolism. Dr. Alexandra C. McPherron, the lead scientist said, "increasing skeletal muscle mass by inhibiting signaling of myostatin, a transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) family member that negatively regulates muscle growth, prevents the development of diabetes in a mouse model of lipodystrophy. Muscle-specific myostatin inhibition also prevented hyperphagia suggesting muscle may regulate food intake".

In other words, increasing muscle mass improve your body metabolism.

* Improves Bone Mass. Dr. Colletti LAand colleagues said, "additional evidence that muscle-building exercise is associated with increases in BMD at weight-bearing sites but not at on weight-bearing sites".

* Reduces fat accumulation. Dr. Silva TR, the lead scientist wrote, "Skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) was positively correlated with physical activity (r = 0.205, P = 0.038) and protein intake (r = 0.334, P = 0.001), and negatively correlated with waist circumference (r = -0.505, P < 0.001) and %body fat (r = 0.808, P < 0.001)".

Ashwagandha also is known as Withania somnifera is a nightshade plant in the genus of Withania, belonging to the family Solanaceae, native to the dry parts of India, North Africa, Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The herbal medicine has been considered as Indian ginseng and used in Ayurvedic medicine over 3000 years to treat tumors and tubercular glands, carbuncles, memory loss, and ulcers and considered as anti-stress, cognition-facilitating, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging herbal medicine.

On finding a potent anti-aging compound, researchers examined the effects of ashwagandha root extract on muscle mass and strength in healthy young men engaged in resistance training.

The randomized, prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study included 57 young male subjects (18-50 years old) with little experience in resistance training randomized into treatment received 300 mg of ashwagandha root extract twice daily, (29 subjects) and placebo, consumed starch placebos (28 subjects) groups.

Besides baseline measurements, both groups also underwent resistance training for 8 weeks with measurements repeated at the end of week 8.

Based on the results of measurement of the participants in both groups, compared to placebo, the treatment group showed significantly greater increases i

* In muscle strength on the bench-press exercise (Placebo: 26.4 kg vs. Ashwagandha: 46.0 kg)

*  In the leg-extension exercise (Placebo: 9.8 kg) vs. Ashwagandha: 14.5 kg)

* In muscle size increase at the arms (Placebo: 5.3 cm(2) vs. Ashwagandha: 8.6 cm(2))

* In chest (Placebo: 1.4 cm vs. Ashwagandha: 3.3 cm). 

Furthermore, ashwagandha treated group also had a significantly greater reduction of exercise-induced muscle damage.

Moreover,  Ashwagandha treated group also showed a significantly greater increase in testosterone level (Placebo: 18.0 ng/dL Ashwagandha: 96.2 ng/dL)

More importantly, there was a significantly greater decrease in body fat percentage in treament group compared to placebo (Placebo: 1.5% vs. Ashwagandha: 3.5%).

Based on the finding, researchers wrote, "ashwagandha supplementation is associated with significant increases in muscle mass and strength and suggests that ashwagandha supplementation may be useful in conjunction with a resistance training program".

Taken altogether, Ashwagandha may be used as a supplement for the improvement of muscle mass and strength in the resistance training program, pending to the results from the large sample size and multicenter study

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Examining the effect of Withania somnifera supplementation on muscle strength and recovery: a randomized controlled trial by Wankhede S1, Langade D2, Joshi K3, Sinha SR4, Bhattacharyya S. (PubMed)
(2) Increasing muscle mass to improve metabolism by Alexandra C. McPherron, Tingqing Guo, Nichole D. Bond, and Oksana Gavrilova. (PMC)
(3) The effects of muscle-building exercise on bone mineral density of the radius, spine, and hip in young men by Colletti LA1, Edwards J, Gordon L, Shary J, Bell NH. (PubMed)
(4) Skeletal muscle mass is associated with higher dietary protein intake and lower body fat in postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional study by Silva TR1, Spritzer PM. (PubMed)