HMB

A colleague of my suggested that since I used creatine and it is not a banned substance that I may want to research HMB (ß-hydroxy ß-methylbutyrate) as well.  He has found very positive results and gains in strength due to faster recovery, etc.

Excerpt from HMB web-site:  HMB is believed to play a significant role in the way our bodies build new muscle tissue and burn fat. When test subjects consumed supplemental HMB and engaged in weight-training exercise, HMB appeared to minimize the muscle tissue breakdown that occurs naturally after strenuous activity. With less muscle damage to repair, the body appears to speed up the rate at which it builds new muscle tissue and in turn seems to burn more fat.

Anyone here familiar with this supp and do you have any recommendations?  I didn't see it on the banned list, but wanted to check it out prior to doing anything.  I'm really not gung-ho about adding another supplement, but thought if this group found it beneficial I might look into it further.  Right now I limit my supplementation to creatine, glutamine, bcaa's, whey protein (occasionally a casein protein) and SuperCharge. 

Sean - I know you always stress checking with you prior to doing anything...see, I do listen ;)

I have used it before and I can't say I noticed anything at all. That said, if I was entering a period of detraining, ect....I would be popping those things like Pez. LOL.

If I am feeling rich when I diet, I'll use some. That said, Joe hit the nail on the head. Its just a metabolite of Luecine. So if your protein intake is high enough you are synthasizing it on your own in smaller amounts. I want to say I read that you need 60g of luecine to make something like 3g of HMB? Better to spend your money on BCAA.

Thanks for the invite Layne! 

 One of the reasons I like this topic is because it seems so contraversial.  Some will say HMB works, and others that it doesn't.  Truthfully what matters is what does the evidence suggest.  Gabriel Wilson and I just published a paper on HMB

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18173841?dopt=AbstractPlus&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn

A central issue we addressed was training experience.  In the paper we discuss a number of studies that clearly demonstrate that HMB enhances strength and muscle in trained individuals, but also point out that some key studies do not support HMB in trained athletes.  The question is why?  The conclusion we came to was the methodologies of the studies.

A classic example was a study performed by Kreider and colleagues, which is often cited for evidence that HMB does not help trained athletes.  They gave 40 trained individuals HMB and told them to maintain their normal training for 28 days.  Now, at the end of the study HMB had no effect on muscle tissue, or strength.  However the training regimen in the control group also elicited absolutely no changes in strength, muscle tissue size, and most importantly the workout sessions they used were not able to significantly increase markers of muscle damage.  

 Now HMB works through 3 mechanisms.  1.  It strengthens the integrity of the cell and protects it from damage.  One of the issues with extreme muscle damaging protocols is that individuals actually lose sarcomeres and this lowers size increases.  But HMB by reinforcing the sarcomeres prevents their death and increases muscle cell growth.  It also allows individuals to perform more work before incurring the same amount of damage.  Given that these individuals did not perform training that was hard enough to elicit damage, I wouldnt expect HMB to work.  2.  HMB prevents protein breakdown, but again if these individuals did not provide a stimulus adequate enough to raise proteolytic pathways to an appreciable extent then HMB is not going to have a chance to elicit an effect.  Thirdly it enhances protein synthesis, so if a stimulus is provided through training it will augment this effect.

This explanation is supported in studies which have supplemented HMB without training and found no effects of the supplement.

To address whether HMB does work in trained individuals if muscle damage is high enough during training and the training stimulus is high enough Dr. Lynn Panton in our lab investigated the effects of HMB in trained and untrained individuals.  The training was extremely intense, in fact at one point an individual pulled their biceps tendon!  First, in the control group for both trained and untrained individuals they found that there were significant increases in strength, muscle size, and markers of muscle damage.  So clearly the stimulus was high enough.  They then found that HMB increased the effects of each of these variables equally in trained and untrained!  

Now for the bodybuilder HMB has some particular benefits which are very appealing.  You see another stimulus we face is extreme caloric restriction coupled with cardio.  Both of these stimulate proteolytic pathways, particularly the Ubiquitin pathway.  HMB has clearly been demonstrated to decrease this pathway in caloric restriction and also in situations such as injury where a muscle cannot perform as well.  Often times bodybuilders notice the effects of HMB most when dieting.  It is virtually guaranteed to spare muscle that you would have otherwise lost. 

good points jake, I'd also like to address joes point of protein intake, and it is a viable one.

the dose of hmb that seems to be the correct amount is 3g.  Approx 5% of leucine is converted to HMB.  So 3g/.05 =  60g leucine.  Since protein sources are around 9-10% leucine (10% probably being generous as meats are around 8%) 60g/.10 = 600g protein per day.  so to get the dose you'd need for the benefits you'd have to be taking in an extremely high amount of protein.

Thank you for the information Jacob and Layne.  Practically speaking, how should this be taken: around a workout, anytime?  Also, for those of us on a budget, would it make sense to take it only on days that were incorporating heavy lifting, say 8reps and below, or only on lifting days?  and lastly, one is eating 300g protein/day, HMB would be around 1.5g total... would the 3g/day suggested dosage be in above this or included with the HMB already taken from daily leucine?

thanks again 

Great questions.

 Well I just finished a study on the timing of HMB.  Basically we had 3 groups.  HMB before exercise, after exercise, and a placebo.  We looked at markers of muscle damage.  After analyzing the data we found that all the markers of muscle damage significantly increased in the HMB after workout group and placebo, but intriguingly enough HMB was able to stop LDH from significantly increasing.  LDH is a blood marker of muscle damage.  From this it would appear that taking HMB before working out is important.

However, we were the first study to give HMB acutely, meaning we only gave it the day of the workout.  In an almost identical study they gave it for 2 weeks( a loading period).  and their effects were much greater than our own.  So this suggests that HMB loading is necessary to achieve a maximum response.  This is because we believe HMB ends out being directly incorporated into the muscle cell membrane and this takes time.

So 3 grams per day.  This can be taken in 2 doses a day, and be sure and consume 1 dose directly before your workout.  Since it is somewhat expensive, our data suggests that taking it before working out still has effects, so that will help, but we gave a full 3 gram dose at that time.  Finally if you are dieting, then HMB is a must everyday at 3 grams.  And it is also a must during any training cycle where you are purposely elivating the volume to extreme levels, or performing lots of eccentric repetitions.

 As for the protein question.  Theoretically yes, if you take in that much protein you may get 1 gram a day of HMB so you can add to that.  But the studies we see use three grams even in resistance trained athletes, and these individuals are already on high protein intakes.  So conceivably in those studies the optimal dose was 4 grams, if you include their normal protein intakes.  But this remains to be studied

Great points Layne!