Athletic Performance Enhancement: Improve Your Blood Flow
Increase Your Performance in the Gym and Bedroom
If there was a legalized drug you could take for athletic performance enhancement, then it would be a pre-workout. That’s because quality pre-workouts contain the ingredient, the amino acid, l-citrulline, which increases your blood flow, which is imperative for optimal performance.
Lifestyle factors such as drinking, lack of exercise, and eating unhealthy foods can lead to poor blow flow, and if you want a surefire way to kill your gains and have less athletic performance, then keep eating Big Macs and omit the rest of this article.
However, if you want to learn why improving your blood is important for the gym (and the bedroom), and the steps you can take to vastly increase your blood flow and make it flow as smoothly as the Amazon River, then you’ll want to keep reading.
Why It’s Important to Improve Your Blood Flow
Bad blood flow can lead to many negative health issues, including heart disease, erectile dysfunction, varicose veins, cold hands and feet, fatigue, and digestive issues. Improving your blood flow has abundant benefits for your workouts and body.
There’s a reason why pre-workouts are effective for athletic performance enhancement, and that’s because they not only give you energy, but they produce more blood flow to your muscles. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you’re taking the right pre-workout though. Take one with the compound l-citrulline to make your blood flow fluidly.
L-citrulline is a compound that quality pre-workouts have, but you can also find L-citrulline in watermelon. Interestingly, l-citrulline is known as the “natural viagra,” meaning increased bed performance as well (and who wouldn’t want that! ). (1)
L-citrulline boosts nitric oxide production in your body, and anything that produces nitric oxide, including l-arginine, is good for your blood flow. Nitric oxide helps your arteries relax and work better, and studies show that nitric oxide enhances your workout performance. (2)
This 2018 study proved that l-citrulline is effective for increasing workout performance. (3)
That pump you get when you workout — you know the reason you look bigger every time you’re done doing a burnout set. Well, that’s simply from an increase in blood flow to your muscles from your workout. Of course, the more blood flow you have, the bigger your muscles will look. Therefore, if you increase the blood flow to your muscles, you’ll receive the benefit of a bigger pump too — making all your workout buddies look scrawny.
Athletic Performance Enhancement Workouts
If you have more blood flow streaming to your muscles, then you’ll have athletic performance enhancement. That’s because blood flow is essential in providing your muscles with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to lift weight. You’ll be able to lift more weight and do more reps the better quality your blood flow is. That’s why pre-workouts are effective; they increase your blood flow.
In fact, this study found that pre-workout increases your anaerobic performance — e.g., sprinting, jumping, and weightlifting — during workouts. (4)
What Else Does It Effect
Good blood flow is also important for many aspects of your health parameters in general. Of course, better blood flow means healthier cardiovascular health, which means less chance of heart disease — the number one cause of death for Americans. Adequate blood flow also moves oxygen throughout your body to allow your lungs, muscles, and other organs to function more properly. Also, you’ll transport all the white blood cells you need throughout your body, which is important for a strong immune system.
Aside from getting killer workouts in and better health, good blood flow will make you a champ in the sack. That’s because a strong erection and good bedroom performance require ample blood flow below the belt. So not only will you be hitting new personal records (PRs) in the gym, but you’ll also leave your significant other vying for your attention.
How to Improve Your Blood Flow
For starters, there are a few key things you’ll need to do to improve your blood flow. For one, you’ll need to move. Any form of exercise does wonders for your blood flow. Anything that’s heart-healthy will improve your blood, and fortunately, exercise is excellent for your heart and getting your blood pumping.
Secondly, you’ll want to reduce the number of processed foods you eat. This will clog your arteries, which will have a negative effect on your blood flow, so you’ll want to omit the fried chicken and replace that with nutrient-dense foods, especially ones that contain antioxidants like blueberries and raspberries since that can help with increasing your blood flow especially. Also, fruits such as oranges are rich in vitamin C, which is amazing for your blood flow.
Workouts That Improve Your Blood Flow
As aforementioned, any exercise is good for your blood flow; however, some are better than others. Doing sprints and HIIT workouts are especially effective at increasing your blood flow since they require high cardio output. Your heart rate will skyrocket, and your body will have no choice but to produce more blood flow to provide your body with the oxygen it needs to get you through the workouts.
If you want to go the more chill route, try walking. Walking has vast benefits for your body and is enough to greatly increase your blood flow.
Ingredients That Improve Your Blood Flow
Aside from exercise and diet, certain supplements and ingredients are specifically crafted for enhancing your blood flow.
Below, is a list of the different ingredients that studies have been proven to increase your blood flow.
Ingredients
Final Word
If you want athletic performance enhancement (and better bedroom performance), then you’ll want to take the necessary steps mentioned in this article to get your blood pumping in all the right places (including below your belt). Having good blood flow is imperative for optimal health, including reducing your chances of erectile dysfunction, preventing heart disease, and improving your athletic performance.
Do you take any blood flow-enhancing ingredients or supplements? If so, how did it affect you? We’d love to know.
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Reference
- Cormio, L., De Siati, M., Lorusso, F., Selvaggio, O., Mirabella, L., Sanguedolce, F., & Carrieri, G. (2011). Oral L-citrulline supplementation improves erection hardness in men with mild erectile dysfunction. Urology, 77(1), 119–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2010.08.028
- Mosher, S. L., Sparks, S. A., Williams, E. L., Bentley, D. J., & Mc Naughton, L. R. (2016). Ingestion of a Nitric Oxide Enhancing Supplement Improves Resistance Exercise Performance. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 30(12), 3520–3524. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001437
- Koozehchian, M. S., Daneshfar, A., Fallah, E., Agha-Alinejad, H., Samadi, M., Kaviani, M., Kaveh B, M., Jung, Y. P., Sablouei, M. H., Moradi, N., Earnest, C. P., Chandler, T. J., & Kreider, R. B. (2018). Effects of nine weeks L-Carnitine supplementation on exercise performance, anaerobic power, and exercise-induced oxidative stress in resistance-trained males. Journal of exercise nutrition & biochemistry, 22(4), 7–19. https://doi.org/10.20463/jenb.2018.0026
- Martinez, N., Campbell, B., Franek, M., Buchanan, L., & Colquhoun, R. (2016). The effect of acute pre-workout supplementation on power and strength performance. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 13, 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-016-0138-7
- Cognitive and Cerebral Blood Flow Effects of Vitamin C. (2010). Clinical Trials. Published. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01055418#moreinfo
- Mahdavi-Roshan, M., Mirmiran, P., Arjmand, M., & Nasrollahzadeh, J. (2017). Effects of garlic on brachial endothelial function and capacity of plasma to mediate cholesterol efflux in patients with coronary artery disease. Anatolian journal of cardiology, 18(2), 116–121. https://doi.org/10.14744/AnatolJCardiol.2017.7669
- Pittler, M. H., & Ernst, E. (2012). Horse chestnut seed extract for chronic venous insufficiency. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 11(11), CD003230. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003230.pub4
- New study: pine bark extract boosts nitric oxide production. (2007a). Hypertension Research. Published.
