Yes, Skin Bursting Pumps Will Make Your Muscles Grow

Arnold already knew: "If you want to grow, go for the pump!" A recent study by Soltow et al. (Soltow. 2010) expands on Arnold's hypothesis - what you need is pump and stretch. The scientists studied the effect of nitric oxide (NO) on C2C12 myoblasts and found:

NO, COX-2, and NF-kappaB are necessary for stretch-induced proliferation of myoblasts. Although COX-2 and NF-kappaB are both involved in basal proliferation, NO does not affect basal growth. Thus, NO requires the synergistic effect of stretch in order to induce muscle cell proliferation.

So, more NO, some stretch and / or skin bursting pumps? That reminds me of the good old first generation pump supplements with arginine, of which I can only repeat do not dump your good old NO Xplode, White Flood, Super Pump 250, VPX Shotgun, etc. down the toilette. It is not for nothing that they have been around for years!

What's more, Arginine and Ornithine (ingredients of the first generation Pump Supps) have been proven to improve exercise performance even when administered on their own. This is something one cannot say of most of the "advanced" ingredients of the next-generation pre-workouts, though.