It’s guaranteed that if you wait long enough an ingredient that you thought was dead and buried will again raise its head in one form or another. Like the Holy Grail, the search for the ingredient that delivers the elusive pump is the current main headline for all the hardcore fitness magazines.

Introducing Glycerol

With Arginine being a little old news, companies are now looking for something with a little more zing to the story. Enter Glycerol, for those who have been in the game for a few years, you’ll remember that Bill Phillips brought this to the forefront in the late 90's.

Screaming Vascularity

Glycerol, also known as Glycerin, can be found naturally in the body as a component of stored fat and a small amount is also present in body fluids as free glycerol. Extreme athletes have used it for years to help them retain more fluid or hyper hydrate and increase time to exhaustion. So if it holds more fluid then just maybe, just maybe, you can pull the subcutaneous fluid or ‘water from under the skin’ into the muscle.

Result = screaming road map vascularity, right, well umm maybe.

Of the few studies on Glycerin a few have shown no evidence of an increase in blood (plasma) volume, which would improve pumping of blood to the muscles. Also a nice little side effect of excessive glycerin consumption is headaches and blurred vision, a result of shrinkage of the brain and eyes. This is due to the fact that glycerol does not readily penetrate the brain barrier and eyes, and the increased concentration of glycerol in the blood following glycerol consumption helps remove excess fluid from the brain and eyes by a process known as osmosis.

Glycerol Products

Hey it may be a case of the emperors new Plasma Expander, but don’t take my word for it. Check out some of these new products yourself, such as NX Labs Plasmavol or Starchems Armageddon products, although not available in the UK yet, look out for these supplements - they are the big news in the states. If you can’t wait that long, try Gaspari Nutritions Size On which contains glycerol monostearate in its celludriver energy matrix.

Alternatively do it the cheap way and buy pure glycerin and mix it in your favourite electrolyte drink with 5gms Creatine. Aim for approximately a 20% solution with your drink as more is not better in this instance and you will just pass it down the drain.