Aspirin

Most bodybuilders look down Aspirin, and consider it too weak and mild to be used as a drug to treat the severe pain caused by heavy bodybuilding and powerlifting training. Too mild to effectively treat pain on back, tendons, joints and muscles. Most of them strongly believe you need the harsher means like the for bodybuilders, wrestlers, powerlifters and other iron warriors notorious Nubain. The brand name was discontinued in 2008, but the generic versions are still easy to obtain.

But why would you want to use such an addictive, ruining and dangerous drug, if other over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers can ease your aches and help you get on with your heavy training. NSAIDs are one of two major types of OTC pain relievers.

A few different types of NSAIDs are available over the counter: Aspirin (Bayer, Bufferin, Excedrin), Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB), Naproxen (Aleve).

The other is acetaminophen (Tylenol).

I don’t make myself any illusions, I just know that the milder painkillers are no option for the hardcore lifters. But that cannot justify to withhold this information to the more sensible and prudent user. Beside that, Aspirin has many applications not that many know about.

Nasser El Sonbatty: “Also there is also a thing called nubain. I would say that 80 percent of people in bodybuilding, pros and amateurs, are using or have used nubain in the course of their development. I luckily never used it. I went to use it one year and had someone send me some, but it never arrived - this was at the beginning of the '90s.

It can help you to train very hard, which I learned through watching others who were using it. Basically you can inject it and you can work twice as hard. Let's say you are working on your back and doing 20 sets in 45 minutes. You can do 50 or 60 sets and you can do these with biceps and everything else.

So a lot of people who have torn muscle groups, which does happen when you over stimulate them with weights or genetically it is not that stable to begin with, but in a lot of cases excessive nubain use is creating these tears. So it is not only anabolic steroids and synthol, it is also painkillers a lot of people are using.

Bodybuilding is a sport where you find a lot of drug addicts. They are former drug addicts and they have come into bodybuilding because they have always used needles and pills or they have done anabolic drugs before and they come over to bodybuilding. So there is no real borderline between being an alcoholic, a bodybuilder and a drug addict.”

Aspirin as a Pre-Workout Supplement

First, it can improve the body’s blood flow. Even as little as 30mg prior to training can “thin the blood “enough where the muscles are more exposed to greater amounts of nutrient and oxygen carrying blood. This can speed up recovery between sets and reps. Aspirin does not “improve circulation.” It reduces the ability of the platelets to attach to things and forming clots. In layman’s terms, it “thins the blood.” Although that’s a misnomer since the viscosity of the blood is not affected by aspirin, but its ability to clot is reduced. Good blood circulation is crucial for the overall health of the body since blood is responsible for bringing oxygen and essential nutrients and to the entire body. That’s why; the body cannot by any means function properly if the blood circulation is poor. Thinning the blood by taking a small dose of Aspirin, will make the heart’s blood pumping mission easier.

Second, waste products that result from heavy training can be flushed away from the muscles with greater speed and efficiency. Aspirin can reduce the swelling (edema) as a result of hard training. Tissue damage caused by swelling is the culprit from prolonged healing times. Really recovery doesn’t happen until the swelling has gone down. Then your body starts to recover.

Third, Aspirin can reduce the pain associated the above tissue damage and swelling. People say that using aspirin can make a difference between an okay workout a really great workout. Using aspirin and some other recovery methods can lead to greater recovery which leads to faster progression.

Research has shown the low doses of aspirin work just as well as larger doses. This means you would want to find the lowest possible aspirin bodybuilding dose that does the job.

Crushing the aspirin and mixing it with milk before a workout helps protect your stomach lining and improves absorption. Nursing student handbook: Give aspirin with food, milk, antacid, or large glass of water to reduce adverse GI reactions. Do not crush, chew, break, or open an enteric-coated or extended-release pill. Swallow the pill whole. The enteric-coated pill has a special coating to protect your stomach.

Your body can develop a tolerance to aspirin. So if you do use it, only do it during your hardest workouts. Not something you’d take every day with every workout.

What scientific studies say:

Muscular Effects

The effects of NSAIDs on the muscular system differs for young individuals vs. old individuals, acute vs. chronic use, and for timing of use (pre vs. post exercise). NSAIDs are often used to help people who are sore after exercise. Researchers have looked at this use of NSAIDs and have determined that NSAID “use for brief periods of time is beneficial to short term recovery of muscle function.” NSAIDs do this by helping to manage inflammation. A short term use of NSAIDs seems to work well despite the impact on muscle repair, but long term use can lead to gastrointestinal complications, renal failure, liver failure, and heart failure. NSAIDs are best used for short term relief of soreness for muscles. NSAIDS are commonly linked to cardiovascular risk after prolonged use.

Young vs. Old

Recent studies have revealed that older adults who consume NSAIDs have greater muscle strength gain and hypertrophy from resistance training compared to older adults who do not consume NSAIDs. These findings were contrary to the researchers initial beliefs on the effects of NSAIDs on the muscular system adaptations to resistance training. The mechanisms are, at least, partially responsible for the\ initial findings are, 1) NSAIDs reduced muscle loss by reducing the amount of IL-6 and MuRF-1, which promote muscle loss, 2) NSAIDs induced PGF2a receptor upregulation, which causes increased skeletal muscle sensitivity to PGF2a resulting in stimulation of protein synthesis.

On the contrary, NSAIDs also suppressed PGF2a, which reduces protein synthesis stimulation. Although overall, these mechanisms inhibited protein breakdown more than they inhibited protein synthesis, which resulted in an increased net muscle protein balance.

Timing of Use 

Many athletes take NSAIDs before physical activity in order to prevent the inflammation and/or pain that may occur. Some clinical evidence involving surgical trials supports these claims, finding that using NSAIDS prior to an inflammatory event could reduce inflammatory response, pain, and recovery time. In exercise induced muscle damage, rather than surgically induced, studies have shown that pre-exercise administration of NSAIDs could reduce the amounts of creatine kinase circulating after exercise as compared to a placebo group. This difference in creatine kinase levels may illustrate that less muscle damage occurred in the treatment group.

Aspirin helps beat arthritis

The team at Monash University in Melbourne looked at the role of aspirin because the drug is widely used in the prevention of heart disease, where it works by reducing inflammation in the arteries that might contribute to a potentially fatal blockage.

As the body ages, major joints such as the hips, knees and wrists suffer wear and tear.

Cartilage soaks up the impact from walking, running or lifting, so that bones do not rub together and disintegrate. But in osteo arthritis, the cartilage starts to break down and as bones come into contact, the friction makes joints swollen and painful.

A DAILY dose of aspirin could combat arthritis by slowing down damage to joints, as well as easing the agony of the crippling condition, the painkiller also appears to halt the breakdown of cartilage, the body’s built-in shock absorber. The scientists found patients with the same condition who took a small amount of aspirin every day lost less of this vital cartilage from inside their knee joints. It is believed to be the first time research has shown the drug could protect against the disease as well as soothe the pain from it. The discovery could mean a cheap and effective way to fight arthritis if further large-scale studies come up with the same results. At less than two pence each, aspirin pills are some of the cheapest drugs in the world.

Inflammation is also a key factor in ageing joints because as cartilage disintegrates, the damage makes surrounding tissue sore and inflamed. Anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin can be used to reduce the pain of knee osteo arthritis.

Along with headaches and heart disease, the humble aspirin may have found another use: treating the severe form of gum disease, periodontitis.

A study at Adelaide University's Dental School has found that men taking low-dose aspirin to prevent heart disease and stroke had inadvertently received another benefit: they had significantly less periodontitis.

Dr Arthur Drouganis, who conducted the study with colleague Dr Robert Hirsch, said that although he specifically set out to find out whether aspirin alleviated periodontitis, he didn't really expect a positive result.

"I actually amazed myself. I didn't think low doses would have an effect," said Dr Drouganis. Studies in the 1970s and 1980s showed people taking very high doses of aspirin for arthritis had lower rates of periodontitis, but the effect of low doses has not previously been investigated.

Periodontitis causes deterioration of the connective tissue structures in the gums that hold the teeth in place. It is thought to be caused by bacteria, P. gingivalis, and may also have a genetic component.

Surprisingly Awesome Uses For Aspirin

It’s much more than just a headache killer

Aspirin is a bit of an overachiever. Besides easing your headaches, the magical over-the-counter med can enhance your health, appearance, and even your hair. Here are five surprising uses for the popular pill.

Aspirin’s primary ingredient, salicylic acid, helps beat zits by breaking down the offending clog and reducing inflammation, the root of redness, says Kavita Mariwalla, M.D., a dermatologist in West Islip, New York.

To treat your pizza face, crush one pill and stir in 3 tablespoons of water. The consistency should be like milk, not mayo. Rub the mixture on your blemish before bed to help shrink the spot while you sleep. Try this trick on mosquito bites, too—it reduces itching.

Cut Cancer Risk

Cancer cells can glom on to clotted blood platelets, but by making platelets less sticky, aspirin makes them less likely to clot. So the odds of clingy cancer cells lingering in your arteries drops.

In one study from the University of Oxford, people who took a low daily dose (75 milligrams) of aspirin for five years were 20 percent less likely to die of cancer than those who didn’t pop the pill.

They were also 8 percent less likely to die of any cause over the next 15 years.

Soften Calluses

Help eliminate these tough patches on your hands and feet by mixing three crushed aspirin tablets, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water. Rub the paste on each callus and cover it with a Band-Aid overnight.

The lemon juice is an astringent, says Dr. Mariwalla, and with the aspirin, it will penetrate the skin and break down the tough spots. Repeat the process for a few days and your calluses should be soft enough to grind away with a nail file.

Cure Dandruff

Salicylic acid fixes more than just pimples; it’ll take care of dandruff, too. (It’s the secret weapon in Neutrogena’s T/Sal shampoo.)

The acid skims the dry skin from your scalp, so the flakes land in the drain and not on your jacket.

Try this: Crush two aspirin tablets and mix in just enough shampoo to form a nice lather. Leave it on your hair for at least 30 seconds, and rinse as usual, Dr. Mariwalla says. Do this two or three times a week to stay flake-free for life.

Beat Depression

People who popped aspirin regularly over a 10-year period were less likely to experience symptoms of depression, a study in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics found.

According to Keith Souter, M.D., author of An Aspirin a Day, the explanation may be linked to inflammation: In research from Denmark, people with the highest levels were more likely to have depression symptoms.

Since aspirin eases inflammation, it can literally put a smile on your face.