What Is EPO and Why Should I Care?
While researching VO2max, I came upon a supplement called EPO-Boost that promises to help improve athletic endurance and performance. This product seemed to be geared mainly toward cyclists, however as the physical demands of Girevoy Sport have been compared to cycling, I decided to dig a little deeper and see if this might be a viable product for those of us working toward increasing our strength and endurance with kettlebells.
According to Wikipedia, Erythropoietin or its alternative erythropoietin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erthropoiesis, or red blood cell production. It is a cytokine for erythrocyte (red blood cell) precursors in the bone marrow. Also called hematopoietin or hemopoietin, it is produced by the peritubular capillary endothelial cells in the kidney, and is the hormone that regulates red blood cell production.
To boil it down to layman’s terms: “After about 20 seconds of intense exercise, the energy that your muscles use to contract shift from using mostly carbohydrates to utilizing mostly fat. Unlike carbohydrates – which your muscles can burn off without needing oxygen – your muscles desperately require oxygen in order to use fats. No oxygen = no fat burn = no energy for your working muscles. The weak link in this chain is your oxygen carrying cells – your red blood cells. ” In short, if you have more oxygen rich red blood cells blowing through your veins than your competitor, you’ll be able to work harder, longer. In Girevoy Sport, that means more reps and the difference between winning and losing.
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This is why EPO boosts athletic performance.
EPO-Boost was designed as a natural alternative to dangerous and illegal blood doping by elite athletes. According to the folks at EPO-Boost, “In clinical research, synthetic EPO (also known as recombinant EPO) has been shown to dangerously increase the risk of infection, liver failure, kidney failure, and in certain unfortunate cases, sudden death.”
“EPO-Boost is 100% Legal: Unlike rhEPO or even certain supplements from your local supplement store, EPO-Boost contains zero banned substances. The all-natural blend of vitamins, minerals, and herbs are all recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the Word Anti Doping Agency as acceptable for international competition.”
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Are There Natural Ways To Increase EPO?
Yes. There are two effective ways to increase EPO naturally: High Altitude Training and Hypoxia Tents/Chambers. Both are low oxygen environments that the body responds to by making more EPO. For the average trainer, however, neither of those may be practical in your day-to-day training. Enter EPO-Boost
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What’s In EPO-Boost That Makes It Work?
EPO-Boost is a blend of natural ingredients shown to help stimulate your kidneys to create more EPO.
EPO-Boost contains a combination of Echinacea Purpurea and several other ingredients, that combined together create an environment conducive to the production of the body’s own EPO. According to a study done at Northwestern State University and published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Science, a group of twenty four men was given either a placebo or a high dose of Echinacea Purpurea. The group given the Echinacea Purpurea increased EPO production over 90% compared to the placebo group, which was similar to what one could expect from high altitude training.
In addition, EPO-Boost includes vitamins and minerals that aid in the production of red blood cells: Vitamin C, Vitamin B-3, B-6, B-12, Iron, Folic Acid, Yellow Dock Extract, Dandelion Extract, Choline Bitartate, Inosital, PABA, Lutein, Lycopene, Boron, Nickel, Silicon, Tin, Vanadium and Alpha-Lipoic Acid.
For those competing in drug-tested sports, EPO-Boost does not contain Epogen®, Erythropoietin, EPO or any banned substances by WADA 2010 list.
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The Real Test
After signing up for the EPO-Boost newsletter, I had some difficulty with entering my information into their customer registration. That led to a conversation with an EPO employee who offered to send me a free bottle of EPO-Boost if I would try it and write a review of it on my blog. I agreed and received my free bottle several days later.
During this time, I was using the Program Minimum from Pavel Tsatsouline’s Enter The Kettlebell training program. Essentially the Program Minimum consists of training four days a week. Two days of the week are used for practicing swings, while the other two are dedicated to the Turkish get-up.
The goal of the Program Minimum is to go from sets of twenty swings to sets of fifty swings for a twelve minute time period, and if you’ve done sets of fifties, you know that your endurance builds quickly if you maintain your workouts.
I last did the full Program Minimum in April and May of 2008, and looking at my posts from then (http://www.ironbellathletics.com/week-four-building-endurance/), I had a hard time with those swings.
By contrast, my last fifty rep swing workout was accomplished in eight minutes (for 200 reps total) instead of twelve, and with 25-30 second rest periods instead of 60 seconds.
I am usually skeptical of the claims of supplement makers. Like many, I’ve spent a lot of money in the past on supplements that didn’t do what they advertised. With EPO-Boost, I was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion, I would say that EPO-Boost works. I achieved the same reps in significantly less time with shorter rest periods. That’s an increase in both strength and endurance.
The use of EPO-Boost for Girevoy Sport seems like a fantastic match and one that I believe warrants further examination. While my results are strictly mine, EPO-Boost has a great no questions money back deal.
Click here to visit EPO-BOOST
“In order for you to get to the point where you are at your peak performance, you need to improve strength and endurance. You can increase your endurance with EPO Boost. This is a natural way to increase your EPO levels and your VO2 Max. You can see results in one week after taking this safe supplement.”
Any takers?
(Note: After taking EPO-Boost and seeing the results I did, I became an affiliate. If you click on one of the links above and order the product, I will receive compensation. Thank you if you do.)
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