Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha can be found in:

Nuclear Creatine II Extreme

Norateen Gummy

Norateen Ageless

Norateen Nitro

Norateen XXX

Ashwagandha: clinically proven for muscle, strength, power and stamina

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), known as Indian ginseng, is the premier adaptogenic root of Ayurvedic medicine — and one of the very few botanicals with randomised, placebo-controlled human evidence across all four of the qualities that matter to a lifter: muscle, strength, power and stamina. Its activity comes from steroidal lactones called withanolides, of which withaferin A (C28H38O6) is the best known.

Mechanism of action: anabolic over catabolic

Ashwagandha's edge for muscle building is hormonal balance. It simultaneously raises testosterone and lowers cortisol — shifting the body away from a catabolic (muscle-breaking) state toward an anabolic (muscle-building) one (Wankhede et al., 2015; Salve et al., 2019). Testosterone drives muscle protein synthesis and growth, while chronically elevated cortisol works against muscle mass. Ashwagandha also reduces creatine kinase, a marker of exercise-induced muscle damage, meaning less damage per session and faster recovery between them (Wankhede et al., 2015).

The pathway can be summarised as: withanolides → ↑ testosterone & ↓ cortisol → ↑ muscle protein synthesis and repair → greater muscle, strength, power and stamina.

1. Muscle building

In an 8-week randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 57 men taking 600 mg per day of standardised ashwagandha root extract alongside a resistance-training programme showed significantly greater increases in muscle size at both the arms and the chest than the placebo group, together with a significantly greater reduction in body fat percentage (approximately 3.5% versus 1.5%) (Wankhede et al., 2015). Serum testosterone rose by around +96 ng/dL in the ashwagandha group versus just +18 ng/dL on placebo.

2. Strength

Strength was the trial's primary outcome, and the difference was substantial. Bench press one-rep-max increased by an average of 46.0 kg in the ashwagandha group versus 26.4 kg on placebo, and leg extension 1RM by 14.5 kg versus 9.8 kg (Wankhede et al., 2015). A separate 12-week trial in recreationally active men using a different standardised extract likewise found significantly greater gains in squat and bench press 1RM (Ziegenfuss et al., 2018).

3. Power

A PRISMA-based systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of clinical trials concluded that ashwagandha supplementation was more effective than placebo for improving physical-performance variables in healthy men and women, with benefits spanning upper- and lower-limb strength and muscular power (Bonilla et al., 2021).

4. Stamina

For endurance, a systematic review and meta-analysis found ashwagandha significantly improved VO2max — the gold-standard measure of cardiorespiratory fitness — by a mean of +3.00 mL/kg/min versus control in both athletes and non-athletes (Pérez-Gómez et al., 2020). Earlier controlled work in healthy athletic adults reported the same improvement in cardiorespiratory endurance (Choudhary et al., 2015), and the Bayesian meta-analysis found a very large pooled effect on VO2max alongside a large effect on fatigue and recovery (Bonilla et al., 2021).

Key facts at a glance

• What it is: Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), standardised to withanolides.

• Muscle: significantly greater muscle size at arms and chest, and greater fat loss vs placebo (Wankhede 2015).

• Strength: bench press 1RM +46.0 kg vs +26.4 kg on placebo over 8 weeks (Wankhede 2015).

• Power: greater upper- and lower-limb strength and power in pooled meta-analysis (Bonilla 2021).

• Stamina: VO2max raised by +3.00 mL/kg/min vs control (Pérez-Gómez 2020).

• Hormones: raises testosterone (+96 ng/dL vs +18 ng/dL) and lowers cortisol.

• Recovery: significantly lower creatine kinase — less exercise-induced muscle damage.

• Dose used in trials: 600 mg/day of standardised root extract.

Full scientific references

• Wankhede S, Langade D, Joshi K, Sinha SR, Bhattacharyya S. Examining the effect of Withania somnifera supplementation on muscle strength and recovery: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2015;12:43.

• Ziegenfuss TN, Kedia AW, Sandrock JE, Raub BJ, Kerksick CM, Lopez HL. Effects of an aqueous extract of Withania somnifera on strength training adaptations and recovery: the STAR trial. Nutrients. 2018;10(11):1807.

• Bonilla DA, Moreno Y, Gho C, Petro JL, Odriozola-Martínez A, Kreider RB. Effects of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) on physical performance: systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology. 2021;6(1):20.

• Pérez-Gómez J, Villafaina S, Adsuar JC, Merellano-Navarro E, Collado-Mateo D. Effects of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) on VO2max: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients. 2020;12(4):1119.

• Choudhary B, Shetty A, Langade DG. Efficacy of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) in improving cardiorespiratory endurance in healthy athletic adults. Ayu. 2015;36(1):63–68.

• Salve J, Pate S, Debnath K, Langade D. Adaptogenic and anxiolytic effects of Ashwagandha root extract in healthy adults: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study. Cureus. 2019;11(12):e6466.

Findings are from randomised, placebo-controlled human trials and pooled meta-analyses of standardised root extract. This information is educational and describes the ingredient's physiology and the findings of published research; it is not a therapeutic or medical claim. Individual results vary.