ZMA is a combination of Zinc Monomethionine Aspartate plus Magnesium Aspartate and vitamin B-6 and is used as a natural product to increase testosterone levels. Today we’re road testing Optimum Nutrition’s ZMA.
This is the first testosterone booster we’ve tested. We thought the best way to test it was to keep diet, training and other supplementation exactly the same and add Optimum Nutrition’s ZMA in for 10 weeks. We would then measure the strength gains at the end of this period and any other positive/negative effects.
Workout, diet and supplements: Our test user is 29 years of age. He uses a 5 day split routine, Monday to Friday. The workout is aimed at hypertrophy with reps in the 8-12 range. Other supplements used were creatine monohydrate, whey protein isolate, dextrose (post workout), fish oil, AnimalPak vitamins. Diet consisted of 3,400-3,600 calories per day over 7 meals.
Optimum ZMA Review: The Results
Strength gains:
We measured strength gains on 4 exercises. Bench press, seated row, squat and deadlift. Here are the results:
- Squat - 15kg increase (10%)
- Deadlift - 8kg increase (6%)
- Bench press - 11kg increase ( 13%)
- Row - 5kg increase (4%)
From the results above, the average increase in weight was 8.25% over the 10 week period. This is well above average for our user.
Weight gain:
Total weight gain over the 10 week period was 8.7lbs.
User notes:
- Sometimes felt stronger, more focused during workouts
- No change in libido or sexual drive
- Slept much better after 1 week taking ZMA
- No aggressiveness increase
- No other side effects reported
Our notes:
We were impressed by the strength gains over the 10 week period. An increase of 8.25% is very high, above average for our user. Whether this can be solely attributed to the ZMA is debatable. Overall, our user reported positive effects only. He said his sleeping patterns improved, his workouts were often more intense and he felt “stronger”, and there were no noticeable increases in aggression. We tried to create a good test environment by not changing anything in diet, training and other supplements, but it’s hard to say that the gains came from the ZMA supplement alone.
Conclusion:
As you can see from above, good results were found over our test period. But we’re still not sold on ZMA. Our users gains could easily be attributed to good diet, training and use of the other supplements.
We believe the effects of ZMA will vary greatly from person to person. The effects felt from supplementing with ZMA could vary depending on age, body type, genetics and training experience.
Optimum Nutrition’s ZMA is cheap, it only comes in at around 6 cents per serving. At that price, it’s worth testing it for yourself. It’s a natural product, so it won’t do any harm. If you find it works for you, great. If not, you’re not much out of pocket.
