It’s easy to say what a sports endurance product can do for you. And there are plenty of companies out there making fantastic claims. But the proof is in the pool…on the trail...on the bike…in beating your own best time and feeling incredible during your training. So we put ARX to the test, not only in the lab, but in real life, with real athletes.

ARX is rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine which holds the belief that increasing performance is best achieved by “unblocking the bottlenecks” that impede energy, rather than simply trying to boost energy. The key to ARX’s effectiveness is its ability to increase microcirculation to the muscles, specifically blood and lymph circulation, which helps redistribute lactate and allows the body to tap into this premier fuel source. This has been tested time again using several clinical trials.

Clinical Trials

ARX has been the subject of two human clinical studies showing its effectiveness in improving lactate clearance and muscle recovery:

Human Clinical 1—Running: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, researchers compared the effects of either 500 mg or 1gram of ARX versus placebo on the clearance of lactate. After 2 weeks, test subjects exercised on a treadmill until exhausted. Lactate levels were measured immediately after exercise and 15 minutes later to calculate the rate of lactate clearance. The high dose group continued taking ARX for another two weeks, and the treadmill test was repeated.

After 2 weeks, those taking 1 gram of ARX showed significant improvements in lactate clearance compared to both the 500mg group (50% higher clearance) and the placebo group (157% higher). Subjects taking ARX experienced an 80% increase in lactate clearance after 2 weeks, and a 110% increase after 4 weeks. They also showed improved heart rate recovery after 4 weeks. ¹

Human Clinical 2—Cycling: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, subjects were given 1,350 mg of ARX (or placebo) and performed an exercise test, followed by the measuring of lactate levels at 3 minute intervals post-exercise for a total of 12 minutes. Compared to placebo, those taking ARX accumulated significantly lower levels of lactate over the recovery period.

At the end of 12 minutes, the ARX group’s lactate levels were 7% less than baseline values while the placebo group’s levels increased by 23% over baseline.

Animal Clinical—Swimming: Mice treated with ARX demonstrate increased lactate clearance, exercise endurance and resistance to fatigue in a blinded, placebo-controlled swim study. Seven groups of 35 mice were gavaged with ARX, Creatine (CR), another popular product (EX), placebo (PL) or left untreated (UTR). Before treatment, resting blood lactate concentrations were measured prior to the animals performing a loaded swim test to determine the time to exhaustion. Immediately after the swim test, blood lactate concentration was measured at 0, 5 and 10 minutes post-exercise. Mice were then treated for 21 days; each product was administered at a dose of 1 mg/day.

After treatment the mice were again subject to the same exhaustive swim test and lactate determinations with an additional step. After the 10 minute blood sample was collected, mice performed a second exhaustive swim to measure the effect of treatment on recovery from fatigue after a fixed period of rest. Among all treatment groups, the ARX group showed the most significant improvement (p<0.01) in endurance with a 43.8 minute increase in swim time. The ARX group swam 267% longer than EX and 166% longer than CR. The change in lactate concentration from pre-dose levels was calculated at each time point (rest, 0, 5 and 10 min.) for each group. The ARX group was found to have the greatest reduction in blood lactate concentration after treatment (i.e. the most lactate clearance) compared to the other groups. The average reduction in lactate concentration for the ARX group was 248% greater than the reduction in lactate for the placebo group, 211% greater than the EX group and 39% greater than the CR group.

Finally in the post-exercise recovery swim mice in the ARX group swam an additional 56.6 minutes, which was significantly longer than all other groups. In conclusion, mice treated with ARX demonstrated the greatest exercise endurance, resistance to fatigue and blood lactate clearance. ³

¹ ARX improves the rate of lactate clearance and heart rate recovery in a double-blind,
placebo-controlled human treadmill study. Beijing Medical University, Sports Research Institute, Beijing, China (1996).
² ARX reduces post-exercise accumulation of lactate in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled human cycling study. St. Cloud State University, Human
Performance Laboratory, St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA (1998).
³ Mice treated with SR2W-1 demonstrate increased lactate clearance, exercise endurance and resistance to fatigue in a blinded, placebo-controlled swim study
China Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China (1997)