Ashwagandha for muscle: the trial
Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2015. 57 young men, 18 to 50, with little experience of weight training. Half took 300 mg of a branded root extract twice a day (600 mg a day), half a placebo, for 8 weeks. All of them followed a weight-training programme.
After 8 weeks, the ashwagandha group did better on every measure:
- Bench press: up 46 kg, vs 26 kg on placebo
- Leg extension: up 14.5 kg, vs 9.8 kg
- Arm muscle size: up 8.6 cm², vs 5.3 cm²
- Chest muscle size: up 3.3 cm, vs 1.4 cm
- Body fat: a bigger drop
- Testosterone: a bigger rise
- Muscle damage after exercise: lower
That is a real result. The men who took the herb got stronger and bigger than the men who took the sugar pill, doing the same workouts. For a thin person, muscle is exactly the weight you want. So far, so good.
Ashwagandha for weight gain: the catch nobody mentions
Read the trial once more before you search "ashwagandha for weight gain" again. Every man in it was lifting weights. The placebo group also gained 26 kg on the bench press and grew their arms, from the training alone. The herb added to the training. It did not replace it.
There is no trial where thin people took ashwagandha, changed nothing else, and gained weight. If you see one quoted, ask for the link. And the trial above used a particular branded extract, in a fixed dose, for 8 weeks, in 57 men. It has not been repeated many times by other groups. One good trial is one good trial.
One more thing. The same herb has been studied in overweight adults under stress, for weight loss. The same herb cannot be a weight-gain pill and a weight-loss pill. What it seems to do is help the body cope with stress and with training. Where the weight goes depends on what you eat and what you do.
Hype or help, line by line
The claim | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
"Ashwagandha makes you gain weight" | No | No trial of ashwagandha alone in thin people |
"Ashwagandha builds muscle" | Help, with training | One trial, 57 men, all lifting: more strength and size than placebo |
"Ashwagandha increases appetite" | Not shown | The trial did not measure appetite |
"Ashwagandha is a strength tonic in Ayurveda" | Yes | Bhavaprakasha calls it balya, strength-giving |
"Ashwagandha is for wasting" | Yes, in the old books | Bhavaprakasha calls it kshayapaha, remover of wasting |
"It is safe to take forever" | Not known | NCCIH: safe short term, up to 3 months; long-term unknown |
What the old books say: balya and kshayapaha
The Bhavaprakasha, a 16th-century text used in Ayurvedic colleges for herbs, gives ashwagandha these qualities: balya, strength-giving; rasayani, rejuvenating; kshayapaha, remover of wasting; tikta and kashaya, bitter and astringent; ushna, hot in action; and atishukrala, strongly increasing the reproductive tissue.
Two words matter for the thin person. Balya, strength: that is what the 2015 trial measured, and found. Kshayapaha, remover of wasting: kshaya is the wasting of the body, the kind seen after long illness. So the old use of ashwagandha was for the person who had wasted away, to rebuild strength, usually given in milk. It was never a herb to make a healthy person fat.
Notice how the old description and the modern trial agree. Strength, yes. Fat, no. The herb builds the body you work for.
How to take ashwagandha, and ashwagandha with milk
The traditional way: root powder in warm milk at night.
- The trial's way: 300 mg of root extract, twice a day with meals, for 8 weeks, alongside weight training.
- The common traditional way: root powder (ashwagandha churna) stirred into a glass of warm milk at night; half to one teaspoon is the usual home amount, but your dose should come from an Ayurvedic doctor. Milk is the usual carrier in the old books, and milk is already on Charaka's list for the thin.
- How long: not more than 3 months at a stretch without advice. NCCIH's safety note stops at 3 months.
- Start low: half a teaspoon for the first week. Drowsiness and stomach upset are the usual early complaints.
- Old rules still apply: no honey in the hot milk (honey is never heated); no sour fruit with the milk.
- Pair it with the work: five meals a day and 20 minutes of strength exercise three days a week. Without those, you are paying for a herb to help a workout you are not doing.
Our product note. Ayuvya's i-Gain is built for the thin person on the same logic as this article: Ayurvedic herbs for appetite and nourishment, alongside food and exercise, not instead of them. It is not sold as a pill that adds kilos on its own, because nothing does.
Ashwagandha side effects: who should not take it
From the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH):
- Avoid in pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
- Not recommended before surgery, or with thyroid or autoimmune disorders.
- May interact with medicines for diabetes, blood pressure, thyroid, seizures, sedation and immune suppression. If you take any of these, ask your doctor first.
- Liver: rare, but "a number of cases" of liver injury have been linked to ashwagandha supplements. Stop and see a doctor if you get yellow eyes, dark urine or pain under the right ribs.
- Common side effects: drowsiness, stomach upset, loose motions, vomiting.
- Duration: "may be safe when taken in the short term (up to 3 months)". Long-term safety is not known.
- Because it may raise testosterone, men with hormone-sensitive prostate cancer should avoid it.
Sleep and stress are where NCCIH says the evidence is best: "some ashwagandha preparations may be effective for insomnia and stress". For a thin person who sleeps five hours and worries all day, that may matter as much as the muscle, since Charaka lists both poor sleep and grief among the causes of thinness.
Ashwagandha for weight gain: help for the body you are already building, not a shortcut to one you are not.
Food first, five times a day. Lifting, three days a week. Then the herb. Ayuvya's i-Gain is made from Ayurvedic herbs for appetite and nourishment, with a diet chart built on exactly this order. See i-Gain, or start with how to gain weight without belly fat.
This article is for general information. It is not medical advice. Ashwagandha is a herb with real effects and real cautions. Do not take it in pregnancy, with thyroid or autoimmune disease, or alongside the medicines listed above without a doctor's advice. Stop and seek help if you notice signs of liver trouble.
Sources
- Wankhede S and colleagues. 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 (57 men, 300 mg twice daily, 8 weeks, with resistance training), as reported by NutraIngredients and Nutritional Outlook. nutraingredients.com · nutritionaloutlook.com
- US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Ashwagandha: usefulness and safety. nccih.nih.gov
- Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, verse on ashwagandha (balya, rasayani, kshayapaha, tikta, kashaya, ushna, atishukrala), as quoted on 1mg Ayurveda. 1mg.com
- Charaka Samhita, Sutra Sthana 21 (causes of thinness include poor sleep and grief; milk for the thin), Sutra Sthana 26 (honey never heated; sour with milk). carakasamhitaonline.com
