How important is it to take glutamine as a supplement, I already get some from my protein shakes, but have been considering get some glutamine powder and adding it to my protein shakes.

i noticed a bigg diffefernce when i added glutamine post workout and before bed glutamine is very anticatabolic

Its really worthless.

i wouldnt go so far to say its worthless people just always expect to much out of products its not going to give you anything special but i guarantee you benefit from taking it as opposed to not taking it. Glutimine is the number 1 amino acid profile found in muscle tissue and out of all is supposed to have the most anticatabolic effect its not a miracle anticatabolic but it still helps especially when cutting to preserve muscle

Read the article by David Tolson....here is a paragraph from it, but I suggest you read the whole thing. There are a lot of good articles here on the site, check them out.

In conclusion, few studies have demonstrated any sort of conclusive benefit from L-glutamine supplementation in athletes, although the existing evidence does support a small benefit. The most promising effect is a reduced incidence of infection after exhausting exercise, and in this case 5-10 g preworkout and/or postworkout may be effective. It may be especially useful during times of overtraining or high stress, such as on a diet, but this is only in theory. There is little evidence for a direct anabolic or performance enhancing effect of glutamine.

It seems that glutamine is the supplement that all trainers recommend to their clients but it is pretty useless. However I read a study that showed it is absorbed 400% (so 4 times but sounds like more as a %) better when taken with a carbonated beverage. I happened to have lots kicking around so I started taking about 10g of glutamine with a can of soda water in the middle of the night (when I wake up about 4 hours into a good nights sleep. I find that this has two effects. The first being that the rest of the night I sleep like a baby (maybe a second round of gh is released in my system). The second is that after a few weeks of this my muscles seems fuller. This is just my experinece and isn't conclusive but if you happen to come across cheap or free glutamine try it.

Yeah what you have to realize is protien doesnt just cause weight gain right away its no different from all of the other aminos its just has some added benefits that others dont any amino acid doesnot have a proformance enhancing effect but just helps your muiscles to grow and repair themselves

Primary effect of glutamine supplementation appears to be that it *maintains* muscle cell mass and volume (primarily protein anti-degradant, is osmotically active in regulating water balance, and is a relatively weak cortisol inhibitor) during events which could result in catabolism. Some evidence for immuno-regulatory action. It (glutamine) comprises 50% of the amino acid pool in some tissue types (such as heart muscle) and is therefore necessary for protein synthesis for these cells. It is not very stable in solution; dilute solution uptake by gut may not be high, which may explain the variable success reported in the medical literature and by consumers.

Decent on-line reference: http://www.paulun.se/paulun_pop.asp?idContent=262

Interesting recent article:

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/93/4/1251

Glutamate ingestion and its effects at rest and during exercise in humans
Marina Mourtzakis and Terry E. Graham. Department of Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. J Appl Physiol 93: Vol. 93, Issue 4, 1251-1259, October 2002

Good on-line citation list for recent medical reports of glutamine impact on exercise physiology and immune system response:

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pr_suppl/athletes/glutamine.htm

I actually just read a study which said glutamine is responsible for up to 20% of the nitrogen stored by protein which is big because we know that glutamine levels drop big time during intense training so if your training hard and not taking glutamine your missing out on 20% nitrogen which is the major cause for muscle growth... also glutamine serves as a cell volumizer much like creatine... so i think glutamine is important...

I really can't tell if it's working for me. I have enough Glutamine to last me about a year at 40grams a day.

Even though you are not feeling it, i reccomend you keep taking it. It helps mother recover faster and alliviates the pain after workouts.