Aspartate, does it help with body building or weight lifting?

The carboxylate anion of aspartic acid is known as aspartate.

Ergogenic aid benefit
Aspartate as an ergogenic supplement.
Sports Med. 2008; Département des sciences de l'activité physique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. Francois.
Aspartate has been regularly listed in exercise physiology textbooks as an ergogenic substance since the first known trial by Professor Henri Laborit's laboratory in the late 1950s, aimed at verifying its ergogenic potential. The main outcomes of aspartate supplementation are attenuation of exercise-induced hyperammonemia and increase of exercise endurance. In the available literature, the impact of aspartate on endurance seems generally favorable in humans, but it is not so favorable in experimental animals. In studies reporting increased endurance, no correlation has been found between its dosage and the increment of exercise time. Mechanisms supposed to explain the ergogenic effect of aspartate have also been reviewed in this article. Claims of a glycogen-sparing action, reduced hyperammonemia and a higher rate of free fatty acid oxidation have not been confirmed unequivocally by the literature. Aspartate has not been shown to increase muscle endurance or strength. It is often used in combinations that are briefly reviewed in this article. However, the number of studies are presently too low to draw conclusions about the efficacy of these aspartate combinations.

Human NARP mitochondrial mutation metabolism corrected with alpha-ketoglutarate/aspartate: a potential new therapy.
Arch Neurol. 2009; Sgarbi G, Casalena GA, Baracca A, Lenaz G, Solaini G. Dipartimento di Biochimica "G. Moruzzi", Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
To verify whether enhanced substrate-level phosphorylation increases viability and adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) content of cells with neuropathy, ataxia, and retinitis pigmentosa/maternally inherited Leigh syndrome (NARP/MILS) mitochondrial DNA mutations and ATP synthase dysfunction. We used cell lines "poisoned" with oligomycin, the specific inhibitor of ATP synthase, and "natural" models, including transmitochondrial human cell lines (cybrids) harboring 2 different pathogenic mutations associated with the NARP/MILS phenotypes. Cell survival, morphology, and ATP content. When normal human fibroblasts cultured in glucose-free medium were forced to increase energy consumption by exposure to the ionophore gramicidin or were energy challenged by oligomycin inhibition, their survival at 72 hours was 5%, but this increased to 70% when the medium was supplemented with alpha-ketoglutarate/aspartate to boost mitochondrial substrate-level phosphorylation. Homoplasmic cybrids harboring the 8993T-->G NARP mutation were also protected from death (75% vs 15% survival at 72 hours) by the supplemented medium and their ATP content was similar to controls. These results show that ATP synthase-deficient cells can be rescued by increasing mitochondrial substrate-level phosphorylation and suggest potential dietary or pharmacological therapeutic approaches based on the supplementation of alpha-ketoglutarate / aspartate to patients with impaired ATP synthase activity.

Heart Surg Forum. 2008. Glutamate / aspartate supplementation during cardiopulmonary bypass: effect on postoperative neurocognitive function. Erol DD, Ibis HA. Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Kocatepe University School of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey.
In this randomized trial, we investigated the effect of glutamate/aspartate-containing cardioplegia on neurocognitive function in 70 patients undergoing first-time elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Half of the patients received glutamate / aspartate, and the other 35 patients served as controls and received crystalloid cardioplegia. Neurocognitive function after surgery was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination performed before surgery and again on postoperative day 3. Although patients in both groups scored slightly lower postoperatively (17 versus 18 of a total of 30 points), no significant group differences were found. Our results indicate that glutamate/aspartate supplementation had no impact on neurocognitive function after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Can L-Aspartate and/or D-Aspartic Acid be useful in treating CFS / Fibromyalgia?
   We have not seen any significant studies to know if it would be of benefit.

amino acid information benefit and side effects