Albuterol is a short-acting selective beta-2 adrenergic agonist that relaxes bronchial smooth muscle, first approved in the United States in 1981.
Amounts reported for Albuterol are listed under Reported protocols, each with its source and study kind. No amount ladder is inferred from them. This is educational source context, not a protocol or recommendation.
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Human study rows are described per source under Reported protocols; they belong to their trial populations and are not a general amount.
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What published studies and recent community write-ups report about amounts, timing and course length. 7 clinical and 2 community-reported rows, each linked to its source. These are descriptions of what others report, not instructions, and nothing here is medical advice.
| Context | Dose | Frequency | Route | Course | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical7 rows | |||||
| FDA-approved inhalation aerosol labelAdults and children aged 4 years and older with reversible obstructive airway disease | 2 inhalations of 90 mcg albuterol base, that is 180 mcg | Every 4 to 6 hours for bronchospasm, or once 15 to 30 minutes before exercise for prevention of exercise-induced bronchospasm | Oral inhalation | Ongoing as prescribed; the label warns that needing more doses than usual signals deteriorating asthmaNot applicable | DailyMed, National Library of Medicine2024 |
| This is the GlaxoSmithKline Ventolin HFA prescribing information, revised April 2024. Each actuation delivers 108 mcg of albuterol sulfate, equal to 90 mcg of albuterol base. Prevention of exercise-induced bronchospasm is a separate approved indication with its own timing, and it is the only label-sanctioned use of albuterol around exercise. The label states explicitly that more frequent administration or a greater number of inhalations is not recommended and that excessive use may be fatal, and carries warnings for paradoxical bronchospasm, cardiovascular effects, hypokalemia and changes in blood glucose. | |||||
| FDA-approved oral tablet labelAdults and children over 12 years; children 6 to 12 years at lower amounts | 2 or 4 mg of albuterol base per dose, up to 8 mg if that fails | Three or four times a day | Oral tablet | Uncontrolled studies reported no loss of effectiveness over periods up to 6 monthsNot applicable | DailyMed, National Library of Medicine2026 |
| The oral route is the one that matters for the body-composition literature, and the label is specific about its ceiling: the total daily dose should not exceed 32 mg in adults and children 12 and over, and any increase above 4 mg four times a day is reserved for patients who fail to respond. Maximum plasma concentration after a single 4 mg tablet is about 18 ng/mL at 2 hours with a half-life of roughly 5 hours. The indication is relief of bronchospasm, nothing else. The label also records cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death in minipigs, rodents and dogs when beta-agonists and methylxanthines were given together. | |||||
| Randomised trial of supratherapeutic salbutamol during resistance training30 healthy trained men of mean age 23 randomised, 26 completing, in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial | 16 mg per day of oral salbutamol, or placebo | Daily | Oral | 11 weeks, alongside a supervised full-body resistance programme of 3 sessions a weekNone described | Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports (PubMed)2026 |
| The most important human study on this compound's reputation, and it cuts both ways. Lean mass rose 1.8 kg more than placebo, the primary outcome. In the same participants, muscle capillary density and the activity of citrate synthase and 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase all fell, time to exhaustion on cardiopulmonary exercise testing did not improve against a 7% rise on placebo, and echocardiography showed increased posterior, septal and relative wall thickness, although cardiac MRI found no difference in cardiac structure including left ventricular mass. The authors frame these as risk-benefit trade-offs that inform illicit users of potential harms. Note that 16 mg a day is half the maximum total daily oral amount the FDA label permits, and the label has no indication relating to lean mass. | |||||
| One-year randomised trial in facioscapulohumeral dystrophy90 patients with facioscapulohumeral dystrophy randomised to placebo or 1 of 2 albuterol doses, 84 completing | 8.0 mg or 16.0 mg twice daily, that is 16 or 32 mg a day | Twice daily | Oral sustained-release | 52 weeks, assessed at baseline and weeks 13, 26 and 52None described | Neurology (PubMed)2001 |
| The longest controlled human exposure on record, and the result is the same split. The primary outcome, 52-week change in global strength by maximum voluntary isometric contraction, did not differ between groups, and neither did manual muscle testing. Grip strength improved in both treatment groups against placebo, and the high-dose group gained 1.57 kg of lean mass on DEXA against 0.25 kg on placebo. The authors conclude albuterol increased muscle mass and improved some measures of strength without improving global strength or function. Side effects included cramps, tremors, insomnia and nervousness. The 32 mg a day arm sits at the label's stated daily ceiling. | |||||
| Albuterol with isokinetic knee-extension training13 subjects on albuterol and 9 on placebo performing isokinetic knee extensions twice weekly | 16 mg per day | Daily | Oral | 6 weeks of treatment within a 9-week training programme; data collected at weeks 0, 6 and 9Not described | Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (PubMed)1995 |
| An early and much-cited study, with the same 16 mg a day figure that the 2026 trial later used. Training was three sets of 10 repetitions at 45 degrees per second. Several concentric and eccentric work and power measures favoured the albuterol group, and quadriceps cross-sectional area changed within groups. The authors conclude that therapeutic doses of albuterol with resistance exercise may augment strength gains. The sample is small, there was no imaging beyond thigh measurements, and nothing cardiac was measured. | |||||
| Randomised crossover test of high-dose inhaled salbutamol on aerobic capacity9 healthy well-trained men in a randomised, blinded, placebo-controlled crossover study | 40 puffs of 0.2 mg, that is 8 mg inhaled in one session | One dose per test session | Oral inhalation | Acute testing onlyNot applicable | Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports (PubMed)2012 |
| A deliberately extreme inhaled dose, far above the label, produced no effect on maximal oxygen uptake in absolute or relative terms, no effect on peak power or lactate threshold, and no change in any oxygen uptake kinetic measure during submaximal work. The authors conclude there was no ergogenic effect, and note that beta-2 agonists are on the WADA prohibited list with salbutamol permitted only in therapeutic inhaled amounts. The contrast with the oral trials above is the point: the lean-mass findings come from oral dosing at many times the inhaled exposure. | |||||
| Randomised controlled trial during forearm immobilisation20 adults in a human forearm immobilisation model, with a parallel mouse hindlimb study | 4 mg per dose, that is 16 mg a day; the mouse arm used 1 mg/kg per day | Four times daily, at 08:00, 13:00, 18:00 and 23:00 | Oral in the human arm; continuous subcutaneous pump in the mouse arm | 2 days of immobilisation in humans; 2 weeks in the mouse armNot applicable | Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle (PubMed Central)2025 |
| This 2025 trial tests the boundary of the anabolic effect, and the authors state they chose 16 mg a day on the strength of the earlier lean-mass findings. Salbutamol raised whole-body insulin-stimulated glucose disposal by 21% and reduced amino acid efflux from the immobilised forearm, but it did not stop the immobilisation-induced fall in forearm glucose uptake or amino acid balance. In the mouse arm it raised muscle protein synthesis while also raising turnover, so no net muscle was gained and no effect on grip strength was detected. The conclusion is that the effect is limited to active muscle and is lost when the muscle is inactive. | |||||
| Community-reported2 rows | |||||
| Independent evidence ledger on body-composition use | 19 claims logged: 12 with a primary citation, 7 with none | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicableNot applicable | Community resource2026 |
| A community reference page that traces each circulating claim to a source or records that it has none, and states that it does not publish dosing protocols or syringe conversions. Among the claims it could not trace: that albuterol raises HDL cholesterol, that it suppresses appetite in people, that it is safer for the heart than clenbuterol, and that the fat-loss effect fades after 2 to 4 weeks so the compound must be cycled. It also explains a common identifier error, that the 337.39 g/mol figure often quoted for albuterol sulfate belongs to a 1:1 database adduct rather than the 2:1 hemisulfate in registered products, whose weight is 576.71. Useful here as a map of which widely repeated claims have nothing behind them. | |||||
| Research-chemical vendor listing | 5 mg/mL in a 30 mL dropper bottle, 150 mg total | Not stated by the vendor | Supplied as a liquid dropper | Not stated by the vendorNot stated by the vendor | Community resource2026 |
| This is a vendor claim, not a protocol. The product page gives a concentration and a total content but no amount, frequency or schedule, states it is for laboratory research only and explicitly not for respiratory, asthma, fat-loss, stimulant, athletic or supplement use, and publishes a per-lot certificate reporting 99.54% HPLC purity against a 5 mg label. For scale against the approved label, 0.4 mL of this 5 mg/mL liquid contains as much albuterol as a 2 mg tablet, and the label caps the total daily oral amount at 32 mg. | |||||
Plus 2 community resources (dosing guides, forum threads and vendor write-ups), reported above but not linked.
Albuterol is a short-acting selective beta-2 adrenergic agonist that relaxes bronchial smooth muscle, first approved in the United States in 1981 and known outside North America by its World Health Organization name, salbutamol. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines and reaches patients as a metered-dose inhaler, a dry-powder inhaler, a nebuliser solution, an oral tablet and an oral syrup, each with its own FDA-approved label; nothing in that labelling concerns muscle mass, fat mass or body composition. Its appearance in research-chemical catalogues is driven by interest in beta-2 agonists as leanness agents, and the human trials on that question are unusually clear: high oral doses do add lean mass, while measurably degrading muscle oxidative capacity and aerobic fitness.
These themes describe recurring questions in published research. They are not claims of effectiveness or recommendations for use.
Energy balance, body composition and incretin signaling.
Androgen receptor modulators, myostatin pathways and exercise-mimetic research.
This is the GlaxoSmithKline Ventolin HFA prescribing information, revised April 2024. Each actuation delivers 108 mcg of albuterol sulfate, equal to 90 mcg of albuterol base. Prevention of exercise-induced bronchospasm.
The oral route is the one that matters for the body-composition literature, and the label is specific about its ceiling: the total daily dose should not exceed 32 mg in adults and children 12 and over, and any increase.
The most important human study on this compound's reputation, and it cuts both ways. Lean mass rose 1.8 kg more than placebo, the primary outcome. In the same participants, muscle capillary density and the activity of.
The longest controlled human exposure on record, and the result is the same split. The primary outcome, 52-week change in global strength by maximum voluntary isometric contraction, did not differ between groups, and.
Study models remain visible so laboratory and animal findings are not mistaken for established human outcomes.
7 protocol rows on this page come from human trials, trial registrations, regulator labels or reviews of human data. Approval status and populations are stated per row.
2 rows record what blogs, vendor write-ups or forums describe for Albuterol. None has been verified against primary literature.
Sequence, synonyms and registry identifiers as recorded in PubChem, the National Library of Medicine's open chemistry database. Formula, mass and CAS number are summarized at the top of the page.
Salbutamol, Ventolin, ProAir, Proventil, Airomir, AH 3365, CHEBI:2549, UNII QF8SVZ843E
NDAUXUAQIAJITI-UHFFFAOYSA-N
4-[2-(tert-butylamino)-1-hydroxyethyl]-2-(hydroxymethyl)phenol
8 curated references, each with its journal, year and study model, plus 2 community resources reported but not linked.