Glutamine is a non essential amino acid, which is why they put it in shakes and crap (It doesnt hurt anything, but may not be the gainer your striving for though). Amino acids are just like you said, "the building blocks of life"; I think you just came across to me in your initial post saying, "Amino acids are worthless for building muscle", but I see you understand they are essential to your body, and I understand where you are coming from. I have an appointment with an excersize physiologist next week to discuss a few things and I will get hi .02 on this subject. He used to work for cycling teams in europe and pro football here in the states, he knows everything.