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Amino Acids are the building blocks of muscle protein. Getting
adequate amounts of Amino Acids is difficult for those who
exercise. Exercise burns Amino Acids rapidly. Failure to replenish
the body with proper Amino Acids can cause people who work
out vigorously to make little or no progress.
Amino Acids are best used as Free Form and Branched Chain.
These Amino Acids do not require digestion and go straight
into the blood stream for immediate use by muscle cells. BCAA also provides 70% of the body’s Nitrogen requirement.
The Difference Between Essential and Non-Essential
Amino Acids?
Essential amino acids cannot be made by the body.
You must get them from complete protein foods or combinations
of incomplete vegetable foods. There are 9 essential amino
acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine,
phenylalanine, tryptophan, and valine. Your body can make
non-essential amino acids by itself from vitamins and other
amino acids.
The term "non-essential" can be misleading since
all amino acids are essential for proper metabolism and certain
non-essential amino acids, such as glutamine, become very
essential during illness or trauma. The 13 non-essential amino
acids are alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, cysteine, cystine,
glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, hydroxyproline, proline,
serine, & tyrosine.
The essential branched chain amino acids (BCAA's) are of
special importance for athletes because they are metabolized
in the muscle, rather than in the liver. Here's how this works:
After digestion once protein is broken down into individual
amino acids these aminos can either be used to build new proteins
or be burned as fuel to produce energy.
Twenty two amino acids divided into
2 groups
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Essential |
Non-essential |
Histidine |
Alanine |
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Isoleucine |
Arginine |
Leucine |
Aspartic Acid |
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Lysine |
Cysteine |
Methionine |
Cystine |
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Phenylalanine |
Glutamic Acid |
Tryptophan |
Glutamine |
|
Threonine |
Glycine |
Valine |
Hydroxyproline |
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Proline |
|
Serine |
|
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Tyrosine |
BCAA and Bodybuilding
Bodybuilders want to avoid the reduced muscle size
and strength consequent of reduced muscle protein synthesis
and breakdown. Keep in mind an adequate level of free BCAA
won't turn you into superman (although higher targeted dosages
may come close), but will enable you to avoid some of the
negative effects of BCAA depletion including inadequate recovery
and training stagnation.
If you already have an adequate level provided by your diet,
you'll really be able to see the benefits. In addition to
consuming enough protein, make sure you consume enough quality
calories on a daily basis and get plenty of rest and recovery.
By consuming adequate calories and carbohydrates you'll help
spare the BCAAs.
The greater your glycogen storage the more likely your BCAA pool will be used for muscle growth and the less likely it
will be oxidized as energy. Rest and recovery will further
help direct your BCAA pool towards muscle growth. Following
these steps will go a long way in enhancing your gains-and
we haven't even covered the REAL supplemental benefits yet!
Benefits Of BCAA
Now it's time for the good stuff! What can targeted BCAA supplementation
do for you? Science has shown us that BCAA supplementation
can have rather far-reaching positive effects in the body.
Among These effects include:
Increased Recovery - Perhaps
the greatest benefit to hard training athletes is the
increase in metabolic recovery that follows supplementation.
Most athletes feel a substantial decrease in the amount
of post exercise muscle soreness soon after beginning
BCAA supplementation. Even without any of the other benefits
of BCAA usage this means faster recovery from exercise
induced protein damage (remember your muscles grow when
you damage them), which in turn means faster size and
strength gains. With increased recovery the harder and
more frequently you can hit the iron and thus the sooner
you can meet your goals.
Endurance - The BCAAs can serve as a donor of
nitrogen in the formation of l-alanine, which provides
the body with glucose after glycogen stores have been
depleted. When you think of sparing glycogen you probably
think of high carbohydrate diets but BCAAs have proven
their worth here as well. In a 4 week study Japanese |
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| researchers administered BCAAs or a placebo
to rats and then exercised the animals to exhaustion.
The BCAA group exhibited spared glycogen storage in the
liver and skeletal muscle during exercise. This means
that they may enable you to train at higher intensities
for longer periods of time. Supplementing with BCAAs may
enable you to maintain your training intensity and endurance
as energy normally provided by your diet decreases. Anyone
who has ever been on a very low carb or low calorie diet
for extended periods can definitely appreciate this! |
Stimulate Protein Synthesis - BCAAs by
themselves have been shown to independently stimulate muscle
protein synthesis. In other words, they have shown the ability
to induce muscle gains, even in the absence of weight training!
Studies have shown that BCAA supplementation increases the
hormones: testosterone, growth hormone, and insulin.
All of these are highly anabolic hormones. Research also shows
that under conditions of extreme stress, such as hiking for
21 days at high altitude, BCAA supplementation (10 grams per
day) was shown to increase muscle mass while subjects ingesting
a placebo had no such change. The important thing here is
these people gained muscle under extreme conditions without
any anabolic stimulus such as weight training.
Stimulate Fat Loss - Supplementation of BCAAs
has been shown to trigger significant and preferential losses
of visceral body fat. Located in the deeper layers of the
body under the subcutaneous fat, this visceral fat tends to
be resistant to dieting and is hard to lose. In one study,
25 competitive wrestlers were divided into 1 of 3 diet groups:
a diet high in BCAAs, a diet low in BCAAs, and a control diet.
The wrestlers stayed on the diets for 19 days. The results
showed that the high BCAA group lost the most body fat, 17.3%
on average. Much of the fat lost was in the abdominal region.
This may give credence to BCAAs effectiveness at "spot
reducing" the abs. In another study 2 groups of climbers
were divided into a BCAA supplemented group and a control
group. Both groups lost weight but the BCAA group actually
gained muscle mass while losing fat and the other group lost
muscle mass.
One theory as to how BCAAs exert their substantial fat burning
and muscle building effects is this: When present in high
amounts during exercise, the body senses high levels of BCAA
in the bloodstream which is typically a sign of excessive
muscle breakdown. So the body stops muscle breakdown and uses
more fat for fuel. At the same time the extra BCAAs in the
blood stimulate insulin so the BCAAs are driven directly to
the muscle. So the result is people lose body fat and gain
muscle at the same time. If my hunch is correct, in order
to benefit the most from the fat loss aspect of BCAAs you
should make sure you limit carbohydrate consumption during
the 2 hour window before your workout.
Boosting Immune Function - Remember if you're
sick it's hard to train, much less grow. It's even harder
to come back after an illness without losing a ton of strength
and size. When you train at high intensity or high volume
you risk immune suppression and infections. By supplementing
with BCAAs you'll help reverse glutamine loss, which is essential
for immune function. In addition to this, the BCAAs help prevent
a catabolic state in the body, which in turn can help improve
recovery and lessen the damaging effects your exercise sessions
may have on the body.
Anti-Catabolic Effects - BCAAs probably exert
most of their anabolic effects through anti-catabolic activity.
In short, they suppress the use of muscle proteins for fuel,
thereby sparing the breakdown of muscular protein. In part
this is because they can sacrifice themselves as fuel. With
less muscular protein being broken down by the body during
training, the net result is increased protein synthesis and
more muscle for you! In a study done on obese people put on
a starvation type diet, BCAA supplementation was found to
induce anabolism and nitrogen sparing so the subjects burned
body fat instead of lean muscle mass, thus sparing muscle
protein.
Where is BCAA found?
Dairy products and red meat contain the greatest amounts of
BCAAs, although they are present in all protein-containing
foods. Whey protein and egg protein supplements are other
sources of BCAAs. BCAA supplements provide the amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine.
How much BCAA Should I Take?
Most diets provide an adequate amount of BCAA for most people,
which is about 25–65 mg per pound of body weight.28
29 Athletes involved in intense training often take 5 grams
of leucine, 4 grams of valine, and 2 grams of isoleucine per
day to prevent muscle loss and increase muscle gain, though
most research does not support this use of BCAAs.
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