Amino Acid Supplements...

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and muscle tissue. All types of physiological processes relating to sport - energy, recovery, muscle / strength gains and fat loss, as well as mood and brain function - are intimately and critically linked to amino acids. It's no wonder amino acids have become major players in athletes' supplementation, especially among bodybuilders.

What are Amino Acids?

The 23 or so amino acids are the molecular building blocks of proteins. According to one accepted classification, 9 are termed indispensable amino acids (IAA, sometimes called essential), meaning that they must be supplied from some food or supplement source; the others, which used to be classified simply as nonessential, are now more correctly termed dispensable amino acids (DAA) or conditionally indispensable, based on the body's ability to synthesize them from other amino acids.

You may not give it much thought when you sink your teeth into a chicken breast (or lentil stew), but the content and balance of amino acids, particularly the ratio of IAA to DAA, is what determines the body and health building value of a protein food or supplement. But that isn't all that matters.

In addition to being influenced by the carbohydrates, fats and total calories associated with it, protein quality is related to the amount of the specific aminos within both the IAA and DAA categories (for example, the amount of glutamine and branched chain amino acids, or BCAAs - leucine, isoleucine and valine). While the amount of IAAs are generally of greater importance, the DAAs are also significant because they're synthesized too slowly to support maximum growth. Even if a source has a perfect amino acid profile for a given individual and lifestyle, another important factor - to what extent these acids are actually delivered to the tissues when needed - must be considered. That, in turn, raises the issues of digestion, absorption, actual bioavailability and the potential value of supplementation.

Muscle tissue will grow in the presence of a number of factors, including exercise, hormones (growth hormone, insulin, testosterone and thyroid) and nutrients. Nutrition science has advanced to the point where athletes who supplement with free form amino acids can get IAAs, high in BCAA content, to the muscles much more effectively.

The key is the window of opportunity that occurs immediately after exercise, when the muscle is especially receptive to nutrients and the blood flow to the exercised muscles remains high. The solution to optimizing recovery and growth in this case could include eating a small meal composed of protein with both simple and complex carbohydrates.

This isn't the current high tech approach, however. For one, if you trained hard, chances are - even if a convenient and light, nutritious meal was readily available - you wouldn't feel like eating. More important, a high protein meal won't put significant levels of amino acids into your bloodstream until a couple of hours after you eat it, especially if blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract has been diminished by a hard training session. The bottom line: Even if you eat the right foods soon after training, the nutrients will arrive at the muscle too late to take full advantage of the window of opportunity.

Supplement manufacturers recognized the potential value of free-form amino use was limited by their expense and a relative lack of convincing supportive research for a number of years, their popularity has recently increased dramatically. Prepackaged workout and recovery drinks containing hydrolyzed (predigested) proteins and often some free-form amino acids now fill gym refrigerators. Capsules and powdered free-form amino acids, although still somewhat expensive, are likewise being used by increasing numbers of top amateur and professional athletes.

The value of free-form amino acids is first and foremost that they don't require digestion. The term 'free-form' means exactly that: They are free of chemical bonds to other molecules and so move quickly through the stomach and into the small intestine, where they're rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream.

Upon absorption, amino acids are processed by the liver. When you eat a steak, for example, only relatively few amino acids escape the metabolic actions of the liver. Yet the liver can process only so many at one time, and taking a dose of 3-4 grams of rapidly absorbed amino acids exceeds the liver's capacity, resulting in the aminos being directed to the tissues that require them, such as muscle in the case of bodybuilder recovering from training. Thus, the concept of 'directed amino acids'.

While sound in theory, does it work in practice? As early as 1990, the Bulgarian national weightlifting team began trials to determine if free-form amino acids were a boost to muscular growth. The work was so successful that part of the study was replicated on the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. Since then, top bodybuilders and powerlifters around the world today - including Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates, and 'Mr. Powerlifting' Ed Coan - have benefited from this new research.

Many misconceptions exist about the muscle contraction and the use of energy substrates during heavy during heavy, high-intensity weight training. When you're engaged in a repetitive power workout, a substantial portion of your energy comes from noncarbohydrate sources. When muscle contracts, it uses its stores of adenosine triphosphate (ATP, a substance vital to the energy processes of all living cells) for the first few seconds. The compound used to immediately replenish these stores is creatine phosphate (CP). The recent explosion of creatine supplements in the market attests to its value to hard training bodybuilders and other strength / power athletes.

CP is made from three amino acids: arginine, methionine and glycine. To keep CP and ATP levels high, these amino acids must be elevated in the bloodstream. Traditionally, these proteins have been supplied by foods in the diet. Elevating levels of these amino acids or of CP with conventional foods takes a great deal of time (for digestion) and isn't specific, typically providing levels of fats and carbohydrates that may or may not be desired. The use of free-form amino acids, alone and in combination with creatine supplements, can provide directed source of energy for power and growth.

In fat loss, two major processes must occur: 1) the mobilization and circulation of stored fats in the body must increase; and 2) fats must be transported and converted to energy at the powerhouse site of cells, the mitochondria. Several nutrients can assist in the conversion of fat to energy, including lipotropic agents such as choline, inositol and the IAA methionine which, in sufficient quantities, can help improve the transport and metabolism of fat.

Supplementation with complete IAA mixtures, BCAAs and glutamine can also help keep calorie and food volume down while providing targeted support directly to the muscles, liver and immune systems so critical to optimizing body composition.

The human body has the innate ability to break down muscle tissue for use as an energy source during heavy exercise. This muscle catabolism can cause muscle soreness, shrinkage of muscle tissue and may even lead to injury.

This enemy to bodybuilders is part of a process known as gluconeogenosis, which means producing or generating glucose from noncarbohydrate sources. The part of this reaction that of importance to bodybuilders is known as the glucose - alanine cycle, in which BCAAs are stripped from the muscle tissue and parts of them are converted to the amino acid alanine, which is transported to the liver and converted into glucose.

If you consume supplemental BCAA's. the body does not have to break down muscle tissue to derive extra energy. A study conducted recently at the School of Human Biology, University of Guelph, Onterio, Canada, confirmed that the use of BCAA's (up to 4 grams) during and after exercise can result in a significant reduction of muscle breakdown during exercise.

In addition to BCAAs, arginine is another amino acid that may benefit bodybuilders. Though it did not live up to its early hype, which touted the amino acid's ability to raise growth hormone level, new data indicate that arginine - in large but safe and affordable doses - may be able to raise GH levels by up to 1,000%.

More Info
BCAA stands for branched chain amino acids and is increasingly being recognized as an important supplement in the field of sports nutrition. In short the term refers to three essential amino acids - leucine, isoleucine and valine.

Amino acids are widely known as the building blocks of protein. When protein food is eaten it gets digested into individual amino acids and short chains of amino acids that are sufficiently small to be absorbed into the bloodstream. They are then used by the body to build and repair tissues amongst other things.

Amino acids are split between those classed as essential and those labelled non-essential. This simply means that essential amino acids cannot be made by the body, whereas non-essential amino acids can. There are nine essential amino acids and each must be obtained from the diet. The nine essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.

Non-essential amino acids are just as important as the essential variety and the term simply means they can be made by the body from vitamins and other amino acids. The non-essential amino acids are alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, cystine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine and tyrosine.

The BCAA's are especially important to athletes because they are metabolized in the muscle rather than the liver. This means that they can be used either to build new proteins or be burned as fuel to create energy. Supplementing with BCAA's has been shown to result in measurable gains in both muscle strength and size. Taken before a workout BCAA's can improve performance and delay the onset of fatigue. They also operate as anabolic agents allowing the body to burn fat and not muscle.

As a supplement that has no reported side effects, branched chain amino acids offer many benefits to the serious bodybuilder.