John VorhausAs soon as your body starts to digest proteins, the main components that are the part of them are amino acids. There are nine essential amino acids, which means that our body cannot create them and we have to obtain them through diet or supplementation.
Leucine, valine, and isoleucine are branched-chain amino acids or best BCAAs that you can find an out eh market. The main reason for that is because they have the same molecular structure. Most amino acids break down in the liver, while these will enter the muscles directly.
That is why they are great and will help you improve the exercise performance and reduce the muscle breakdown. Supplementation is another way of using these amino acids, and they are popular among bodybuilders and athletes.
However, you should be cautious when using the supplementation because it can activate mTOR pathway.
Reasons To Use BCAA For Exercise Performance
- Reduces Fatigue
There are numerous benefits of using BCAA as we have mentioned above. The main idea and their purpose are to act as building blocks for muscle and proteins as well as blood sugar regulation. They are great because you will be able to reduce the fatigue during the exercise as well.
According to Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, BCAA can improve endurance exercise performance among runners, especially because it inhibits production of serotonin during the exercise. As we all know, serotonin contributes to fatigue during the exercise and feeling of tiredness and lethargy.
It can easily alleviate central fatigue among runners, and that allows them to run faster with the same degree of exertion. Therefore, most athletes who have multi-day competition use it to cope with it.
For more information on effects of BCAA on fatigue, you can check here.
- Reduces Muscle Soreness
The other famous claims that it can reduce muscle soreness after the workout and increase protein synthesis. If you take it before and after the exercise, you will reduce muscle damage and increase and accelerate the recovery.
It provides bioavailability that will improve protein synthesis and increase the extent of secondary muscle damage after strenuous resistance exercise. They will also lower the levels of lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase, which are essential enzymes that cause muscle damage. Therefore, you will reduce the damage after resistance exercise.
When you take it before the exercise, you will experience low levels of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). As the additional, it can also help you accelerate the recovery from muscle damage and to prevent inflammation and fall of the immune system after the workout.
- It Helps You Build Muscle
Even though BCAAs are not directly important for growing muscles, they will create the possibility for your muscles to give a more significant protein intake and synthesis that will result in muscle growth.
When you use it before exercise, you will reduce breakdown of muscle proteins, which will increase the synthesis afterward and you will be able to grow them with additional efficiency. However, you have to eat food with lots of proteins or use supplements such as Whey protein to gain muscles, because BCAA won’t directly affect the muscle growth.
For more information check the website: https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a19545329/branched-chain-amino-acids/
Conclusion:
Some people state that it is healthier to take the BCAA through food. However, that is difficult and challenging especially if you have a limited budget and less time to cope with eating.
Of course, you can increase your muscles naturally without supplements, but with it, you will not gain any side effect, and you will get a wide array of benefits. That is the main reason for its outstanding popularity among young athletes.