Amino acids, long known as the building blocks of protein, may also be the critical nutrients in helping build athletes. Sports training promotes both muscle synthesis and muscle breakdown, explains Nanna Meyer, RD, PhD, an assistant professor in the Sport Nutrition Graduate Program at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs who works with elite athletes. Proper nutritional support, however, can ensure that the net result is positive—that there’s more muscle buildup than breakdown. “Strength results out of muscle, and then sports-specific performance follows,” Meyer says.
But to build muscle, you need protein. “Athletes in general need about double the amount of protein in their diets as non-athletes,” and it must include all the essential amino acids (those your body can’t produce on its own), Meyer says. Only a handful of foods—such as dairy, soy and quinoa—do, and many people have intolerances or allergies to those proteins.
For such people—or for those who want to spark protein synthesis with less caloric input—amino acid supplements may be the way to go, according to Amanda Carlson-Phillips, a registered dietitian and the vice president of nutrition and research for Athletes’ Performance, a Phoenix-based training, nutrition and physical therapy center for elite and professional athletes. And once basic protein needs for healthy metabolism are met, “certain amino acids can help to augment performance,” she says. In fact, recent research has athletes pumped up about the ability of a handful of specific aminos to increase muscle, strength and endurance. Here are the top three.
Leucine – Branched-chain amino acids (so called because of their molecular structure) have been popular among athletes since the 1990s, primarily for their potential to promote endurance and minimize delayed-onset muscle soreness, but leucine is the only one of the three types that has consistently proven its effectiveness in clinical studies. “It’s sort of the igniter of protein synthesis,” Meyer says. A U.S. Army study published in the September 2011 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that athletes who took leucine-enriched supplements of essential amino acids (EAAs) during aerobic exercise had 33 percent more muscle synthesis than those who took a more generic EAA formula. Leucine also seems to help muscle recovery after exercise: A study published in April 2011 in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism showed that cyclists who ingested leucine-rich nutrition after two or more hours of training were able to sprint the next day with greater power than those who received standard nutrition.*
Beta-alanine – This amino acid increases the amount of carnosine present in muscle; carnosine, in turn, buffers hydrogen ions—waste products of exercise that are responsible for pain and muscle fatigue. “You can work out for longer without pain,” Meyer says. Indeed, a wealth of research supports this notion, and a July 2012 review of 15 studies concluded that beta-alanine helps improve exercise capacity by a median of 2.85 percent, particularly in endurance events. Still, Carlson-Phillips cautions athletes not to expect overnight results. “It’ll take anywhere from four to six weeks to build up in the muscle,” she says. And while beta-alanine isn’t typically regarded as an aid to speed or strength, one study found that it did increase punch force and frequency in amateur boxers, while another found that rowers who took beta-alanine supplements were several seconds faster than those who took a sham supplement.*
Citrulline malate – Technically, citrulline malate is not an amino acid, but is produced as a result of a metabolic reaction involving the amino acid ornithine. Unlike the amino acids described above, citrulline malate does its best work during anaerobic activity. A 2010 Spanish study found that men doing bench presses were able to perform nearly 53 percent more repetitions and had 40 percent less muscle soreness after taking citrulline malate. In addition, citrulline malate supplements appear to.*
Despite the impressive potential of amino acid supplements, Carlson-Phillips reminds the athletes she works with to get as much support as possible from diet first. “I think amino acids do fit a role in helping people optimize their health and their performance. We always look at: ‘What are my needs? What are my goals, and what am I getting from my food?’ Then, we can match the right amino acids with those goals.”
You can take 5$ OFF your order by following this link:
You will see discount IN shopping cart!
