BCAA Supplement – Ready Supply of Amino Acids

BCAAs (leucine, isoleucine and valine) are the largest collection of amino acids in the body (35% of muscle protein) which are all essential but not produced by the body but are necessary for survival. In intensive exercise routines, they are needed as BCAA supplement.

Today, BCAAs are mainly used by body builders and some athletes mainly for exercise purposes. They are used for increasing energy, and to boost the protein synthesis mainly with leucine.

Muscle loss

The acids have been found to be useful in gaining back skeletal muscles and in the maintenance of muscle mass lost in the intense exercise routines by bodybuilders mostly. In some parts, they are also used to protect the muscles with the catabolic effects of dieting.

Dieting is a catabolic process that leads to muscle breakdown, resulting in skeletal muscle loss. This makes the body try harder to hold on to its store of fat. Finally, it turns onto the muscles to satisfy its energy needs.

Muscle loss happens when the body increases protein breakdown to liberate the amino acids in the muscles for use as fuel in the body’s metabolic processes. If the rate of synthesis is the same as the rate of breakdown (happening in intensive exercises), there might not be muscle loss. However, there is no gain either.

Synthesis

Working as essential amino acids, the BCAAs stimulate muscle protein synthesis. This is more than the regular protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the metabolic process when the body makes new muscles protein. (These are known as gains in body-building circles.)

With the increase of BCAA levels, there is also a reduction in the rate of protein breakdown. This decreases the several processes involved in the breakdown of proteins. The increase of synthesis and the decrease of the breakdown results in the muscle gain, or at least maintaining it.

Benefits

With BCAA as supplement, you could get a more intense workout. BCAA competes with the amino acid tryptophan for entry into the brain where tryptophan is converted into the neurotransmitter serotonin. During exercise routines, serotonin levels can rise. They can make you feel more fatigued and can suppress the urge to try harder.

BCAA can reduce the amount of tryptophan that gets through the blood-brain barrier. This effectively reduces the amount of serotonin produced. This can make you work harder, longer and consequently get more gains.

Supplement

The BCAA in whey are liberated through digestion to be absorbed into the bloodstream. This would need some time to have the acids broken down to be absorbed into the plasma.

BCAA in supplement forms are free-form and require no digestion and are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream. They begin working immediately.

Glucose regulation

BCAA has an important role in regulating glucose. Continuously released from the liver to the skeletal muscles, glucose helps maintain blood sugar levels. Amino acids in the body help improve glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity in healthy people.

Exercise leads to amino acid use, and the BCAA supplement immediately supply the amino acids needed in the blood sugar production during workouts.