The Essential Replacement Stress in the Body

Whenever you work out really hard, you're essentially placing stress on your body. And what’s the key factor in fighting off this self-induced-but-in-a-good-way stress? Yep, essential amino acids. So if you don't have enough essential amino acids, then your body isn't going to have everything it needs to maintain a tip-top immune system. Which means your likelihood of illness could go up. In fact, one study showed that long-term Branch Chain Amino Acid supplementation improved the immune system's response to weeks of intense endurance training in cyclists. Meaning if you're going hard, and want to keep going hard, you're wise to up your BCAA intake. BCAAs don’t just work to combat muscle atrophy during recovery, they have also been shown to support muscle repair, as well as the ability to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness, or "DOMS" for short. DOMS is viewed as the pain that lingers for a few days after you undertake either super-intense workouts or new types of stressful movement. A shock to the system via hard-core exercise, basically.

So, in short, get your norms (in the form of yummy chocolate-flavored Modus Protein, naturally) to fight off DOMs with Branch Chain Amino Acid. BCAA stands for Branch Chain Amino Acids. While amino acids are known as ‘the building blocks of protein,’ BCAAs are a group of 3 amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine) that our bodies can use for energy and muscle protein synthesis. Like the other essential amino acids, BCAAs can’t be made by the body, so we must get them from proteins in our diet. While we can get them from our food, dietary BCAAs have to pass through our liver for processing before they can be absorbed and put to use in the body. Requiring no digestion and rapidly absorbed, BCAA supplements can be taken before, during and after your workouts to provide immediate support for the metabolic processes involved in reaching your fitness goals. Here are 6 ways a Branch Chain Amino Acid supplement can get you in great shape. Did you know that dieting to lose body fat will inevitably result in losing muscle mass as well?

When we lose weight quickly, our bodies try to protect us by holding on to our fat stores and burning muscle instead, and around 30% of the weight you lose on a diet will come from your muscles! This is terrible news for your metabolism, hormonal balance, strength and overall fitness. To maintain our valuable muscle mass while eating in a caloric deficit, we have to be proactive about it. Using a BCAA supplement will counteract this problem in two ways. Firstly, it will stimulate muscle protein synthesis, which is the body’s process of repairing and growing muscle tissue after exercise. Secondly, your Branch Chain Amino Acid supplement will reduce the rate of catabolism, which is the process of breaking down muscle tissue for energy. In addition to helping you keep the muscle you have, BCAAs can also help you increase your lean muscle mass if you’re eating in a slight caloric surplus. As mentioned above, BCAAs stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Protein powder does this too but complimenting your protein powder with BCAAs can further accelerate the process to help you reach your goals even faster.