We all know that proper nutrition during the day will result in optimizing your training and performance but what about during a workout? Proper hydration and taking certain amino acids can really take your training to another level. Amino acid supplementation is safe and side effect free for all ages and should be considered.
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins our body needs and comprise the second largest component (after water) of human muscles, cells and other tissues. There are 22 standard amino acids that are used for the nutrition of our body, 9 of which are considered essential since our bodies cannot synthesize them from other compounds. These need to be obtained from food or supplemented into the diet.
Sports performance research has shown that the combined supplementation of Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine, which are referred to as Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs), as well as Glutamine provides the greatest increase in optimal muscle performance and recovery from exercise. When blood plasma levels of BCAAs fall there is a measurable increase in fatigue during endurance training and high intensity exercise. And although Glutamine can be produced in the body the demand for it is such that supplementation has shown considerable reductions in exercise-induced tissue damage and help with recovery from intense or excessive training.
| Essential | Nonessential |
|---|---|
| Histidine | Alanine |
| Isoleucine | Arginine* |
| Leucine | Asparagine |
| Lysine | Aspartic acid |
| Methionine | Cysteine* |
| Phenylalanine | Glutamic acid |
| Threonine | Glutamine* |
| Tryptophan | Glycine |
| Valine | Ornithine* |
| Proline* | |
| Selenocysteine* | |
| Serine* | |
| Tyrosine* |
