BCAA Contents

The metabolism of BCAA is involved in some specific biochemical muscle processes and many studies have been carried out to understand whether sports performance can be enhanced by a BCAA supplementation. While most amino acids are broken down in your liver, BCAAs are broken down primarily in your muscle. As such, they're believed to help improve exercise performance as well as reduce the breakdown of muscle. However, many of these researches have failed to confirm this hypothesis. Thus, in recent years investigators have changed their research target and focused on the effects of BCAA on the muscle protein matrix and the immune system. BCAA intake has shown promises to enhance muscle growth in those with low dietary protein intake and stave off fatigue during prolonged exercise in untrained or light-trained people. However, many protein sources are naturally rich in BCAA content; supplementation may be unnecessary for those consuming adequate quantities of protein.

BCAA which contains leucine, isoleucine, and valine are the basic building blocks of your muscle protein. Leucine has been shown to stimulate muscle synthesis. Hard training sessions result in monstrous damage to your muscles, thus destroying the proteins that make up your muscle fibers. When compared to ingestion during exercise, it has been suggested that ingestion of BCAA following a workout exhibited greater effects. BCAA’s have been proposed to benefit performance in several ways including as a stimulant for muscle protein synthesis. BCAA may also prevent muscle protein breakdown and reduce markers of exercise induced muscle damage.

BCAA may perform signal functions, specifically activation of the mTOR signaling pathway, resulting in positive influences on a wide variety of metabolic and synthetic functions, including increased protein translation, improved insulin resistance, increased insulin-independent glucose transport, and reduced oxidative stress following severe injury and infection. Another research found that BCAA prevents muscle protein breakdown by sparing essential amino acids in muscle tissue. BCAA supplementation likely improves recovery time by diminishing the amount of damage caused during exercise. This is especially useful for athletes who are in the middle of high volume training cycles.

BCAAs are found in a number of healthy protein-rich foods, including organic grass-fed beef, wild Alaskan salmon, pastured egg yolks, raw grass-fed cheese, quinoa, pumpkin seeds and nuts. One of the best sources, however, is whey protein concentrate, which has one of the highest concentrations of leucine. To ensure you're getting a high-quality product, be sure your whey protein concentrate supplement comes from organically raised, grass-fed raw cows' milk to ensure the whey is free of GMOs, pesticides and hormones and is cold processed, as heat destroys whey's fragile molecular structure.

BCAA supplement is considered a dietary supplement and perfectly legal to buy. The only concern would be if your sporting organization considers them a banned substance to use. BCAA’s are a worthwhile supplement if you are a competitive athlete and/or your training goals are focused on performance. If your goals are more centered on health and body composition, BCAA supplementation probably isn’t necessary in most cases.