Supplements For Muscle-building – Amino-acids

By Author: Peter Jon
Total Articles: 6
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The thinking around supplements for muscle-building has tended to focus on the intake of protein. However, one sees an increasing number of articles advocating for the use of amino acids. Proteins are essential for hair, ligaments, many body fluids and even form the basis of your immune system – and therefore, so do amino acids.
By lifting weights, muscles tear slightly, then rebuild in a process known as Hypertrophy. That soreness you feel is the body’s way of informing you that the muscles need time to regrow, or recuperate. If the body is routinely partaking in activity that tears the muscle, the body makes up for this by growing back with more muscle than before, so it can handle the load. By continually increasing the amount of stress in increments – such as by increasing weight – one can continue to grow muscle mass, in theory, ad infinitum.
Proteins take a lead role in most cellular processes, but it is their role in the production of muscle mass that has made them the centerpiece of every supplement for muscle building, from protein power bars to Meal Replacement Products (MRPs) like shakes. Because ...
... the human body cannot produce all of its amino acids naturally, as plants and cellular organisms do, it must ingest protein and then break them down into the “essential amino acids” it must derive from diet.
So, if it’s amino acids the body is after, why make it break down protein when it can take amino acids directly?
“Branched-Chain” Amino Acids (BCAA’s)
The nine “essential amino acids” are valine, threonine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, and histidinethe. Three of those are known as the “Branched-Chain” Amino Acids, or BCAAs, so called because of their branches of carbon molecules off the carbon core. The BCAAs are valine, isoleucine and leucineso. Rather than being broken down in the liver, BCAAs go directly to the muscles where they are broken down for quick energy, such as workouts. Studies have shown that some supplements can increase muscle production, decrease recuperation time and cut down on fatigue.
Combined with a high carb diet, BCAA supplements for muscle building can increase energy, and for people with low body fat, these supplements can be used with low-carb diets to replenish the amino acids taken from the muscles during aerobic workouts, or prevent the body from breaking down the muscles in the first place.
Actin and Myosin are the proteins responsible for muscle contractions – what causes the muscle stress needed for repairing, and thus adding on muscle mass. But it’s the amino acids that those proteins are made of, and use for the process.
If not used in combination with exercise, amino acids can be broken down into glucose or fat – which kind of defeats the point. And single amino acid supplements can be dangerous if not addressing a specific deficiency. The use of supplements for muscle building may be useful to make up for the increased stresses placed upon the body in intensive body building routines.

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