BCAAs : Everything You Need To Know

Published : 23/05/2018
BCAAs : Everything You Need To Know

 

[Transcript] - Hi Burners, Paul here from Fat Burners Only, today to give you the lowdown on one of the most popular fitness supplements out there: BCAA. So, I just wanted to put together a quick, two-minute video explaining what BCAAs are, how they will affect your training in a positive way, and how to take them to get the most out of these fantastic supplements.

So BCAA stands for Branch Chain Amino Acids, and they're named so because the structure of the amino acid looks like lots of little branches. They're made up of three amino acids, so you've got Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine. These guys are unflavored, so if you're game you can try the unflavored ones. They're not the nicest tasting, but I do use them. Or the most popular way to get them is a really nice flavoured one, and when you see people drinking coloured drinks at the gym, it's typically a flavoured BCAA.

So, now you know what BCAAs are, and what they stand for, what are the fantastic things that they will do for your training? Well, to start with, a third of all skeletal muscle is made up of BCAAs, so you're actually, by ingesting it, you're giving the body the ingredient to actually make muscle tissue. So BCAAs turn into your muscle tissue. Now also, when you have BCAAs in your system, they will turn your Nitrogen balance positive, which means that you are not catabolizing muscle tissue for fuel. You're actually catabolizing other things, which will include more fat loss as well. By giving BCAAs to the body, you're actually going to increase your recovery, you're going to actually give the muscle that you're training a direct fuel source as well. So BCAAs, while you're training, are used as a direct fuel source, and if you can get that fuel source, you can push heavier weights, and a longer session, and then, like I said, by giving the body the BCAAs for recovery you'll not be as sore the next day, you'll be able to train harder the next day, et cetera. For a guy, if you're giving the body the structures to rebuild, you'll actually put on more muscle tissue and stop muscle loss, so over the long term you'll build muscle mass, and for a female you create a nice, toned environment, so you get a nice muscle tone, and again, create a fat-burning environment.

So, when do you take these to make the most out of the fantastic supplement? So like I said, you'll typically see people drinking them during their training sessions, the coloured stuff they're drinking during training, so that is genuinely the best time to take them. Typical protein powders, or all protein powders, will contain BCAAs, so why don't we drink those during training? Well, it takes a lot of blood to digest a protein powder. If there's blood in the stomach digesting protein, we don't have blood for the muscles to train and we get what's called a blood conflict, where it wants to go to the stomach to digest, it wants to go to the muscles for training, and you don't get the best of either world. You'll get a little bit of nauseousness typically, and you'll won't be able to train as hard and you'll slow down. BCAAs are a form of protein that doesn't require blood for digestion, so you drink it directly during training, they're instantly absorbed, they go to the muscle to provide energy, and they go to the muscle to rebuild and help with your recovery.

So the best time to take them is during your training session, where they can be worked and used directly by the body. If you don't like drinking stuff during your training session, you just like drinking water, have them before your training session. They'll be in the bloodstream, causing that recovery while you train. So that's what they are, the great stuff they will do for you, and ideally when to take them. You don't really need to take them at the other times of the day, because if you can have a protein shake which is generally cheaper than BCAAs, you'll get your BCAAs and other amino acids. Remember, we're wanting to avoid that blood conflict and that's why we take these during training 'cause they don't take blood for digestion.

So, that's BCAAs explained, if you do have any other questions about BCAAs, just send us a message on Facebook, send us an email via our contact page, or go directly to our website and chat in that little chat window, and we'll be happy to answer any questions you have on BCAAs or any other supplement. Otherwise, thanks for watching Burners. We'll catch you next time. Cheers.

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