What is amino acid supplementation? In a continuation of my supplement ingredient series I want to discuss amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks that form proteins. As all of you probably know proteins are the building blocks of our muscles. Amino acid supplementation became critically important to me during my competition preparation for my first NPC physique show last year, let me tell why. During competition prep you are in a hypo caloric state, meaning you are taking in less calories than your body burns at baseline. This is necessary so you can lose fat and gain the aesthetic display of your physique that goes along with being on stage. Starting my prep I was 175 pounds at 5’10.5” meaning I was on the smaller side compared to my competition. It was essential that I did everything I could to retain lean muscle mass. I wanted to lose fat while retaining as much muscle as possible. Amino acid supplementation has been well researched. A recent study published in 2016 displayed that over an 8 week period athletes supplemented with 7g of amino acids before and 7g of amino acids after their workout even while on a hypo caloric diet lost fat while preserving lean mass. Not only are there these benefits to your body composition but when amino acid supplementation is done properly it has also been shown to decrease levels of enzymes in the blood which are indications of muscle break down. Study participants also reported reduced soreness, faster recovery, and retained muscle function. We will go into further detail on protein supplementation in another article but when protein and amino acid supplementation was use together over a 10 week period of resistance training increase in lean body mass, thigh mass, muscle strength, and anabolic (muscle building) growth factors where higher than when compared to carbohydrates alone. Amino acid supplementation may not just affect your body composition but also your immune function. When long distance runners were studied it was noted that they had decreased immune function (ability to fight bacteria and viruses) following long strenuous runs. When these athletes underwent amino acid supplementation the ability for their body to increase white blood cells to fight infection was boosted. Overall, amino acid supplementation has a wide range of benefits that are backed by scientific evidence. Many pre-workout supplements contain amino acids along with creatine, caffeine, and beta-alanine which we have discussed previously. You also have the option of buying a stand alone supplement to get your pre and post workout amino acids, often times these go for about $0.30 to $1.00 per dose.

Amino Acid Supplementation Sources:

http://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-015-0112-9
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41110-016-0022-x
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00726-006-0398-7
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900702007530