Protect your gains, recover faster, and diet without fear. In the never-ending battle to stay lean, strong, and increase athletic performance, your body can be your own worst enemy. Through a completely natural process called catabolism, our bodies actually start breaking down the muscle that you’ve worked – especially during the times when you need it most. You see, since our bodies can only get Branch Chain Amino Acids (the building blocks of protein which make up 1/3 of our muscles and lean mass) from diet or supplementation, when our bodies don’t have enough of them in our bloodstream, we enter what’s called a catabolic state. This means that our bodies actually start stripping amino acids and protein from our lean muscle mass to free up adequate amounts of amino acids in our bloodstream for fuel. Most often, this is the result of dieting, intense workouts, or inadequate nutrition – times when we either have lower dietary levels of BCAAs or have used much of our BCAA reserves through exercise. So even if you’re working hard at the gym and staying disciplined in the kitchen, your hard earned gains may simply be wasting away. While this is obviously a “lose-lose” scenario, by supplementing with BCAAs before and after your workouts, you may prevent much of this muscle breakdown and even increase the amount of fat that’s burned while exercising. Furthermore, with more BCAAs available in your bloodstream, you’ll have more of the raw materials you need for muscle repair and recovery even after you’re finished exercising for the day. As an added bonus, some studies show that BCAA supplementation may even activate the primary muscle growth pathway in your muscle tissue and while increasing protein synthesis.
