Mark covers pre-, during-, and post-training supplements: BCAAs at 30-40g daily for men to reduce protein breakdown, and beta-alanine to boost muscle carnosine and buffer metabolic waste. He recommends dosing beta-alanine just below the tingling threshold and points to his book for detailed guidance on brands and forms.
Hi, it's Mark, author of The Truth About Supplements, and today I have a very special class for maximizing muscle and getting the most out of your training. Yep, that's right, today I'm going to talk about pre-, post-, and during-training supplementation. First up, BCAAs, which in my opinion is the holy grail of supplements when it comes to strength and muscle building. BCAAs, or branched-chain amino acids, are made up of 3 nonessential amino acids. That's leucine, isoleucine, and valine. BCAAs would be my number 1 first supplement that I would buy if I was looking to maximize muscle and strength. The science behind BCAAs basically shows that it greatly decreases exercise-induced protein breakdown. To put it simply, ingesting BCAAs during training protects you from overtraining because it delays fatigue by minimizing protein breakdown during your training. This can lead to gains in both muscle mass and strength as it assists you to recover faster after lifting those heavy weights. You should also know our bodies use glycogen, which is stored in both the liver and the muscle for energy. If glycogen stores are depleted during exercise, the body may break down proteins and amino acids for energy. So, for the same purpose, especially if you're relatively lean. For this reason, BCAAs are extremely beneficial during a carbohydrate restricted phase or dieting. Keeping in mind that your body fat's low. I mean, if your body fat's over, say, 20%, then obviously you're going to have plenty of fat for for the body to burn over the aminos. As for dose, I have found best results with a high dose during training to work best. When I say high dose, this is usually around 30 to 40 grams for a male or 20 to 30 grams for a female. Again, this depends on training intensity and training volume. For the full rundown, including what brands to buy, pill versus powder form, dosage specifics, and much more, it can all be found beginning on page 61 in The Truth About Sports Supplements, which is the black book. Book, and of course you can go to www.truthaboutsupplements.com today to grab yourself a copy. The next supplement I'm going to talk about is beta alanine, or BA for short. Beta alanine is a nonessential amino acid. You might ask, why nonessential? To answer this question, it's really quite simple. BA is believed not to be used in the building of proteins, so it's non-proteinogenic. Carnosine is often thought to be associated with BA. In fact, Much of BA works through boosting the synthesis of carnosine. However, carnosine is not BA. Chemically, carnosine is made up of two amino acids. One is beta alanine and the other one is histidine. This must be made clear in the beginning to not get confused later. So what's so special about carnosine? Carnosine's role in human performance is intracellular. Basically, it acts within the cell as a buffer. What this means is carnosine stabilizes muscular pH levels and works to fight against waste toxins that the body produces. Relate this to when you're under that squat rack on your 5th rep of your 4th set. Waste acid is building up and your legs are burning. Carnosine is the natural cleanup agent that is sent in to fight off those toxins in the muscle. So think of it almost as a spill in, say, your supermarket, and someone gets over the mic and says, "Clean up in aisle 5." Well, that's when beta alanine really gets to work. This obviously results in more exercise capacity and more reps, which means more muscle and more strength for you. So, you might be thinking, why not just take carnosine? To understand this, I'll give you a simplified chemical breakdown. You ingest carnosine, the body then breaks this down into two components. One's beta alanine and the other one's histidine. The body then reconverts these compounds back into carnosine. So in other words, you have to have more carnosine than beta alanine for the same desired effect. So, just take beta alanine, it's more effective and it's cheaper. Additionally, carnosine has a shorter half-life than B8 in the body. For the full scientific breakdown and chemical breakdown, it's all in the book, which you can get at www.truthaboutsupplements.com. Beta-alanine may give you the tingles. I'd recommend taking a dose just a bit lower than from what you get the tingles from. Carbohydrates may also blunt the tingle effect. So just keep that in mind if you're having a very high carb meal before training. For the full lowdown on beta-alanine, it all begins on page 57 in The Truth About Sports Supplements. Tomorrow is our fourth and final class, and yep, that's right folks, I am saving the best for last because make sure you mark this one down in your diary as I'll be showing you exactly how supplement companies get away with saying virtually anything on labels and the differences between Aussie and the U.S. law. So do yourself a favor today, grab yourself a copy of The Truth About Supplements. You'll be glad you did as you'll also receive a free copy that is normally valued at $97 of the man behind the transformations, which is an hour-long interview with myself. It's a great, awesome interview. You get all 3, you get 2 books and an interview all for the same price. Just visit www.thetruthaboutsupplements.com. So that's it folks for today. Look out for your 4th and final class in your inbox tomorrow. It's the information that supplement companies don't want you to know. Speak to you guys then.
