What You Need to Know About BCAA Supplements
When it comes to sports nutrition, there’s a lot more to it than protein powder. Dietary supplements, such as BCAAs, are essential aids for athletes of all types. While BCAAs are commonly used to increase muscle growth,* that’s not their sole purpose. Learn more about this supplement and how it could help you achieve your fitness goals.
What Are BCAAs?
Proteins are made up of amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. They’re the main components of our muscles, bones, skin, tissues, and organs. When we eat protein, our body breaks it down into individual amino acids during digestion and then uses these amino acids to create new proteins where needed.
A special class of amino acids, known as branched-chain amino acids or BCAAs, are a group of three essential amino acids: leucine, isoleucine and valine. By definition, essential amino acids cannot be produced by our bodies and therefore must be obtained via food or supplements.
BCAAs Help with Muscle Growth
One of the most popular uses of BCAAs is to increase muscle growth.* When doing strength training, muscle protein breakdown occurs. Your body responds by making the muscles stronger, but to do so it requires the correct amount and type of amino acids from the bloodstream.
Unlike other amino acids, BCAAs are broken down in the muscle instead of the liver.1 This makes them a much more readily available source for protein synthesis, which is the process of creating muscle.
BCAAs Help Reduce Exercise Fatigue
Your nutrition and fitness levels, environmental conditions, and your routine’s intensity and duration all determine how quickly you experience fatigue from exercise. Taking BCAAs while you exercise can help limit the entry of another amino acid – tryptophan – into your brain. Tryptophan is converted to serotonin, a brain chemical that contributes to fatigue during exercise.*
Who Should Take BCAAs?
BCAAs are beneficial for anyone involved in strength training or prolonged exercise. In fact, Herbalife Nutrition Sponsored Professional Triathlete Heather Jackson incorporated Herbalife24® BCAAs into her daily training routine as she prepared for the 2019 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
Maximize Your Results with Herbalife24® BCAAs
Herbalife24® BCAAs have a 4:1:1 ratio of leucine to valine to isoleucine, with more leucine per gram of BCAAs than other BCAA products at a lower ratio.
These branched-chain amino acids work together to spark muscle growth after exercise, making Herbalife24® BCAAs perfect for those who want to get the most out of their workouts.