If You’re Trying to Build Lean Muscle BCAAs Might Be for You Too!
I’m trying something new today. I ordered a BCAA product from Amazon and it just arrived. BCAAs stands for branch chain amino acids. These amino acids are L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine, and L-Valine.
These BCAAs are great for building and healing lean muscle.
I lift weights and I’m a firm believer in the benefits of weightlifting. But you don’t have to be a weightlifter to use these- my girlfriend is a marathon runner and an Iron Man performer (I call her an Iron Mistress).
The benefits for taking BCAAs are:
-A boost to the glycogen stores in your muscles
-Increased energy for your workout
-Less muscle fatigue
-Less muscle soreness
There are a lot of products that offer different ratios of the BCAAs. They come in powders, pills, and liquids.
Against the advice from my Iron Mistress friend…
I purchased an unflavored BCAA powder.
I say against her advice because apparently this stuff tastes awful- like unpalatably bitter awful! She recommends buying a flavored BCAA powder or tincture.
Each scoop of my purchase contains 6 grams BCAA with a 2:1:1 ratio favoring L-Leucine. I have a plan to include it in my pre-workout coffee with whole milk. Fingers crossed I can choke it down without too much of the choke part.
I read somewhere (resources below) that these aminos start to work within 15 minutes of ingesting and the effects peak in about 30 minutes.
I’m working legs today. If all goes well, I should be getting a boost during my leg press!
Have you ever used BCAAs? What are your results?
© Cherie Fournier 2022
Resources below:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16365096/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16365087/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1197518/?page=3