Have you heard of BCAAs and wonder what their benefits are and if they are right for you?
Whether you are new to working out or a veteran, adding BCAAs to your routine may be exactly what you need to preserve and build your lean muscle mass.
What they are: BCAAs are branched chain amino acids and consist of the amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine.
Benefits: The benefits of BCAA’s are to help decrease muscle breakdown, so BCAA’s may be a supplement you want to add if you are regularly weight training or if you are wanting to see benefits in strength, energy and muscle preservation even if workouts are not possible for you at this stage of life. I have personally experienced the benefits of more energy, less body fat, more lean muscle mass, quicker recovery time and minimized sore muscles post workout by simply adding BCAA’s into in my daily routine. My clients, friends and family have experienced this as well.
How do they work? Many have heard muscles need protein to function and recover but don’t understand exactly what that means. On the most basic level, during exercise your muscles break down and in order to repair themselves, they need amino acids. BCAA’s benefits have been studied and they are known to be the building blocks for protein synthesis in the body. BCAA’s are burned for energy during exercise and are part of the way your body fuels during your workout. To help combat the loss of BCAA’s and to ensure that your body has adequate BCAA’s for protein synthesis (and other metabolic processes), consuming BCAA’s before, during and after your workout is a good strategy.
Which amino acids do you want to look for in a Supplement and why? Isoleucine, Valine, and Leucine are essential amino acids, which means that you must get them from your diet because we do not produce them in our bodies. You can get them in food but the foods that have small amounts of these particular BCAA’s in them tend to be high fat foods which are not good to consume when working to become healthy or lean.
Their specific role: These three amino acidsform a class of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) that help in wound healing.
*Valine specifically supports lean muscle-mass building and muscle repair. Valine produces energy, which spares energy stored in your blood glucose. It is used in muscle building programs, and in general formulas to assist in protein metabolism. Taking valine supplements (along with isoleucine and leucine) may be helpful in building muscle and in repairing tissue damage from liver and gallbladder disease.
*Isoleucine and the other BCAAs can help reduce the harmful effects of stress on your body. Isoleucine is the amino acid that contributes to the biochemical process that gives you energy. Isoleucine is often used in amino acid mixes, such as the protein powders and capsules currently popular with weight lifters, athletes, and other people who like to stay active. Such formulas help build lean muscle mass and reduce fat.
*Leucine is essential for growth as a stimulator for protein synthesis in muscle. You often find it as part of an essential amino acid blend or a branched-chain muscle-building formula. Leucine is helpful in healing wounds and injuries. Leucine helps balance your blood sugar because it produces energy.
Advocare Supplements that contain them:
Catalyst and Biocharge contain the above BCAA’s. Catalyst is a pill and Biocharge is a drink. Anything we drink is more readily available and digested which is why it is recommended to drink Biocharge during exercise. However, introducing BCAA’s throughout your day in pill form and liquid whether working out or not can free your body up so that it can focus its energy where it needs too.
Where is that you might ask? It can focus on distribution of energy to the parts of our body that our metabolism runs. Instead of using our muscle stores as its energy supply we can “plug in” to a power outlet aka BCAA’s to get through our workouts otherwise it will take from what we are working so hard to build inside which again is muscle stores for energy and direct its focus to fat burning instead. I don’t know about you but I work too hard for my muscle to waste it and I would not be upset if my body worked efficiently to eliminate fat stores in the process. We don’t often think about our metabolism as distribution of energy. Most see it as a “look” or something that helps someone stay skinny or lean. What are the areas referred to above that our body needs to focus on for distribution of energy so we THRIEVE and not just SURVIVE? Those areas would be all of your bodies organs like our heart and lungs so we get the oxygen and blood flow we need during “good” metabolic stress of exercise or burst of work in normal day life like carrying kids, lifting things to move from our house to car, climbing stairs while we are out and about and the unfortunate “bad” life stresses we all face at times which our metabolism is designed to help us survive in. By providing it an outside source of protection through BCAA’s and protein our body can efficiently use fat stores for energy not the muscle stores we are working hard to build in our workouts or need in life crisis when we give it outside sources of fuel for our muscles and energy needs.
Protect your muscles and let your nutrition reveal the work our lack of proper supplementation and nutrients can be concealing underneath.
For more information on these BCAA’s and other Advocare Supplements, click on our link-> www.advocare.com/10064255 . To find catalyst go to the trim line and biocharge go to the performance elite line.
Look forward to your journey!
Chris, Tonya and the Windham Boys
Made in the Middle 
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