Training For Life

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So you probably already know all about Essential Amino Acids, or “EAA’s” if you read that article linked to above. EAA’s kissing cousin are the Branched Chain Amino Acids, or “BCAA’s”, and the BCAA’s include leucine, isoleucine, and valine (good names for preppy kids, if you ask me).

The BCAA’s are interesting (at least to people in white lab coats) because they are metabolized in the muscle, rather than in the liver. This means that BCAA’s can be relied on as an actual energy source during exercise,

and could therefore prevent premature muscle breakdown. There was actually one compelling study done by a guy named Ohtani that showed exercising individuals who got BCAA’s had better exercise efficiency and exercise capacity compared to a group that didn’t get BCAA’s.

Other studies have found that BCAA’s could increase a ton of factors that are really useful for an exercising athlete, like red blood cell count, hemoglobin, hematocrit and serum albumin, and could also lower fasting blood glucose and decrease creatine phophokinase, which means less inflammation, better red blood cell formation, and better formation of storage carbohydrate.

But that ain’t all.

BCAA supplementation after exercise has been shown to cause faster recovery of muscle strength, and even more interestingly, the ability to slow down muscle breakdown even during intense training and “overreaching” (getting very close to overtraining). Just Google the branched chain amino acid studies by Sugita and Kraemer for more on that (yes, shocker, this is a blog post, and not a peer reviewed scientific journal report with full citations, because if it was the latter, you’d be asleep by now – so if you’re a science nazi, then go get busy on Google scholar).

OK, so continuing onto with the many cool things that BCAA’s can do…

When you supplement with BCAA’s, they can decrease the blood indicators of muscle tissue damage after long periods of exercise, thus indicating reduced muscle damage, and they also help maintain higher blood levels of amino acids, which, if you recall from Part 1, can make you feel happier even when you’re suffering during exercise.  So as you may have guessed, low blood levels of BCAA’s are correlated with increased fatigue and reduced physical performance.

Heck, they even use BCAA’s in medicine. BCAA’s could help people recover from liver disease, could assist with improvements in patients with lateral sclerosis, and could help recovery in patients who have gone through trauma, extreme physical stress (can you say “Ironman triathlon”?), kidney failure, and burns.

But here is what I think could be the two most interesting things about BCAA’s, especially for fat loss:

1. In his book, “SuperHealth: The Last Diet You’ll Ever Need”, my friend KC Craichy swears by them for decreasing the appetite when taken 30-60 minutes prior to exercise.  I haven’t personally used this strategy, but it could be worth a try.

2. When taken prior to a fasted exercise session, BCAA’s could increase fat oxidation (and yes, I’ll actually cite a study for this one, it was “Branched-chain amino acids supplementation enhances exercise capacity and lipid oxidation during endurance exercise after muscle glycogen depletion.”, by Gualano, et al)

So if you’ve stayed with me so far, here’s the take-away message about amino acids (and thanks to Dr. David Minkoff for helping me with this nice summation):

If all 8 essential amino acids are present, muscle repair and recovery can start before you’re even done with your workout – and when you’re mentally stretched toward the end of a tough workout, game or race, high blood levels of amino acids (i.e. from the BCAA’s in sports gels) can allow the body and brain to continue to work hard instead of shutting down.

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It seems these days that the building blocks of proteins, affectionally known as “amino acids”, are tiny little gold nuggets that bestow superhuman powers upon anyone lucky enough to stumble upon them in a sports gel, capsule, fizzy drink or cocktail. After all, these little guys are starting to get put by nutrition supplement manufacturers into just about everything, from your engineered pre-workout snack, to your during workout beverage, to your post-workout smoothie mix.

But why are amino acids so prevalent now?

And more importantly, do amino acids actually work?

Do Amino Acids Really Help You Exercise Or Are Nutrition Supplement Companies Pulling A Fast One On You?

You’re about to find out, and have a bit of fun in the process.

Back in biology class, it was convenient to think of a muscle like a big Lego castle (or Lego pirate ship, depending on your tastes), and amino acids as all the little legos that made up the giant Lego structure (your muscle). Convenient, yes. Complete, no. The role of amino acids goes beyond building blocks – they are essential for the synthesis of proteins, enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, metabolic pathways, mental stabilization, and just about every function that takes place within the human body. So using the Legos-are-amino-acids example, a more appropriate analogy would be that you dump all the Legos out of the box and they self-assemble in a magic pirate ship, then float into the air and fly around the room shooting miniature cannon balls.

In other words, the function of amino acids goes far beyond simple “building blocks”.

In the nutrition supplement industry (when I use that word, it seems to denote big fat guys in black suits sitting around an oak conference table, but in reality, most of these folks are skinny athletes in white shoes and shorts), amino acid supplements fall into two basic categories: Essential Amino Acids (EAA’s) and Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s).

In Part 1 of this two-part amino acids series, let’s review the first category: the EAA’s (do not pronounce this like a donkey “heehaw”. Just say the letters.)

Essential Amino Acids

Essential amino acids, as the name implies, are essential because they can’t be made by our bodies, like all the other amino acids. Instead, we have to get them from our diet. Have you ever heard of Private Tim Hall, AKA Pvt. Tim Hall? If you’re a biology or chemistry geek, you probably have, because he’s the pneumonic commonly used to remember the essential amino acids, which are Phenylanine, Valine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Isoleucine, Histidine, Arginine,Leucine and Lysine. Thanks Tim, we’ll send you a check if we ever win money in Biology Trivial Pursuit.

Anyways, let’s take a look at why the heck Pvt. Tim might do us good during exercise, starting with P.

Phenylalanine is traditionally marketed for it’s analgesic (pain-killing) and antidepressant effect, and is a precursor to the synthesis of norepinephrine and dopamine, two “feel-good” brain chemicals. This could be good because elevated brain levels of norepinephrine and dopamine may actually lower your “RPE” or Rating of Perceived Exertion During Exercise, which means you could be happier when you’re suffering hallway through a killer workout session or Ironman bike ride.

Valine, along with Isoleucine and Leucine, is a real player, because it is BOTH an Essential Amino Acid and a Branched Chain Amino Acid. Valine is an essential amino acid. It can help to prevent muscle proteins from breaking down during exercise. This means that if you take Valine during exercise, you could recover faster because you’d have less muscle damage. More details on that in the Part 2 of this article, which will focus on BCAA’s.

Threonine rese arch is

a bit scant. I personally couldn’t find much at all that explained why threonine could assist with exercise performance, but would hazard a guess that it is included in essential amino acid supplements because it is just that: essential. And many of the studies done on EAA’s just basically use all of them, rather than isolating one, like Threonine. For example, and this is a bit interesting for people who are masochistic enough to like working out starved, there is a significant muscle-preserving effect of an EAA + Carbohydrate solution ingested during training in a fasted state, and decreased indicators of muscle damage and inflammation. This basically means that if you popped some essential amino acids, even if you didn’t eat anything, you might not “cannibalize” as much lean muscle during a fasted workout session.

OK, sorry, I got sidetracked there.

Tryptophan is an interesting one. It is a precursor for serotonin, a brain neurotransmitter that can suppress pain, and if you’re taking some before bed at night, even induce a bit of sleepiness. The main reason to take tryptophan would be to increase tolerance to pain during hard workouts, games or races. But studies to this point go back and forth on whether or not that actually improves performance.

Isoleucine, another BCAA/EAA combo, has some of the same advantages of Valine. More on BCAA’s Part 2.

Histidine, as the name implies, is a precursor to histamine, and actually has some antioxidant properties and plays a key role in carnosine synthesis. Looking back, that sentence I just wrote is not very user-friendly, and is pretty much just geek speak. Here’s a clarification: histamine could help you fight off the cell damaging free radicals you produce during exercise, and carnosine helps you get rid of muscle burn more quickly, and helps turn lactic acid back into useable muscle fuel. So hooray for histidine, it gets a gold star sticker.

Next is arginine, and if you’re reading this and you’re an old man who has relied on a little blue sill to have a happier time in the sac, you can thank arginine. Arginine helps with nitric oxide synthesis, and nitric oxide is a vasodilator that increases blood flow and could help with exercise capacity (in the case of the blue pill, for one specific body part). Most of the studies on arginine show that it really helps folks with cardiovascular disease improve exercise capacity, and like tryptophan, the studies go back and forth on whether it really helps with the athletic population – but it has a great deal of promise.

Leucine is yet another BCAA/EAA combo. Yes, we will get to BCAA’s in Part 2.

Lysine is something my Mom used to take to help cold sores that she got from eating citrusy foods. That’s basically because it helps heal mouth tissue. But more importantly for exercising individuals, lysine may actual assist with growth-hormone release, which could vastly improve muscle repair and recovery, although if you take lysine in it’s isolated form, the amount you’d have to take to increase growth hormone release would cause gastrointestinal distress, or as I like to it, sad poopies. But combined with all the other essential amino acids, there may be a growth hormone response in smaller doses, and there is some clinical evidence that essential amino acid supplementation could stimulate growth hormone releasing factors.

That about wraps it up for essential amino acids.

The only thing I didn’t mention is that the EAA’s have a bit of an insulin and cortisol increasing effect. Before you draw back in shock and go flush all your essential amino acids down the toilet because you heard insulin and cortisol make you fat, remember that both insulin and cortisol are crucial (in smaller amounts) for the “anabolic process”, or the growth, repair and recovery of lean muscle tissue. The amount you get in essential amino acids is far different than the stress and insulin/cortisol response you get from eating a pint of ice cream while you drink whisky and work on an all-night project for work.

Not that I eat ice cream and drink whisky that often. But for now, I’ll put aside the chocolatey spoon and shot glass, stop writing, and let you sit back and absorb the information I’ve presented in this article. Don’t you feel all warm and geeky?

it seems that lately, there’s been quite a bit of talk about Paleo diets and Paleo nutrition. The basic idea behind the Paleo style of eating is that many modern agricultural foods such as bread and cereal are avoided, along with highly processed foods, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and just about anything that our caveman ancestors wouldn’t have recognized as real food.

While there are good arguments both for and against a Paleo approach to eating, one important question for fitness enthusiasts is If I’m going to eat like a caveman, how do I fuel my workout

?

Here are some good Paleo choices to munch on before, during, or after a workout:

Trail Mix: Don’t grab the stuff from the gas station. Instead, toss raw almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dried blueberries, raisins, and coconut flakes into a bag, and shake!

Beef Jerky: Although it’s a bit tough to chew quickly at the gym, jerky works well for a long hike or bike ride.

Fruit: Yes, in moderation, fruit is a healthy and recognizable food that’s been around a long time.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, or yams: Before a long workout session, these tubers are fantastic, dense carbohydrate sources.

Eggs: Whether prepared with spinach and tomatoes or eaten boiled with salt and pepper, eggs are a wonderful protein source that helps muscles to repair and recover.

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If you’re already dreaming of your summer bikini body, but can’t even imagine having enough free time to break a sweat, we’ve got your solution.

Turn-up the Heat on Warm-Ups:

Ease into your cardio warm-up as usual, but after seven minutes, inject short-burst intervals of 30 seconds duration. Then return to your warm-up pace for 30 seconds of recovery, then repeat for a total of three cycles. These bursts will burn more calories, rev your heart and charge you up for a more intense workout!

Rest with Precision:

Limit rest between strength exercise sets to 30-60 seconds. Bring a stop watch and actually time it! Or for a more intense workout, instead of resting, pick up a jump rope, do jumping jacks, agility drills or other low-impact cardio for one minute in between each set.

Set the Bar High:

Use measures of your own performance to drive you to a more intense workout. On the first set of a strength routine, for example, see what the maximum number of reps you can achieve is at a given weight (aim for a weight that puts you in a 12-20 rep range).  On subsequent sets, challenge yourself to match your performance.  The same can be done with timed rounds. Time your first set for one minute and count your reps completed within the time limit. Remaining sets need to match this score.

Don’t Short Your Circuits:

Intense full-body circuit training is an optimal way to burn fat in a short amount of time. The key is to raise your heart rate with a good warm up and sustain it throughout each circuit. Instead of resting between sets, keep your body moving into the next round.

Vary Intensity:

Don’t expect to go full tilt every time you exercise. Your body needs a diversity of high-, low- and medium- intensity workouts as well

as at least one quality rest day every week to be healthy. Once everything is in balance, you will feel better and perform better.

When you start thinking good about yourself for any little bit of exercise that you do, you start to want to exercise more. You start to get work out motivation. You start to change the way you think about working out. You start to think that working out may not be that bad after all.

I love cycling and I still have days when it’s a struggle to hoist myself out of my chair and saddle up for a ride. Motivation is the same for all of us: It waxes and wanes like the moon. You just need a few little tricks to keep yours shining bright when it would otherwise dim. Here are a few favorites:

Find A Friend—Or Four

Remember how as a kid you’d bang on every door on the block or call every friend in a 5-mile radius until you found someone to come out and play? When you did, you’d tear up the neighborhood until your mom called for dinner. And if you didn’t? You’d mope back home and veg in front of the TV. You may be bigger now, but you’re likely still a kid at heart and it’s still more fun to play with friends.

If none of your friends ride, it’s easy enough to find some who do. Head to your local bike shop and ask around. Start going on organized group rides. Join a local bike club.

Once you hook into the cycling circle in your area, you’ll find plenty of like-minded people to play with.

Sign Up For Something

Nothing gets you out on your bike like knowing you have a 100-mile ride to do in five weeks. Signing up for a bike tour vacation or a big single day ride will give you all the more reason to get up and go when you feel like staying put. Local bike clubs are great sources of information on races, rides, and organized cycling events throughout the year.

Do It For Charity

Name the cause and there’s likely a ride for it. I’ve pedaled to raise money for AIDS vaccines, multiple sclerosis research, diabetes funds, heart disease organizations, terminally ill children, and to find a cure for cancer. Riding for worthy causes reminds you that it’s a privilege to have a healthy, able body to ride a bike and will fuel your motivation because you know you’re doing good for more than yourself. Websites like Active.com can help you find charity events in your area.

Lie To Yourself

When you’re feeling really lazy sometimes it helps to fib to yourself. Tell yourself that you’ll just go out and spin easy for 20 minutes just to do something. Once you’re out there, there’s no way you’re turning back in 20 (and deep inside you know that). But giving yourself permission to bail if you’re not having fun is often all you need to get rolling in the right direction.

Do Morning Workouts

Of course, this means leaving your soft, warm bed earlier than usual and that is anything but easy. I’m a morning person and an avid cyclist and I still wrestle the urge to roll over and get a few more zzzs when the alarm goes off. Make it hard to talk yourself out of riding by placing all of your clothes in a neat pile directly in your line of sight from the pillow before you go to bed. Also prepare your water bottles and have them in the fridge ready to go. If you go to the trouble to pave the way the night before, you’ll be far less likely to let yourself down come morning.