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Exercise Personalities: What's Your Type?
Exercise. You know how it goes. You have an epiphany and make up
your mind that this time you are going to stick with an exercise
program. The first week goes great...so does the second. Then
the third week blues kick in and by week 4 that...
How to Start an Exercise Program
If you'd like to start a new exercise program, pick any sport or
activity that uses continuous motion (such as running, fast
walking, cycling, swimming, skating, rowing, dancing) that you
think you might enjoy. Start out at a relaxed pace until...
Lower Back Extension Exercise
This is an excellent exercise for the lower back that is very simple to perform. This exercise requires no equipment and it can be performed almost anywhere, even at your office. Many people neglect to do exercises that focus on your lower back....
What to Know When Buying a GPS
Why are GPS units showing up everywhere? You might find one in your rental car, on your wristwatch or even built into your wireless phone. Anti-theft systems use one, heavy construction equipment might use one and having one on your boat now seems...
What you need to know about deep fishing.
Deep fishing can be for sport or commercial means. It is the practice of fishing in deep water to catch fish that live or feed near the bottom. These bottom fish get high prices at market that make them very desirable to fishermen. Deep fishing...
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Know Your Bodybuilding Supplement - BCAA's
BCAA stands for branched chain amino acids and is increasingly being recognized as an important supplement in the field of sports nutrition. In short the term refers to three essential amino acids - leucine, isoleucine and valine.
Amino acids are widely known as the building blocks of protein. When protein food is eaten it gets digested into individual amino acids and short chains of amino acids that are sufficiently small to be absorbed into the bloodstream. They are then used by the body to build and repair tissues amongst other things.
Amino acids are split between those classed as essential and those labelled non-essential. This simply means that essential amino acids cannot be made by the body, whereas non-essential amino acids can. There are nine essential amino acids and each must be obtained from the diet. The nine essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine.
Non-essential amino acids are just as important as the essential variety and the term simply means they can be made by the body from vitamins and other amino acids. The
non-essential amino acids are alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, cystine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine and tyrosine.
The BCAA's are especially important to athletes because they are metabolized in the muscle rather than the liver. This means that they can be used either to build new proteins or be burned as fuel to create energy. Supplementing with BCAA's has been shown to result in measurable gains in both muscle strength and size. Taken before a workout BCAA's can improve performance and delay the onset of fatigue. They also operate as anabolic agents allowing the body to burn fat and not muscle.
As a supplement that has no reported side effects, branched chain amino acids offer many benefits to the serious bodybuilder.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this article.
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