Search
Related Links




 

 

Informative Articles

Beating the Freshman 15
Copyright 2005 Adam Waxler It's a fairly accepted 'fact' among college age women that they will gain weight their first year away from home. It's so well accepted, in fact, that nearly anyone will know immediately what you mean when you refer to...

How To Dominate The Paintball Field
We all want to win don't we. I ended that sentence with a period because it was a statement not a question. Because we all want to win, we have to know the secret of how to. The formula for success if you will. Just like in real combat there...

Sports View for January
As the NFL playoffs approach, we look back at our pre-season Super Bowl prediction. I think I’ll stick with Minnesota vs New England. (I wouldn’t bet the farm on it, but it’s as good a bet as any other two teams.) Now that Terell Owens has...

Take your Go Carting Off the Street
There are those that understand and have the passion and those that do not, but for either type of person is it obvious that off-road go carting attracts an audience of loyal and up-beat drivers. Both the young and young at heart ride go carts...

Top colege football picks for the weekend of sept 17th
Top Play: Tenn/Flroida UNDER 49 OK, looks like the number has crested at 49, and is beginning to drop, I'm jumping on the under 49 as my Top Play In my opinion, this number is simply too high with 2 very good defenses, along with Tennessee's QB...

 
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:

Richard 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.



Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.