For decades now, supplements used to optimize your workout performance and general health have included amino acids. Today, millions of people use these protein based ingredients in a wide variety of applications worldwide.
What Are Amino Acids?
Amino acids are a collection of compounds made up of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. Amino acids are understood as the building blocks of protein, since groups of different amino acids are bound to create one solid unit. Amino acids play many roles in the body, from stimulating muscle protein synthesis to synthesizing hormones. Having an amino acid deficiency because of poor nutritional intake or for a medical reason can create problems in multiple bodily functions.
What Amino Acids Are Essential?
There are amino acids that our body naturally makes on its own, and then there are those that we must eat from an animal or plant. An essential amino acid is one that we must get from outside of our body. We commonly find them in meat, dairy, and certain grain and plant foods. We find essential amino acids in popular protein supplements such as whey protein, casein protein and plant-based proteins, including pea protein and rice protein. Essential Amino Acid List: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.
Non-Essential Amino Acids
These are the amino acids our body can create on their own. But just because our bodies make them does not mean there isn’t a benefit to consuming them from foods and supplements. Therefore, it is often recommended that we eat complete protein sources, which include the essential and non-essential amino acids. Nonessential Amino Acid List: alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine, and tyrosine
Conditionally Essential Amino Acids
There are certain non-essential amino acids that our bodies make on their own but only during growth phases (infancy) and because they have no other option. It is suggested to make conditional amino acids a regular part of your nutrition program to ensure you have enough to support optimal health. Conditionally Essential Amino Acid List: arginine, cysteine, glutamine, tyrosine, glycine, ornithine, proline, and serine.
The Benefits of Amino Acid Supplements
Why do you need to supplement if we can get all the amino acids from food? That is a good question and if you are in perfect health, do not workout vigorously, and have a high enough protein intake complete source, then you don’t. However, there are many benefits to amino acid supplementation for sports nutrition and wellness purposes.
Amino Acids for Sports Nutrition
For workout and sports performance, they have shown amino acid supplements to improve sport performance, reduce muscle soreness, reduce potential muscle loss, and increase focus. This is just a short list, and many more potential benefits exist as an ergogenic aid.
Amino Acids for General Health
For wellness, amino acids are used to improve sleep, stimulate thyroid, stabilize blood glucose levels, and improve the immune system. Science is continuing to unfold and reveal more ways that amino acid supplementation can improve health markers and prevent or treat ailments.
Branched Chain Amino Acid Supplements
Long held as the top amino acids for building muscle, bodybuilders and athletes use BCAA’s for developing muscle mass. While research does not conclusively suggest that they directly lead to muscle, it certainly can through the other ways they improve training. Branched chain amino acids help to delay muscle fatigue and improve muscle recovery time. By supplementing with a BCAA product, you are giving yourself an immediate source of these three key amino acids. We have several options for BCAA Supplementation, either by itself as a standalone BCAA supplement or with other EAA’s such as our Amino Ammo.
Amino Acids for Energy
You can get a nice boost of energy when supplementing with particular amino acids. We often find these metabolism boosting ingredients in a dietary supplement that also contains herbs and botanicals.
Amino Acids for Fat Loss
By combining a few individual amino acids alongside other thermogenic ingredients, you can create a weight management formula. These amino acids can encourage your metabolism to burn more calories. For energetic and weight management, amino acids check out our pre workout products: Bodyform, Bodyform Supercharged!, Killswitch, and Brains N Brawn.
Nitric Oxide Amino Acids
There is a group of amino acids that help to increase blood flow throughout the body. When lifting weights, they can help drive more blood to the particular area being worked. We know these amino acids as nitric oxide boosters. For pumps and energy amino acids, you will want to give Killswitch or Brains n Brawn a shot.
Choosing the Right Amino Acid Supplement
To determine the right amino acid formula, you will want to first look at your current health profile, nutritional intake, and any fitness or sport related goals you have. This will help you determine which ingredients will best support your current needs and the demands being placed upon your body.
