Can you fend off heart problems just by popping a vitamin? Sounds too good to be true. But it isn’t.
In a recent study, people who were D deficient had stiffer arteries and the cells that lined their arteries showed greater signs of dysfunction. But everything got better quickly — and their blood pressure improved, too! — once they got their D levels back to normal.
Muscle Sport BCAA Revolution has advanced BCAA supplementation beyond any current product on the market. While most companies are still using hard to mix, gritty BCAAs Muscle Sport has introduced micronized Ajinopure IBCAA’s. You will notice the difference the first time you mix this product, it mixes easier, tastes better and the absorption rate is higher than with any other BCAA product.
Super Charging BCAAs using Amino Nitrates
Rather than using conventional BCAA technology Muscle Sport chose BCAAs in the Nitrate form. This provides for far greater BCAA stability and transport across intestinal and muscle cell membranes. An exciting property of nitrates is their capability to act as permeation enhancers of intestinal absorption. Consequently, nitrate bound compounds effortlessly bypass the intestinal wall to be absorbed intact into the bloodstream. The nitrate bound amino acids innovation is a novel science far superior to free form amino acids. One of the premier advantages of nitrates is rapid and potent vasodilatation. This results in increased blood flow to enhance the distribution of nutrients to the muscles and other tissues. This increases stamina, strength and recovery.
From experience this product is great for pre-workout performance. If you are looking for a break from stimulants this is a great product to try or it can be mixed with a traditional pre-workout to amplify the pump and workout results. The amino nitrates definitely provide a pronounced pump and enhanced vasodilatation. You will also find strength gains and improved muscular endurance as well. I was able to shorten rest periods and use more weight on my second and third sets for most muscle groups.
Loss of muscle mass with age (sarcopenia) may be caused by a reduction of muscle protein synthetic response to food intake. A group of researchers set out to find which milk protein was the best for muscle protein accretion, and would therefore help stave off sarcopenia.
The older you get, the faster your muscles atrophy if you’re not regularly engaging in appropriate exercise. Additionally, older muscles do not respond well to sudden or intense bouts of exercise, so the key to avoiding sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss) is to challenge your muscles with intense exercise on a regular basis throughout your life-although it’s never too late to start.
Protein is essential for healthy muscle growth and maintenance, but as you age, your body becomes increasingly less able to utilize the protein in your food for building muscle, which makes the following information all the more important.
According to the study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:
“Whey protein stimulates postprandial muscle, this effect is attributed to a combination of whey’s fast digestion and absorption kinetics and high leucine content.”
Older adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA) may want to try a combination of creatine supplementation and resistance exercise, which was shown in a recent study to improve muscle strength and quality of life.
In the 12-week study conducted at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, researchers enrolled postmenopausal women with knee OA to participate in lower-limb resistance training. Half the women took a placebo, while the other half took 20 g/d of creatine for one week and 5 g/d for the other 11 weeks of the active intervention.
Women taking creatine had a significant improvement in physical function, both compared to the placebo group, and compared to their baseline scores. In addition, subjects consuming creatine showed improvements in physical function and stiffness subscales judged on WOMAC values, significant improvement in lower limb lean mass and in quality of life. Both groups had significant reductions in pain.
Three physiological events must be addressed for optimal recovery as it applies to strength training, power training or endurance training. Unfortunately, no trainee is immune to the following post-exercise phenomena. These three factors are as follows:
1. Glycogen Stores are low
2. Protein Breakdown is increased
3. Muscle Protein Balance is negative
For those not well versed in physiological jargon, here’s a little explanation of each:
Glycogen is muscle energy. Low glycogen stores mean that there’s less cellular energy for daily life and certainly less energy for subsequent workouts. In this situation, training and performance suffer.
Protein Breakdown indicates that body tissues (which are made of protein) are being degraded. Increases in protein breakdown can lead to losses of muscle mass.
Muscle Protein Balance is regulated by the balance between Protein Synthesis and Protein Breakdown in the following way:
After a hard workout your muscles are torn down, glycogen is depleted, and you may have even entered catabolism. The only way to stop this is by feeding them the nutrients that they need. Studies show that carbs are stored as glycogen 125% more efficiently directly after working out than any other time during the day. Also, protein synthesis (the building of new muscle) is highly elevated. It only makes sense to take advantage of this time and feed your muscles what they need to repair.
Studies have also shown, that athletes who take in carbs and protein after working out have increased levels of growth hormone and insulin versus those who just drank water. As many probably already know, these are two out of the three main hormones needed for muscle growth (testosterone being the third). By taking in carbohydrates after working out you elevate these hormones and prevent protein breakdown and excretion thus maintaining a more positive nitrogen balance. Post workout is also when your body can best absorb and utilize amino acids and supplements like creatine.
As a result of these three post workout phenomena, a failure to rapidly bring the body back into recovery mode (i.e., to increase glycogen stores, to increase protein synthesis, and to prevent protein breakdown), has several potential consequences:
-Prolonged muscle soreness and fatigue.
-Poor subsequent performances on the track, field, and/or in the gym.
-Symptoms of and or full-fledged staleness and overtraining.
-Minimal gains in muscle mass despite a well-designed training program.
-Losses of muscle mass and a secondary lowering of metabolic rate can occur if volume and intensity get high enough
It is also interesting to note that too much protein could be counterproductive. A very high protein meal can actually cause a release of glucagon. Glucagon is a hormone that antagonizes insulin release. So if you eat some protein with carbs, insulin shoots up. If you eat too much protein with carbs, the insulin release may actually be lower. And if this weren’t bad enough, glucagon also has another function that we want to avoid. The darn stuff causes the body to convert amino acids into glucose (a process called gluconeogenesis). So take in too much protein and say goodbye to that special amino acid ratio. Instead those aminos become carbs to be used for energy.
Recovery comes down to taking very specific nutrients at the right time. After Glow by BioRhythm is an ideal post workout recovery product based off of research done at the University of Texas. After Glow addresses all three of the post workout recovery components outlined above and is one of the best tasting products you will ever come across.
BCAAs-and leucine in particular-have multiple functions that make them useful for anyone engaged in strenuous exercise. Leucine, isoleucine and valine:
Muscle Sport BCAA Revolution has advanced BCAA supplementation beyond any current product on the market. While most companies are still using hard to mix, gritty BCAAs Muscle Sport has introduced micronized Ajinopure IBCAA’s. You will notice the difference the first time you mix this product, it mixes easier, tastes better and the absorption rate is higher than with any other BCAA product.
Super Charging BCAAs using Amino Nitrates
Rather than using conventional BCAA technology Muscle Sport chose BCAAs in the Nitrate form. This provides for far greater BCAA stability and transport across intestinal and muscle cell membranes. An exciting property of nitrates is their capability to act as permeation enhancers of intestinal absorption. Consequently, nitrate bound compounds effortlessly bypass the intestinal wall to be absorbed intact into the bloodstream. In fact, they are so effective that large polypeptides can even be absorbed intact if administered with a nitrate donor. The nitrate bound amino acids innovation is a novel science far superior to free form amino acids and even other chemical salts. One of the premier advantages of nitrates is rapid and potent vasodilation. This results in increased blood flow to radically enhance the distribution of nutrients to the muscles and other tissues. Further, stamina, strength and recovery are enhanced.
Increasing Absorption and Stabilizing Glutamine for Maximum Benefit
The science on glutamine has shown that increasing the stability of glutamine increases its effect in the body. Muscle Sport BCAA Evolution used Glutamine Peptides and Magnesium Glycyl Glutamine to improve stability and absorption.
Glutamine has a tremendous benefit to exercising individuals and those looking to increase lean muscle mass and decrease body fat. Supplemental glutamine can help promote cell volumization. This phenomenon is the drawing of water inside muscle cells which can help increase muscle “fullness”, increase protein synthesis (the making of proteins), and decrease proteolysis (the breakdown of protein). In fact, some of the “muscle building” benefits of taking creatine have to do with its ability to enhance cell volumization. Glutamine has also been shown to aid in recovery and recuperation, help boost immune function by being one of the building blocks for the body’s most powerful anti-oxidant, glutathione, possibly cause extra growth hormone release with just a 2 gram oral dosage (it is yet to be determined whether that leads to an ergogenic benefit but it couldn’t hurt), partially determine the rate of protein turnover in muscles, boost anti-inflammatory cell function, and helps increase muscle glycogen deposition through an unknown mechanism. Many of these powerful effects can help increase lean body mass and prevent the breakdown of hard earned muscle.
While glutamine has great benefits, a large majority of ingested free form L-glutamine does not actually make it into the blood stream and get into muscle tissue. Anywhere from 50-85% of oral glutamine is used by the intestines, liver, and the immune system. This is what many scientists refer to as the “glutamine paradox”. With the use of glutamine peptide, this problem may be solved. Glutamine peptide is peptide bonded (a chain of amino acids) to allow for better transport into the blood stream and muscle tissue where it is needed. Glutamine peptide is also much more stable in solution, higher temperatures, and low PH than free form glutamine (free form L-glutamine tends to break down to ammonia and glutamic acid rather quickly in solution). The digestive tract has a peptide transport systems that allow peptides to be better absorbed and utilized than free form amino acids. So basically, the peptide bonded glutamine enhances bioavailability of glutamine in the bloodstream which may allow more glutamine to be available to the muscle tissue.
Glutamine Peptide has been combined with Magnesium Glycyl Glutamine chelate – the most stable glutamine in the world. Magnesium Glycyl Glutamine is a highly stable form of glutamine that features a unique binding to the anabolic mineral magnesium, which serves many important roles for the endocrine system (hormones), muscular system, nervous system, and skeletal system
GPLC or glycine propinol l-carnitine was added to boost nitric oxide and improve muscular performance. This patented, biochemically modified pharmaceutical compound has been extensively researched for performance-enhancing benefits and has been linked in scientific studies to the promotion of a number of critical exercise benefits as a result of the increased vasodilatation it causes. Specifically, these benefits include improved muscle pumps and performance, enhanced recovery support and added energy for workouts. GPLC also has strong antioxidant benefits, and is active in the body for extended periods for improved athletic performance.
Researchers in Finland discovered a unique benefit of whey protein. In a recent study, they fed a group of older men 15 grams of whey protein isolate before and after a session of resistance exercise. Muscle biopsies from the thigh were collected before, one hour after and 48 hours after exercise to determine expression of the androgen (testosterone) receptor. Androgen receptors are what testosterone binds to in order to elicit their anabolic (muscle building) effects in target tissues.
Androgen receptor mRNA responses were variable but tended to increase more during the whey protein isolate trial. The average increase one hour post-exercise was about 25% and this was maintained at 48 hours post-exercise. In contrast, there was little change in average androgen receptor expression during the placebo trial.
The authors speculated that the greater expression of androgen receptors in skeletal muscle may allow for greater uptake of testosterone from the blood. This represents one way in which whey protein augments anabolism in response to resistance training.
Chalk up another benefit to olive oil as it has recently been shown to help protect the liver. A recent study showed that olive oil and its extracts (DPE) protect against oxidative damage of the liver tissue. Olive oil helped to maintain serum marker enzymes and hepatic antioxidant enzyme activities at near-normal concentrations. Olive oil is also known to reduce free radical damage or reactive oxygen species.
In supplement form we recommend Olio as it combines several healthy fats including olive oil, fish oil, CLA and flax oil.
You basically can’t grow muscle without taking whey protein after workouts but that doesn’t mean that whey can’t be better. Slow-digesting casein protein was once believed to have no place around workout time, but newer research suggests otherwise. In fact, a study from Baylor University (Waco, Texas) reported that men who consumed a whey/casein blend protein shake after workouts for 10 weeks gained significantly more muscle mass than the subjects who consumed a whey protein shake without casein.Try using a protein Like Intek Evolution or Pro Complete 40 both of which combine whey and casein in an ideal blend.
The importance of leucine, one of the branched-chain amino acids, continues to emerge.
Researchers from the University of Illinois examined the impact of meals containing different amounts of leucine on the time course and magnitude of muscle protein synthesis. In the first set of experiments, it was shown that ingestion of a meal containing 20% of whey protein resulted in peak blood leucine levels after 45 minutes, and they stayed elevated for 180 minutes after ingestion. Leucine levels in the blood were correlated with the activation of key elements in muscle that stimulate protein synthesis. When leucine was highest, muscle protein synthesis peaked, and when leucine dropped to normal levels, protein synthesis decreased.
In a second series of experiments, whey protein was compared to wheat protein at varying levels of total protein intake. Regardless of background protein intake, whey protein resulted in greater increases in blood leucine and greater increases in muscle protein synthesis.
The bottom line from these experiments is that blood levels of leucine is a key factor in turning on protein synthesis. Choose a protein like Intek Evolution that is a high-quality source of leucine to efficiently elevate blood levels of leucine and muscle protein synthesis.
