Supplement Update: Creatine Shows Amazing New Powers

Let’s suppose you had to take a layoff from training, maybe because of an injury, accident, an illness, or some other reason. Muscle and strength loss will occur during periods of physical inactivity and immobilization. Is there any way you can prevent this?
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Bulletin #161 – Using Creatine As a Weight-Loss Tool

Attention: if you’re ready to add a new tool to your fat-burning tool-box, try creatine. It’s a non-drug alternative that really works. It is one of the most important natural supplements available for exercis-ers because of its ability to extend endurance and coax the body intoproducing hard, firm muscle.Creatine is produced naturally in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas – at the rate of about 1 to 2 grams a day – from the amino acids ar-ginine, glycine, and methionine. Most of your body’s creatine is de-livered to the muscles, heart, and other body cells. Inside muscle cells, creatine helps produce and circulate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecular fuel that powers muscular contractions.

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Creatine is also found naturally in red meat. About 2 ½ pounds of raw steak yields roughly the equivalent of a single 5-gram dose of creatine.Creatine is available from Parrillo Performance as Parrillo Creatine Monohydrate™. Through supple-mentation, you can build the vol-ume of creatine in your muscle cells. There, creatine increases levels of a high-energy compoundcalled creatine phosphate, which serves as a tiny fuel supply, enough for several seconds of action.Creatine phosphate also allows more rapid production of ATP. The more ATP that is available to muscle cells, the longer, harder, and more powerfully you can work out.

Thus, creatine monohydrate can indirectly help you lose body fat, since longer, more intense workouts help incinerate fat and build lean muscle. The more muscle you have, the more efficient your body is at using energy and burning fat.Many creatine supplementation studies have shown gains in lean body mass, averaging 2 to 6 pounds, usually within several weeks of use. It can work fast too – in as little as one week. A study conducted at the Pennsylvania State University Center for Sports Medicine demon-strated the immediacy of creatine’s power. The researchers recruited 14 weight-trained men and divided them into a creatine group and a pla-cebo group. Both groups performed bench presses and a jump-squat ex-ercise in three different sessions, each separated by 6 days. Prior to the first session, neither group re-ceived any supplements. During the period leading up to the second session, both groups took placebos.

Then, prior to the third session, the creatine group took 25 grams of creatine monohydrate a day, and the placebo group took a 25-gram placebo. All the participants were asked to follow their normal diets and keep food records during the study.With this well-designed experimen-tal situation, the researchers could easily observe and measure any changes due to supplementation. What happened was quite remarkable. In just a week, the creatine takers gained an average of 3 pounds of muscle. As for their strength, it went through the roof. The creatine takers upped theirreps significantly on the bench press and could perform more jump squats. Those in the placebo group didn’t fare as well in either performance or mus-cle gain.Creatine increases muscle size be-cause it attracts water. Creatine is ab-sorbed into the muscle cell and pulls a lot of water along with it, causing the muscle to swell. This results in larg-er, firmer muscles and a better pump. Please realize that creatine itself does not directly increase muscle protein. As with all supplements, it is vital that you use creatine in conjunction with asolid bodybuilding diet.

You need pro-tein to build muscle tissue and carbo-hydrates to provide energy. Creatine itself is not burned to produce energy, rather it acts as an energy buffer to transfer the energy derived from car-bohydrate and fat oxidation to ATP. Creatine is not incorporated into pro-tein. It will, however, indirectly in-crease the protein mass of muscles over time by allowing you to performhigher intensity workouts. That is, of course, if you are eating enough lean protein and quality calories to support muscle gains.What can you expect from creatine? Typically, hard-training bodybuilders can expect an increase of 4-14 pounds of lean mass during the first month of use. The more muscle mass you have, the more creatine you can assimilateleading to greater weight gains. We’ve seen athletes experience a 5-15% in-crease in strength on their maximum lifts and an increase of about 2 reps per set with their working weight dur-ing the first month. This increase in in-tensity allows you to put a greater load on the muscle, which will indeed in-crease your gains in muscle mass over time.

Endurance athletes can experi-ence a 5-10% increase in speed and a 10-20% increase in time to fatigue.Increasing the levels of creatine and creatine phosphate in your muscles gives them another fuel source be-sides glycogen from carbohydrates. The question is: how much creatine do you need? To start, we recommend for the first one to two weeks you use 20-30 grams each day, divided into even servings of 5 grams each taken with each meal or with a Hi-Protein™/Pro-Carb™ or 50/50 Plus™ drink. This is the loading phase. Use the lower end of these recommendations if you’re in the 150-200 pound range and the upper end if you’re over 200 pounds. We recommend one to two weeks, but the loading phase can last up to four weeks in some individuals. After this, 5-10 grams a day should be sufficient to maintain elevated muscle stores ofcreatine. It takes approximately 4-8 weeks to deplete creatine stores after you stop taking it.To support muscle growth, Parrillo Creatine Monohydrate™ works best with a nutritious diet that supplies ample calories, as outlined in the Parrillo Nutrition Program. Remem-ber, creatine itself has little impact on gaining muscle when taken alone.

The building blocks (amino acids) and extra calories must also be pres-ent in the muscle for serious gains to be made. Most people will see a significant increase in size and strength when using creatine, but a lot of this depends on the amount of protein and quality calories you are eating. If you don’t eat enough to support muscle gain, you won’t see any, it’s that simple.Weight gain resulting from cre-atinesupplementation may happen dur-ing the first month when you’re loading the muscle cells with cre-atine. You will experience an im-mediate gain in strength at the outset because of the increased leverage advantage from the in-creased water gain as well as the creatine phosphate stores. At some point the creatine pool becomes saturated and the muscle can’t hold any more. So you can expect a very rapid and dramatic gain in lean mass (muscle + water) for the first month, but after that creatine supplementation is mainly mainte-nance.Remember, proper nutrition from food, increased calories and nutri-ents from supplements and intense training are the keys to packing on more lean muscle month after month, year after year.

By using creatine you can improve the in-tensity and duration of your train-ing for better overall workouts. And when you add to this proper nutrition, which includes plenty of high quality protein and increased calories, you’ll be right on track to gain one pound of lean mass each week.Are there any medical concerns with taking creatine? Creatine is nontoxic even when taken in huge doses. The only known side effect is stomach upset if you take too much at once. Five to ten grams shouldn’t bother you. If you take 30 grams at once you might feel stomach cramps or nausea, but usually not. Excess creatine is converted into creatinine (note the similar spell-ing) and excreted in the urine. If you take too much creatine you’ll just lose the excess in your urine. If you have any blood work done you might find that creatine elevates your creatinine level. Doctors use the creatinine level in the blood as an index of kidney function. If your doctor notices an increase in your creatinine level and expresses someconcern about your kidneys, tell him or her that you’re using creatine. Cre-atine does not damage the kidneys in any way, but is contraindicated if you have pre-existing severe kidney disease (for example, renal dialysis or kidney transplant patients).

Peo-ple with severe kidney disease have trouble eliminating creatinine, and creatine supplementation would in-crease creatinine levels further. In summary, creatine has been shown in placebo controlled clinical trials to improve exercise performance, both in terms of power output and endurance (1-6). We know from our work here that it increases lean body mass as well. Creatine is stored in the muscle and does not contribute to fat stores. Any weight you gain on creatine will be in the lean compartment. We’ve seen many athletes experience dramatic gains in muscle size and strength during their first month of creatine use. And when you look for a good creatine supplement, make sure it is 100% pure, like our Parrillo Creatine Monohydrate™ supplement. Make sure to look at the nutrient content on the label and not just the price when you’re considering which creatine supplement to take. Parrillo Creatine Monohydrate™ is one more nutritional tool to help you push your physique and performance envelope.

References

1. Maughan RJ. Creatine supplemen-tation and exercise performance.International Journal of Sport Nutri-tion 5: 94-101, 1995.

2. Greenhaff PL. Creatine and its ap-plication as an ergogenic aid. Inter-national Journal of Sport Nutrition 5: S100-S110, 1995.

3. Crim MC, Munro HN. Proteins and Amino Acids. Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease 8: 9-10, 1994.

4. Greenhaff PL, Casey A, Short AH, Harris AC, Soderlund K, and Hultman E. Influence of oral creatine supplementation on muscle torque during repeated bouts of maximal voluntary exercise in man. Clin. Sci. 84: 565-571, 1993.

5. Harris RC, Viru M, GreenhaffPL, and Haltman E. The effect of oral creatine supplementation on running performance during maximal short term exercise in man. J. Physiol. 467: 74P, 1993.

6. Ernest CP, Snell PG, Mitchell TL, Rodriguez R, and Almada AL. Effect of creatine monohydrate on peak an-aerobic power, capacity, and fatigue index. Med. Sci. Sports. Exerc. 26:S39, 1994.

Bulletin #93 – The Effect of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) on Cellular Energy

Understanding something about cel-lular energy production will allow you to make intelligent decisions about how best to supply fuel for your body, depending on your goal. Is it weight gain, weight loss, or maximum performance in terms of strength or endurance?The immediate source of chemical energy which cells use is a chemical called “ATP,” which stands for adenosine triphosphate. The “triphosphate” part of the molecule is made of three phosphate groups, as the name implies . Each phosphate group is strongly negatively charged, causing them to repel one another.

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ATP is thus an inherently unstable molecule. When ATP breaks down it releases one of its phosphate groups, forming free phosphate plus ADP (adenosine diphosphate). This chemical process releases energy which is used to power cellular work, such as muscle contraction . So the energy contained in food must first be converted into ATP before cells can use it.Your cells are constantly us-ing ATP, so it must continually be replaced. There are three basic energy pathways which maintain ATP levels. These are the phosphagen system, the anaerobic pathway, and the aerobic pathway. The phosphagen system relies on a molecule called creatine phosphate to supply energy to the system. It is no wonder that creatine has become one of the most popular sports supplements on the market today .

Once creatine gets inside cells, it is combined with phosphate to form creatine phosphate. Creatine phosphate then is able to donate its phosphate group to ADP, thereby re-forming ATP. So as ATP is used, the phosphagen system acts to immediately restore it . Your body makes about a gram of cre-atine a day on its own, plus most people get about another gram from diet each day. Us-ing a creatine supplement can significantly increase creatine intake. Orally administered creatine is absorbed into the bloodstream and taken up by muscles. Creatine phosphate it-self is NOT well absorbed. Some supplement manufacturers sell creatine in the form of cre-atine phosphate, but that’s a bad idea. It’s not absorbed nearly as well as regular creatine. By increasing the intracellular concentration of creatine, you provide the phosphagen system with a larger energy reserve. This means that you can perform maximal bouts of exercise longer than before. Creatine helps for very intense exercises of relatively short duration.

It helps in weight training and in other sports where quick bursts of energy are required, like football, wrestling, and sprinting. It improves peak power output, duration of peak power output, and recovery between bursts of near maximal activity. It is less helpful in endurance activities, since the phosphagen system is not the major energy producing pathway there.The phosphagen pathway by itself can supply energy only for a few seconds of maximal effort. Cells store enough ATP to last for two or three seconds, and the creatine phosphate reserve can last for maybe eight seconds or so. It is clear we need an energy pathway that can sustain longer durations of exercise. The primary energy produc-ing pathways in cells are the anaerobic and aerobic pathways. Ultimately, it is the aerobic pathway which meets the body’s energy needs, but the anaerobic pathway helps to sustain very intense activity for between one and two minutes. First, let’s define what these terms mean .“Aerobic” means “with oxy-gen,” and “anaerobic” means “without oxygen.” Food molecules are “burned” inside cells to produce energy . When a log burns on the fire, carbohydrate molecules in the wood combine with oxygen and become “oxidized.” This change in chemical state is the heat en-ergy you feel emitted from the flames. Inside the cells of your body, food molecules are combined with oxygen to release energy.

The difference is, when food is oxidized inside a living cell, instead of all the energy being lost as heat, some of it is used to form ATP. Before cells can use the energy that is released from the oxidation of food, it first must be converted into ATP. In the end, all the energy your body uses is derived from the oxidation of food. This is aerobic metabolism. And that’s why if you’re deprived of oxygn for more than a few minuets, you die - your cells run out of energy.The only problem is, aerobic me-tabolism can only supply energy so fast, and sometimes you want to supply energy quicker. That’s where anaerobic metabolism comes into play. During times of intense exertion, when the energy demands of the body exceed the ability of the aerobic sys-tem to supply energy, food molecules are partially broken down but not oxidized. This initial metabolism can yield a relatively small amount of energy, but can do so very quickly. Let’s look at some examples. You can sustain low intensity exercise, like walking, all day long.

That’s because the aerobic energy path-way can supply enough energy to sustain that activity, and the aerobic pathway can yield vast amounts of energy . At the other end of the spectrum, con-sider intense weight lifting. You can lift a heavy weight for maybe eight to ten reps, which takes about 30-40 seconds to do, and then you reach fail-ure . There are many reasons for muscles to reach fatigue at the end of a set, but the primary one is depletion of ATP. The phosphagen system works well for the first few reps, and the anaerobic pathway can supply energy for about a min-ute, and then you just cannot replenish ATP fast enough to keep up with the demands of the exercise. During any form of activity, the aero-bic and anaerobic systems are both at work. During long duration, endurance exercise it’s mainly the aerobic system which supplies the energy . During short duration, intense exercise, like weight lifting, it’s mainly the anaerobic system. During your rest intervals between sets your body is completing the oxidation of the food molecules that were anaerobically metabolized during the set. That’s why you breathe hard for a minute or so after a set - you’re using a lot of oxygen to replenish your ATP stores. If you’re involved in short duration, intense exercise, such as weight lifting or sprinting, you will derive some benefit from creatine supplementation. Parrillo Perfor-mance Creatine Monohydrate™ is the high-The Effect of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) on Cellular Energyest purity creatine supplement available.

Creatine can help improve strength, duration of maximal exercise output, and recovery between maximal exercise bouts. You should realize that carbohydrate can be metabolized anaerobically, but fat cannot. Therefore, carbohydrate is a better energy source for very intense exer-cise than fat is. Fat can only be me-tabolized aerobi-cally. That makes it a fine fuel for low intensity exercise like walking, but not good for weight lifting or most team sports . Most com-petitive athletes will do well to rely on carbohydrate as their primary fuel source rather than fat. Two scoops of Pro-Carb™ before your workout can markedly improve your work output and duration . Since fat can only be me-tabolized aerobi-cally, it is important that you include some aerobic exercise in your workout protocol. You will burn essentially no fat during a weight lifting session. If being lean is part of your goal, you will get the best results if you do some cardiovascular exercise in addition to your weight training.In summary, keep protein intake be-tween one and two grams per pound of body weight each day, minimize fat intake, and supply the remainder of your caloric needs with unrefined, complex carbohydrates. This will provide the optimum fuel mix to power intense exercise. And don’t forget to do some aerobic exercise activity, as this is required to burn fat.

Bulletin #89 – Creatine Update

Few sports supplements have been more intensely researched in recent years than creatine monohydrate . Already this year, significant findings on this amazing supplement have been pub-lished in leading scientific journals - findings that can help you achieve that ultimate physique. Before I share those findings with you, here’s some background information on how creatine works.

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Inside muscle cells, creatine helps produce and circulate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the main energy-producing molecule of all living cells. By taking supplemen-tal creatine, you can build the volume of creatine in your muscle cells. Inside cells, creatine increases levels of a high-energy compound called creatine phosphate, which serves as a tiny fuel reserve, enough for several seconds of action. Creatine phosphate also allows more rapid production of ATP. The more ATP that is available to muscle cells, the longer, harder, and more powerfully you can work out. Thus, creatine can indirectly help you lose body fat, since longer, more intense workouts help demolish fat and build lean muscle. The more muscle you have, the more efficient your body is at using energy and burning body fat. Additionally, in many studies, creatine has been found to affect protein synthesis - which ultimately leads to muscle growth.1 Now, here’s a look at some creatine news you can use:Build Bigger Arms If you’re familiar with the Parrillo Train-ing Program, you know that I recommend some very specific techniques for building arm mass.

Exercises such as drag curls for the biceps, preacher curls with elbows pressed toward the center of the pad, vari-ous triceps exercises, and, of course, fascial stretching between arms sets. In addition to these training techniques, make sure you’re supplementing with creatine. A recent study found that supplementation with creatine monohydrate produced remarkable ef-fects on arm mass. In this study, 23 male weight-trainers took either a placebo, or five grams of creatine, four times a day, for five days. After five days, they took two grams of creatine a day, while the other group continued to take the placebo. All the men trained their arms twice a week, starting with six-rep maximums and progressing to two-rep maximums. The experimental period lasted six weeks. At the end of six weeks, the creatine-takers experienced ex-traordinary gains. Combined with weight training, creatine supplementation produced greater arm strength, boosted muscle mass, and increased upper arm girth . Those in the placebo group had no such gains whatsoever, even though they were exercising.2Creatine can indirectly help you lose body fat, since longer, more intense workouts help demolish fat and build lean muscle.

The more muscle you have, the more efficient your body is at using en-ergy and burning body fat.Aerobic Power The ability to train longer without feel-ing pooped is certainly a plus when you’re trying to build quality muscle. Time and again, creatine has proven its merit in de-laying the onset of fatigue. One of the most recent studies to look into this involved 14 men who were tested on stationary bicycles at varying levels of exercise intensity after having supplemented with 20 grams of creatine daily for five days. Half the group took a placebo. Some interesting effects were observed in the creatine-supplement takers. First, creatine appeared to decrease ammonia build-up in the body. This is significant. Ammonia is a waste product generated during intense exercise. It is very toxic and will stop energy production in the cell. When your body can eliminate it efficiently, you have more energy to train. Creatine may help the body clear ammonia from the system. Second, creatine enhanced “oxygen uptake.” This represents your body’s maximum capability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles. With greater oxygen delivery, you can increase your aerobic performance.

Third, the creatine-supplement takers had more endurance and could train longer before becoming tired.3More get-up and Go It’s a fact of life: Some people just naturally slow down physically with age and can’t last as long in the gym as their younger counterparts. Creatine to the rescue. In a re-cent study, twenty men (aged 60 to 82) took either a placebo or 20 grams of creatine daily for 10 days, followed by either four grams of creatine or a placebo daily for 20 days. Researchers measured the subjects’ exercise performance on leg and arm exercises and found that creatine supplementation reduced muscle fatigue.4 How to Supplement With Creatine Probably no other sports supplement (to date) has been as thoroughly researched as creatine. In addition to its performance advantages, creatine has virtually no side effects according to research. Building the levels of creatine and cre-atine phosphate in your muscles gives you another fuel source in addition to glycogen from carbohydrates. The question is, how much creatine do you need?  To use creatine in your supplement program, I recommend taking four 5-gram doses a day for five days. This is known as the “loading phase.” From there, five to ten grams a day will keep your muscles saturated with enough extra creatine.

This period is called the “maintenance phase.” One of the best times to supplement with creatine is with your meals. That way, you can load it into your muscles at just the right time to start replenishing muscular reserves and restocking ATP. Taking it after your workout is a good idea too. Creatine enhances the movement of amino acids in cells for tissue growth and repair following exercise. Creatine has no flavor, and you can mix it with plain water or a sports drink. Coffee is not a good choice. Research shows caffeine counteracts creatine and blocks its strength-producing benefits. I recommend that you take the Parrillo Creatine Mono-hydrate™ with our ProCarb Formula™. Scientific research shows that taking cre-atine with a liquid carbohydrate supplement boosts the amount of creatine accumulated in muscles by as much as 60 percent.5 This is not to say, however, that taking Creatine with an exorbanent amount of sugars would be beneficial. It would not. Diet is critical too. To support muscle growth, creatine works best if you follow the Parrillo Nutrition Program™, which supplies ample calories from the proper categories of lean proteins and natural, high-fiber carbohydrates.

References

1. Kreider, R.B. 1999. Dietary supplements and the promotion of muscle growth with resistance exercise. Sports Medicine 27: 97-110 .

2. Becque, M.D., et al. 2000. Effects of oral creatine supplementation on muscular strength and body composition. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 32: 654-658 .

3. Rico-Sanz, J., et al. 2000. Creatine en-hances oxygen uptake and performance during alternating intensity exercise. Medi-cine and Science in Sports and Exercise 32: 379-385 .

4. Rawson, E.S., et al. 1999. Effects of 30 days of creatine ingestion in older men. European Journal of Applied Physiology 80: 139-144 .

5. Editor. 1994. The promise of creatine supplements. Penn State Sports Medicine Newsletter, January, 1-3.

Bulletin #35 – Muscle Up – The Keys To Building Mass And Staying Lean, Part 2

For years bodybuilders have assertedthat they need more protein than averagepeople, and all the while nutritionists havekindly replied, “No, you don’t.”  Most ofthe scientific studies show that athleticactivity does not appreciably increase pro-tein requirements.  Could it be that body-builders really don’t need any “extra” pro-tein?  Think about this for a minute:Muscle is about 75% water, so a poundof muscle only contains about 100 gramsof protein.  Most people would considergaining 10 pounds of muscle a year to begood progress, and that would amount to1,000 grams of protein.  Over a year’stime, that equals out to gaining 2.74 gramsof protein per day, which is about one ortwo bites of a chicken breast.  So, theysay, eat a couple extra bites of chickenbreast and that’s enough protein to growas big as Arnold.Bodybuilders, on the other hand, havesaid that if they want muscles twice asbig as everybody else they have to eattwice as much protein as everybody else.They need extra protein to supply thebuilding blocks to build extra muscle.  Sowho’s right?Well, neither party turned out to beexactly right.  

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Bodybuilders do need moreprotein than average people, but not forthe reason they thought.  In fact, thosetwo extra bites of chicken every daywould be enough to grow muscles as bigas Arnold’s, if it all ended up being con-verted to muscle.  The problem is, itdoesn’t.  The original studies looking atprotein requirements of athletes wereflawed in several ways.  First, they useduntrained athletes and the exercise proto-cols were not very intense.  The subjectssimply did not exercise long enough orhard enough to see an effect of exerciseon protein requirements.  Second, in theold studies nitrogen lost in sweat was notmeasured, and this turns out to be signifi-cant.A little background: What body-builders seek to achieve is a stateof positive protein balance.  

Thismeans that more protein is com-ing into the body than is leav-ing.  Protein is on averageabout 16% nitrogen byweight.  Since nitrogen iseasy to measure in thelab, nitrogen balance isused as a way to mea-sure protein balance.Nitrogen is also a goodway to keep track ofthe protein economyin the body becausecarbohydrate and fatdo not contain ni-trogen.  You see,when we eat ex-cess protein itcan be stored asmuscle, but itcould also beconverted tofat.  If it isconverted tofat, the nitrogen is removed (as ammo-nia) and is excreted in the urine (after theammonia is converted to urea).  Thisleaves the carbon skeleton of the aminoacids, which can be broken down andused to make fat.  By measuring nitrogenbalance we see how much nitrogen isentering the body and how much is leav-ing, and any that remains in the body mustrepresent new protein tissue.The old studies measuring nitrogenbalance in athletes looked at how muchnitrogen was consumed as protein in thediet versus how much nitrogen was ex-creted in urine and feces.  They foundthat athletes could remain in nitrogen bal-ance without eating much, if any, extraprotein.  This is the basis for the long-standing disagreement between bodybuild-ers and nutritionists.  During the last fewyears a number of important studies havebeen performed showing that hard-train-ing athletes may actually need vastly moreprotein than average people.  The newexperiments also measure nitrogen lost insweat, which the older studies failed todo.  

Also, the new experiments are muchmore realistic, using experienced athletesin intense training programs.  It turns outthat a significant amount of nitrogen canbe lost in sweat, and if this is factored inthen intensely training athletes may needas much as two or three times as muchprotein as an average person to maintainnitrogen balance (1-18).  (I have includeda rather extensive reference list here, asthis controversial topic has been the sub-ject of much research.  If you’re onlygoing to read one reference, read #17 byPeter Lemon.  It’s an excellent review that puts a lot of this in perspective.)So what does all of this mean?  Doathletes need more protein?  Yes, definitely,they need significantly more protein thansedentary people.  The controversy isover on this argument, and now even theold-school nutritionists agree.  Do body-builders need more protein so they canhave more substrate to build new muscletissue?  No, they need more protein be-cause they excrete more nitrogen duringexercise.  In other words, very little extraprotein is needed to build new muscle tis-sue, but a lot of extra protein is needed tomake up for how much is burned as fuelduring exercise.The branched chain amino acids(BCAAs) are of special importance to ath-letes because they are metabolized inmuscle, rather than in the liver.  Here’swhat happens: After you eat the food isdigested and absorbed into the blood-stream through the small intestine.  

Theblood from the small intestine drains intoa special vein called the portal vein, whichgoes to the liver.  So the liver gets first“dibs” on all the nutrients before they aretransported to the rest of the body.  (Withthe exception of long chain fats, whichenter the lymphatics and bypass the liver.)The primary site for degradation of mostamino acids also happens to be the liver(19).  The liver thus has the ability to breakdown most amino acids for energy whenit needs to, such as during starvation orduring intense exercise.  The first step isto remove the amino group (-NH2) fromthe amino acid.  This is accomplished byenzymes called transaminases oraminotransferases.However, the liver is very low inbranched chain aminotransferase, whichmeans it can’t break down BCAAs to asignificant extent.  This results in releaseof any BCAAs from the liver into the cir-culation (19).Skeletal muscle does contain branchedchain aminotransferase and thus is ableto break down the BCAAs for energy.During periods of increased energy needsuch as starvation, trauma, or exercise,the enzyme pathways responsible forBCAA oxidation are activated.  Notably,however, during resting periods in theabsorptive state (after a meal) when otherfuel sources are available such as glucoseor ketones from CapTri®, these alternatefuel sources “spare” the BCAAs fromcatabolism (degradation) leaving themavailable for use in protein synthesis.  

Thusafter a meal there is a small burst in liverand muscle protein synthesis, after whichtime any left over amino acids are burnedfor energy or converted to glucose andstored as glycogen (20).It is estimated that about one third ofthe amino acids entering the liver fromthe portal vein are used for protein syn-thesis by the liver (serum proteins) or areconverted to glucose or used for energyby the liver (20).  Thus a high protein mealonly increases serum amino acid levels byabout 20%.Well, so what, and what does all thishave to do with bodybuilding?  Remem-ber that the liver does not have the en-zymes to metabolize the BCAAs, and thismeans that the BCAAs increase markedlyin the bloodstream after a meal.  (In otherwords, they pass straight through the liverwithout being broken down.)  In fact, theBCAAs can account for about 70% of theamino acids released from the small in-testine via the liver to the rest of the body(20).  Are you starting to get the idea thatthe branched chain aminos are importantin muscle protein metabolism?  Indeed, ithas been shown that the BCAAs accountfor 50-90% of the amino acids taken upby muscle tissue in the 3 hours followinga protein meal (20).  The branched chainaminos are also effective at stimulatinginsulin secretion, which in turn stimulatesprotein synthesis.So what’s the bottom line here?  Firstoff, the branched chains account for 50-90% of the amino acids taken up bymuscle after a protein meal.  Once there,they are available to serve as substrate forprotein synthesis.  They increase insulin,which further stimulates protein synthe-sis.  This is their anabolic effect.  

Duringperiods of intense exercise, they can beburned for energy, helping prevent break-down of muscle tissue to use as fuel.  Thisis their anti-catabolic effect.  Parrillo Per-formance Muscle Amino™ is a specialformulation of BCAAs in the proper bal-ance to help promote muscle growth andprevent muscle breakdown.  The best wayto use it is to take it with meals, and to eatsix small meals per day.  The most im-portant times to take it are the meal be-fore your workout and the meal after yourworkout.  I suggest taking three to sixMuscle Amino™ caps with a Pro-Carb™drink after your workout.  The carbohy-drates will prevent oxidation of theBCAAs, leaving them available for use inprotein synthesis.  The insulin release fromthe Pro-Carb™ will help drive the aminos inside the muscle cells, as well as stimu-lating protein synthesis (20).  This is alsothe optimum time to replenish glycogenstores.  Another suggestion which seemsto be very effective is to use about onetablespoon of CapTri® with each meal.The ketones spare oxidation of theBCAAs, leaving them available for use asprotein.  This enhances their anabolic ac-tivity.  Combine this supplement programwith a healthy diet adequate in calories andprotein, and I think you’ve got the bestmuscle-building program modern sciencehas to offer.

References

1. Friedman JE and Lemon PWR.Effect of chronic endurance exercise onretention of dietary protein.  Int J SportsMed 10: 118-123, 1989.

2. Tarnopolsky MA, MacDougall JD,and Atkinson SA.  Influence of proteinintake and training status on nitrogen bal-ance and lean mass.  J Appl Physiol 64:187-193, 1988.

3. Lemon PWR.  Influence of dietaryprotein and total energy intake on strengthimprovement.  Sports Sci Exch 2, 1989.

4. Celejowa I and Homa M.  Foodintake, nitrogen, and energy balance inPolish weight lifters during training camp.Nutr Metab 12: 259-274, 1970.

5. Laritcheva KA, Yalovaya NI,Shubin VI, and Shirnov PV.  Study ofenergy expenditure and protein needs oftop weight lifters.  In: Nutrition, PhysicalFitness and Health, eds. Pariznova J andRogozkin VA, p. 155-163.  University ParkPress, Baltimore, 1978.

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