Why every Bodybuilder should have this Supplement in there Cabinet!

I would have to recommend Beta Alanine as the supplement of choice. Beta Alanine is the rate-limiting precursor of carnosine, which is to say carnosine levels are limited by the amount of available Beta Alanine. Supplementation with Beta Alanine has been shown to increase the concentration of carnosine in muscles, decrease fatigue in athletes and increase total muscular work done2,3. Many bodybuilders have great better workouts while using testosterone which may be because testosterone has the ability to increase carnosine in muscle. One study showed mice receiving testosterone demonstrated a 250% increase in intramuscular carnosine content4. So how do you boost carnosine levels? There really is no other way to increase muscle carnosine levels thru diet or exercise; supplementation of Beta Alanine is really the only way to raise muscle carnosine levels. Here is a list of other reasons why bodybuilders should be using β-Alanine:

* Beta Alanine Reduces Fatigue: Type II fibers have greater capacity for muscle growth and strength gains are more prone and resistant to acidic environments and, hence, demonstrate greater buffering capacity in comparison to type I fibers. Being able to go past the burn in a set depends of having high concentrations of carnosine in muscle. One study reported that body-builders present up to two times higher carnosine concentration than untrained subject. In these athletes, the contribution of carnosine for total buffering capacity was estimated to be ~20%, whereas in the control group the contribution was only 10%. Given that bodybuilding training elicits a relatively high muscular acidosis, elevated intramuscular carnosine concentration as a consequence of long-term training adaptations has been proposed. The exciting part is that taking Beta Alanine can increase carnosine levels and further increase buffering capacity of muscle. Researchers investigated whether β- alanine supplementation could increase intramuscular carnosine content in humans. The authors tested three different doses: 40 mg/kg, 20 mg/kg, and 10 mg/kg of body weight. It was verified that the highest dose elicited a peak in serum β-alanine levels but also elicited the highest dose of paresthesia. Paresthesia is a tingling sensation that you get from taking to much Beta Alanine; it's a harmless but feels like a niacin flush. These symptoms can be avoided by the use of controlled release capsules and by smaller dosing strategies. The intermediate dose resulted in a lower peak in serum β-alanine but also accompanied by symptoms of paresthesia, which were less frequent and intense. On the other hand, 10 mg·kg-1 resulted in no significant symptoms of paresthesia and a discrete peak of serum β-alanine. This demonstrates that the maximum tolerated single dose is 10 mg·kg-1, which corresponds to an average of 800 mg of β-alanine.

* Beta Alanine Increases Total Work Volume: One of the promising effects of Beta Alanine is its ability to increase the amount of exercise performed in a session. For example, when an exercise protocol eliciting an extreme acidosis (i.e. highly anaerobic exercise) was used, a significant improvement in performance was observed when Beta Alanine was administered. The researchers investigated the effects of four and 10 weeks of β-alanine supplementation upon cycling performance at 110% VO2peak and muscle carnosine content. At the end of the 4th week, muscle carnosine was significantly increased by ~60%, which was accompanied by a significant 13% increase in total work done during cycling test. An additional six weeks of supplementation yielded a nearly significant further 20% increase in muscle carnosine, which was followed by a 16.2% increase in total work done when compared to pre-supplementation values3. These results clearly indicate the ergogenic effect of β-alanine supplementation on high-intensity performance. Another study showed that β-alanine supplementation, despite not enhancing maximal strength performance, resulted in a ~20% increase in total work volume in strength training sessions in well trained resistance athletes4.

Taken together, these data suggest that β-alanine supplementation is capable of improving performance in exercises resulting in an extreme intramuscular acidotic environment, such as multiple bouts of high-intensity short-term exercises, single bouts of high-intensity exercises and single bouts undertaken when fatigue is already present.

1. Wolfe BL, LeMura LM, Cole PJ. Quantitative analysis of single- vs.

multiple-set programs in resistance training. J Strength Cond Res. 2004Feb;18(1):35-47. Review.

2. Derave W, Ozdemir MS, Harris R, Pottier A, Reyngoudt H, Koppo K, Wise JA, Achten E. (August 9 2007). "Beta-alanine supplementation augments muscle carnosine content and attenuates fatigue during repeated isokinetic contraction bouts in trained sprinters". J Appl Physiol 103: 1736.
3. Hill CA, Harris RC, Kim HJ, Harris BD, Sale C, Boobis LH, Kim CK, Wise JA. (2007). "Influence of beta-alanine supplementation on skeletal muscle carnosine concentrations and high intensity cycling capacity". Amino Acids 32 (2): 225–33.
4. Penafiel R, Ruzafa C, Monserrat F, Cremades A. Gender-related differences in carnosine,

anserine and lysine content of murine skeletal muscle. Amino Acids. 2004;26(1):53-58.

5. Hoffman J, Ratamess N, Kang J, Mangine G, Faigenbaum A, Stout J. Effect of creatine and beta-alanine supplementation on performance and endocrine responses in strength/power athletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2006;16(4):430-446.

Fish Oils Inhibit Muscle Recovery!

Last year I wrote an article titled, "What's Good for You May Not be Good for Building Muscle." Fish and fish oils contain EPA and DHA which stimulate blood circulation; increase the breakdown of fibrin, a compound involved in clot and scar formation, and additionally have been shown to reduce blood pressure. There is strong scientific evidence that n−3 fatty acids reduce blood triglyceride levels and regular intake reduces the risk of having a heart attack. Omegas 3's have potent anti-inflammatory effects and enhance cell membrane fluidity and increases insulin sensitivity by altering the function of the cell membrane. To sum up the article, it described how prostaglandins were important for muscle growth and that fish contains high levels of omega 3 fatty acids which inhibit prostaglandin synthesis which could be bad for muscle growth. At the time I wrote the article, I concluded that it was just a theory of mine and had no research to back up these claims...until now! There is interest as to how nutrition affects muscle recovery especially to prevent muscle atrophy when people are injured and are immobilized. Researchers from the Food and Nutrition Department at Seoul National University examined the affect of fish oils on muscle recovery in rats. One group of rats was assigned to a fish oil group (rich in omega 3 fatty acids) and the other group was assigned to a corn oil diet (high in omega 6 fatty acids). The rats were assigned to immobilization for a few weeks and then allowed to put tension back on the muscle. The hindlimb immobilization technique mimics when people are injured and can't place weight on the muscle. When a muscle is immobilized it causes atrophy's so scientists are interested in the fastest way to rejuvenate and repair muscle when tension is placed back on the muscle. When the animal is allowed to walk again, the muscle has tension placed on it again which allows the researchers to examine muscle recovery. What researchers are currently asking is what type of fat allows for faster muscle recovery and muscle hypertrophy? The immobilization-induced reductions in muscle weight and muscle proteins content were restored faster by 3 days of remobilization in corn oil group. However, in fish oil group, these muscle recovery measurements did not significantly change until 13 days of remobilization. Basically, it took longer for muscle recovery when high levels of fish oils were consumed. Some interesting findings occurred, at 3 days of remobilization, both groups had significant elevations in p70 ribosomal S6 kinase (a marker for anabolic signaling) activation and at a greater extent in corn oil group than in fish oil group. Additionally, the activation of another anabolic pathway Akt was also increased on Day 3 in the corn oil group, but it was not affected in fish oil group. Throughout the remobilization period, levels of prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) and cyclooxygenase-2 were significantly increased in groups, however, fish oils had a lesser increase in PGF2α than corn oil until Day 13. A growing body of evidence has documented that the COX-2 pathway with prostaglandins plays a pivotal role in muscle growth

and regeneration induced by injury, especially at early time points after injury. PGF2α has been found to be critical in muscle growth, including protein synthesis. These results suggest that the lack of increase in PGF2α synthesis at 3 days of remobilization in fish oil might have notably contributed to the inhibition of muscle recovery at this time. These results imply that the PGF2α synthesis suppressed by the dietary fish oil at 3 days of remobilization might inhibit muscle recovery. PGF2α, derived by COX-2, cannot be formed from DHA or EPA, but is formed from arachidonic acid (AA; a predominant n−6 fatty acid), whose release amount from the cellular membrane is determined by

its content in cell membrane. This fact suggests that arachidonic acid level in the muscle membrane lowered by chronic dietary fish oil intake can reduce the production of PGF2α in skeletal muscle. These results suggest that the anti-inflammatory function of dietary fish oil may detrimentally influence early muscle hypertrophic response. These findings indicate that dietary fish oil inhibits the early stage of muscle recovery by suppressing the activation of anabolic pathway Akt–p70s6k signaling and PGF2α synthesis. This study should bring to awareness that high doses of fish and fish oils may impede anabolic pathways; at least in rats. No studies in humans with high doses of fish oils have been conducted yet, but hopefully bodybuilders should be aware that high doses of Omega 3's in fish oils can reduce muscle recuperation by inhibiting PGF2α synthesis.

* You JS, Park MN, Lee YS. Dietary fish oil inhibits the early stage of recovery of atrophied soleus muscle in rats via Akt-p70s6k signaling and PGF2(alpha). J Nutr Biochem.