Why BCAAs are suboptimal after a workout

🧱👷The tale of the bricklayer and his wall.

When the bricklayer wants to build a big wall, he needs many bricks and a continuous provision of new bricks. It helps also if he is strong and resilient. 💪

❌ When you take BCAAs right after a hard workout, the machinery inside the muscle (mTORC1) will be triggered by leucine, one of the three BCAAs, to initiate the synthesis of new proteins. To make new proteins mTORC1 needs all the building blocks (all the amino acids), not only the 3 BCAAs. The other bricks of the wall will be provided by amino acids that already sit inside the muscle. This pool of amino acids is limited causing the bricklayer to have a hard time making a big wall.

✅ Therefore, ingest a complete protein source such as Whey or Pea rice instead of incomplete BCAAs. This cheap alternative has all the amino acids including leucine. Therefore, mTORC1 will be maximally stimulated and the combination of endogenous (own) and exogenous (ingested) amino acids will result in the capacity to build a much bigger wall. A better capacity to synthesize new protein will help muscle remodeling and recovery after a hard workout.

🙏 Do not fall for the cheap marketing and learn to understand your own body’s biology.

PS: Life-long exercise keeps the bricklayer strong and preserves his capacity to build big walls.

PS2: It took me the whole night to make this post, hope you like it. 😀

Figure adapted from Tipton et al. GSSI

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#BCAA #whey #bricks #lego #metaphor #mTOR #resistance #exercise #CrossFit #science #biology #science #sport #datafirst

MEME

💡Part of the reason any (!) high intensity exercise is so important for your health is that it keeps your blood sugar levels under control.

🧬It does that by shuttling glucose from the circulation into your muscles - independently from insulin.

💉That's also why exercise is so important in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity.

☝🏼Check out our recent post on GLUT4, muscle contractions and glucose uptake for more infos on the topic.

Reference

Rose AJ et al., Skeletal muscle glucose uptake during exercise: How is it regulated? Physiology 2005.

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physiol.00012.2005?rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed&url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org

#Crossfit #meme #CrossFitGames #memes #weightlifting #Powerlifting #running #exercise #runners #nutrition #science