Effects of Amino acids and their metabolites on Anaerobic sports

As always, if you just want the take home message, scroll to the bottom paragraph…

It is a well established fact that athletes need more protein than non-athletes.  It has been shown that, depending on the sport, athletes need anywhere from 50-175% more protein than the average person.  This post will be a bit of a continuation on the last one on nutrient timing.  We’ll have a look at a couple of specific substrates and what they do, namely essential amino acids (EAA), branched chain amino acids (BCAA) and glutamine, and their effect on the strength training athlete in particular.

EAA’s

The twenty basic amino acids can be broken up into two groups, essential and non-essential.  Non-essential amino acids can be synthesised by the human body and we therefore don’t need to obtain them from food.  Essential amino acids are just that, essential, as we can’t synthesis them.  There are 11 non-essential amino acids and 9 essential AA’s.  When looking at the quality of a protein source, it is the EAA content that is the guiding factor.  In this regard, animal and dairy proteins are higher quality as they contain more EAA than plant based proteins, including supplements.

What’s interesting is that EAA supplements have been shown to stimulate as much protein synthesis as whole protein sources containing the same EAA content.  The particular study found that a 180 calorie supplement, containing 15 g of EAA, stimulated as much protein synthesis as 850 calories of whole protein sources with the same EAA content.

It pays to look athe amino acid profile of any supplement you’re buying.  Some are a bit dodgy and while they might be marketed as a whole protein source, the fact is that they’re really not that good as they have a lower content of EAA.

BCAA’s

We looked at BCAA in the last post regarding their timing around training.  However, BCAA are unique among amino acids in their ability to regulate metabolism, neural function and blood glucose and insulin levels.  The synthesis of BCAA in vivo is low however and they’re seen as the rate limiting step of muscle protein synthesis.  This means that without them, protein synthesis can’t continue.

Orally ingested BCAA appear in the blood stream quickly which allows them to be supplied to the working or damaged muscles to stimulate protein synthesis.  It is interesting to note that BCAA have been shown to stimulate as much protein synthesis as EAA with the same BCAA content.  So, we can say that it is the BCAA component of EAA that is stimulating protein synthesis.  However, only Leucine was able to stimulate a comparable amount of muscle protein synthesis independently.

Supplements that contain a sufficient amount of leucine have been shown to shift the athletes net protein balance from negative to positive to promote an anabolic environment.  Additionally, whey  (which contains 36%more leucine than soy protein) can stimulate 33% more protein synthesis after exercise than soy.  This is due to the increase leucine content of whey protein compared to soy protein.

Therefore, we can say that an athlete’s protein requirements should be based on leucine content first, then BCAA, then EAA content of the post workout supplement.  Again, this should be dairy and animal based protein rather than plant based.

BCAA combined with resistance training were shown to increase lean body mass, strength and decrease body fat.  They also aid recovery by minimising DOMS and increasing testosterone.

While leucine is the BCAA that is responsible for the majority of the effects of protein supplements post workout, it is currently thought that it achieves this via its metabolite β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyate (HMB).

HMB

This metabolite of leucine, HMB, has been shown to speed muscle repair, and hypertrophy after resistance training in both trained and non-trained individuals.  However, it is most effective when the training stimulus is novel.  Novel training stimuli cause more breakdown of muscle tissue and hence HMB can stimulate more protein synthesis and a larger adaptation.

HMB therefore is best taken during periods of training when novel stimuli are introduced (crossfitters take heed!) rather than maintenance or off season training.

  If this was a novel training stimuli for her, she could benefit from                                                    HMB.

Glutamine

Glutamine is an amino acid, the synthesis of which, under stressful conditions, is impaired.  Intense exercise decreases blood levels of glutamine, therefore limiting its availability as a source of nitrogen for protein synthesis and for immune cells, which use glutamine as a fuel.

Glutamine also has a role in whole body carbohydrate storage in that it has been shown to induce net muscle glycogen synthesis.  Further to this, when taken with glucose, glutamine also promotes storage of glycogen in sites outside the skeletal muscles (i.e. the liver), which is an important step in blood sugar regulation.

The take home message

In terms of amino acids, 8-10 g of EAA or 3g leucine combined with 1.5 g of isoleucine and 1.5 g of valine taken before exercise is sufficient to maximise protein synthesis to aid recovery and increase the protein balance.

To further benefit the athlete in terms of decreasing muscle damage from training, 3-6 g of HMB can be taken daily before exercise.  Again, this is most effective when combined with novel training stimuli.

Glutamine is best taken in 6-8 g doses consumed after exercise when carbohydrates are being consumed to increase the muscle glycogen and whole body glycogen stores.

So there you have it.  If anyone is after any more specific information on what presented here, please don’t hesitate to message me or leave a comment.

Leah Dansie and Spartan Race

I thought I'd do a post about, Leah Dansie, who is using the Sydney Strength training program and someone who I’m proud of for various sporting achievements, all whilst keeping busy with study, work and a range of other commitments. For those of you that don't know, Leah competed in, and came 3^rd in, the Spartan Race Australia’s Sprint distance held in Sydney on the 16th of March.

Leah was one of over 3,000 competitors across multiple waves over the course of the day.  All were going over a course designed to test the participants mental and physical toughness:  7 km's of hills, rivers, obstacles and even a spear throw to test the participants in every mode of physical fitness.  For each of the obstacles however, the participant could also choose to complete 30 burpees if they didn't want, or couldn't complete the obstacle. A lot of people chose to enter the Spartan Race as a test of their true character, just completing the race was a great achievement.  

For Leah, she went to her first Spartan Race to compete amongst the elites. In the lead up to the event, Leah's training included various strength and conditioning sessions, including CrossFit and with a lot of days being multiple days of added weight training. She also competes in all length of triathlons, from sprint to half ironman distance. Although you may not think it, Leah only did minimal running during the lead up to the race.  Averaging a few km's per week in the form of sprints or during conditioning workouts.

Leah finished 3rd of 1178 female finishers in Spartan Sydney and although happy with the result has identified various areas to improve on for future races.

Leah did find some of the obstacles challenging, such as the rope climb out of a muddy pit which proved a completely different challenge to rope climbs in the gym. She has given herself the task to work on these weaker areas of her training in preparation for other obstacle races, including the 3.5 hour, maximum distance race in Wagga Wagga coming up on the 6th of April.  

Leah also has aspirations of competing in the Spartan Ultra Beast 42km obstacle race on Nov 2 and 3 in Sydney this year.

Top 3 females: Deanna, Melissa and Leah   

                                     Podium Finishers

We’re seeing a lot more obstacle course races, like Spartan Race across Australia and the Obstacle Course Racing community is continuing to grow. Good luck with your training and if you are after information on competing in OCR give us a shout.

                                       

To find out more about Leah, you can check out her facebook page, Absolute Health and Fitness http://www.facebook.com/AbsoluteFitnessTraining

Nutrient timing and athletic performance

If you’re the sort of person who just likes to see the result of something, feel free to scroll down to the last paragraph for the take home message of this post.

Nutrient timing is all about focusing on when to eat, not only what to eat and there are four main principles that we, as coaches and athletes need to be aware of:

1.       Enhancing the performance of individual training sessions.

2.       Enhancing recovery following training

3.       Enhancing net protein balance (providing an anabolic environment), and

4.       Enhancing the adaptations to training programs over the long term.

I’m going to use this blog in the context of the strength/power training athlete (weightlifter, powerlifter, strongman, discus/shotput/javelin, sprinter etc).  However the principles are applicable to longer duration training with some adjustments.

Strength/power training is primarily anaerobic.  The athlete will use ATP-PC and stored glycogen for fuel during the workout, as well as small amounts of fat.  Fat is generally not utilised during the workout as an energy source as beta oxidation is too slow of a process to generate the amounts of ATP necessary for high intensity anaerobic training.

With this in mind, there really hasn’t been any conclusive evidence that supplementing with carbohydrates (CHO) or protein BEFORE an individual training session has much benefit FOR THAT SESSION.  However, this is not to say that it isn’t a good idea, as supplementation with both protein and carbohydrates has benefits in the longer term and in recovery.

Longer term effects of supplementation and timing of nutrients

An intense resistance training session can reduce muscle glycogen by 25-40%, depending on the session.  If this isn't replenished, subsequent workouts will suffer. It is therefore important to replenish you muscle glycogen, especially if you're doing more than one workout a day, or workouts clustered together (you crazy crossfitters you!)  

However, this is not to say that you can go and scoff down three kilos of sweet potato as there is a limit on the rate of muscle glycogen synthesis of about 1g/kg/hour.  This level has been shown to replace up to 90% of muscle glycogen.  This seems like a lot, however, remember that your body is primed after exercise to use whatever you put in it for recovery and adaptation to training, not storage.  It does get better however, as studies has shown that ingesting both protein and CHO directly following a workout will replenish muscle glycogen faster than CHO alone and do so with less CHO, around 0.67g/kg/hr.  This leads to faster recovery and the ability to hit high intensity workouts sooner and do so with more energy.

Protein/amino acids and muscle damage

A well as replacing lost glycogen, efficient recovery also includes reducing muscle damage.  Even a small amount of protein (10g essential amino acids) ingested after physical exertion has been shown to be enough to stimulate muscle recovery and reduce muscle damage, as shown by the blood levels of creatine kinase.

Of the essential amino acids, three have been shown to significantly reduce muscle damage, as much as a full dose of EAA’s.  These are the branched chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine.  An equivalent dose of BCAA’s was shown to be more effective than whole protein sources at reducing muscle damage and aiding recovery.  This study also investigated the effect of supplementing with BCAA’s on DOMS and found that they caused a significant reduction in subjective levels of DOMS compared to the whole protein and control groups.

In summary, taking a CHO /protein supplement immediately following training will replenish muscle glycogen and BCAA’s will reduced muscle damage and DOMS.  This would be especially important for people competing in multiple workout events, hint hint.

Net protein balance

The central focus of resistance training is maximising the anabolic response.  This includes having a positive protein balance and an anabolic environment (building, not breaking down).  There are three ways we can do this, increase protein synthesis, decrease protein breakdown, or a combination of both.

EAA’s have, when ingested after training have been shown to cause an improvement in net protein balance and stimulate an anabolic environment with whey protein being shown to be superior to both casein and soy proteins.

Not surprisingly, when both CHO and protein are ingested directly after exercise, there is a significant increase in muscle protein synthesis which is greater than only taking a protein supplement.  It appears that EAAs/protein taken directly after a strength/power training session enhances protein synthesis and supplementing this with CHO inhibit protein breakdown.

The take home message…

To maximise any training program, you need the right nutrition.  This isn’t only a case of what to eat but also when to eat it.  We’ve seen in this post that supplementing your training with both CHO and protein directly after exercise will enhance muscle glycogen synthesis, inhibit protein breakdown and enhance protein synthesis.  Additionally, supplementing with BCAA’s will decrease muscle damage and hence improve recovery and decrease DOMS.  This has the effect over the course of a training program and enhances recovery and adaptation to the stimulus.