However, scientists question whether these supplements offer an advantage over food sources. Research that directly compares the benefits of taking BCAAs over other protein supplements at one time over another is limited.

Getting an adequate dose based on your body weight is essential, as well as continuing to take them in the long term, including on nonexercise days. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Protein supplements are very popular. This article explains the best time to take them, depending on your goals. This is a detailed article about whey protein and its health benefits. It can help you lose weight and gain muscle, while improving your overall….

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A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Nutrition Evidence Based When Should You Take BCAAs? Medically reviewed by Grant Tinsley, Ph. BCAAs Benefits Timing Other factors Bottom line It may not make much difference whether BCAA supplements are taken before, during, or after exercise.

What are BCAA supplements? How BCAA supplements may help your fitness regimen. Science-based evidence for when to take BCAA supplements. Other factors that may enhance BCAA effectiveness. The bottom line. How we reviewed this article: History. Apr 9, Written By Marsha McCulloch. Medically Reviewed By Grant Tinsley, Ph.

Aug 19, Written By Marsha McCulloch. Share this article. Read this next. When Is the Best Time to Take Protein? Pre-Workout Nutrition: What to Eat Before a Workout.

By Grant Tinsley, Ph. Post-Workout Nutrition: What to Eat After a Workout. By Arlene Semeco, MS, RD and Celia Shatzman. A significant time effect was seen for all variables.

The VJ, TC and CC were not different between groups. The present study has shown that BCAA administered before and following damaging resistance exercise reduces indices of muscle damage and accelerates recovery in resistance-trained males.

It seems likely that BCAA provided greater bioavailablity of substrate to improve protein synthesis and thereby the extent of secondary muscle damage associated with strenuous resistance exercise.

Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT Although many resistance exercises require both shortening and lengthening contractions, it has been well documented that exercise biased by lengthening contractions are a more powerful stimulus for neuromuscular adaptation compared to shortening contractions [ 1 — 3 ].

As a consequence, many athletes will routinely incorporate this exercise modality in order to maximise the potential adaptations from lengthening contractions. However, lengthening contractions, particularly when high forces are generated, precipitate temporary exercise-induced muscle damage EIMD that can last for several days after the initial bout [ 4 ].

This EIMD manifests as a reduction in neuromuscular function, reduced range of motion, increased muscle soreness, limb swelling and the elevation of intramuscular proteins in blood [ 4 — 6 ]. These signs and symptoms impair muscle function and inhibit the potential to engage in high intensity exercise on subsequent days, which is often required by athletic populations.

In an attempt to reduce the negative effects of EIMD a number of interventions have been explored; these include cold water immersions [ 7 ], antioxidant supplementation [ 8 , 9 ], ergogenic aids [ 5 ], non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [ 10 ] and nutritional interventions [ 11 ].

These examples have shown mixed success, however one nutritional intervention, branched chain amino acids BCAA , have shown a reasonable degree of efficacy in reducing the effects of EIMD; in the most part following strenuous endurance exercise.

BCAA are a group of essential amino acids that are a key substrate for protein synthesis and recovery [ 12 ]. Furthermore, BCAA conserve muscle mass in conditions characterised by protein loss and catabolism [ 13 ] and a recent review has proposed BCAA to provide a therapeutic effect following damaging resistance exercise [ 14 ].

Indeed, studies examining recovery from heavy endurance activity [ 15 — 18 ] have shown evidence that BCAA are beneficial in reducing muscle damage and accelerating the recovery process. Whilst this positive evidence is encouraging, muscle damage is far more prevalent following high intensity resistance exercise, although few studies have examined the efficacy of BCAA following damaging resistance exercise.

Nosaka et al. Additionally, in a recent well-controlled example [ 20 ], muscle soreness was reduced with BCAA; however, changes in blood indices or recovery of muscle function were absent.

The aforementioned studies [ 19 , 20 ] used untrained volunteers and an isolated muscle group, which are not wholly representative of the stimulus often encountered by many athletic populations who routinely use damaging lengthening-biased resistance exercise as a training stimulus.

Shimomura et al. Interestingly, and in some support of this supposition, Stock et al. This study contradicts the general findings from other research, which may partly be attributable to a methodological difference such as providing leucine alone and not leucine, isoleucine and valine combined.

Additionally, Sharp and Pearson [ 24 ] recently examined BCAA supplementation during a resistance training programme designed to induce over-reaching. Nevertheless, the current evidence is promising and we therefore hypothesised the magnitude of EIMD in resistance-trained individuals would be lower with BCAA supplementation compared to a placebo control.

Consequently, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of BCAA supplementation on recovery from a sport-specific damaging bout of resistance exercise in trained volunteers. Participants engaged in specific resistance exercise at least twice per week during the competitive season.

Following a health-screening questionnaire, all volunteers provided written, informed consent. The sample size was based on previous research examining supplementation and EIMD that had shown a significant effect [ 21 , 25 ].

Prior to the start of data collection all procedures were given institutional research ethics approval and subsequently registered as a clinical trial ClinicalTrials. gov , NCT Experimental design and a flow diagram of the participants allocation to groups.

The supplementation protocol followed a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled design. The BCAA supplement Myprotein, Cheshire, UK contained a ratio of leucine, isoleucine and valine, respectively. Artificial sweetener rather than a carbohydrate-based placebo was used to prevent a rise in insulin that may have altered protein metabolism [ 22 ].

In accordance with previous work [ 21 ], all participants were strongly advised to maintain regular dietary habits and avoid taking additional protein or any supplements for the duration of the study. In an attempt to control for diet, participants were asked to record food intake in the loading phase of the trial and replicate this diet as closely as possible following the damaging protocol.

Participants performed a total of drop-jumps from a height of 0. Upon landing, participants were encouraged to immediately jump vertically with maximal force. This protocol has been previously shown to cause significant elevations in muscle damage indices [ 19 , 27 , 28 ]. Plasma CK was determined from an earlobe capillary blood sample.

The sample was analysed immediately using an automated, dry slide photospectrometer Reflotron Plus, Bio Stat Ltd.

Stockport, UK. Similarly to previous work [ 5 , 11 , 27 ], participants were seated on a plinth where the strain gauge was assembled. The strain gauge was attached to the ankle, immediately above the malleoli.

Each MVC was performed at a knee joint angle of 90 0. The joint angle was assessed prior to each repetition with a goniometer Bodycare Products, Warwickshire, UK at the lateral condyle of the femur. Each participant was familiarised with the test procedure and received strong verbal encouragement for each attempt.

Three MVCs were recorded and the maximum value was used for data analysis. To account for inter-subject variability, MVC was expressed as a percentage of pre-damage MVC.

Vertical jump VJ performance was assessed using the Vertec instrument Sports Imports, Columbus Ohio. Participants performed a counter movement jump in which, on command from a standing position, they descended rapidly to approximately a 90° knee angle and performed a maximal vertical jump, tapping the device with the dominant arm [ 30 ].

Each participant was familiarised with the test procedure prior to the recorded efforts and received strong verbal encouragement for each attempt. Mid-thigh and calf circumference was assessed as a measure of limb swelling using an anthropometric tape measure Bodycare Products, Warwickshire, UK.

Both measures were obtained with the participant in a standing position. The calf measurement was made at the widest part of the calf, whereas the mid-thigh measure was determined as the mid-point between the inguinal crease and superior aspect of the patella.

Both sites were marked with semi-permanent ink to ensure consistent measurements between days [ 27 ]. Detection of differences were determined using a 2-way, repeated measures ANOVA group, 2; time, 5. Significant interactions were followed-up using LSD post-hoc , pair-wise comparisons.

L -1 , respectively , which equated to a 3 to 4-fold increase above baseline. The initial aim of the present study was to examine the effects of BCAA supplementation on indices of muscle damage in resistance-trained volunteers. The principle findings show BCAA can reduce the negative effects of damaging exercise by attenuating CK efflux, reducing residual muscle soreness and improving recovery of muscle function to a greater extent than a placebo control.

The protocol successfully induced muscle damage, which was evident from the significant time effects for all dependent variables. This supports the efficacy of the protocol as a model to induce muscle damage in a sport specific manner [ 27 , 28 ].

Additionally, the data presented here support previous literature suggesting BCAA as an effective intervention to reduce the negative effects of damaging exercise [ 15 — 18 ] and more specifically from damaging resistance exercise [ 14 , 20 , 21 ].

The novel information offered by these data demonstrate that BCAA can be used as an effective intervention to ameliorate the negative effects EIMD precipitated from a sport specific damaging bout of resistance exercise in trained participants.

However, the cell membrane is likely to have undergone some degree of lipolysis as a result of an imbalance in calcium homeostasis [ 4 ], almost certainly from the exercise insult. The damage literature often shows a high degree of inter-subject variability in CK and other cytosolic markers of EIMD, however, variability in the current study was relatively small, partly attributable to the trained status of the volunteers.

The greater conditioning of these participants has almost certainly led to a repeated bout effect [ 31 ], whereby, a conditioning bout of exercise in this case prior training leads to a decrease in damage indices on subsequent bouts [ 4 , 31 , 32 ].

This is further supported by the low CK response seen in both groups following the exercise, when compared to the damage responses seen in untrained volunteers [ 19 , 20 ]. Despite this relative homogeneity, the CK response was less in the BCAA group suggesting the membrane integrity was maintained to greater extent than the placebo group.

The damage response is known to be bi-phasic in nature; a primary response caused by the mechanical stress of the exercise, followed by a secondary, transient inflammatory response over the following hours and days [ 4 ]. Although we cannot definitively support this postulate, it seems plausible that the greater bioavailability provided by BCAA facilitated this response and thereby decreased secondary damage to the muscle.

Furthermore, the group effects support previous data [ 20 , 21 , 34 ] showing a reduction in muscle soreness following a damaging bout of exercise with BCAA supplementation. Although the mechanism surrounding muscle soreness following a damaging bout of exercise is not well understood, it seems likely to be related to inflammation, particularly to the connective tissue elements [ 35 ] that sensitise nociceptors in muscle and hence increase sensations of pain [ 36 ].

However, previous work [ 20 ] demonstrating a reduction in soreness following BCAA supplementation also measured the acute inflammatory response interleukin-6, a pro-inflammatory cytokine and showed no difference between the BCAA and placebo groups. Jackman et al.

Although this idea is somewhat speculative and has no supporting evidence or proposed mechanism, we show similar trends in our data, but it is not possible to support or refute this theory. Based on the reductions in CK, it makes the expectation tenable that the secondary damage phase is reduced by the aforementioned uptake of BCAA for protein synthesis, thus, limiting the extent of damage and hence reducing the precipitation of soreness.

Whilst there was no difference in vertical jump performance and limb girth, the most notable finding is that reductions in MVC were attenuated and recovery of MVC was accelerated following BCAA supplementation. This study demonstrated an effect on function and is in contrast to other work [ 20 ] that used untrained participants in a similar experimental design showing no benefits in the recovery of force production with BCAA.

Interestingly, other studies [ 21 , 37 ] using non-resistance-trained student populations have shown some benefit in the recovery of muscle function.

These data should be treated with caution however, as both studies [ 21 , 37 ] used a cross-over design which suffers the limitation of the repeated bout effect RBE. The RBE refers to a protective effect or attenuation of damage indices when the exercise is repeated [4,31,32].

It would seem that differences between our findings and those of Jackman et al. The other obvious difference between the current investigation and previous literature is the amount of BCAA administered.

Interestingly, Jackman et al. Previous work [ 39 ] has shown that timing of a protein based recovery strategy is important and immediately following a damaging bout of exercise can be most beneficial in accelerating recovery. Whist Jackman et al. This is somewhat conjectural and would serve as an interesting question for future research to ascertain the optimal strategy for BCAA supplementation.

Regardless of whether the loading phase and timing of the supplementation post-exercise was effective in increasing the bioavailability of BCAA, there is still a stark difference in the total supplementation volume 88 vs. The larger quantity of BCAA we provided might partly account for the difference between studies in damage indices MVC and CK.

We based our supplementation regimen on previous work that showed a positive effect [ 16 , 26 ] and propose that positive effects beyond attenuation of muscle soreness i. There are two limitations from the study, which need to be acknowledged. Firstly the lack of specific dietary control might have led to discrepancies in caloric and, more specifically, protein ingestion between the groups.

Although we attempted to control this by asking participants to record food intake during the loading phase and replicate this following the damaging exercise, an approach that has been previous used [ 11 , 21 ], there was no specific control between groups. Conceivably discrepancies in protein intake can affect the bioavailability of the substrate and hence affect protein turnover and ultimately influence the outcome of these data.

Although the current investigation has a good degree of external validity, future research might like to consider more rigorous dietary control measures such as; 1 asking participants to weigh food and accurately log food intake; or 2 providing a pre-determined menu for the participants to ensure no discrepancies between and within groups, although this still relies on participant adherence outside the laboratory.

Finally, 3 although difficult to facilitate, participants could be housed in an environment where dietary behavior can be imposed and thereby strictly controlled.

In summary, these data offer novel information on the application of BCAA supplementation. Most importantly, BCAA attenuated reductions in muscle function and accelerated recovery post-exercise in a resistance-trained population. Adams GR, Cheng DC, Haddad F, Baldwin KM: Skeletal muscle hypertrophy in response to isometric, lengthening, and shortening training bouts of equivalent duration.

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