Beta Alanine

[anthony1992]

what do you think of Beta Alanine

[Youngguns]

I thi...KNOW that there aren't enough, or are there any studies that prove it being worth more than free? Creatine monohydrate!

[apex23]

I think it is great and I can tell that I have more stamina in the gym to push a few extra reps out.

[anthony1992]

thanks for your input

[Legend]

what do you think of Beta Alanine


...http://forums.rxmuscle.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Youngguns]

any studies?

[SoxFan11]

any studies?
Lazy fuck. You could at least read what TP has listed on their site. Or, better yet, do a search on PubMed.

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. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00397.2007. PMID 17690198.

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. doi:10.1007/s00726-006-0364-4. PMID
16868650.

Harris RC, Tallon MJ, Dunnett M, Boobis L, Coakley J, Kim HJ,
Fallowfield JL, Hill CA, Sale C, and Wise JA (2006) The absorption of
orally supplied ß-alanine and its effect on muscle carnosine synthesis
in human vastus lateralis. Amino Acids. 30:279-289.

[MrDiamondCalves]

I think it's great!

[Legend]

any studies?

1. Abe, H. Role of histidine-related compounds as intracellular proton buffering constituents in vertebrate muscle. Biochemistry (Mosc) 65:757-65, 2000.

2. Asatoor et al. Intestinal absorption of carnosine and its constituent amino acids in man. Gut 11:250-254, 1970.

3. Bakardjiev et al. Transport of beta-alanine and biosynthesis of carnosine by skeletal muscle cells in primary culture. Eur. J. Biochem. 225:617-623, 1994.

4. Harris et al. Carnosine and taurine contents in individual fibers in human vastus lateralis muscle. J. Sports Science. 16:639-643, 1998.

5. Harris et al. Muscle buffering capacity and dipeptide content in the thoroughbred horse, greyhound dog and man. Comparative Biochem physiol. 97A:249-251, 1990.

6. Harris et al. The absorption of orally supplied beta-alanine and its effect on muscle carnosine synthesis in human vastus lateralis. Amino Acids. 2006 May;30(3):279-89. Epub 2006 Mar 24.

7. Harris et al. Effect of 14 and 28 days beta-alanine supplementation on isometric endurance of the knee extensors. Presented at the 2006 ISSN national conference.

8. Hill et al. Influence of beta-alanine supplementation on skeletal muscle carnosine concentrations and high intensity cycling capacity. Amino Acids. 2006 Jul 28; [Epub ahead of print]

9. Hoffman et al. Effect of creatine and beta-alanine supplementation on performance and endocrine responses in strength/power athletes. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2006 Aug;16(4):430-46.

10. Kendrick et al. The effect of beta-alanine supplementation on muscle carnosine syntheisis during 4 weeks using a one-leg training model. Presented at the 2006 ISSN national conference.

11. Kendrick et al. The effect of beta-alanine supplementation on muscle carnosine synthesis during a 10 week program of strength training. Presented at the 2006 ISSN national conference.

12. Kim et al. The effect of a supplement containing beta-alanine on muscle carnosine synthesis and exercise capacity, during 12 week combined endurance and weight training.

13. Stout et al. The effects of creatine and beta-alanine on physical working capacity at neuromuscular fatigue threshold. J. Strength and Cond. Res. 20(4):928-931, 2006.

14, Stout et al. Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on the onset of neuromuscular fatigue and ventilatory threshold in women. Amino Acids. 2006 Nov 30; [Epub ahead of print]

15. Suzuki et al. The effect of sprint training on skeletal muscle carnosine in humans. Intl. J. Sport Health Sci 2:105-110, 2005.

16. Suzuki et al. High level of skeletal muscle carnosine contributes to the latter half of exercise performance during 30-s maximal cycle ergometer sprinting. Jpn. J. Physiol. 52:199-205, 2002.

17. Tallon et al. The carnosine content of vastus lateralis is elevated in resistance trained bodybuilders. J. Strength and Cond. Res. 19:725-729, 2005.

18. Zoeller et al. Effects of creatine and beta-alanine on ventilatory and lactate thresholds in men. Amino Acids. 2006 Sep 5; [Epub ahead of print].

[Legend]

any studies?

β-Alanine is the rate-limiting precursor of carnosine, which is to say carnosine levels are limited by the amount of available β-alanine. Supplementation with β-alanine has been shown to increase the concentration of carnosine in muscles, decrease fatigue in athletes and increase total muscular work done.

(A) ^ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_alanine#cite_ref-1#cite_ref-1) 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. doi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier):10.1152/japplphysiol.00397.2007 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1152%2Fjapplphysiol.00397.2007). PMID 17690198 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17690198).

(B) a (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_alanine#cite_ref-Hill2007_2-0#cite_ref-Hill2007_2-0) b (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_alanine#cite_ref-Hill2007_2-1#cite_ref-Hill2007_2-1) c (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_alanine#cite_ref-Hill2007_2-2#cite_ref-Hill2007_2-2) 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. doi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier):10.1007/s00726-006-0364-4 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs00726-006-0364-4). PMID 16868650 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16868650).

[Legend]

INFO:

Below is a list of the benefits from beta-alanine, supported by peer-reviewed university research, published in reputable science journals.

Benefits of Beta-Alanine as supported by scientific studies:

Increase Muscular Strength & Power Output.
May Increase Muscle Mass
Increase Anaerobic Endurance
Increases Aerobic Endurance
Delay Muscular Fatigue- Train Harder & Longer
What causes our muscles to lose strength, power and endurance during intense exercise?

When we exercise, especially when it’s high intensity exercise, our bodies accumulate a large amount of hydrogen ions (H+), causing our muscles’ pH to drop (become more acidic). This process is occurring whether you feel a burn or not.

The breakdown of ATP and the subsequent rise in H+ concentrations occur in all of our energy systems but H+ buildup is most prevalent in an energy system called glycolysis, which also produces lactic acid. At physiological pH, lactic acid dissociates H+ and is the primary source of released H+ ions during exercise, causing pH to drop. It is the released H+ from lactic acid that causes muscular performance problems, not the leftover lactate ions as many incorrectly believe. While lactic acid is the primary source of released H+, it is not the only source. H+ ions are also being released at a rapid rate when you break down the high energy compound ATP during exercise. With the presence of many sources during energy production releasing H+, pH drops quickly.

As our muscles pH quickly drops, so does their ability to contract forcibly and maintain a high level of performance throughout your workout session. Not being able to perform and maintain forceful muscular contractions and push your body to the limit during your workout session, seriously hampers your ability to maximally overload your muscles and force new muscle gains.
In a nutshell, H+ causes your muscles pH to drop, in tern decreasing your strength and causing you to fatigue faster. These limitations stop you from adequately overloading your muscles and could be halting new muscle gains

how can beta-alanine help us overcome this drop in pH that limits exercise performance?
To understand how beta-alanine works to fight the drop in pH within our muscle, you must first understand how carnosine works. The reason being is, beta-alanine’s performance benefits are not direct but realized through its ability to boost the synthesis of carnosine.

Background on carnosine:
The Russian scientist Gulewitsch was the first to identify carnosine in 1900. Eleven years later, he would discover and identify its constituent amino acids, beta-alanine and histidine. Seven years later, Barger and Tutin and Baumann and Ingvaldsen confirmed Gulewitsch’s findings. However, it wasn’t until 1938 that the first research on carnosine and its effects on muscle buffering were published.
Carnosine is a naturally occurring di-peptide that is found in both type 1 and type 2 muscle fibers, but is in significantly higher concentrations in type 2 fibers. Type 2 muscle fibers are primarily used in high intensity strength workouts and are most responsive to muscular growth.

How does carnosine work?
There are a handful of ways carnosine is thought to impact performance but its most studied function, and the focus of this article, is its role as an intracellular buffer. Carnosine helps stabilize muscular pH by soaking up hydrogen ions (H+) that are released at an accelerated rate during exercise.

Our bodies work to keep our pH in balance by utilizing various buffering systems. Buffers largely work by soaking up H+ to maintain optimal pH balance, which we need to function most effectively. As mentioned above, our muscles function best in a specific pH range. When pH drops below that range, so does muscular performance. By helping to keep us in a more optimal pH range, our muscles can continue to contract forcibly for a longer time.
There are a handful of buffering systems that work in our bodies. Some maintain pH in extra cellular fluids (ECF) outside of the cell, while others perform their duties in intracellular fluids (ICF) inside the cell and some perform in both. Our focus in this article is on exercise performance and, as mentioned above, the primary source of H+ released during exercise is from lactic acid and ATP breakdown. Take a guess where this breakdown and release of H+ is occurring? If you guessed inside our muscles or intracellular, you would be correct. As a result, the first line of defense in absorbing the H+ is going to be the cell from intracellular buffers such as carnosine, not from extra cellular buffers.

Aside from carnosine being just where we need it, buffering H+ inside our cells, it has additional, unique attributes that make it really shine. Carnosine is unique; in that, other natural buffering systems our bodies use are also used in many other cellular reactions aside from buffering, watering down much of their buffering abilities. However, what makes carnosine really exciting, is that by supplementing with extra beta-alanine, we can specifically and dramatically increase carnosine levels. How much, you ask?

Researchers have shown that when supplementing with beta-alanine for just 4 weeks, we can increase our carnosine concentration by 42-65%. Longer beta-alanine studies going up to 10-12 weeks, show carnosine concentrations increased up to 80%. This is a tremendous increase in an already powerful intracellular buffer. It is this large increase in buffering capacity within our muscles that is largely responsible for the strength, lean body mass, power and muscular endurance gains that researchers are seeing from beta-alanine studies.

Section summary:
By boosting carnosine concentrations, with beta-alanine, our type 2 muscle fibers can soak up more H+ and stay in an optimal pH range. By keeping our type 2 muscle fibers in an optimal pH range, they are better able to maintain maximal strength and endurance throughout your workout session and could bring on new muscle gains

[anthony1992]

thanks for the info Legend

[xdime00]

I got some for free in the TP sale around christmas. What kind of dosing protocols do most of you go by?

[anthony1992]

I take 2g before and after workouts and on rest days I take 2g in the morning. what about you

[countryboy]

single best otc supplement since creatine mono in my books

[Legend]

thanks for the info Legend

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[Frosty]

10g a day, IMO.

[countryboy]

10g a day, IMO.

why so high frosty

[anthony1992]

10g a day, IMO.


how is the 10g split out throught the day