BCAA - The How To…
BCCA are back in the media again. Here in Sweden, BCAA never really catched on in the first place. I remember when I got introduced to some of the advantages of BCAA use back in the late nineties. The man who spurred my interest was Alex Chimenti, a good friend in the supplement industry. He’s a real expert on amino acids and he always has a lot to say about them. Alex is originally from Italy where the supplement industry is a lot bigger and different than it is here in northern Scandinavia. BCAA’s has been widely used in south and east Europe for decades, and it does have a lot of merit if used correctly.
As a trainer and nutrition consultant I’ve used BCAA’s, often together with creatine, on hundreds of athletes in a lot of different sports for about seven years now. From my experience there are three major scenarios where you really benefit from BCAA use. Let’s break them down and see how you should supplement for the best possible effect.
Scenario 1: During low calorie diets and rapid fat loss.
5-10g BCAA and 3g creatine taken 3-5 times a day.
Note: Make sure that one dose is taken at the beginning of the training session (or during if the session exceeds 60 minutes) and one at the end. Space the other servings evenly between meals (you should take them between meals on your days off from training as well).
Hint: Dosage depends on lean body mass. If you’re a woman below 150lbs you should go with the minimum recommendation. If you’re a guy with +200lbs of lean body mass, you should go with the highest recommendation. If you’re in between, guess what? Right on Einstein, go with a middle figure.
Scenario 2: During intense training periods.
This is true if: You’re an athlete that finds it difficult to maintain body weight during intense training periods or during the intense parts of your competitive season (a lot of traveling, peaking, stress etc.).
5-10g BCAA and 2g creatine taken 3-5 times a day.
Note: If you train twice a day, take the servings during and directly after the training sessions. To enhance glucose recovery/uptake you can add 10-25g of glutamine to each of these servings (serving size depending on lbm). This will help you recover better between workouts.
Scenario 3: High altitude training (to prevent muscle loss).
5-10g BCAA taken during training and with you post-workout recovery drink.
Additional: During low calorie and low carb diets the combination of BCAA and creatine helps a lot against mental tiredness and it prevents muscle loss (if you keep your cardio low; 2-3 HIIT sessions for 20 min each is enough). It will also prevent some of the muscle flatness and loss of pump you experience on low calorie and low carb diets.