Post Workouts, BCAAs & Amino Acids
Recover & Perform
Understand this first in for most, time waits for nobody. I know this sounds strange coming from fitness/outdoors email but it’s the truth. Every year when step up to the mountain we are older, and with age comes wisdom, and also increases in joint pain, muscle soreness, and our recovery time.
Say you’re prepping for your hunting season, whether it’s in the stand, moving quickly across the Alaskan tundra, or chasing high country mule deer, making sure that your body is not only prepared for it physically but also that your muscles and joints recover fast enough to continue at the pace you need is critical. Understanding what products you can look into to help speed up recovery, reach your goals, and make sure you’re at your best when your season arrives is why we are here.
Now, if your prep for the season includes extended time in the gym, then most likely you take some sort of intra-workout or post-workout supplement to try to help your muscles and your condition recover fast and efficiently. Chances are that supplement is BCAAs. Branched chain amino acids (Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine) are building blocks that help with protein muscle synthesis which will help with recovery time.
On paper, studies show positive effects on synthesis and muscle recovery in individuals who take BCAA supplements throughout the day or as a post workout compared to those who didn’t. Yes, you do need them and they will help you out, but like the mainstream media, companies only cite small bits of the information from studies in which support their claims, and the large picture of the study is not supplied to you the consumer.
Wait, what?
In most of the studies cited, individuals who saw positive outcomes from BCAA supplementation had deficiencies in their protein intake in their actual diet. Most people do not realize that if you are getting sufficient protein intake in your diet, that you are actually getting enough BCAAs already. If your goal is increased protein synthesis to gain muscle and boost recovery time, you need around 1g of a 2:1:1 BCAA per kg of body weight. (Just multiply your weight times 0.45 if you don't want to look that conversion up). To give you a quick idea, six ounces of chicken are close to 7 grams of BCAAs. (Review Whole Food BCAA Chart Here) Most of your protein supplements are going to have an even higher ratio than most whole foods.
All of that said, based on the regular feedback we get, protein intake is a struggle for most people and adding a BCAA product to your supplement line will only help you in the short and long run. Evaluate where you are at and see what you need to do food wise or supplement wise and go from there. Here are how our lines of BCAA products look and stack up:
Our options for post workout include BCAA by MTN OPS, Kodiak Recover by Dark Mountain, Racked by Bucked Up, and the Keep Hammering 2:1:1 BCAA by MTN OPS.
If you're one who isn't close on your protein intake, then you're probably also lacking in some vitamins as well. Both MTN OPS BCAA products provide the highest doses of BCAAs at 5.5 grams and both have an assortment of vitamins and other essential ingredients.
Racked by Bucked Up comes in at 4 grams of BCAAs and is more of a direct product with fewer ingredients. The better option if you're taking some sort of multivitamins already.
If you’re one of the individuals that realizes that you are getting the efficient amount of protein in your diet, then we need to direct you to other products and ingredients to help you get the most out of your supplements and nutrition. Specifically, Legion’s Recharge, glutamine, multivitamins, fish oil’s, creatine, and your overall nutrition.
Recharge is based around creatine and L-Carnitine L-tartrate. Carnitine is a compound that your body produces from the amino acids lysine and methionine, and it plays a critical role in the generation of cellular energy. L-tartrate is a salt used to increase the absorption of other nutrients. Creatine does great work by bringing in extra water to your muscles, which generates growth and blood flow, thus increasing mass and gains.
Ok, so this is a lot to process. So lets pump the breaks for a minute. We are going to break down joint health, training and nutrition in preparation for high altitude hunts, and recovery more but to keep this from becoming a novel, we will cut this here and be on the look out for emails and articles going up in regards to these topics soon at www.built4thehunt.com.