What Are The Mechanisms Of Action For Popular Supplements Like Creatine, Beta-alanine, And BCAAs In Enhancing Athletic Performance?

Introduction

Athletes often use nutritional supplements to enhance their performance, with creatine, beta-alanine, and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) being among the most popular. Understanding the mechanisms of action for these supplements can help in optimizing their use for specific athletic goals.

Key Insights

Creatine:
- Increases Strength and Power: Creatine supplementation enhances strength and power, particularly in high-intensity, short-duration activities by increasing phosphocreatine stores in muscles, which helps regenerate ATP more quickly during intense exercise .
- Improves Lean Body Mass: Creatine supplementation is associated with increases in lean body mass and reductions in body fat percentage .
Beta-Alanine:
- Buffers Muscle Acidity: Beta-alanine increases muscle carnosine levels, which helps buffer acid in muscles, delaying fatigue during high-intensity exercise .
- Enhances Performance in Repeated Sprints: Beta-alanine supplementation improves performance in repeated sprint activities by reducing performance decrement over successive sprints.
Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs):
- Reduces Exercise-Induced Fatigue: BCAAs help mitigate central fatigue by reducing the uptake of tryptophan in the brain, which can delay the onset of fatigue during prolonged exercise.
- Supports Muscle Recovery: BCAAs play a role in muscle protein synthesis, aiding in recovery and reducing muscle soreness post-exercise.

Conclusion

Creatine, beta-alanine, and BCAAs each have distinct mechanisms that enhance athletic performance. Creatine primarily boosts strength and power by increasing phosphocreatine stores, beta-alanine delays fatigue by buffering muscle acidity, and BCAAs reduce exercise-induced fatigue and support muscle recovery. These supplements can be strategically used to meet specific athletic goals, such as improving high-intensity performance, enhancing endurance, or aiding in recovery.

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What are the mechanisms of action for popular supplements like creatine, beta-alanine, and BCAAs in enhancing athletic performance?

Summary

Not a yes or no question

Introduction

Key Insights

Conclusion

Sources and full results

The Impact of Supplements on Sports Performance for the Trained Athlete: A Critical Analysis

Effect of creatine and beta-alanine supplementation on performance and endocrine responses in strength/power athletes.

Does the use of dietary supplements enhance athletes’ sport performances? A systematic review and a meta-analysis

Effects of supplementation with creatine monohydrate and beta-alanine, alone or combined, on repeated sprint performance and physiological parameters in amateur team and racket sport players

Supplements for Strength-Power Athletes

Effects of 28 days of beta-alanine and creatine monohydrate supplementation on aerobic power, ventilatory and lactate thresholds, and time to exhaustion

Creatine Supplementation and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism for Building Muscle Mass- Review of the Potential Mechanisms of Action.

Effects of 28 days of beta-alanine and creatine monohydrate supplementation on muscle carnosine, body composition and exercise performance in recreationally active females

Exercise promotes BCAA catabolism: effects of BCAA supplementation on skeletal muscle during exercise.

The Effect of Beta-Alanine versus Alkaline Agent Supplementation Combined with Branched-Chain Amino Acids and Creatine Malate in Highly-Trained Sprinters and Endurance Athletes: A Randomized Double-Blind Crossover Study

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