If you’re just starting to add supplements to your exercise program, beta-alanine is a good one to get used to. This article explains everything you need to know about this substance.
Beta-alanine is a popular supplement for athletes and regular exercisers. It has been shown to support performance enhancement and provide many health benefits.
What is beta-alanine?
Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid. This means that unlike most amino acids, your body does not use beta-alanine for protein synthesis. Instead, together with histidine, it produces carnosine. Carnosine is then stored in your skeletal muscle.
Beta-alanine for effective training performance
Carnosine reduces the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles during exercise. This leads to enhanced athletic performance.
How does beta-alanine work?
In our muscles, the actual histidine level will be high and the beta-alanine level low. This is to limit the production of carnosine.
Supplementing with beta-alanine has been shown to increase carnosine levels in muscle by 80%. How Carnosine Works in Muscles:
Glucose is broken down, glycolysis is the breakdown of glucose, which is the main source of fuel during intense exercise.
As lactate is produced, your muscles break down glucose into lactic acid. This is converted to lactate, creating hydrogen ions.
Hydrogen ions lower the pH levels in your muscles, making them more acidic.
Muscle acidity prevents the breakdown of glucose and reduces the ability of the muscles to contract which is the cause of fatigue.
Carnosine serves as a buffer against acid, reducing acidity in the muscles during intense exercise.
Effects of Beta-alanine
Beta-alanine will help your muscles recover quickly, reducing the bad accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles.
Beta Alanine when combined with l-histidine will produce carnosine and store in our skeletal muscle. Carnosine is the substance that helps us exercise longer, more durable and more energetic.
Many studies show that using beta-alanine supplements will help you increase your stamina to a very high level, possibly until exhaustion. You can increase your body’s overall strength by 13-14% by taking beta-alanine.
Beta-alanine will help you increase your stamina to a very high level
Beta-alanine improves athletic performance by reducing fatigue, increasing endurance, and increasing performance during intense exercise.
In other words, the substance will help you exercise for longer periods of time at a time. One study in cyclists found that for 4 weeks supplementing with beta-alanine increased total work done by 13%, by 3.2% after 10 weeks.
Similarly, 20 men in a comparable cycling test increased their burnout time by 13 to 13.14% after four weeks of beta-alanine supplementation. Besides, for the elderly, beta-alanine can help increase muscle endurance
Some evidence suggests that beta-alanine increases lean mass in the body. As it can help increase training volume and promote muscle growth.
How to use beta-alanine?
Food sources of beta-alanine include meat, poultry, and fish.
Vegetarians have 50% less carnosine in their muscles than those on a regular diet. Although the average person can get an adequate amount of beta-alanine from their daily diet, taking beta-alanine as a dietary supplement is currently very popular with people who have a habit of under-intensity training. height.
The standard dosage of beta-alanine is 2-5 grams per day. Consuming beta-alanine with meals may further increase carnosine levels.
Although the main substance we need is carnosine, beta-alanine supplements seem to be better at delivering carnosine to the muscles than taking carnosine itself.
Taking too much beta-alanine can cause an allergic reaction. Itchy skin due to allergies will appear on the face, neck and back of the hands. The intensity of this tingling increases with dose size. It can be avoided by taking small doses – about 800 mg at a time.
You can combine beta–alanine with other supplements, including sodium bicarbonate and creatine.
When combined with sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, it enhances exercise performance by reducing acidity in your blood and muscles. Many studies have examined the combination of beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate. The results suggest some benefit from combining the two supplements — especially during exercises where muscle acidosis inhibits performance.
When combined with creatine, it enhances high-intensity exercise performance by increasing ATP availability. When used together, creatine and beta-alanine have been shown to benefit exercise performance, strength, and lean muscle mass.
Beta-alanine only works optimally when used correctly
Beta-alanine enhances performance by increasing exercise capacity and reducing muscle fatigue. It also has antioxidant, immune-boosting, and anti-aging properties.
You can get beta-alanine from foods that contain carnosine or through supplements. The recommended dose is 2 – 5 grams per day. Although excessive amounts can cause tingling in the skin, beta-alanine is considered a safe and effective supplement for increasing exercise performance.
Reference source
Beta-Alanine — A Beginner’s Guide https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/beta-alanine-101#functions Accessed March 16, 2020
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