Combined Effect Of BCAA & L-Citrulline For Athletic Performance

A

midst the wide range of sports supplements available today, it isn’t always clear which sports supplements may help augment athletic performance. Yes or No guys? I know, it’s a yes, and that’s why you have landed here while surfing on performance boosters. Sports supplementation is a dietary intervention in an attempt to enhance performance. One cannot aim to train and perform at full potential without the appropriate dietary intervention.

Whether you are an elite athlete or an athlete by passion, you’ll need to care about your sports nutrition requirements, post-workout nutrition strategies, and your performance needs.

In today’s blog, you’ll learn about one such nutritional strategy, BCAA and L-Citrulline (the two potential game-changers in the sports nutrition market), the combined effect of which can reduce exercise-induced fatigue in athletes.

Those of you who have been following our blogs wouldn’t need any introduction and benefits of the individual amino acids. If you are yet to follow our blogs, you can do that here asitisnutrition.com/blogs/health

If you feel you need some prior information on the individual amino supplement, you can get sufficient information on the individual amino acids by following the link BCAA-The star player in the supplementation genre, L-Citrulline – The powerful fatigue fighter

Cognitive Performance Is Crucial For The Success In Athletic Performance

Cognitive demand will be increasingly high in high-intensity intermittent exercise like running, sprinting, or sports performance. As per studies, the cognitive performance, measured by the reaction time gets progressively impaired after exhausting exercise. This happens because of the activation of the brain serotonin system which would lead to the development of fatigue during performance. One of the proposed mechanisms that contribute to central fatigue is the increase in cerebral serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) concentration during exercise. The elevated serotonin (neurotransmitter) concentration during sustained exercise could lead to feelings of tiredness, loss of central drive and motivation. Are you thinking, this is exactly what happens to you while you perform? Go ahead and read on to get a more interesting piece of information…

BCAA Can Reduce Central Fatigue & Time To Exhaustion

Branched Chain Amino Acid (BCAA), including leucine, isoleucine, and valine, have been proposed to reduce exercise-induced central fatigue. BCAAs compete with the cerebral uptake of tryptophan, the precursor for cerebral serotonin synthesis. While serotonin impairs exercise progress and muscle output, the increased plasma concentration of BCAA can produce an ergogenic effect by contributing to a reduction in central fatigue, allowing the subjects to perform faster at the same degree of perceived exertion.

All fine…but the disappointing thing is that some fascinating things come with unavoidable/unimportant features. All we need to learn is to handle both the important and unimportant things in the right way as the cost of important cannot be forbidden because of the mere unimportant feature.

I am referring here about the most fascinating feature of BCAA. The interesting thing about BCAA is its potential to alleviate muscular fatigue, but one possible drawback for BCAA supplementation is the excess ammonia accumulation (hyperammonemia). BCAA comes to rescue from the onset of fatigue, now what is the rescue from the accumulation of ammonia? Here comes the role of L-Citrulline…

L-Citrulline – A Nitric Oxide Precursor With High Bioavailability

You just learned that the potential ergogenic benefit of BCAA may get offset during your sustained performance due to the accumulation of ammonia which is the resultant of increased BCAA metabolism during exercise. The elevated cerebral uptake and accumulation of ammonia can lead to alterations in cerebral energy metabolism and neurotransmission.

1. L-Citrulline, a NO precursor with high bioavailability has been suggested to reduce the exercise-related accumulation of ammonia by promoting urea cycle and nitric oxide biosynthesis. The urea cycle detoxifies ammonia by converting excess ammonia into urea which later gets excreted in the urine.

2. L-Citrulline augments L-Arginine availability, L-Arginine is a substrate for nitric oxide formation that causes vasodilation. The endogenous NO formation increases with extracellular arginine concentration and low NO bioavailability is central to the development of endothelial dysfunction.

3. Physical exercise is better tolerated by increasing nitric oxide. Increased NO and vasodilation result in improved blood flow which facilitates better delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles, improves muscle function and muscle capacity to sustain the heavy workout.

4. L-Citrulline can reduce the ATP cost of muscle force production, leading to improved physiological responses relating to endurance performance and recovery.

WHO CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE COMBINED SUPPLEMENTATION OF BCAA & L-CITRULLINE?

The combined supplementation of BCAA and L-Citrulline would be most suitable for those who do aerobic, circuit, or interval training.

• Those who want to feel focused without taking caffeine

• Those who want to preserve muscles and prevent muscle breakdown

• Endurance athletes (runners, cyclists)

• Strength athletes (bodybuilders, weightlifters)

• Those who wish to have pumped-up biceps

• Those wanting to recover faster from exercise

What Is The Best Time To Supplement With BCAA & L-Citrulline?

Since L-Citrulline boosts nitric oxide production, faster delivery of nutrients and oxygen to muscles, stimulates faster recovery, promotes cellular energy production, and pumps, it is suggested to be taken 45 minutes to one hour before you hit the gym or before your performance.

You can consider taking BCAA in between your performance. This helps preserve muscle glycogen stores, stimulates muscle protein synthesis, enhances recovery.

Just about any athlete or gym-goer will start noticing improvements when they start taking a blend of BCAA and L-Citrulline…with this combination, one can aim for high volume performance and more pronounced results…

BCAA have been suggested to alleviate exercise-induced central fatigue, while L-Citrulline helps remove the ammonia accumulation accompanied with BCAA… BCAA reduces time to exhaustion, L-citrulline reduces perceived exertion…

Also read: Effect Of BCAA and Caffeine On Athletic Performance

Follow our Instagram page for the latest updates: badalkhudko