Beta alanine

I realize most supplements are useless or worse, but wondering if anyone has experience with beta alanine. Supposed to help recovery and allow for more intense work outs. I have been pretty over-reached and was feeling kind of desperate so am trying a course of this. It seems to be helping, which is maybe placebo effect. Even so, I'll take it! And there are some positive (manufacturer financed) studies...

there are always positive (manufacturer financed) studies!

:)

slim wrote:there are always positive (manufacturer financed) studies! :)

I know. If there weren't ANY positive studies, they'd keep trying till there were. And deep six the negative ones.

But creatine is pretty well established, as are anabolic steroids, so maybe this is another.

In my opinion, if you are looking for a workout enhancement supplement, then ephedra + caffeine is pretty much the only thing that consistently provides results at a cheap price. Beta-Alanine seems to be way over exaggerated in performance benefits.

For the most part I think it's just placebo garbage that comes with the tingling effect that it usually imparts on the people who consume it. It works great for supplement companies who push supplements that don't actually provide real results, are extremely cheap to make, and sell for lots of money.

There are a lot of companies making pre-workout supplements with beta-alanine in it to provide the tingle effect, but then also include 'proprietary' blends of additional chemicals that are basically just amphetamine derivatives.

Alanine is an amino acid which can be synthesized by the body... Supplementation not rqd. Be sure to eat a variety of proteins, and hit the standard "complete protein meals" ie beans an rice.

Chocolate milk post workouts, raisins and water to snack on during exercise, complete protein meals at night.

Do not skimp on the complex carbs in the am and evening before strenuous days out... Glucose is our primary fuel source despite all the low carb fanatics out there, if your goal is performance never skimp.

Watch for overtraining, your body may need more rest..

Rather than relying on the half-informed, crowd-sourced, usually wrong or misleading info you might find here in forums, instead I turn to ergolog for these kinds of questions, (site which compiles research on ergogenic aids).

ergo-log.com/betaalanine.html

Gotta love the 'don't pay attention to anything you read on this forum, but pay attention to me' posts.

Will S wrote:Rather than relying on the half-informed, crowd-sourced, usually wrong or misleading info you might find here in forums, instead I turn to ergolog for these kinds of questions, (site which compiles research on ergogenic aids). ergo-log.com/betaalanine.html

Will, thanks for the url, I took a quick look at the site and it seems interesting and useful.

I often get valuable info from mp, eg your post above, Dana's articles, Slim, Aerlii, Chris Plesko, JLP, many others. Read the posts for a while and it becomes obvious who to read and who to ignore.

What I learned reading this weekend. Thanks Dana!

Beta alanine (BA) makes up half of a molecule called carnosine. The other half is histidine, FWIW. The amount of carnosine made by the body depends on the amount of beta alanine available. BA is a nonessential amino acid, which means that it is made by the body (the liver in this case.) However, supplementing the endogenous BA with dietary BA (from meat) or from supplements, allows for a significant increase in carnosine in the muscles.

The ideal dose for increasing carnosine is unknown. It seems like anything from about 2 gms to 6 gms daily of BA will eventually lead to a near doubling of carnosine. It just takes longer to reach that point with a smaller dose. Doses higher than 10mg/kg can cause a flushing sensation which some folks dislike. Sustained release tablets do not have this side effect.

Carnosine is thought to improve performance by buffering hydrogen ions produced by muscle activity, thereby allowing greater effort before the onset of muscle fatigue.
There are studies which show that performance in exercise lasting between 60 and 240 seconds is improved by BA supplementation. The effect size was modest when looking at what were called performance measures, which are exercises with a fixed endpoint (e.g. 300 yd dash.) The effect was about 0.3, which is a little larger than the difference in height between 15 and 16 year old girls in the US. However with exercise capacity tests (eg stationary bicycle ride to exhaustion) the effect size was about 0.6, which is a little more than the difference between the heights of 14 and 18 year old girls in the US. The authors of the meta-analysis explain away this difference by suggesting that the performance measures are tainted by pacing strategies, while the capacity measures are not. Take this for what you will.

BA had no effect on exercise lasting less than 60 seconds. It might have a mild effect on exercise lasting more than 240 seconds, but this is unclear.

Beyond flushing, there do not seem to be any significant side effects.

A month's worth of time release BA is currently about $30 on Amazon.

Finally, elevated muscle carnosine levels seem to last for as long as 6-8 weeks after stopping supplementation, .

Personally, I think it has helped me, but I believe I was in an unusual state, having overtrained in the spring (over reached is the correct term I guess) then going on a vegetarian trek/climb for a month.

Just took dose number one of a 2 month supply of intraxcell. Will post updates as things progress.

Beta alanine is great. What else is there to know?