Workout Muscle Fuel Supplement Stack – What To Choose & How To Take It

Workout muscle fuel
As a regular reader of FullyFlexed, you already know a protein-and-carb drink should be bookending your workouts. Now, however, research supports the idea of consuming a combination of amino acids and carbs during exercise to really prime your muscles for optimal growth and recovery. The stack presented here is a solid, inexpensive base from which to build serious muscle, perform better and recover faster from your workouts. At the foundation are carbohydrates, which provide fuel and ensure your blood-glucose levels remain steady. Whey protein or a complete cocktail of the essential amino acids keeps you from becoming catabolic, and the branched-chain amino acid leucine functions as an anabolic trigger during exercise.

Carbohydrates
You need a constant infusion of carbs to ensure your body receives a steady supply of glucose to push through your high-intensity training. In one recent study, muscle glycogen depletion was reduced by 49% when subjects consumed 0.25 gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight every 10 minutes during weight training. (2) Minimizing muscle glycogen depletion prevents the body from entering a catabolic state, in which the body breaks down muscle for fuel. Glycogen depletion is even lower when carbs and protein are consumed together.

Choose: Products that contain any of the following as their primary source of carbohydrate: dextrose (D-glucose), maltodextrin, Vitargo, sucrose, palatinose, fractionated rice oligodextrins (rice syrup solids). Consume about 50 grams of carbs per 1 liter of water.

Whey protein
Whey protein is extremely high in essential amino acids (EAAs), those that your body can’t produce–isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. Combining whey with carbs has been shown to increase protein synthesis during weight training, and reduce muscle damage and soreness. Research also indicates that just 6 grams of EAAs plus carbs offers many of the same benefits and can significantly increase muscle mass in 12 weeks.

Choose: Products that contain either whey protein isolate or hydrolysate as the primary protein source, or a product with these eight EAAs: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine and valine. (Tryptophan is excluded because it may increase fatigue; histidine is a conditionally essential amino that was included in the studies noted.) Consume a product that provides about 33 grams of protein or about 9 grams of EAAs per 1 liter of water.

Leucine
Of the essential amino acids, none may be more important than the branched-chain amino acid leucine. Post-exercise protein synthesis was shown to be significantly higher when extra leucine was added to a carb-and-protein drink. In fact, study data show that leucine alone, without any help from insulin, acts as both an anabolic building block and signal. When insulin is present, however, anabolic signaling is amplified.

Choose: Consume 13 grams more of leucine per liter of water for a total of about 16.5 grams of leucine per liter; whey protein contains approximately 10% leucine

Author Chris Lockwood, MS, CSCS
COPYRIGHT 2009 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning