Benefits of Muscle Guard™:

• Stimulates Protein Synthesis


• Reduces Muscle Breakdown


• mproves Both Mental & Physical Performance


• Prolongs Moderate Exercise Performance in Heat

Among the most beneficial and effective supplements in any sports nutrition program are BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids). These are the essential amino acids: Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine, which make up Muscle Guard™.

Muscle Guard™ Features

BCAAs, the core ingredients of Muscle Guard™, features many advantages to conserve muscle mass and to reduce muscle breakdown.

BCAA supplementation, before and after exercise, has beneficial effects for decreasing exercise-induced muscle damage and promoting muscle-protein synthasis.¹

BCAAs are not only substrate for protein synthesis, but also modulate several components to the synthetic machinery and help to conserve muscle mass.²

BCAA supplementation may prevent muscle loss during chronic hypobaric hypoxia.³ Intake of BCAA during exercise can prevent or decrease the net rate of protein degradation caused by intense exercise.⁴ BCAA supplementation can reverse the reduction in serum glutamine concentration observed after prolonged intense exercise such as an Olympic triathlon.⁵

Consumption of BCAA before or during endurance exercise may improve both mental and physical performance.⁶.

Support Studies

The result of studies suggest that an intake of BCAA has an anabolic effect on protein metabolism during the recovery period after exercise rather than during the actual exercise.⁷

An experimental result indicated that ingestion of BCAA reduces the perceived exertion and mental fatigue during exercise and improves cognitive performance after the exercise.⁸

The data suggests that increased BCAA availability before exercise, when initial muscle glycogen is normal, results in significantly greater plasma NH3 response during exercise than placebo administration.⁹

No toxic effects of BCAA's were observed in human at a dose of 2.5 g/kg/day for 3 months or 1.25 g/kg/day for 1 year. There are no reports concerning BCAA toxicity in relation to exercise and sports.¹⁰

A variety of regimen has been studied in human clinical trial. No adverse reaction was reported with the consumption of 14, 30, 22 and 40 g / day.¹¹.

References

1. Shimomura Y, Murakami T, Nakai N, Nagasaki M, Harris RA." Exercise promotes BCAA catabolism: effects of BCAA supplementation on skeletal muscle during exercise." J Nutr. 2004 Jun;134(6 Suppl):1583S-1587S.)
2. ( Update on nutritional supplementation with branched-chain amino acids. "Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2005 Jan;8(1):83-87.)
3. Schena F, Guerrini F, Tregnaghi P, Kayser B." Branched-chain amino acid supplementation during trekking at high altitude. The effects on loss of body mass, body composition, and muscle power." Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1992;65(5):394-8
4. Blomstrand E, Newsholme EA." Effect of branched-chain amino acid supplementation on the exercise-induced change in aromatic amino acid concentration in human muscle." Acta Physiol Scand. 1992 Nov;146(3):293-8
5. Bassit RA, Sawada LA, Bacurau RF, Navarro F, Costa Rosa LF." The effect of BCAA supplementation upon the immune response of triathletes." Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2000 Jul;32(7):1214-9.
6. Mero A." Leucine supplementation and intensive training." Sports Med. 1999 Jun;27(6):347-58.
7. Blomstrand E, Saltin B." BCAA intake affects protein metabolism in muscle after but not during exercise in humans." Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Aug;281(2):E365-74.
8. Blomstrand E." Amino acids and central fatigue." Amino Acids. 2001;20(1):25-34.
9. MacLean DA, Graham TE." Branched-chain amino acid supplementation augments plasma ammonia responses during exercise in humans.? J Appl Physiol. 1993 Jun;74(6):2711-7.
10. Shimomura Y, Murakami T, Nakai N, Nagasaki M, Harris RA." Exercise promotes BCAA catabolism: effects of BCAA supplementation on skeletal muscle during exercise." J Nutr. 2004 Jun;134(6 Suppl):1583S-1587S. Review
11. Anura V Kurpad, Tony Raj, Antoine El-Khoury, Rebecca Kuriyan, Kalburgi Maruthy, Sudhir Borgonha, Deepak Chandukudlu, Meredith M Regan and Vernon R Young "Daily requirement for and splanchnic uptake of leucine in healthy adult Indians" American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 74, No. 6, 747-755, Dec. 2001.