SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Carnosine saturation!? It may occur (if at all) only at much higher dosages / longer supplementation periods  than they're currently recommended. If you've been a faithful SuppVersity reader for the last almost 10 years, you will have noticed that my initial excitement about beta-alanine (#BA) has been fading ever since the classic meta-analysis by Hobson et el. was published in 2012. Yes, there were small benefits (2%) but only in the high(er) intensity 'long sprint' exercises... after having read the latest meta-analysis by Rezende et al. (2020), I am asking myself if this rather mediocre result could be in part due to the relatively low median dose of BA. In the studies Hobson et al. reviewed, the median amount of cumulative #BA intake was 179 g of β-alanine. Now, Rezende et al. hypothesize that "commonly used BA supplementation protocols may not come close to saturating muscle carnosine content?" Let's take a look at how a group of Brazilia...

You may find this supplement albeit with a less honest label at your favorite 'hardcore'-supplement store. You will have seen them pop up (and already begin to disappear again) in almost every supplement store that considers itself 'hardcore' but 'natural': laxogenin supplements. By their producers and the shops that sell them corresponding products are marketed as an agent that "can help you add muscle and shed fat", that is "not classified as a prohormone", that "doesn’t need to be cycled" and that "delivers results" and targeted at natural bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts. Read more about studies involving TRT/HRT & co on suppversity.com: What to expect from normalizing Testosterone Testosterone Gel Augments 'ur Gainz PWO T-Increases Don't Determine Your Gainz The Hormonal + Other Underpin-nings of Gainz Impressive 12% T-Boost (+20% IGF1) W/ Tribulus T +/- Exercise to Rejuvenate...

You will probably have read about the results of this recent study from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences  elsewhere already - hopefully in an article that applied the same rigorous scrutiny as this one. "Wait: EAAs are better than whey?" If that's your overgeneralized and essentially wrong (there was no comparison of EAA vs. Whey, but one of EAA+whey vs. whey 😎) take-home message from the abstract of a recent study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition  you may have recently read about on Facebook, you better read the rest of today's SuppVersity article on Park's paper, of which I would like to point out that the authors come to a very different, accurate, and more nuanced conclusion, that reads as follows: "that a composition of a balanced EAA formulation combined with whey protein is highly anabolic as compared to a whey protein-based recovery product, and that the response is dose-dependent" ( Park 2020 ...

It may sound awesome but eventually training only one arm is no viable long-term strategy. Having learned about the ability of BFR to increase/facilitate contralateral gains in today's SuppVersity  article, you could yet well use it when you're injured and unable to train one of your limbs (legs/quads should work, too).  In today's third installment of the 2020 research updates , I want to take a look at all that's new and interesting in the realms of blood flow restriction aka # BFR . How effective is it? Who benefits? Who benefits the most? Will it speed up or slow down recovery? And why will it help you make gains even on untrained limbs?  Sounds interesting? Well, here you go: My overview of selected new studies investigating the effects of blood flow restriction from early 2020 will answer these and (hopefully) any related questions you may have. "Blood Flow Restriction" aka # BFR is becoming more and more popular - rightly so? BFR, Cortisol ...