Leucine Only Tops Ergogenic Effects of BCAAs: Increased Alanine Cycle Activity Spares Muscle Glycogen, Boosts Endurance Performance - BCAAs Have Opposite Effect
Alanine is the liver's favorite gluconeogenic amino acid and leucine appears to increase its usage. Being among the first to learn about the "Glucose-Repartitioning Effect of Iso-Leucine" in February 2013 ( read up on it ), you, as SuppVersity reader, belong to the selected few who know that valine and isoleucine may be more than unnecessary props in the leucine-powered BCAA show. With the recent publication of a rodent study from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil (Campos-Ferraz. 2013), however, it looks as if you had to revise your perspective on the purportedly auxiliary BCAAs - at least, with respect to their ability to reduce fatigue, and muscle and liver-glycogen degradation, in trained rats and possibly (!) humans. So what did the Brazilian researchers do? Basically, the idea Campos-Ferraz et al. had in mind, when they came up with their 8 week exercise + 2 week supplementation protocol (see Table 1 ) was to ... Table 1: Exercise progression; suppl. ...
