Most people are wasting money on amino acid products. This will help you save money, time, and valuable effort from here on out because not all amino acid products are created equal! Before you thank us for all of the extra gains and money saved, YOU'RE WELCOME!
1. DOES IT CONTAIN ALL THE ESSENTIAL AMINOS?
Products with ONLY Branched-Chain Amino Acids only cover 1/3 of the bases. If your body is a gun you would want it to have loads of ammo. You need the ammunition, the other 6 Essential Amino Acids to work in concert with the BCAA to elicit the best metabolic response. Good Amino Acid products contain all the EAA. Great Amino Acid products are a carefully curated blend of ALL 9 Essential Amino Acids that excels at preserving muscle and creating an anabolic environment.
2. IS IT LEUCINE-RICH?
Many amino acids have important metabolic signaling or triggering properties that make them important beyond their value as a building block of proteins. Leucine is one such amino acid. In addition to its role as a substrate, it triggers the mechanisms involved in turning on the process of protein synthesis. It is the anabolic switch. It is the trigger on the gun! Great Amino Acid products use a leucine rich mixture of EAA’s to ensure the anabolic switch is flipped and the Ammo is present.
3. DOES IT HAVE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, COLORS, AND INGREDIENTS?
Although it’s cheaper (and sometimes tastier) to make products this way its not worth it .Those harmful ingredients not only cause hormone imbalances that will castrate your gains, but they also are terrible for your health. Look for an blend that use all natural ingredients
4. WHAT’S THE SOURCE?
Did you know that most EAA’s are made hydrolysis and the starting material is duck feathers and human hair. Let that one sink in. Great EAA are made by fermentation and a starting material of corn and glucose. If the product doesn’t say its ferment and or vegan you can be sure its made from duck feathers and hair. Furthermore, hydrolysis generally results in more impurities and batch to batch inconsistencies than fermentation. Choose wisely.
5. DOES IT ACCOUNT FOR LEUCINE’S POTENTIAL DOWNSIDE?
Leucine has a downside? YES! Although it stimulates protein synthesis, a crucial process in recovery, it tends to have negative effects on brain efficiency and neural drive because it interferes with your ability to make Dopamine- a key neurotransmitter responsible for drive, motivation and strength. When using the Leucine rich EAA intra-workout this can be a problem! One clever way to address this is to add a non-essential amino acid, called L-Tyrosine, to competitively inhibit Leucine transport across the blood brain barrier. You will be glad to know that this effect does not occur peripherally (i.e. at your muscles) where you want Leucine to do its job of flipping the anabolic switch. Because using EAA intra-work it the absolute best time to take them this is a crucial step.
6. DOES IT CONTAIN GLUTAMINE AND LEUCINE?
The importance of Leucine and its role in initiating protein synthesis is well understood and extremely important. What is not well understood in the fitness community is that Glutamine is a Leucine antagonist! You can’t serve two Masters. Including Glutamine in a Leucine-rich Amino Acid product defeats the purpose of having Leucine, to begin with.
7. DOES IT CONTAIN STIMULANTS?
It’s easy to take poorly formulated, low grade, garbage amino acids, gloss it over in artificial sweeteners and jack it up with high doses of caffeine, to get you” feeling it” and make you think it’s working. Don’t fall for it. If you chose to use stimulants, use them separately and allow yourself to adjust both the dose and frequency independent of your Amino Acid intake.
8. IS IT BANNED SUBSTANCE FREE?
If you are an athlete in a drug tested sport or you just simply want to ensure that your product is free of banned substances and pharmaceuticals this gives you assurance. Every batch of every product is tested and certified banned substance free. Informed sport is the only certification that allows you to go online and see the test result of the exact batch of product you are holding in your hand. We went the extra mile for your peace of mind.
Take your workouts to the next level with Amino Matrix, Performance Essential Aminos and Recovery Fuel, carefully crafted for the intra workout window.
Build muscle and recover exceptionally faster with Optimum EFX Just Essentials, Premium Essential Amino Acids designed to be taken any time of the day.