{"id":9614,"date":"2021-12-09T13:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T19:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/?p=9614"},"modified":"2021-12-22T11:16:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T17:16:40","slug":"when-should-i-take-bcaas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/when-should-i-take-bcaas\/","title":{"rendered":"When Should I Take BCAAs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Before workout? Between meals? During cardio? Here&#8217;s what you need to know about taking branched-chain amino acids to help you reach your fitness goals.<\/h3>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute;\" title=\"When Should I Take BCAA's?\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/players\/JKLbR4jR-5L2UHiXt.html\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3><b>What Are Amino Acids And BCAAs?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Amino acids are components of proteins in the human body &#8212; and in the protein that we eat. There are 20 different amino acids, and 9 are considered &#8220;essential,&#8221; &#8212; which just means your body can&#8217;t make them, so they must be obtained through your diet and\/or supplements.<\/p>\n<p>Of those nine, three are branched-chain amino acids (<a href=\"https:\/\/sculptnation.com\/products\/bcaas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>BCAAs<\/span><\/a>); leucine, isoleucine, and valine. &#8220;Branched&#8221; just refers to their chemical structure.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry; you don&#8217;t need to memorize any of this.\u00a0The big takeaway that these three essential BCAAs have been shown to turn on a process called &#8220;muscle protein synthesis&#8221; &#8212; which is how your body repairs and builds muscle tissue. For this reason, they&#8217;re popular among athletes &#8212; and pretty much everyone else looking to get leaner, more muscular, and recover from tough workouts.<\/p>\n<h3><b>When To Take BCAAs<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Because BCAAs are\u00a0 very low-calorie&#8211;like almost zero&#8211;and don&#8217;t contain any stimulants, there&#8217;s really no wrong way to take them. However,\u00a0if you are just a little strategic, they can be one more valuable tool to help you feel just a little better, especially when calories are low.<\/p>\n<p><b>When Cutting Calories Or Fasting:<\/b> If your calories are low, incorporate any type of fasting, or just enjoy doing your cardio on an empty stomach, drinking some before and\/or during your workouts is a great way to keep your muscles fueled and lower the risk of your body using its own muscle tissue as fuel.<\/p>\n<p>Take them alone, mix them with a <a href=\"https:\/\/sculptnation.com\/products\/pre-workout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>pre-workout<\/span><\/a>, or if you&#8217;re working out at night, you could even take them instead of a pre-workout.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Before a workout to combat muscle soreness:<\/strong> If you&#8217;re sitting around sore from yesterday&#8217;s workout, BCAAs probably aren&#8217;t going to do much. It&#8217;s important to take them before your workout for this benefit. But <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/30938579\/\">research has shown<\/a> that taking a dose prior to lifting can decrease what is known as &#8220;delayed onset muscle soreness,&#8221; or that aching muscle pain that sometimes lingers for a day or two after lifting.<\/p>\n<p><b>Between Meals:<\/b> Taking BCAAs in between meals, or when you have to <a href=\"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/i-cant-fit-all-my-meals-in-what-should-i-do\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>skip a meal<\/span><\/a>, can \u00a0act as a &#8220;bridge&#8221; between your higher-protein meals, keeping that muscle protein synthesis going even when you haven&#8217;t eaten in a few hours.<\/p>\n<p><b>When Plain Water Isn\u2019t Cutting It: <\/b>If you <a href=\"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/what-should-i-drink-besides-water\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>find it difficult to hit your daily water intake goal<\/span><\/a>, adding some BCAAs to your water jug is a great way to encourage you to drink up!<\/p>\n<p><b>If You Have A Sweet Tooth:<\/b> Because our BCAAS are so delicious, they are a great way to curb your occasional sweet tooth! And if BCAAS aren\u2019t cutting it, you could try having some of our <a href=\"https:\/\/sculptnation.com\/products\/apple-cider-vinegar-gummies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies<\/span><\/a>! They taste like candy and can also help control occasional hunger cravings, give you quick \u201cpick-me-up energy,\u201d and provide digestion and metabolism support.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Need Additional Supplement, Diet, or Exercise Support?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>If you are struggling to engineer your nutrition around your goals, that&#8217;s where our team of coaches and nutritionists from V Shred Custom Coaching can help.<\/p>\n<p>Our coaches have made over 1 million meal plans so far, and help thousands of people every day to get\u00a0fitter than ever and feel great doing it. You can\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/vshred.com\/sp\/custom-diet-plan\/reup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>get your custom meal plan here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or email <a href=\"mailto:coaching@vshred.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>coaching@vshred.com<\/span><\/a>, and we&#8217;ll set you up with the perfect coach for you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before workout? Between meals? During cardio? Here&#8217;s what you need to know about taking branched-chain amino acids to help you reach your&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":8240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,7508,27,45,43,46,44,42,26,18,20,40,21,23],"tags":[7506,7507,7505,7504],"yst_prominent_words":[1944,5912,160,351,423,1893,109,2578,987,4612,3501,125],"class_list":["post-9614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-build-muscle","category-frequently-asked-questions","category-fat-loss","category-for-energy","category-for-men","category-for-muscles","category-for-weight-loss","category-for-women","category-get-toned","category-goals","category-nutrition","category-nutrition-tips","category-supplements","category-weight-loss","tag-bcaas","tag-branched-chain-amino-acids","tag-what-are-bcaas","tag-when-to-drink-bcaas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/BCAASsp-productimage01-unisex.jpeg?fit=1333%2C2000&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NWy7-2v4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9614"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9649,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9614\/revisions\/9649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9614"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vshred.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}