First of all, I do believe that BCAAs taken pre workout reduce my muscle soreness on the next day. The question is: How do I take them the best way?
I’ve tried:
Tabs. Hard to swallow if you want them to contain more than 500mg of BCAAs. I had to take like 10 big ass tabs to get 10g of BCAAs. There must be a better solution.
instanized, unflavored powder. Problem here is the taste. I can’t think of many other things that taste more horrible than a scoop of unflavored BCAA powder, although I did try mixing it into drinks etc.
capsules. However, in most cases they only contain about 500mg of BCAAs; that would be like 20 caps just to get 10g of BCAA. Can’t really afford that.
flavored powder. I looked through all the products available in my country (currently: Germany). Reading the product lables and the product reviews made me refrain from a majority of them, especially because I am trying to avoid aspartame and am not a big fan of getting too many artificial flavorings, thickeners, sweeteners, colorings etc. into my body, although I am aware that I can’t completely go without them.
So… how do you guys get the proper amounts of BCAAs?
I don’t understand whats so disgusting about them. The unflavored powder isn’t that bad. There’s definitely powders out there that are WAY worse. Also, you’ll save a ton of money buying unflavored bulk.
To make it mix easier, I like to shake it up in pretty warm water. After I get it mixed I put some cold water in along with my protein/carb mix.
I’ve also drank it with tea before workouts which wasn’t too bad either.
I see. Well, the unflavored one I had was Instanized BCAA powder. It wasn’t undoable and I might be sounding like a pussy, but I thought there might just be more comfortable ways to get those BCAAs. Always having a hard time chosing the right BCAA supplement, which has a good ratio and is not filled up with too much artificial shit.
Leucine seems to affect taste buds differently depending on the person. Some people can’t stomach the taste. It’s just a little bitter to me. I’ve found just a drop of the Biotest liquid flavoring makes it very easy to drink down. Crystal Light has also been mentioned as a good flavoring system. I’ve even tried stevia to try the more natural route. I still use it sometimes. It works. But the damn Biotest flavoring is really tasty!
[quote]The Tie wrote:
Always having a hard time chosing the right BCAA supplement, which has a good ratio[/quote]
Just curious but where have you been looking? The amino acid ratio for all the BCAAs I’ve seen has been 2:1:1 for leucine, valine and isoleucine, respectively.
Well, you sometimes find BCAAs with 8:1:1 ratio or other ratios with significantly higher amounts of leucine. I just went through Amazon because I didn’t have a really good supplement store around my place.
Have you thought about taking them during your workout instead? That way, even if it’s not that good tasting you can mix it with more water + a some carbs (Plazma like) and make it a little less unpleasant.
I mix mine with a vitamin water or sobe zero at room temperature, add an ice cube or 2, and drink during workout.
Some of the different flavors of drinks kind of balance out the bitterness of the bcaa’s. Makes them palatable anyway. There will be a few chunks initially but they disappear after a while.
The brand I take tastes pretty good, so that helps…but, I take them peri-workout, and even pulse with them a little on lower carb days if I’m in show prep.
I buy BCAAs and Leucine in bulk unflavored powder. I read somewhere that 4:1:1 is the optimal ratio, so I top up the BCAAs with Leucine to get there. I mix them with water and then add the Biotest flavors, and they taste just fine.