Between buying BCAA’s or L-Leucine because of monetary reasons, which would you prefer and why?
I’m trying to gain about 6 pounds this summer for my upcoming rugby season. I’m just coming off having a broken hand for 4 weeks and trying to gain everything back from not lifting. Money will be a little bit tighter this summer and I wanted to know which supplement, in addition to copious amounts of food, would you recommend for size gains.
I’m 164 right now at 7-8% body fat at a height of 5’10, (yes, I’m a hawt abz kid right now). I’m a wing and I’m pretty quick, I had a D1 track scholarship that I chose not to pursue so I’m not worried about getting slower.
Any recommendations/reasoning is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Leucine- the science backs it up as the most important of the BCAA’s to have circulating while you’re damaging muscles (ie-training); the rest of the BCAA’s are in your whey protein in great supply. (Leucine is also in the whey protein, but i add another 6 grams to my PWO shake anyway to make sure it’s getting to my muscle cells NOW.) It’s also very inexpensive- the $25 tubs of it for sale on this site are one of the best deals i’ve found short of buying it by the ton, especially because you don’t have to pay for shipping. They last a long time at 12 grams/workout.
So, 6 grams in pre-workout shake, 6 grams after. 12 grams/workout divided by 450 grams for $25=less than 68 cents per workout. Easy on the budget…
I have gone over this dosage(sprinkling it on food, for example) but just ended up with diarrhea so i stopped doing that. 
Yeah I was leaning towards L-Leucine as well because I had tried it for a month and if definitely worked well. The only thing that kind of sucks is how you have to take it, dumping it into your mouth and washing it down with water. Also carrying a bottle to work is going to make a few heads turn haha.
My summer purchases will probably be:
Leucine
ZMA
Alpha-GPC (I really want to try this)
Flameout
Creatine
and maybe some Surge
I have 10 pounds of whey too so I might just end up mixing whey with fruit for post-workout
[quote]climberw wrote:
Leucine- the science backs it up as the most important of the BCAA’s to have circulating while you’re damaging muscles (ie-training); the rest of the BCAA’s are in your whey protein in great supply. (Leucine is also in the whey protein, but i add another 6 grams to my PWO shake anyway to make sure it’s getting to my muscle cells NOW.) It’s also very inexpensive- the $25 tubs of it for sale on this site are one of the best deals i’ve found short of buying it by the ton, especially because you don’t have to pay for shipping. They last a long time at 12 grams/workout.
So, 6 grams in pre-workout shake, 6 grams after. 12 grams/workout divided by 450 grams for $25=less than 68 cents per workout. Easy on the budget…
I have gone over this dosage(sprinkling it on food, for example) but just ended up with diarrhea so i stopped doing that. :)[/quote]
Haha bump! I use all of 'em myself. I typically take 5-7g pre and post-workout and 1-2g between meals. However, I’m not disagreeing. L-Leucine is the most anabolic.
Leucine seems to be the consensus, thanks again guys.