BPI Sports: Best BCAA w/energy

Best BCAA With Energy by BPI is a versatile amino acid based energy drink that can be taken before or during a workout. It’s ingredients will allow you to train for longer with a greater amount of energy and focus, help to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness and reduce your recovery time from your workouts.

It contains 5g of BCAAs, 1g of citrulline for performance and endurance and an energy formula that contains caffeine, tyrosine, green tea extract and choline to help give you the energy you need to sustain peak performance throughout your training session.

Compared to a similar product such as Amino Energy by Optimum Nutrition, BPI Best BCAA With Energy provides a higher BCAA content, contains citrulline for enhancing performance and contains a more comprehensive energy/ focus blend consisting of green tea, caffeine, tyrosine and choline.

Performance Stack

BCAAs

BCAAs make up around 35% of the bodies muscle tissue and are severely broken down when exercising. Studies have shown leucine to be the most important of the three and the amino acid that contains the most anabolic potential. BCAAs are rapidly absorbed by the body as they bypass the liver. BCAAs can also have beneficial effects of decreasing exercise-induced muscle damage 24-48 hours after exercising and promoting muscle-protein synthesis. Best BCAA With Energy contains a 2:1:1 formula of leucine, iso-leucine and valine.

Citrulline Malate

Citrulline malate is an organic compound that increases the level of nitric oxide metabolites and plays a vital role in regulating vasodilation, blood flow and mitochondrial respiration. It is an ingredient that has been extensively researched and has been shown to postpone fatigue during prolonged exercise due to being able to diminish blood lactate levels, increase upper and lower body resistance exercise performance and decrease rate of perceived exertion (1,2,3).

Energy and Focus Stack

Tyrosine

Tyrosine is a proteinogenic amino acid and is one of the amino acids used to synthesize proteins. This amino acid has also shown to support cognition during stress sensitive focus tasks. This provides additional mental support during prolonged exercise and can enhance focus and concentration (4).

Caffeine

Caffeine is a naturally occurring alkaloid that is found in the beans, leaves, and fruits of more than 60 plants. Some common sources of caffeine are found in kola nut, cacao bean, yerba mate, although roasted coffee beans and tea leaves are the most commonly consumed sources of caffeine. Caffeine is beneficial to sports performance and resistance training as it helps improve cognitive function and reduces the risk of cognitive decline with aging as well as being beneficial to multiple disciplines in sport- from explosive events such as powerlifting or sprinting to long distance event such as running a marathon.

Choline

Choline bitartrate is an essential nutrient that accounts for multiple functions in the body and brain. It can significantly improve cognitive and locomotor performance as well as reduce oxidative stress and enhance cholinergic neurotransmission and monoamine levels in the brain (5).

Choline plays a role in building DNA, neurotransmitters and cell membranes that are essential for muscular contraction. This ingredient has been shown to be a neuroprotective agent influencing acetylcholine, dopamine, glutamate neurotransmitter systems, serving as an intermediate in phospholipid metabolism and enhancing the integrity of neuronal membranes when used as a dietary supplement. Its ability to provide a safe neuroprotection means that it can help to shut out distractions from the outside world and allow you to give your workout the maximum attention it deserves.

Green Tea Extract

Green tea derives from the shrub of Camellia sinensis and has been used in Chinese and Indian medicine for many centuries. It differs from other types of tea as it goes through less oxidation, resulting in green tea retaining most of its chemical composition. Green tea extract contains a concentrated form of green tea and can be concentrated to various levels and extracted in many forms.

Recent studies with human participants have concluded that green tea provides a significant contribution to a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, promoted good oral health, body-weight control, reduce systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, increase bone mineral density and can provide neuroprotective effects.

1. Kiyici F, Eroğlu H, Kishali NF, Burmaoglu G. The Effect of Citrulline/Malate on Blood Lactate Levels in Intensive Exercise. Biochem Genet. 2017 Jun 29. doi: 10.1007/s10528-017-9807-8.

2. Glenn JM, Gray M, Wethington LN, Stone MS, Stewart RW Jr, Moyen NE. Acute citrulline malate supplementation improves upper- and lower-body submaximal weightlifting exercise performance in resistance-trained females. Eur J Nutr. 2017 Mar;56(2):775-784. doi: 10.1007/s00394-015-1124-6.

3. Wax B, Kavazis AN, Weldon K, Sperlak J. Effects of supplemental citrulline malate ingestion during repeated bouts of lower-body exercise in advanced weightlifters. J Strength Cond Res. 2015 Mar;29(3):786-92.

4. Jongkees BJ, Hommel B, Kühn S, Colzato LS. Effect of tyrosine supplementation on clinical and healthy populations under stress or cognitive demands--A review. J Psychiatr Res. 2015 Nov;70:50-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.08.014. Epub 2015 Aug 25.

5. Penry JT, Manore MM. Choline: an important micronutrient for maximal endurance-exercise performance? Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2008 Apr;18(2):191-203.