Performance Research for June:Beta Alanine

Brand new research on beta-alanine. Lots of talk lately about it, so I will have a few more studies on it coming up soon. In short, beta-alanine is able to combine with histidine to form carnosine. Carnosine is a powerful buffer in the muscle to help quench those pesky H ions (not really lactic acid as commonly believed).

What the heck does this mean? Translation please?
So in English, it means that Beta Alanine can decrease that burning sensation you get with intense exercise (that is the theory).

Testing
I would be interested if any KBs have used Beta-Alanine and their thoughts? Good,bad, performance change and dose used.

More literature to come. Special shout out to Dave Barr for first introducing me to beta-alanine going back a few years now. Check out his 2 latest books on the Anabolic Index. I bought both with my own hard earned money and highly recommend them (I get paid nothing to plug his product either). Click HERE.

beta-Alanine and the Hormonal Response to Exercise.

Hoffman J, Ratamess NA, Ross R, Kang J, Magrelli J, Neese K, Faigenbaum AD, Wise JA.Health and Exercise Science, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, United State

The effect of 30 days of beta-alanine supplementation (4.8 g per day) on resistance exercise performance and endocrine changes was examined in eight experienced resistance-trained men. An acute resistance exercise protocol consisting of 6 sets of 12 repetitions of the squat exercise at 70 % of one-repetition maximum (1-RM) with 1.5 minutes of rest between sets was performed before and after each supplemental period. Blood draws occurred at baseline (BL), immediate (IP), 15-minutes (15P) and 30-minutes (30P) post exercise for growth hormone, testosterone and cortisol concentrations. A 22 % (p <>Conclusion: Results indicate that four weeks of beta-alanine supplementation can significantly improve muscular endurance during resistance training in experienced resistance-trained athletes. However, these performance gains did not affect the acute endocrine response to the exercise stimulus.