​Hello everyone! Today I am going to touch on a very popular and controversial topic…. Supplements. Yes, we know supplements are constantly discussed and sometimes an argued topic in the fitness community. There are many thousands of supplements with thousands of brands, and you are always seeing adds for them. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are full of companies that showcase their products and even give certain “influencers” free supplies and push to attempt to get your purchase. Are supplements worth the hefty price tag that usually accompany them? Do they actually work? Can you trust the ingredients in them? All of these are great questions and I am going to answer them to the best of my ability. There are in fact some supplements that help your performance in the gym and of course supplements that are a huge waste of money and provide little to no effect on your performance or health.
 
   I am going to start this list off with (in my personal opinion) the biggest argued supplement offered, AMINO ACIDS! If there is a supplement that has been questioned time and time again, it’s this one. First let me explain what an amino acid is and what it does. Amino acids are compounds found in your body that do a number of different things. They are critical for the process of protein synthesis (process in which cells make proteins.) They are also needed for synthesis of hormones and neurotransmitters. There are a few different types of amino acids, but we will stick to the ones that supplements companies push the most, Branch Chain Amino Acids and Essential Amino Acids. There are nine amino acids that are considered to be essential. Histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. Your body needs all nine of these to create a complete protein. Branch Chain Amino Acids or BCAAs supplements only contain 3 of these 9 (leucine, isoleucine, and valine). While EAAs (Essential Amino Acids) contain all 9 essential amino acids. Your body unfortunately does not make any of these amino acids, meaning that you have to obtain them through your diet. Types of food that contain all nine essential proteins are meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, and dairy products.

   Now having a general idea of what amino acids are and their function, should we take an amino supplement? If you are obtaining the correct amount of protein through your diet, then these supplements are not needed. The recommend protein intake is 0.8 grams per kg of body weight and upwards of 2 grams per kg if you consistently exercise or weight train. I am 275 pounds and lift weights intensely on a regular basis, so I need roughly 240 grams of protein daily. If I meet that protein goal my body will have all the amino acids I need to function properly and recover from training. In a study from 2018, it was shown that the addition of BCAA supplementation may have helped combat muscle soreness but had little to no effect on athletic performance. The study states that BCAAs may have a trivial effect on muscle maintenance during isometric style training, it did not improve dynamic style training. It continues to conclude that if a diet 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day that the effects of BCAAs a negligible. Another study shows that BCAAs alone are not effective due to the lack of all nine EAAs. A study from 2010 stated consumption of EAAs with Protein may prevent muscle catabolism after heavy resistance exercise. That study also stated that the combination of EAAs with Protein could provide results, but EAAs without the presence of protein showed little to no effect.
 
  Take all of that information as you please. I personally would not recommend either BCAAs or EAAs. BCAAs have been tested to have little to no effect on training. EAAs may work if taken with protein, but not enough to justify the $40-$50 a month you will spend for marginal gains.  Thanks for reading!
 
 

​Sources

VanDusseldorp TA, Escobar KA, Johnson KE, et al. Effect of Branched-Chain Amino Acid Supplementation on Recovery Following Acute Eccentric Exercise. Nutrients. 2018;10(10):1389. Published 2018 Oct 1. doi:10.3390/nu10101389
 
Jackman, S., Witard, O., Philp, A., Wallis, G., Baar, K., & Tipton, K. (2017, May 24). Branched-Chain Amino Acid Ingestion Stimulates Muscle Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis following Resistance Exercise in Humans. Retrieved July 08, 2020, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2017.00390/full
 
Hulmi, J.J., Lockwood, C.M. & Stout, J.R. Effect of protein/essential amino acids and resistance training on skeletal muscle hypertrophy: A case for whey protein. Nutr Metab (Lond) 7, 51 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-7075-7-51

Hello and welcome to The Legendary Strength Gym blog. This post is going to give a little background on who we are and why we are starting a blog. We are Legendary Strength Gym, located in Lynchburg Virginia. Legendary Strength Gym is a facility that brought a new type of gym to the Lynchburg area, a facility focused on strength. We are a majority free weight fitness center, think of old school Golds Gym and how Arnold Schwarzenegger use to train. We saw that our community craved and needed a place that was centered on strength, so we decided to fill that void. We specialize in Powerlifting, Strongman, Bodybuilding and general fitness for health. We provide equipment so that people can succeed in their sport or overall wellness and fitness training. There are four co-owners of Legendary Strength Gym, Derek Harris and His wife Heather with Trevor Vasser and his wife Brandi. All four have some expertise in fitness. Trevor and Brandi hold degrees in exercise science, Derek has a Crossfit level one certification, and Heather holds a degree in nutrition. Derek, Heather and Trevor all hold a powerlifting coaches certification as well.
So why did we decide to start a blog? Well there are a number of reasons to be honest. To start we wish to help others in the fitness world. Whether you’re new and just starting your journey or an experienced athlete years into your fitness career, we want to help. We are going to listen to our audience and cover topics YOU want to read and care about. So follow us on social media and keep an eye out for our instagram stories where we request topic ideas. We also want to help spread correct knowledge for those in the fitness community. There are a lot of topics and questions people have and the internet can provide many answers. Unfortunately a lot of that information may be false or misleading. We want to make sure people are not getting wrong information which could cause your training to suffer, or could lead to an injury. Lastly we want to provide a blog that people can feel confident reading and taking knowledge from. Please feel free to reach out to us at anytime either on social media, or email us at legendarystrengthgym@gmail.com. Also feel free to check us out, our address and google map link and posted on the price and location tab.Thanks for stopping by and we look forward to growing in both fitness and knowledge together!