APS Beta Alanine
As an anabolic fuel BETA ALANINE helps provide the nutritional stimulus to increase anaerobic and aerobic endurance and delays in muscular fatigue, allowing you to push through every workout by providing the fuel to accelerate maximal workout power. BETA ALANINE is a non-essential amino acid that is used by muscle cells to synthesize carnosine. Carnosine is a dipeptide (BETA ALANINE plus Histidine) that functions as a buffer for the hydrogen ions (acid) produced during strenuous exercise, thus helping to maintain optimum muscular pH. APS uses CarnoSyn, a patented form of BETA ALANINE that has been clinically researched and gives nutritional support for muscles to work harder and longer during intense exercise. When BETA ALANINE enters the muscle cell, it becomes what we call the "rate limiting substrate" to carnosine synthesis. By rate limiting, we mean that without BETA ALANINE, carnosine does not get produced.Carnosine was discovered in Russia in 1900, but it wasn't until over 50 years later that the first research on carnosine and it's effects on muscle buffering were published. Recently (2003) researchers have been studying BETA ALANINE examining its effects on exercise performance and lean muscle mass. Carnosine on the other hand helps stabilize muscular pH by soaking up hydrogen ions (H+) that are released at an accelerated rate during exercise. Our bodies work to keep our pH in balance by utilizing various buffering systems. Buffers largely work by soaking up H+ to maintain optimal pH balance, which we need to function most effectively. As mentioned above, our muscles function best in a specific pH range. When pH drops below that range, so does muscular performance. By helping to keep us in a more optimal pH range, our muscles can continue to contract forcibly for a longer time. Much of BETA ALANINE'S effects come through assisting in the synthesis of an intramuscular dipeptide (two amino acids) called carnosine. Carnosine is made up of two amino acids, BETA ALANINE and histidine, and is a powerful intracellular buffer.
Carnosine is found in both type 1 and type 2 muscle fibres, though significantly in higher concentrations in type 2 fibres (the fibres we primarily use in high intensity strength workouts and which are most responsive to growth). To function effectively, muscle cells rely on buffers like carnosine to avoid becoming acidic (low pH) during exercise. If you want your muscles to remain strong and maintain powerful contractions, they need to be in an optimal pH range. If they don't and the pH drops below the optimal level, you have significantly less strength and fatigue more quickly. You know this is happening when you feel that familiar burn in your muscles or even when you're lifting heavy and reach muscular failure. Muscle pH has dropped and it's largely a result of an increase in hydrogen ions (H+) which build up when you break down the high energy compound ATP during exercise. Wouldn't it be nice to knock out a few more reps? If you had more carnosine in your muscles, you would. Without it, your energy and endurance decline rapidly and your strength suffers. The breakdown of ATP and the subsequent rise in H+ concentrations occurs in all of our energy systems but is most prevalent in an energy system called glycolysis which also produces lactic acid. Lactic acid releases H+ ions, contributing further to the pool of H+ that's filling your muscles from the breakdown of ATP. With the presence of H+ pH drops fast as doe's muscular performance. High muscle carnosine levels help promote a dramatic increase in muscular strength, size, and endurance. Harness the power of BETA ALANINE and help maximize your workout performance and intensity!