Benefits: Strength, Mass Builder, Energy Production

Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid that’s naturally produced by the body in the liver. You can also get it from your diet from meat sources, such as beef and poultry. In the body, beta-alanine—whether from the liver or ingested from food or supplements—is taken up by the muscle fibers and combines with the amino acid histidine to form the dipeptide (two amino acid protein) carnosine. It’s carnosine that provides all the benefits associated with beta-alanine, which may include improved strength and power, better endurance, and even greater fat loss and muscle growth, as numerous studies demonstrate.

In the body, beta-alanine combines with histidine to form carnosine, and research suggests that muscles with higher levels of carnosine have the ability to generate greater, more forceful contractions for a longer period, which can result in superior strength, endurance, and mass gains. Carnosine works by increasing the muscle's buffering capacity of hydrogen (H+) ions, which are produced when lactic acid levels rise during intense exercises, such as weight training. This increases the muscle's ability to maintain stronger contractions for longer during exercise. As a result, this can help you lift more weight and complete more reps during the later stages of your workouts. This greater work capacity can lead to greater gains in strength and power as well as muscle mass, while also promoting greater fat loss.

Beta-alanine itself also has some studied benefits that are separate from those of carnosine. Because of its structure, beta-alanine is now being researched in the lab as a neurotransmitter. In fact, many people report experiencing a boost in alertness and energy from beta-alanine that’s similar to caffeine. This is just one reason why it's a good idea to take beta-alanine before workouts and why it’s found in numerous pre-workout products. This is also the reason why beta-alanine often causes that prickling sensation, or "pins and needles" feeling in the skin, known as paresthesia. This feeling is completely normal and harmless and is most prevalent with increased amounts – usually between 1 gram to 4 grams taken all at once.

Numerous studies show that beta-alanine supplements (which increase carnosine levels in muscle) produce a lactic acid buffering effect, which helps push back the “burn” you feel during exercise, possibly allowing you to perform more repetitions during weight-training sessions.⁴

The burn is one of the primary causes of muscle fatigue, which leads to momentary muscular failure. To see how this works from a practical standpoint, one study reported that subjects taking just over 4 grams of beta-alanine per day for 30 days were able to increase the number of reps they could complete during a squat workout by almost 25% more than those taking a placebo.⁵

Another study conducted by UK scientists found that four weeks of beta-alanine supplementation in amateur boxers increased their average punching power in the last 10 seconds of simulated 3-minute rounds by 2,000% more than those taking a placebo. Being able to maintain punching power late in the round is similar to being able to maintain more strength and power later in your workouts—meaning you can lift more weight for more reps.⁶

Beta-Alanine and Creatine

Research also suggests a synergy between beta-alanine and creatine. One study reported that weight-trained athletes consuming 3.2 grams of beta-alanine plus 10 grams of creatine monohydrate daily for 12 weeks gained significantly more muscle mass while simultaneously losing significant body fat, as compared to those taking 10 grams of creatine alone and others taking a placebo. This is why I suggest taking beta-alanine along with creatine about 30 minutes before workouts and again immediately after workouts.

Research suggests taking 1.6 - 3.2 grams daily, and up to 6.4 grams per day.  

Timing: Some studies state that blood levels of beta-alanine peak within 30 minutes of ingestion, and it completely leaves the circulation within 3 hours of consuming. Thus, it makes sense to take a sufficient serving of beta-alanine 30-45 minutes before workouts, and again immediately after.

Benefits: Power, Strength, Muscle Growth

Betaine isn’t all that new, but what is rather recent is the recognition of its benefits for helping to boost muscle strength, power, growth, and even possibly support fat loss. Known technically as trimethylglycine (TMG), this unique amino acid is well known for its health-promoting effects. Your body naturally uses betaine to support joint and liver health. However, recent research suggests that betaine may play a role in helping fitness enthusiasts reach their goals.

Betaine is a methyl donor, which is any molecule that can transfer a methyl group (a carbon atom attached to three hydrogen atoms - CH3) to another molecule. Many important biochemical processes in the body rely on methylation.

Within the body, how betaine performs its methyl-donating function is in the methylation of homocysteine to form methionine, which is also how betaine may help aid muscle strength, muscle growth, and fat loss. Methionine is important in the body's natural ability to synthesize creatine. Hence, one way that betaine may boost muscle strength and size is by increasing creatine production in the body. Another way is through an increase in muscle protein synthesis.

Betaine and Protein Synthesis

Methionine plays an important role in muscle protein synthesis (specifically in the process known as translation). By having more methionine available for this process, protein synthesis is ramped up, and therefore so is the potential for increased muscle growth and strength gains.

Betaine and Performance

In the last few years, betaine has shined in studies for its ability to help support athletic performance. One of the first studies to look into betaine's performance-enhancing benefits was conducted in my old lab at the University of Connecticut. The UCONN researchers discovered that weight-trained athletes taking 1.25 grams of betaine twice a day increased their muscle strength by 25% and their muscle power by 20%.⁷

Another study from Ithaca College had male and female subjects perform all-out, 12-second sprints on a stationary cycle, with a high level of resistance on the pedals. In one trial, the subjects consumed a carbohydrate and electrolyte beverage containing betaine before the workout; in the other trial, subjects drank a carb and electrolyte beverage without betaine. The researchers reported that when subjects drank the betaine-containing beverage they were able to pedal with about 5% more power than those who drank just the carbs and electrolytes.

Betaine and Hormone Status

University of Memphis researchers reported that weight-trained subjects taking 2.5 grams of betaine daily for two weeks increased the total number of reps completed in a bench press workout consisting of 10 sets of 7 reps. A 2013 study on betaine and performance suggested that increases in muscle strength, power, and endurance may be due to betaine's ability to help increase levels of important hormones/growth factors and to better promote muscle protein synthesis.

UCONN researchers reported that weight-trained men supplementing with 1.25 grams of betaine twice a day for two weeks experienced a 10% greater increase in natural growth hormone, a 15% greater increase in natural insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), and a 15% reduction in natural cortisol levels following a weight workout as compared to the placebo. These same researchers also found that betaine significantly increased markers for muscle protein synthesis following the workout, as compared to placebo.¹

Betaine and Muscle Mass

A recent study on betaine, from the College of Springfield (Massachusetts), had weight-trained males follow an undulating periodized weight-training program for six weeks. One group supplemented with 1.25 grams of betaine twice a day, and one group supplemented with a placebo twice a day. The researchers reported that the subjects supplementing with betaine increased muscle mass by 4 pounds and arm size by 10% while decreasing body fat by 7 pounds. The placebo group experienced no increase in muscle mass or arm size and no loss of body fat.

Betaine supplementation has also been found to increase nitric oxide (NO) levels, as well as act as an osmolyte to help regulate cellular fluid volume, which could further help support muscle pump and overall muscle size.

Research suggests taking 1.25 to 3 grams of betaine one to two times daily preferably around workouts.

Benefits: Heart Health, Cell Volume, Glucose Utilization, Antioxidant

Taurine is a naturally-occurring compound found in fish and meat, as well as being produced in the body through the breakdown of the amino acid cysteine. Taurine functions as an antioxidant and helps reduce oxidative stress induced by exercise. Taurine is an amino acid that's not involved in muscle building, meaning it's not one of the building blocks of protein like the branched-chain amino acids, leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Taurine is known as a functional amino acid, meaning it supports specific actions in the body, and the reason you'll see it in a lot of pre-workouts, and even energy drinks, is because taurine has been researched to support enhanced energy levels during intense training. Although not a protein-building amino acid, taurine plays a role in muscle recovery, brain health, and dietary fat metabolism.

Some research suggests that when taurine levels in muscle fibers are low, as happens during exercise, so too is muscle strength and endurance; likewise, when taurine levels increase so does strength and endurance. Taurine helps improve the contractile performance of muscle, which means it may enhance strength and endurance. It also has cell-volumizing effects, as it improves muscle-cell hydration. There's some concern that taking large doses of beta-alanine can reduce the amount of taurine available for use by the body, so supplementing with taurine is a great idea if you are also taking beta-alanine.

Research suggests taking 500-2000 mg of taurine per day preferably before training or with your pre-workout meal.

Benefits: Brain Boosting, Muscle Contractions, Hormone Release

Alpha-Glycerylphosphorylcholine (alpha-GPC) is a specialized phospholipid that supplies choline, and is known primarily for its brain-boosting benefits. It may also have benefits specific to muscle growth.

Alpha-GPC’s brain-boosting benefits stem from the fact that it provides the body with a source of choline, which is a nutrient used by the brain to produce acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a critical neurotransmitter that the nerves use to pass along specific signals in the body, including those responsible for muscle contractions. As far as its role in helping to promote muscle growth goes, this comes from alpha-GPC's ability to help support the body's ability to stimulate natural growth hormone (GH) production.

Alpha-GPC and Hormone Release

One study from my colleague and Muscle & Fitness Magazine contributor, Dr. Tim Ziegenfuss of the Center for Applied Health Science Research in Ohio, reported that taking alpha-GPC can further boost the normal GH spike typically seen with weightlifting. His research team had trained male weightlifters perform a leg workout that consisted of six sets of squats for 10 reps per set, using a weight that was about 70% of their one-rep max—a weight they could lift for about 10-12 reps.

The researchers reported in a 2008 issue of the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition that when the men took the alpha-GPC before the workout, not only were their natural GH levels higher as compared to when they took the placebo, but the subjects were also stronger and had greater power. Dr. Ziegenfuss suggests that since GH can naturally increase levels of the powerful growth factor insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-1), the increase in strength and power that was reported could have been due to IGF-1 exerting positive effects on muscle contraction.

Research suggests taking 300mg - 600mg per day

Benefits: Promote Enhanced Blood Flow, Circulation

By now it’s clear that I’m a firm believer in the benefits of boosting nitric oxide (NO) levels. Boosting NO promotes relaxes blood vessels, allowing them to widen. This supports healthy blood vessels as we age. Relaxing or dilating the blood vessels also helps to deliver more blood flow to tissues like muscle fibers. As explained above, the two exercise-based benefits of greater blood flow to muscle fibers are better exercise energy/endurance, and bigger muscles pumps during workouts. The greater endurance and energy are due to the fact that pushing more blood to working muscles delivers more oxygen and more nutrients to them.

One way to promote increased nitric oxide production is through the arginine-nitric oxide pathway. Yet there is another pathway that can help promote higher NO levels in the body: the nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway.

Nitrates have the chemical formula NO3. When you consume nitrates, bacteria in the mouth naturally reduce the nitrate to nitrite, which has the chemical formula NO2. In other words, nitrate loses an oxygen atom to form nitrite. The nitrite then travels to the bloodstream where it loses another oxygen atom and is further reduced to nitric oxide, with the chemical formula NO.

Supplementing with nitrates has been shown in numerous studies to help enhance exercise performance,,. The performance enhancements include greater exercise endurance, greater power output, and less fatigue. This means that during a typical weightlifting workout it can help improve your strength, allow you to complete more reps with a given weight, and allow you to more efficiently maintain rep ranges and strength toward the end of the workout. All of this is beneficial to help increase muscle strength, muscle growth, and muscle endurance.

Research suggests taking 500mg of nitrates 30-45 minutes before workouts.  

Benefits: May Help Increase: Focus, Energy, Muscle Contractile Force, Strength

L-tyrosine is an amino acid that converts into a powerful precursor to the “excitatory” neurotransmitters dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. Supplementing with L-tyrosine may help to reduce effects from acute stressors (which tend to deplete norepinephrine) and may help support fat-burning metabolism. In fact, norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline or noradrenalin, is an organic chemical in the catecholamine family that naturally functions in the brain and body as both a hormone and a neurotransmitter. In the brain, norepinephrine is responsible for increasing arousal and alertness, promoting vigilance, motivation, enhancing focus and is an extremely important neurotransmitter involved in muscular contractions.

Studies have demonstrated that when the body's natural levels of norepinephrine are “running low,” due to stressful events, there is a direct correlation with a decrease in performance.

Research suggests that by supplementing with L-tyrosine athletes may be able to support the body's natural ability to increase levels of the performance-oriented neurotransmitters dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. This is particularly true when supplementing during intense training, and L-tyrosine supplementation can help deliver a performance advantage by helping to reduce exercise-induced fatigue, promote increased energy, boost mental focus, helping to improve strength, and helping support fat loss.

Research suggests taking 500 – 2000mg per serving one time per day, preferably 60-90 minutes before exercise

Benefits: Energy, Alertness, Focus, Fat Loss, Muscle Contractions

Caffeine is a powerful physical and mental stimulant naturally found in over 60 different plants, including coffee, cocoa, tea, kola nut, guarana, and yerba mate. When most people think of caffeine; coffee, energy drinks or soda comes to mind. But the supplemental form of caffeine—found in pills and powders—is one the most effective and extensively researched supplements on the market today.

Caffeine, known scientifically by the name 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, is a stimulant. The main way it works in giving you more energy, greater alertness, and enhanced brain function is due to the fact that it binds to adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a breakdown chemical that is produced in the body, and when it binds to its receptors in the brain it signals fatigue. This makes you tired and sluggish, slowing down nerve activity and therefore brain function. By binding to adenosine receptors, caffeine prevents this fatigue signal and keeps you more alert and mentally focused.

These adenosine receptors also happen to be the main mechanism through which caffeine boosts fat burning—another one of its popular benefits. When adenosine binds to its receptors located on fat cells, it inhibits lipolysis—the release of fat from the fat cells. Caffeine, however, binds to adenosine receptors on fat cells to allow fat to be released from fat cells, where it then can travel to other tissues, like muscle, and be burned as fuel

Caffeine has been shown to reduce appetite and boost metabolism, helping you burn more calories while eating less.

Caffeine Enhances Performance

Research shows that caffeine can increase muscle strength, improve muscle endurance, and decrease muscle fatigue during workouts, which are key metrics for exercise when trying to preserve lean muscle mass. Scientists at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln) found that trained subjects could do more reps with the same weight—80% of their 1RM—after taking just over 200 mg of caffeine an hour before working out. Of course, the more reps you can do at a relatively heavy weight, the bigger and stronger you'll get. The same research team found, in a later study, that taking just over 200 mg of caffeine an hour before workouts increased one-rep max strength on the bench press by an average of five pounds.

So, how does caffeine work to boost muscle strength?

Since it's a nervous system stimulant, one way caffeine may do this is by increasing the firing rate of the nerves going to muscles, which can lead to stronger muscle contractions. Caffeine may also act directly on muscles by triggering an increase in the release of calcium into the muscle. Calcium is needed for muscle contractions, so more calcium may lead to stronger muscle contraction and in turn greater force production by the muscle.

A University of Connecticut study presented at the same 2007 ACSM meeting mentioned above had trained cyclists perform a max strength test on leg extensions before and after a two-hour intense bout of cycling. They reported that when the subjects ingested caffeine during the cycling session they experienced no loss in leg strength; with no caffeine ingestion, a loss in leg strength was noted.

Another way that caffeine may increase exercise performance is by increasing blood flow to muscles through a boost in nitric oxide (NO). Although many think that caffeine constricts blood vessels, past research in the American Journal of Cardiology showed that caffeine increased blood flow to forearm muscles by increasing NO levels. Better blood flow means delivery of more nutrients like amino acids and glucose to muscles, as well as more oxygen for better energy production during exercise.

Research suggests that as little as 200 mg of caffeine can have significant benefits on strength and endurance. Other studies suggest a dose of 300 mg or more works best for strength and other performance benefits.

Benefits: Helps Increase Focus and Alertness

Huperzine A is an extract from the plant Huperzia serrata—known as a firmoss plant, known less formally as, Toothed Clubmoss or Chinese Clubmoss. It is a powerful brain booster that may help promote better focus, enhanced memory, and even help to boost mood.

Huperzine A works mainly by helping to reduce the activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which naturally acts in the body to break down acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is naturally found in the body and is a critical neurotransmitter that allows nerve signals in the brain to connect. So having more acetylcholine available allows for faster and better synchronized nerve conduction, which may help promote sharper brain function and clearer focus, as well as support memory and cognitive performance.

Acetylcholine is also a critical neurotransmitter for muscle contractions, as it is the chemical that is released from the ends of the nerve cells that control the muscle fibers. The natural release of acetylcholine signals the chemical reactions to take place in the muscle that lead to a muscle contraction. By having more acetylcholine available, nerve impulses to the muscles are faster and better synchronized and can better withstand fatigue. In turn, this can help promote stronger muscle contractions and reduce central nervous system fatigue, support your ability to be stronger in the gym and can help maintain that strength for longer.

Research suggests taking 50 - 200mcg daily, preferably in the morning or before a workout.

Benefits: Nutrient Uptake

Piperine is an active extract derived from black or long pepper.

Research suggests piperine enhances nutrient absorption, most likely by inhibition of microsomal enzyme system in the digestive tract. For example, ingesting vitamin B6 along with Bioperine-branded piperine more than doubled the amount of B6 found in the blood of healthy men two hours after ingestion. It has been shown to increase the absorption of numerous other ingredients.

Research suggests that 5mg of black pepper extract (taken with specific supplements) is enough to enhance nutrient absorption.