One great advantage of
BCAA
s is that they spare muscle under
hard-training 
conditions
In an experiment that used swimmers as subjects, one group received BCAA supplements, while another group got a placebo. Those in the
BCAA
group experienced decreased muscle breakdown following intensive exercise.
2 Elsewhere, researchers who observed the behavior of rat skeletal muscle found that
BCAA
s block catabolic pathways in muscle by activating ubiquitin lysosome
enzymes
.
3
Recent studies show that taking essential amino acids, including
BCAA
s, before exercise kick-starts anabolic processes. That's because the increased blood flow you get from
training
promotes greater amino acid entry into
muscle
One study showed that
BCAA
s help diminish muscle damage during exercise and block what is called delayed-onset muscle soreness following intense
training
.
4
Sixteen women and 14 men took five grams of
BCAA
s prior to doing seven sets of 20-rep
squats
, resting two minutes between sets. Some of the subjects got a placebo. Those who took the
BCAA
supplement had significantly less
soreness
than the placebo group, the effect being more pronounced in the male than female subjects.
The authors suggest that the mechanism may be a combination
BCAA
s' blunting
muscle breakdown 
and leucine's stimulation of muscle protein synthesis
BCAA
s Help Diminish Muscle Damage During Exercise
And Block Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness
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