What Does Intra-Workout Powder Do?

In discussions about workout supplements, most of the focus tends to fall on pre- or post-workout supplements, as these are the varieties with which most people are familiar. However, there exists another type of supplement that can be just as vital to boosting performance and improving gains: intra-workout supplements like the Action mix from aminoVITAL®. This type of supplement can offer a number of advantages to those engaged in long or particularly strenuous workouts, thanks to the benefits offered by each carefully chosen ingredient. To learn more about what intra-workout powders do and how you can benefit from their use, keep reading as the experts at aminoVITAL® explain.

What Ingredients Are in Intra-Workout Powders?

Though there are a number of different mid-workout supplements out there, we’ll focus on ones containing a specific ingredient: branched-chain amino acids, which are more commonly called BCAAs. This type of amino acid accounts for three of the 20 our bodies need to survive, specifically the amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine.

Each of these compounds serves a unique purpose that can boost athletic performance and support your workout when taking intra-workout powder. Some of their benefits include the following:

• Leucine is the amino acid that signals to the body that it needs to create new muscle tissue. This makes it critical to developing larger, stronger muscles. In addition, a metabolite of leucine (one of the compounds created when the body processes this BCAA) can help, too; the substance beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate, or HMB, can help protect the muscles from being broken down during exercise, limiting damage and preserving muscle mass.
• Isoleucine is the BCAA that works to improve endurance. This amino acid promotes the movement of energy (in the form of glucose) to the muscles and helps the cells there use it to power your workout. This aids in sustaining performance, even during long runs or hours-long trips to the gym.
• Valine, the third and final BCAA, is the jack-of-all-trades of the group. This compound not only helps preserve muscle tissues during exercise, but it also works to regulate the immune system, support cognitive functions, and perform a variety of other important tasks in the body.

In addition to the inclusion of essential amino acids, intra-workout powders like those from aminoVITAL® also contain key vitamins to help boost energy and electrolytes to balance hydration.

How Amino Acid Intra-Workout Powders Work

When consuming an intra-workout powder that contains BCAAs and electrolytes, a few processes take place that support performance during a workout. For starters, it can be helpful to compare these products with conventional protein supplements, since most people are familiar with these products. Let’s start with digestion.

When you drink a standard protein shake, the amino acids in those proteins can’t be used right away. That’s because all of these amino acids are joined together by peptide bonds into the whole proteins in your shake. However, the free-form amino acids found in aminoVITAL®’s Action intra-workout powder require very little digestion because they’ve already been freed of these bonds. This allows an amino acid supplement to take effect up to three times faster than a traditional whey-based supplement.

Supplementing with BCAAs brings another advantage as well: These compounds can help fight the onset of central nervous fatigue, a condition thought to be behind those feelings of exhaustion you might experience as you work out. The way they do so is complicated but worth exploring.

Before starting your workout, your bloodstream contains certain levels of BCAAs and another amino acid, tryptophan (among other compounds). These amino acids compete to access the brain via the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which serves to limit the amount of tryptophan that can enter the brain. This fact is important because tryptophan is the compound used to create serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects things like mood and energy levels.

When BCAAs from an intra-workout powder are present, they help prevent too much tryptophan from moving into the brain and raising the levels of serotonin there, which is believed to cause fatigue. However, exercising tends to pull BCAAs from the bloodstream and into the muscles, which allows an increase in tryptophan and, consequently, serotonin in the brain. By supplementing with BCAAs, you can restore the balance of amino acids in your blood and keep too much serotonin from building up as you work out – the result of which is a reduced rate of fatigue.

Other Benefits of Intra-Workout Powder

In addition to their fast bioavailability and fatigue-fighting powders, amino acid-based intra-workout powders have other benefits as well. For example, these supplements tend to be much leaner than their protein-based counterparts, thanks to the fact that they contain far fewer calories and grams of sugar than your average protein shake. This helps support the growth of lean muscle and aids in reaching your health and weight goals.

Another benefit these supplements bring is that they contain vegan amino acids, making them suitable for a wide variety of diets. This fact, combined with the other substantial benefits of amino acid supplements, makes intra-workout powders like aminoVITAL®’s Action formula an ideal product for almost anyone looking to improve their performance at the gym or on the field.

Try an Amino Acid-Based Intra-Workout Powder from aminoVITAL®

If you’ve been wanting to find a lean, fast-acting supplement that can help your muscles grow without undermining your weight-related goals, look no further than the intra-workout powders and other supplements offered by aminoVITAL®. To learn more about these products, including why our pre-, mid-, and post-workout supplements are so effective, visit us online or call (888) 264-6673 today.