You know that burning feeling you experience when doing lactate rides? Well true to their name, lactate rides cause an increase in the body’s lactic acid and hydrogen levels, dropping the body’s pH, making your muscle cells more acidic. This results is a distinctive muscle soreness which can inhibit the muscle cells from contracting, causing fatigue. Any time you perform high intensity anaerobic bursts you are bound to get that familiar ache in your muscles. Thats where the amino acid Beta Alanine can help! To help the body buffer the hydrogen molecules and lactic acid building up in the muscle cell during exercise, the body requires the buffering abilities of Carnosine. Carnosine is able to buffer lactic acid, restore ATP (the body’s number one energy source) and activate enzymes responsible for muscle contractions. Beta-Alanine supplementation has been found to help the body synthesize Carnosine and ultimately increase its cellular stores. But what does this mean for athletes? From a performance standpoint, by supplementing our cells with Beta-Alanine we can increase our ability to buffer lactic acid ultimately increasing our time to fatigue during high intensity exercise.
Since hockey is an anaerobic sport, Beta-Alanine supplementation can have a huge impact in helping with recovery from high intensity, short shifts on the ice. Along with helping to buffer lactic acid, Beta-Alanine has been found to help with muscle recovery, healing and recovery of muscle contraction capabilities. This can have a huge impact in helping your recovery between shifts in a game.
The recommended dosage of Beta Alanine is to mix 1 teaspoon (3.2g) into your pre workout, juice or water twice daily to help increase your storage levels of Carnosine. Combining your Beta-Alanine with carbohydrates and taking during your pre-workout window have been suggested to allow more of the supplement to penetrate the muscle cell.
Do you want to recover quicker and last longer? Talk to Barry about adding Beta-Alanine into your in-season routine!