There are many sports supplements available today to reduce fatigue. One of them is Carnosine. Find out how to improve your training output and recovery? Due to the depletion of creatine phosphate reserves in the muscles, they fatigue. Today, there are various supplements that allow you to restore reserves of this substance in a short time and this somewhat reduces overall fatigue. Today, scientists have established that carnosine plays an important role in bodybuilding. Even earlier, it was only known about its antioxidant effect, but now we can talk about another use of the substance. Note that Carnosine is a peptide, the molecule of which includes two amino acid substances - histidine and beta-alanine.
Role of Carnosine in Muscle Metabolism
Until we talk directly about the use of carnosine in bodybuilding, it is necessary to briefly dwell on the role of the substance in the work of muscles. This will provide a good understanding of the importance of carnosine for athletes.
It can be said with complete confidence that the set of muscle mass, as well as the growth of the physical characteristics of athletes, occurs under the influence of training, performed until the muscles completely fail. At the same time, with high-intensity physical activity, another process occurs in the body, called metabolic acidosis.
This leads to high muscle fatigue, and they lose their ability to contract. In this state, the athlete can no longer perform a single repetition of the movement. This is called muscle failure.
With intensive training, the reaction of ATP splitting occurs in the muscle tissues, which is the main source of energy for the cells of all tissues of the body. This is followed by acidosis, which we talked about above. This process begins after the complete decay of ATP and is accompanied by the synthesis of hydrogen ions (protons). This, in turn, causes a decrease in the level of acidity in the muscles and blood.
If you continue training at this time, then the process of acidity decrease will increase and as a result, muscle failure will occur. If at this time to increase the concentration of carnosine in the muscles, then it is possible to stop the decrease in acidity and thereby reduce muscle fatigue.
Effect of carnosine levels on athletic performance
In the course of scientific research, it was found that carnosine accumulates in muscle fibers of the second type. It is they who are most developed in bodybuilders. In theory, this makes it possible to build mass faster. In addition, it was found that carnosine accumulates in those fibers that have a lower acidity level.
It was previously thought that a decrease in acidity is associated only with an increase in lactate concentration. However, recent experiments indicate something else, namely, the relationship between the process of lowering acidity with the synthesis of hydrogen ions. At a low intensity of training, the process of acidity reduction is relatively long, and significantly accelerates with increasing intensity. As mentioned above, all this leads to muscle fatigue. To reduce fatigue, it is necessary to create an environment and environment that prolongs the time of high-intensity work. Carnosine can help to cope with this if you can increase its concentration in muscle fibers. It is for these purposes that the appropriate nutritional supplements are intended. As we have already said, for almost 80 years it was believed that lactate accelerates acidosis with an increase in concentration, but now it is known that everything happens the other way around and this substance slows down the acidosis process.
The use of carnosine in bodybuilding can be very effective. In the course of numerous studies, it has been found that carnosine is an important substance for increasing muscle power.
The use of Beta-Carnosine in athletes increases the ability to work with large weights and maximum effort. This has been confirmed in several studies.
The use of carnosine in bodybuilding
Carnosine supplements are easy to find in specialized sports nutrition stores today. Effective dosages of the substance are in the range from 3 to 30 grams, taken during the day. The main problem preventing the wider distribution of these additives is their cost. Admittedly, carnosine is quite expensive and for this reason many athletes take preparations containing histidine and beta-alanine.
Note that Alanine is better studied by scientists in comparison with Histidine, and its ability to increase the concentration of Carnosine is beyond doubt. Studies have shown that when a daily dose of 800 milligrams of Alanine was used, the level of carnosine in the muscles increased significantly. Also note that the daily dosage was divided into four doses.
You can also get carnosine from food. When the carnosine contained in them enters the body, it is split into alanine and histidine, after which, once in the bloodstream, it enters the muscle tissue. Here, carnosine is again synthesized from these amino acid compounds.
So far, scientists have not been able to uncover the secrets of the carnosine transport system, but it is assumed that the substance enters the tissues through the muscular plasma and this mechanism is very close to the mode of transport of creatine. To date, there have been several experiments with alanine and carnosine supplements. In this case, more research has been devoted to the first substance. Thus, we can say that the use of preparations containing alanine leads to an increase in the concentration of carnosine in muscle fibers, both of the first type and the second.
This indicates that they can be equally effective not only for strength training, but also for aerobic exercise. But it is still difficult to talk about the exact dosages of the substance. Note that during the longest study of alanine, the substance was used daily in an amount of 3.2 grams. This dosage was quite effective and can serve as a starting point in determining the required doses of alanine.
Useful information about the L-Carnosine dietary supplement in this video:
