You probably know that amino acids are the building blocks of protein. When you eat a protein food, it gets digested in the stomach and intestine and gets broken down into individual and short chains of amino acids, which are small enough to be absorbed into the bloodstream. These amino acids have far reaching effects in the body from building tissues, to producing chemicals that enable our brains to function optimally.
During exercise, protein breakdown increases with no rise in protein synthesis. This means that training and competing can be very catabolic times, no matter what type of exercise you do. Fortunately, during the post-exercise period, this muscle catabolism can be slowed as protein synthesis begins to rise.
However, this increase still isn't enough to counter the protein breakdown that's still occurring. The net result of this workout and post workout catabolism is that muscle recovery and improvement (if endurance exercise is your thing) or growth (if strength exercise is your thing) is hampered.
Current research in dietary supplementation has targeted these catabolic times, attempting to minimize the catabolism and maximize the anabolism (including recovery, improvement, and/or growth). This research has demonstrated that essential amino acids (alone or with carbohydrates) ingested before, during, or after exercise promote huge increases in protein balance.
