MPR™ AMINO: BCAA's Done Right!

The Serious Bodybuilders Must-Have Supplement
In their own right, BCAA’s (Branch Chain Amino Acids) are a scientifically proven, potent and effective trio of amino acids with true anabolic signaling power. At MPR™, we had just one goal: make them easier to use, so YOU can get maximum benefits.

As a serious weight trainee, we believe that in your limited free time you’re likely only concerned with advanced nutrition, training and supplemental information that will lead to building fresh new muscle tissue, while keeping body fat levels at a minimum.

That’s how we approached the development of our new BCAA product, MPR™ Amino. Instead of clouding the issue with alternate and unproven forms of this powerful trio of amino acids (like nitrates), while relying on trumped up marketing claims, we focused on how to create a product that allows YOU to get the maximum value from BCAA’s. Our goal was simple; clarify the benefits BCAA’s can produce, and make them convenient for everyday use. Let’s take a refresher course in just how important BCAA’s are for improving lean body mass, and increasing your ability to shed body fat.

MPR™ AMINO: The Basics
As bodybuilders we realize the importance of consuming ample amounts of high quality animal proteins in the way of beef, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy products. What many of us don’t realize is that biologically speaking, our need for protein is in fact a need for amino acids. That’s why when you eat protein your body must first break it down into more useable chunks of amino acids, primarily in the form of di and tri-peptides, which are clusters of amino acids to be used in the body.

In recent years, research has identified specific amino acids as “signaling molecules” that control a whole host of critical metabolic processes, including stimulating muscle growth - where BCAA’s do their most impressive work. When you eat high quality protein you are getting non-essential and essential amino acids that include the BCAA’s. In humans, about 15-25% of our total protein intake is comprised of BCAA’s, with dairy products and supplements made with whey and milk proteins containing the highest quantities at roughly 23-25%.

For bodybuilders the most important BCAA factoid is that they make up 35-40% of the essential amino acids in body protein and 14% of the total amino acids in skeletal muscle. The reason we have such concentrated levels of BCAA’s in body protein and skeletal muscle becomes crystal clear when you understand how BCAA’s are metabolized.

MPR™ AMINO: On-Board Muscle Prevention
Regardless of what other companies may want to want you to believe, BCAA’s are not new, as they hit the bodybuilding scene around 1984. Yet, what initially got bodybuilders and the sports science community excited, was how elegantly the body metabolized these three amino acids. You see, unlike whole proteins or amino acids, BCAA’s bypass the liver and can be used by the body as fuel in tissues other than the liver. More importantly, research revealed that during exercise BCAA’s were preferentially used as an alternate fuel source, sparing other muscle proteins from being broken down for energy. In essence, this truncated delivery allows BCAA’s to quickly become involved in critical aspects of muscle metabolism, and the first order of business seems to be replacing BCAA’s burned during exercise, or as a direct fuel source during exercise.

The unique metabolic fate of BCAA’s catapulted them to superstar status as an anti-catabolic agent, which simply means, the ability to reduce muscle protein breakdown. This is no small feat, because in many ways, the anti-catabolic mechanism is how anabolic steroids help you maintain greater levels of muscle mass. This revelation caused bodybuilders to start popping BCAA’s like tic-tacs®, especially pre-contest because they knew that in the face of energy restriction your body doesn’t just burn body fat, it makes glucose by any means possible, and taking carbon from muscle protein is a prime target. The ability to offset muscle protein breakdown is further protected by BCAA’s and their rare ability to generate glucose with just a few simple steps.

MPR™ AMINO: Auxiliary Energy Source
While many bodybuilders think your body has “calorie sensors” to determine how many calories your body needs to; 1) maintain the same body composition, 2) reduce body fat, 3) add muscle or 4) add muscle and lose fat simultaneously, the reality is your brain runs a much simpler show. This is not to say that the amount of proteins, carbs and fats you eat each day don’t matter, but what it does mean is your body’s energy needs are based on a system that is set up to insure your brain never runs out of its preferred energy source, which is glucose. And it doesn’t matter if you eat simple or complex carbs, fiber rich or no fiber at all, what finally ends up coursing through your veins is pure glucose. In fact, 50% of every molecule of glucose in your bloodstream right now is being saved for brain function. That’s because if your brain gets “unplugged”, nothing else matters.

We are all hardwired with the same fail-safe energy system that is always switched-on and can create glucose when necessary. This system is called gluconeogenesis, which is a metabolic pathway that results in the creation of glucose from non-carbohydrate carbon substrates such as lactate, glycerol, and glucogenic amino acids. As you might expect, the process of gluconeogenesis goes into overdrive to help provide glucose when you are engaged in high volume weight training, high intensity cardio, and or, restricting calories. In other words, when you are training at peak levels that outstrip available glucose that could preserve your muscle mass, gluconeogenesis, otherwise known as your alternative energy system, must go into high gear.

This is when having optimal BCAA levels in blood and muscle becomes extremely important. Under the strain of exercise and diet-induced glucose insufficiency, your body will take BCAA’s directly from muscle tissue to make the extra energy it needs. Remember, your body needs to create glucose not only to cover the extra energy requirements caused by increased exercise, but more importantly, to keep your brain switched-on. Research has shown just how critical BCAA’s are to the process of gluconeogenesis because they are intimately involved in the glucose – alanine cycle. In this pathway, BCAAs are stripped from the muscle tissue and parts of them are converted to the amino acid alanine, which is transported to the liver and converted into glucose.

Because gluconeogenosis relies on non-carbohydrate substrates such as amino acids from muscle tissue to make glucose, supplementing with BCAA’s may hold the key to maximizing muscle mass, especially while dieting. In theory, this means that by consuming supplemental MPR™ Aminos, the body will not have to break down muscle tissue to derive any extra energy demands. This theory was confirmed in a study that showed the use of MPR™ AMINO’s (up to 4 grams) during and after exercise can result in a significant reduction of muscle breakdown during exercise.

MPR™ AMINO: Legitimate Muscle Growth Signaling Agent
The impact MPR™ Amino can have on preserving lean muscle tissue and providing substrates to make glucose on demand, can literally make or break your ability to build a phenomenal physique. That is of course if you’re training hard enough and keeping tabs on your overall nutrition plan (i.e., not eating a bunch of garbage). Nonetheless, these stellar attributes pale in comparison to the more recent science that has shown one of the components of MPR™ Amino, leucine, is actually the silver bullet that triggers muscle protein synthesis, and in turn, muscle growth.

Years ago sports scientists looking into muscle metabolism discovered that the metabolic pathway primarily responsible for the magnitude and duration of any up-regulation in protein synthesis is called, mammalian target of rapamycin, or mTOR. This is a key finding because everything from rebuilding worn out tissues and recovering from injury, to increasing muscle size and maintaining resting metabolic rate, are dependent on protein synthesis.

The big news for bodybuilders is that we now know how leucine intersects with this key pathway to initiate the growth response. In short, this pathway can be triggered nutritionally with proteins high in leucine or by adding MPR™ Amino or free leucine to any high protein meal to initiate protein synthesis of greater magnitude. No doubt, this particular MPR™ Amino is pro-anabolic. This brings us to the last, but certainly not least, effective benefit MPR™ Amino can bring to your bodybuilding game.

MPR™ AMINO: Non-Carbohydrate Insulinotropic
Most bodybuilders are familiar with the insulin hormone and its effect on muscle tissue, glucose disposal and fat storage. In truth, insulin is a double-edged sword, because it can significantly increase muscle protein synthesis, and also fat storage. The principal driver of insulin is carbohydrate, which in turn becomes glucose in the bloodstream. The contemporary approach to altering body composition is to reduce carbohydrate levels in the diet to minimize fat storage through the output of insulin.

Enduring a nutritional strategy that virtually “mutes” the insulin response can become counterproductive for bodybuilders who want to build, or preserve muscle mass, especially while shedding or maintaining their current level of body fat. This is because when insulin levels are slightly elevated, whole body protein retention can be increased. Ironically, this net increase is due to a reduction in muscle protein degradation via circulating insulin, and not through insulin mediated protein synthesis. For these reasons it appears leucine can provide a missing link with tremendous potentialities for bodybuilders.

The MPR™ Amino component, leucine, has been shown to interact with the insulin signaling pathway to stimulate protein synthesis, resulting in maintenance of muscle protein during periods of restricted energy intake. It also appears that leucine is able to regulate insulin signaling and glucose use by skeletal muscle. These are pretty cool attributes considering leucine is not a carbohydrate. As we learned, muscle proteins and MPR™ Aminos are in high demand when gluconeogenesis is ramped up. However, leucine appears to also regulate the use of glucose in skeletal muscle by stimulating glucose recycling via the glucose-alanine cycle. If that sounds confusing don’t worry, all you need to know is that leucine plays a key role in making your muscles bigger and fuller, without adding unwanted body fat.

MPR™ AMINO: The Master Plan
MPR™ Amino provides a remarkable range of value for bodybuilders. From the available data we can make a good case for ingesting additional MPR™ Aminos at several intervals during the day.

Conclusion
MPR™ Amino has a wide range of benefits. For best results we’ve delivered our product in a dosing system that offers hard training bodybuilders the ease of taking multiple servings per day, and at precise intervals. Go ahead, make the switch to MPR™ AMINO. It just may be the silver-bullet you need to take your training to the next level.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.