Essential Amino Acids

Essential Amino Acids are one of the most important building blocks for muscle gain and strength training. Your customers are expecting options to supplement their workouts, and you need to make sure you are offering great products that actually work. To break down the essentials of amino acids, we’ll go over the basics.

What are essential amino acids?

The human body needs 20 amino acids in order to function. It can build 11 of those on it’s own, the other 9 have to come from food. The 9 amino acids that we have to get from food are called the essential amino acids. These are what you are selling to your athletes to benefit their training.

Amino acids are important to your muscles for building proteins and growing new muscle. Foods like meat and eggs contain essential amino acids. Athletes need to maintain a protein-rich diet with healthy foods. Not everyone can prepare perfectly balanced meals all the time, which is where your supplement products step in to fill the gap.

What are non-essential amino acids?

Non-essential amino acids are amino acids that the human body can produce on its own. Under intense stress or physical illness, the body may not be able to produce these proteins like it should. That’s why 8 of the non-essential amino acids are called conditional amino acids.

Your typical healthy athlete will have no problem making conditional amino acids. It’s only people who are very sick who need additional amino acid supplements from their diet. A nutritionally rich diet of protein, fruits, and vegetables will provide all of the body-building supplements an average individual needs.
When your athletes push themselves, their bodies crave protein-rich supplements to get them back to top form as quickly as possible. Your supplements need to be well-researched and targeted to fit their needs.

Essential Amino-Acids Supplements

Just like a balanced diet, your supplement line is not complete without strong essential amino-acid supplements. Fortunately there are multiple options to suit the wide variety of athletic lifestyles. The main breakdown is between general protein supplements and pure branched chain amino acids. Whey protein is the more popular option, and we’ll explain why.

Whey Protein

Whey protein comes from milk when creating cheese. It’s called a complete protein because it contains all of the essential amino acids your body needs. Whey protein comes in many different formats for different purposes.

Whey Protein Isolate

Isolate whey is ultra-filtered and contains extremely low fat and lactose. Whey isolate is designed to take immediately after a workout to replenish muscles while still maintaining a lean body.

Mass Gainer Whey

Gainer blends pack more carbs to help build muscle and gain mass. It’s for athletes you want to get bigger, faster.

Vegan Protein

Protein doesn’t have to come from animal products. Plant-based protein has become very popular, and source protein from Quinoa, Brown Rice, and Pea Isolate.

Added BCAA Whey

Protein blends can include other supplements to provide a different effect, or to aid recovery. Adding branched chain amino acids directly to the protein blend gives even more essential amino acids to the muscles without any additional fat or sugars.

Branched Chain Amino Acids

Pure BCAAs are powder supplements focused on delivering essential amino acids directly to the muscles. BCAA supplements will not have the calories or weight gain potential that whey protein does. For that reason BCAAs are perfect for bodybuilding or other weight-conscious athletes.