BCAAs are the essential amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine, which comprise around 35% of your body's muscle protein. They're "essential" because your body doesn't make them on its own—you have to get them from food and workout supplements. Like other amino acids, they're the building blocks of protein. These particular aminos may also help preserve muscle glycogen stores, which fuel your muscles and minimize protein breakdown during exercise. BCAAs can help you get more out of your daily gym sessions.

BCAAs fuel your skeletal muscles during training, which can help give you the edge you need to push your limits. Supplementing with BCAAs helps preserve your stores of glycogen—the primary fuel your muscles use for energy production. This means your body has a reliable energy source to tap into while you work out, which can keep you going. Plus, abundant glycogen stores keep your body from breaking down muscle protein for energy instead.

1. Increase Growth: Leucine activates certain pathways that stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

2. Decrease Muscle Soreness: BCAAs decrease muscle damage and levels of creatine kinase, reducing the severity of DOMS.

3. Reduce Exercise Fatigue: Helps maintain BCAA levels in the blood, preventing the rise of tryptophan and serotonin in the brain which cause fatigue.

4. Prevent Muscle Wasting: Essential for replacing amino acids during times of wasting, improving health outcomes for the elderly or those with certain diseases.