Amino acids are extremely important. I hope everyone can take a closer look, and then be sure to pay attention to the intake of amino acid foods.

Let’s first understand what amino acids are. Amino acids are the most basic units that constitute proteins and make proteins biochemically active. From this point of view, in order to optimize the effect of protein supplementation, a large amount of a type of nutrition is required, which is a variety of amino acids that promote the work of protein. There are many types of amino acids, about 20 of them, but 8 of them cannot be synthesized by the human body and must be ingested through diet. These are called essential amino acids. In addition, there are many kinds of amino acids. Amino acids are still very effective in training. Today we will talk about amino acids in two categories.

The first is the essential amino acids, which are divided into:

Lysine: Promotes brain development, is a component of the liver and gallbladder, can promote fat metabolism, regulate the pineal gland, mammary gland, corpus luteum and ovary, and prevent cell degeneration;

Tryptophan: Promote the production of gastric juice and pancreatic juice;

Phenylalanine: involved in eliminating the loss of kidney and bladder function;

Methionine (methionine): participates in the composition of hemoglobin, tissue and serum, and promotes the functions of the spleen, pancreas and lymph;

Threonine: It has the function of converting certain amino acids to achieve balance;

Isoleucine: Participates in the regulation and metabolism of the thymus, spleen and subcerebral glands; the subcerebral glands act on the thyroid and gonads;

Leucine: acts to balance isoleucine;

Valine: Acts on the corpus luteum, breast and ovaries. (Excerpted from Baidu Encyclopedia, Physiological Significance of Amino Acids)

1. Among them, threonine, valine and isoleucine constitute a class of amino acids that many friends may have heard of called branched-chain amino acids. Branched-chain amino acids promote metabolic synthesis by releasing growth hormone and insulin, that is, increasing muscle growth and enhancing training effects. Branched-chain amino acids are generally rich in whey protein. Generally, the daily intake of branched-chain amino acids is about 6000MG., supplementing sufficient branched-chain amino acids can enhance muscle synthesis ability, improve recovery ability, and reduce some fat. In addition, since branched-chain amino acids make up almost one-third of protein, adequate intake of branched-chain amino acids can help reduce muscle loss. When I have something to do or am unable to train due to external reasons, I will consume a large amount of branched-chain amino acids to reduce the rate of muscle loss. This effect is also the biggest function of branched-chain amino acids in my opinion, and can effectively protect our training results. Many friends reported that they did not gain weight after practicing. Although they also consumed protein, due to insufficient intake of amino acids, especially insufficient intake of branched chain amino acids, all the muscle gained after training was slowly lost...

Foods rich in branched-chain amino acids: live fish, fresh shrimp, duck, skinless chicken, milk, soybeans, corn, millet, glutinous rice, cauliflower, red dates, pork, mutton, beef, rabbit meat.

2. Lysine. In fact, lysine should not be placed here. It should be introduced first. Because lysine actually limits the gap between the training results of Chinese people and those of foreign countries. Note that this refers to the same amateurs. First of all, lysine can greatly promote muscle growth and improve your immunity. Lysine is generally found in meat, fish, beans, milk, shrimp, and shellfish. Many people mistakenly believe that peanuts are rich in lysine. The idea of ​​lysine is wrong because the absorption capacity of the lysine contained in it is extremely low. Our daily eating environment and food hygiene determine that the basic amounts of fish are not enough, for example, by filling them with water to make them bigger, etc. Secondly, our diet determines that we cannot consume a large amount of lysine, because lysine is very afraid of high temperatures. Generally, boiling, stewing, and steaming are the best ways. This once again explains why we need to boil chicken breasts. Not fried chicken breast. All stir-fried, pan-fried, and deep-fried foods will greatly decompose lysine. Therefore, although the protein content of McDonald's burgers is not low, the lysine in it has almost disappeared. The protein you supplement is not high-quality protein. It is not good for improving muscles and training ability. , no help. Finally, there is our eating habits. Chinese people like to eat rice and noodles, eat vegetables, and eat less meat. However, the most lacking thing in rice and noodles is the lysine content. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to find out why many people say that foreigners can do it, but the reason why Chinese people cannot do it is not because of your innateness or genes, but because your diet is very different from others.

Next, let’s talk about two types of amino acids other than essential amino acids, which are also of great benefit to our training, namely glutamine and arginine. Let’s talk about glutamine first:

1. Glutamine, which can be converted from glucose in the body, is not an essential amino acid for the human body. However, through large intake, it can well reduce muscle soreness after training and reduce lactic acid accumulation, because the recovery speed of muscles is accelerated. , our training cycle will be shortened, so that we can improve training efficiency as soon as possibleresults, such as increases in endurance, speed, and strength. Generally, enough glutamine is added to protein powder, so if you take protein powder, you generally don’t need to supplement it. So we can see that protein powder not only provides protein, it can provide a variety of high-quality amino acids, thereby providing high-quality protein, and only brings very low calories and fat. This is why protein powder is called the third step in training. The reason for supplementation is because if you want to improve your training effect, you cannot do without protein, and the self-expression of protein cannot be separated from various efficient and high-quality amino acids.

2. Arginine. In fact, it should be said that it is arginine and ornithine. Many friends may not know these two types of amino acids very well, but in fact they are a subordinate relationship. Arginine is one of the ornithine cycles. important component. A large intake of arginine and ornithine can effectively increase the secretion of growth hormone in our body. Do you know that there are two general training modes: the training mode to improve strength focuses on supplementing and stimulating the secretion of testosterone hormone, while the training mode to increase muscle circumference and muscle quantity requires the supplementation of a large amount of growth hormone. Today we will only talk about the issue of growth hormone, and we will talk about the secretion of testosterone hormone later. Growth hormone is not something very scary. Many friends may be scared when they see hormones and think they are bad things, but they are not. Inadequate secretion of growth hormone, for young people, children will suffer from stunted growth, short stature, etc. For trainers, there will be symptoms such as lack of energy and slow muscle growth. Therefore, growth hormone is necessary for the human body. Don’t shy away when you hear about hormones. Similarly, arginine and ornithine can also protect muscles well and slow down their loss with age. In addition, according to its Chinese translation, it is not difficult to find that arginine can strengthen the body and improve kidney function, and it is not difficult to find foods rich in it: sea cucumbers, kidneys, eels, and dried fruits. It is what we generally call foods that improve sexual performance. This also proves the price of sea cucumbers. There is a reason why sea cucumbers are so expensive...

From this, it is not difficult to see that amino acids are the second but most critical link in determining the quality of protein. The other is the absorption capacity we wrote in the previous post. There are many foods rich in amino acids, such as fish, meat, beans, eggs, milk, shrimp and other seafood. In terms of absorption level, chicken and fish have better absorption effects. Beans are the only type of plant protein, the rest are animal proteins that we need to supplement for training. From this, it is not difficult to see that the sources of high-quality protein that we need to supplement for daily training are: chicken, eggs, milk, fish, shrimp, etc. The rest of the food cannot be regarded as high-quality protein because its amino acid content, absorption capacity, price ratio and other factors determine it.