By now, it’s a well-known fact, that Carnosyn Beta-Alanine is a powerhouse in the sports supplement arena. Proven to help you sprint faster, row harder, cycle longer, and maximize your lifting capacity, Beta-Alanine can take your athletic performance to all new heights and fast track your results. But with great power, comes great responsibility. We’re going to cover the 5 do’s and the 5 don’ts of Carnosyn Beta-Alanine so that you can optimize your training and power your performance.

What Is Carnosyn Beta-Alanine And How Does It Work?

To effectively optimize your training with beta-alanine you have to first understand what beta-alanine is and how it works. Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid, also known as a naturally occurring amino-acid. It’s produced in your liver and can be obtained through dietary protein sources such as chicken, red meat, and fish.

Studies have shown that CarnoSyn Beta-Alanine improves muscle endurance by counteracting the development of lactic acid, by increasing carnosine content. Lactic acid is created from the buildup of hydrogen ions (H+), which causes our muscles pH to drop, becoming more acidic. During high-intensity training, lactic acid produces a burning sensation resulting in a loss of power and eventually muscle fatigue.  

Beta-alanine binds with the amino acid L-Histidine, creating a di-peptide Carnosine. Carnosine is found in both type 1 and type 2 muscle fibers primarily used in high-intensity strength training.

During high-intensity training, when hydrogen ions are released lactic acid starts to build within muscle fibers, Carnosine acts as a hydrogen-ion buffer, which delays or counteracts lactic acid buildup and the onset of muscle fatigue, increasing your exercise performance by allowing you more time to exhaustion.

Competitive cyclists supplementing with 5g of CarnoSyn® beta-alanine per day showed an increase in muscle carnosine of 58% after 4 weeks and 80% after 10 weeks of supplementation [R].

Another study, conducted in a group of competitive sprint athletes trained to compete in the 400-meter race saw increased levels of muscle carnosine after a 4-week supplementation trial [R]

Therefore, the more muscle carnosine content you have, the better your workout and training performance will be. Unlike other sports supplements, Beta-Alanine is a bit more complicated and requires a few extra steps to fully optimize your training potential.

1. Take Carnosyn Beta-Alanine, Not Generic Beta-Alanine

Beta-alanine is a commended and popular pre-workout ingredient. Chances are you've taken it at some point, but just because your pre-workout contains beta-alanine doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be effective and help you crush your training sessions.

With over 55 clinical studies and 20 published in peer-reviewed journals, Carnosyn® is the only Beta-Alanine that is scientifically proven to boost athletic performance and has been tested on a wide range of athletes and training modalities, including sprinting, cycling, rowing, and weightlifting. Studies have shown that CarnoSyn® is clinically proven effective to increase strength, optimize workout recovery, enhance mental focus, and improve endurance.

Unlike Carnosyn, generic beta-alanine is not scientifically backed by clinical research or the FDA for its purity. Generic beta-alanine is the most common type that ends up in commonly consumed pre-workout powders. Therefore whenever you use Beta-alanine as a single ingredient or in a pre-workout it’s important to make sure it contains the patented ingredient CarnoSyn®.

2. Use Beta-Alanine As A Single Or Stand-Alone Ingredient 

Beta-Alanine can greatly improve your workout performance, but not if you’re under dosing it. Most pre-workout formulas underdose beta-alanine and don’t give you enough to be truly effective. Not only that, but manufacturers will use generic beta-alanine because it’s a cheaper ingredient as compared to Carnosyn. The clinical research indicates that you need to load a minimum of 3.2g per day over a period of 28 days to have an ergogenic benefit, such as building more muscle mass and improving exercise capacity.

That being said, it’s equally as important to ensure the pre-workout you’re consuming does not contain a proprietary blend. Proprietary blends will only list the total amount of ingredients used in a formula, but not disclose how much of each ingredient that product contains. Using beta-alanine as a single ingredient will ensure you get the adequate and clinically effective dose, to maximize your workout performance.

3. Stack Beta-Alanine With Other Proven Ingredients

If you want better performance, better endurance, and bigger gains, stack your beta-alanine. Supplementing with Carnosyn Beta-Alanine as a stand-alone, unflavored ingredient, also makes it simple to stack with other products. If you need a bigger pump and want more strength, stack it with pure, unflavored Citrulline Malate. Need to recover faster? Then add a couple of scoops of L-Glutamine to your stack. 

Another powerful supplement that has been extensively researched and proven to help increase power and strength is creatine. In fact, research shows that creatine stacked with beta-alanine improves strength, body composition, and significantly improves greater gains in strength than compared to supplementing creatine alone. [R]

In a study published in The International Journal Of Sports Nutrition And Exercise Metabolism, the effects of creatine and creatine plus beta-alanine on strength, power, body composition, and endocrine changes were examined during a 10-wk resistance-training program in collegiate football players. Thirty-three male subjects were randomly assigned to either a placebo (P), creatine (C), or creatine plus beta-alanine (CA) group. During each testing, session subjects were assessed for strength (maximum bench press and squat), power (Wingate anaerobic power test, 20-jump test), and body composition.

Creatine plus beta-alanine supplementation appeared to have the greatest effect on lean tissue accruement and body fat composition [R]. For even better results, consider stacking Carnosyn Beta-Alanine with Kre-Alkalyn. You’ll get even better gains, without the negative side effects associated with ordinary monohydrate.

In summary, stacking Carnosyn Beta-Alanine with other unflavored, single ingredient powders, you gain a customized approach to your training and goals rather than a one-size-fits-all supplement stack. 

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4. Supplement With A Higher Dose 

Studies have shown that if you double the dose and increase your daily intake from 3.2g to 6.4g per day, your performance can significantly increase. A higher dose will create more muscle carnosine retention within the muscle tissue, which will further fuel endurance, delay the onset of muscle fatigue, and enhance peak performance. 

5. Take Beta-Alanine Every day And Load It 

Beta-Alanine needs to be supplemented on training and non-training days so that you can effectively enhance your performance results. That means you need to load it or take it every day, regardless of your workout schedule and supplement protocol. Loading beta-alanine will ensure that you have higher muscle carnosine retention, to delay the onset of muscle fatigue and increase workout volume.

How To Use Beta-Alanine: Takeaway

Beta-Alanine may be a bit more complicated than other sports supplements, but the research proves, that it’s well worth it. As long as you can remember to stack it, take it every day, and use the patented ingredient Carnosyn, then can punch your one-way ticket to the gain train.  

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