The dosage could be per week. I have not read any of the reports out of the study yet. I only spoke informally with the coach and athlete. The athletes diet and training regime was not changed at all, so yes, the loss of body fat could well be attributed to the beat alanine. He suffered no side effects.
I heard good things about this supplement recently, and if these results can be attributed to beta alanine then we may have a ground breaking supplement.
BA is a good way to go for pretty much any athlete in my opinion. I have been using 1.5g x 3/4 spread throughout the day for a few months now and have seen some good gains both in the gym and on the track. In terms of the feeling and intensity of fatigue experienced during sessions I would also say this has reduced.
Is that x 3/4 or 3 or 4 times 1.5g spread throughout the day?
I also think beta alanine is good. A 400h guy I know has started taking it recently and his past 2 races have been .4 and .2 under his old PB.
He originally took 1.5g 3x per day but weāve bumped it up to 3g 3x per day for the bitter end of the season.
3 or 4 times spread evenly throughout the day. Dr Stouts protocols list this as the most effective way to take it. Dont know all the ins and outs but I am sure it related to the conversion rate for BA to carnosine. A steady stream worked better for conversion than a large one off dose. The biotest product is time release for this purpose and also to reduce the tingling feeling which tends to appear beneath the skin around 15min after ingestion. Personally this has never bothered me much anyway and the powdered version costs less than half as much as the biotest product.
I hope this helps.
Just keep an eye on the blood pressure. Mine went too high after a few days, so I had to stop. It dropped back downā¦
We have not long completed our second season of track cycling (sprints) & the second season using BA. I put my wife on this very early in 2007 after the initial research was released & looked very promising. I can tell you that in terms of hold power longer than other riders, BA works a treat. My wife was streaks ahead of her nearest competition & looked the goods for a national title this year. Unfortunately a very dirty piece of riding from a competitor at regionals resulted in a broken collarbone & the season was gone. :mad:
On the times when we had run out of BA, the performance differences were not as pronounced.
BA has now been taken up by the GB Cycling Federation, Australian Cycling Federation, & was recently recommended to the NZ Cycling Federation prior to the Olympics. The All Blacks rugby team were on BA for the Rugby World Cup (didnāt do much good there though).
A NZ road cyclist riding for a Pro team recently attributed his success in the Tour of Georgia to starting BA & a Swiss female road & track cyclist has also gone on BA & between this & GABA has made some massive performance gains.
AFAIK - for cyclists, it is the biz. 
I used the pure-powder BA for a while (maybe 6-8 weeks at a dose of 2g x 3 times a day, for a total of 6 grams/day). I built the dosage up slowly, from 1-2 grams a day for the first week to 3-4g for the second week and then for the last 5 or so weeks of the cycle I was at around 6 grams a day total. I noticed the paraesthesia for any single dose greater than or equal to around 2 grams.
My experience suggests that it is an effective supplement as I was still doing lactate sessions while on it, so I noticed some benefit with those sessions. The only reason Iām not still on it is that Iām pretty sure it gave me acne breakouts. I discontinued BA and the acne went away, so I figure the acne was because of the BA.
I think to get proper performance benefits though, I should have stayed on it for AT LEAST 12 weeks at the dose of 6 grams/day spreadout over 3 single doses of 2g each day. So for my next cycle, I think Iāll build the dose up to 6 grams/day and then stay on that dose for at least 12 weeks (if not the entire summer season). I plan to start up again around September or something.
Hope that helps some.
Peace.
Can you be more specific about the performance benefits please? What did you find in regards to building up the doseage, is it necessary, or can the 6g/day start immediately?
the supplement store near my house had a sale of Phosphagen Elite for half price so i decided to pick two containers up.
I noticed a big difference right away. All the wok from the workout including even the warmup run seemed very easy. Every sprint felt effortless and were timed at pb levels. I havent tried creatine or beta - alanine before so i dont know which part is working, and i am only taking one scoop so it isnt even that much, but it has made my workout that much more intense.
But i dont know how long before a workout is it supposed to be consumed, 30 min?
Also has anyone tried adding in arginine with it?
I wouldnāt recommend starting at the final dose of 6g/day immediately. You want to see how your body reacts first. Also the skin-tingling sensation can be pretty bad if you take enough of the stuff, and I also felt a bit nauseous when I took too much (i.e. any single dose >2g).
The performance benefits were just seemingly easier last 100m or so when doing lactate sessions (like 300s). But the benefits werenāt as pronounced as I thought, or as what creatine gave me. But that MAY be because I didnāt take it for long enough.
Interesting, I may give it a go during my SPP. Would you say it would give you the most benefit in that phase of training? Iām guessing that is when youāre likely to do your hardest lactic sessions.
That said I see the biggest difference on creatine in my strength work. Do you find the same? What benefits do you find from creatine?
If you try it, let us know what happens.
Which are the aminos in creatine, is arginine not one of them?
Be careful not to over supplement with Arginine because if you have had cold sores before then you may have a break out again.
Supplementing BA with Cr M is not as effective as individual supplementation during different phases.
Yeah, strength gains and also way better ārechargingā in between sprints (whatever the distance). I remember when I first used creatine and I was doing 12x60m with walk back recovery and the 12th rep felt almost exactly like the first. BUT Iāve been smart with creatine. The first time I did the loading phase and I gained like 4kg in one week. Now I just take like 3-4 grams a day and I get the same performance benefits but with no weight gain.
I think BA should be used mostly with the lactic session phase of training. And then for the competition phase. But I see no reason why not to use it year-round (say 12 weeks on, 2 weeks off? --but that just came to me as an idea, so I havenāt tried it out yet).
What do you think of arginine and creatine as a pre-training stack? Iāve got some Arginine-Ethyl-Ester and Iāve only used it before bed with not much benefit at all (plus it tastes like shit. Haha.). I usually take 5 grams of creatine before a training session and I find that works quiet nicely. Maybe adding the arginine would help even more? My friend suggested āNO2 Explodeā, but I looked at the back of the label and itās pretty much just creatine and arginine. Thoughts?
I to am interested in the thoughts of whether to cycle it (ie. take a break from using it), or, do you have to keep consistantly using it, for it to reach itās maximum benefit?
FYI guys and girls. I found this article on T-Nation and kind of answered my own questionsā¦I have added only relevant points from this interview to answer the question I was askingā¦
Beta-alanine: The Next Creatine
An Interview with Dr. Jeff Stout
TC: I understand that some of the athletes in your studies came back to you several weeks after the conclusion of the study and wanted to get back on beta-alanine because their workouts now āsuckā in comparison?
JS: Ha! Yes, thatās true of every study on beta-alanine Iāve done thus far. Athletes came back 6 weeks later begging me for more beta-alanine because their training āsucked!ā without beta-alanine.
Just to make sure, I did the same and stopped taking beta-alanine 6 weeks ago. My subjects were right, my workouts āsuckā without it!
TC: So you do need to āloadā it, like creatine?
JS: Well, research so far suggest that maximal increases in carnosine happen within 4 weeks with about 6 g per day, or 40 to 60 mg per kg of body weight. After that, I think you could cut the dose in half to maintain your elevated carnosine levels.
TC: So strength athletes and endurance athletes could benefit equally?
JS: Yes, finally a supplement that can enhance performance in ALL athletes! Can you think of a single sport that doesnāt try to deal with delaying fatigue during training or competition? I canāt.
TC: Do the effects diminish over time? Does it have to be cycled?
JS: While the research isnāt there yet, it appears anecdotally, that if you stop supplementing, your carnosine levels will return to baseline in about 6 weeks. I would suggest taking a maintenance dose (2 to 3 g per day) to keep carnosine levels up. I see no need to cycle.
Cheers,
DOPR