Parrillo Performance provides the best quality supplements in the world. Period. We don’t cut any corners when it comes to nutritional support for our athletes. We want you to get the most from your training, and we want you to reach your goals. We’re here to help you win. In addition to our famous success with bodybuilders, we also work with world class endurance athletes. In this article I will describe some of our best supplements for endurance athletes, why they work and how to use them. Even if you’re not an endurance athlete and are just looking for more energy, our approach to diet and supplementation is sure to help. Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that many of the best bodybuilders also rely on our endurance supplements when they want to train longer and harder, and, more importantly, recover faster and more completely.Ultra-endurance activities are associated with loss of lean body mass (1,2).

Endurance activity causes loss of lean tissue because as fat and carbohydrate fuels are exhausted the body draws on its own muscle tissue to use as fuel (3). Amino acids can be converted to glucose in the liver via a process known as “gluconeogenesis” (4,5). The so-called “branched chain amino acids” (leucine, isoleucine and valine) seem to be especially preferred as fuel substrates. In addition to being converted to glucose in the liver, the amino acids are unique in that they can also be used directly as fuel by the muscles (5). These are the amino acids included in our product Muscle Amino^TM. Muscle Amino^TM contains the balance of branched chain amino acids science has shown most beneficial.Have you ever noticed an ammonia smell in your clothes after a hard workout? This is because your body was using some amino acids as fuel but was not able to clear the waste products efficiently. When this happens the carbon skeleton of amino acids is burned, leaving ammonia as a byproduct.

Ammonia is quite toxic and is converted to urea in a metabolic pathway called “the urea cycle,” which prepares it to be excreted in the urine (4,5). The urea cycle requires certain chemical compounds called “aspartates,” (4,5) which are included in our Max Endurance Formula^TM. We have developed this product specifically for use during endurance activities. It works by providing nutrients which are used by the body to detoxify the waste products of protein catabolism. Max Endurance^TM helps filter out toxic waste products your body generates during intense training. Eliminating these waste products helps you have more energy and recover faster.

Ammonia is very toxic and will stop energy production in the cell. Using the aspartates in Max Endurance^TM to “neutralize” the ammonia as soon as it forms enables you to have more energy and endurance. We suggest the product be used consistently everyday, not just on days of endurance events.Perhaps the most crucial supplement for endurance athletes is our Liver Amino Formula^TM. I cannot overemphasize the importance of this product. What is endurance activity all about, anyway? It’s about producing energy over an extended period of time. Liver Amino^TM helps in at least three ways - by providing heme iron, protein and B vitamins.Energy production in the human body requires two things: a fuel substrate and oxygen (3,5). Many people build up the importance of carbohydrates in endurance performance - and rightfully so. Carbs are your body’s best fuel source for endurance activity (3,6,7). However, for those carbs to be used as fuel your muscles require a constant supply of oxygen.

Contrary to popular belief, it is usually the rate of oxygen delivery to cells which limits energy production, not the availability of glucose.As you know, it is the responsibility of red blood cells to deliver oxygen to all the working tissues of your body (4). What you may not know is that endurance training actually can destroy red blood cells rather than building them up - if your nutrition’s not right. Bodybuilders have long recognized that strength training actually breaks down muscles and that this damage provides the stimulus for subsequent growth during the recovery period. To build more muscle, you have to provide the nutrients muscles are made of. The same is true for endurance training, except it’s the blood system that takes a beating. And if you want to recover and be stronger as a result of your workout, you have to feed your body with the nutrients it needs to make red blood cells. Have you ever noticed that many endurance athletes are very thin and don’t have much muscle mass? Why is that?

To understand why this happens, and what to do about it, you need to know a little about physiology and how the body adapts to endurance training.Endurance activity causes a condition referred to as “sports anemia” (8-11). This occurs rapidly with the onset of training (9,11). Endurance training causes an increase in mitochondrial content of the muscle tissue (mitochondria are the furnaces inside the cell where fuels are burned - the more energy you produce the more mitochondria you need), in myoglobin concentration (a protein like hemoglobin, which is involved in transporting oxygen inside muscle cells), and in cytochrome enzymes (enzymes of the electron transport chain, involved in aerobic energy production) (12). All of these are protein structures which are increased as an adaptive response to endurance training. To achieve this increase, the body draws on its erythrocytes (red blood cells), hemoglobin and plasma proteins as a source of protein (10-12).

This is an example of the “plasticity’” of the body - the body remodeling its own structures to adapt to changing conditions. In other words, what’s happening is the body needs to build up its energy producing systems inside muscle cells to adapt to the training stimulus. These energy producing systems are made of protein. And the easiest place for your muscle cells to find protein is to steal it from red blood cells and plasma protein.Couple this increased protein need with the fact that endurance activity causes amino acids to be used as fuel substrates instead of as proteins, and you can see why endurance athletes are frequently borderline anemic and why they commonly experience muscle wasting.

Liver Amino^TM contains heme iron - the most bioavailable iron source (8). The product contains desiccated liver (not cooked), as cooking can destroy the heme group and decrease its incorporation in red blood cells by 50% (8). Liver Amino^TM formula also provides 1.5 grams of complete protein per tablet. Heme iron and protein are precisely the nutrients your body needs to produce red blood cells. This way you can build your energy producing systems inside muscle cells and your blood system all at the same time, without having to sacrifice one for the other. Plus it’s a rich source of B vitamins, which are used in energy production. Start taking the Liver-Amino (five to eight with each meal) when you’re training hard and definitely at least six weeks before your event, since it takes that long to build up red blood cells.

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RefeRences

1. Friedman JE and Lemon PWR. Effect of chronic endurance exercise on retention of dietary protein. Int. J. Sports Med. 10: 118-123, 1989.

2. Hickson JF and Wolinsky I. Human protein intake and metabolism in exercise and sports. Nutrition in Exercise and Sport, Hickson JF and Wolinsky I, Eds. p. 5-36. CRC Press, 1989.

3. Nagle FJ and Bassett DR Jr. Energy metabolism in exercise. Nutrition in Exercise and Sport, Hickson JF and Wolinsky I, Eds. p. 87-106. CRC Press, 1989.

4. Guyton AC. Textbook of Medical Physiology. W.B. Saunders, 1991.

5. Zubay G. Biochemistry . Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1983.

6. Miller GD and Massaro EJ. Carbohydrate in ultra-endurance performance. Nutrition in Exercise and Sport, Hickson JF and Wolinsky I, Eds. p. 51-62. CRC Press, 1989.

7. Pate TD and Brunn JC. Fundamentals of carbohydrate metabolism. Nutrition in Exercise and Sport, Hickson JF and Wolinsky I, Eds. pg. 37-50. CRC Press, 1989.

8. Scrimshaw NS. Iron Deficiency. Scientific American, pg. 46-52, October, 1991.

9. Sherman AR and Kramer B. Iron nutrition and exercise. Nutrition in Exercise and Sport, Hickson JF and Wolinsky I, Eds. p. 291-308. CRC Press, 1989.

10. Shiraki K, Yamada T and Yoshimura H. Relation of protein nutrition to the reduction of red blood cells induced by physical training. Japanese J. Physiol. 27: 413-421, 1977.

11. Yoshimura H, Inoue T, Yamada T and Shiraki K. Anemia during hard physical training (sports anemia) and its causal mechanism with special reference to protein nutrition. World Rev. Nutr. Diet. 35: 1-86, 1980.

12. Haymes. Proteins, Vitamins, and Iron. Ergogenic Aids in Sport; ed. Williams. Human Kinetics Publishers; 1983; p 27-55.

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