Why Beta Alanine is Underrated

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Recently I’ve been experimenting with my own pre-workout mixes because I wanted to give myself a break from DS Craze. While DS Craze pre workout supplement is great, and really gets me through my new 2-3 hour workouts, it’s loaded with stimulants and it’s generally a good idea to give oneself a break from stimulants here and there.

There are some ingredients that I’m not completely sold on, but try anyway, but the Beta Alanine supplement I got was amazing. There are a lot of people out there and videos on YouTube saying that beta alanine is worthless and overrated. A lot of people are referring to the face tingling they get that made Jack3d as popular as it was. Beta alanine isn’t beneficial for its stimulatory properties though.

So What is Beta Alanine?

When someone is in the gym and is using the row machine or stair stepper, they might feel their muscles burning. The burning sensation is from a buildup of lactic acid and limits our performance in the gym. Beta alanine supplement buffers the lactic acid buildup allowing for longer, more intense workouts.

Beta alanine is perfect for me because I like to train in the higher repetition range (8-15 repetitions per set in the weight room) and at the higher sets, the muscle burn is generally a limiting factor. I’ve also recently discovered the advantages to using beta alanine in cardio training, such as light jogging or even high-intensity interval training (basically sprinting with short rest periods of walking).

Unfortunately, beta alanine isn’t very beneficial for people who train for strength or in short intervals with long periods of rest in between. I believe it’s most beneficial if you’ve been doing something strenuous for at least 60 seconds (like jogging, but not pushing out a one-rep max).

It comes as a powder, and can be mixed into drinks. It dissolves in water, but the taste by itself isn’t great, so I would suggest adding some sort of flavor in. Also, if you take too much, then you’ll notice those face tingles, but they’re essentially harmless and nothing to worry about.