Complete Guide to Beta-Alanine
Beta-alanine is constantly misunderstood by not just the general public, but even by supplement companies themselves.
For instance, you should not be getting your beta-alanine from a pre-workout.
As such, this article is meant to give you a complete understanding of beta-alanine supplementation in 5 minutes or less.
If you have any questions left unanswered, feel free to email me at info@fitnesssimplified.org or comment below.
What is Beta-Alanine?
Beta-alanine is a modified version of the amino acid alanine.
If you are unaware, amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Alanine is one of those amino acids, and along with others form chains of amino acids that are protein.
Beta-alanine, however, is what’s called a non-proteogenic amino acid.
This means that although it is still an amino acid, it is not incorporated into proteins.
Many animals, including us, produce beta-alanine naturally in the liver.
What does Beta-Alanine do?
Beta-alanine itself does not have a direct effect on performance. Rather, it is a precursor to another compound called carnosine.
When acid and free radicals build up in our muscles during exercise, carnosine acts as a buffer to hold them off and therefore fight off fatigue.
Now, you might ask “why not just supplement with carnosine?”
The problem is that if we ingest carnosine, it will get broken down long before it can ever be stored in our muscle tissue.
However, beta-alanine is able to survive long enough to reach our muscles and promote the formation of carnosine.
Furthermore, beta-alanine is the limiting ingredient in the formula of carnosine synthesis.
Therefore, by supplementing with beta-alanine, our skeletal muscles are able to produce more carnosine.
What can you expect from taking beta-alanine?
This supplement really shines for activities that you perform lasting 1-4 minutes. For movements of this intensity, the energy system that is primarily fueling you results in an acid build up in your muscles.
This build-up of acid, known as metabolic acidosis, is what will result in you fatiguing. The increased concentration of carnosine from beta-alanine supplementation helps to fight off this acid build up.
Think of doing a set of bench press for 12-15 reps. This will likely take you 60-80 seconds to complete. As another example, you can think about an 800-meter run. This will take somewhere between 3 and 4 minutes to complete.
Both of these activities are within the intensity range that beta-alanine will affect the greatest; and therefore you can expect beta-alanine to improve your performance in both of these activities.
This supplement can be compared to creatine to further illustrate its effect.
Creatine is a supplement that you have to take every day to keep your muscles saturated and will improve your performance on maximal effort movements such as 1-rep max squat or an all-out sprint.
Beta-alanine is similar in the sense that it should be taken each day to keep your muscles saturated with carnosine, however, it benefits you in slightly lower intensity activities than creatine.
For example, in a 100-meter sprint creatine would benefit you more and enhance your performance the most.
However, for an 800-meter run, beta-alanine would benefit you more so than creatine.
Related: Creatine: Everything You Need to Know
You can think of beta-alanine as being good for muscular endurance, but not necessarily muscular strength or cardiovascular endurance.
Beta-alanine dosing & timing points to know
How much beta-alanine should you take each day?
4-6 grams per day has been found to be the most effective dose.
This is a dose you should take every day
It can take 4-6 weeks for your muscles to reach full carnosine saturation & therefore experience the full benefits of beta-alanine.
This is often called the beta-alanine loading phase.
When should you take beta-alanine?
It does not matter what time of day you take beta-alanine.
Splitting the dose into ~2-3 servings/day may reduce feelings of paresthesia if they occur (discussed soon), but this is not needed to get the benefits.
Should you take beta-alanine before or after your workouts?
This is entirely up to you. My only real recommendation is that you take it after a meal.
Unlike caffeine, beta-alanine has no acute effect.
In other words, there is no benefit 30 minutes after taking it.
You must reach saturation to experience the benefits.
So, timing matters less. Daily intake matters more.
Should you take beta-alanine on rest days or off days?
Yes, you need to take beta-alanine even if you’re taking a rest day or an off day.
It’s similar to creatine in this regard.
Possible beta-alanine side effects
When you take a large dose of beta-alanine, you may experience a sense of paresthesia (“tingling”) going down your arms, legs, or on your face.
There is no real health concern with this, it just could be an uncomfortable sensation that you may run into.
This is most effectively helped by splitting your dose into two daily doses, as mentioned previously.
Further, this is something that will tend to go away once you get used to taking beta-alanine.
Apart from this, research shows that beta-alanine is safe to use in overall healthy individuals. As always, if you have underlying health concerns that you are unsure about, make sure to consult your doctor or a registered dietician.
My recommendation
As I mentioned previously, I am a fan of having a single beta-alanine supplement as opposed to getting it from a pre-workout formula.
My recommendation is optimum nutrition. You can mix it in with water, your protein powder, a smoothie, or really any other liquid you like:
References
International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine
PubMed ID: 26175657
