Why Aminos for Recovery?

< Full Episode

Transcript: Why Aminos for Recovery?

Season 8, Episode 18  | July 16, 2024

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Welcome to Life Time Talks, the podcast that’s aimed at helping you achieve your health, fitness, and life goals. I’m Jamie Martin, editor-in-chief of Experience Life, Life Time’s whole life health and fitness magazine. And I’m David Freeman, director of Alpha, one of Life Time’s signature group training programs.

We’re all in different places along our health and fitness journey, but no matter what we’re working toward, there are some essential things we can do to keep moving in the direction of a healthy purpose-driven life.

In each episode, we break down various elements of healthy living, including fitness and nutrition, mindset and community, and health issues. We’ll also share real, inspiring stories of transformation.

And we’ll be talking to experts from Life Time and beyond who share their insights and knowledge so you’ll have the tools and information you need to take charge of your next steps. Here we go.

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We are back with another episode and it’s a mini one this time. We’re excited to have Sam McKinney back with us and we are talking about why aminos for recovery. Sam, welcome back to the pod again.

Thanks guys. I love being here.

Yeah, Sam, let’s give everybody a little background on who you are. Sam is a registered dietician, a personal trainer. She’s been with Life Time for now 13 plus years in multiple roles. Currently she’s on the team that leads nutrition programs and supplements for our Life Time members and she’s always working to optimize metabolism and the results from the inside out. And we are talking about aminos today. Sam, if you can, let us know what exactly are amino acids.

Yeah, aminos is a sort of our like internal slang for amino recovery, which is one of our products. But essentially what amino acids are, think of them as protein building blocks. So, proteins are kind of strings and shapes of these different blocks put together. It really is simple as that. There’s a lot of different types with a lot of different functions, but amino acids just mean the most elemental form of protein.

So how many amino acids are there and what are the different types?

So, your body needs 20 different amino acids to function, and they’re kind of broken up into different categories. There’s non-essential, essential, and conditionally essential. And in nutrition, the word essential, I know just in normal day-to-day language, kind of just make it sound like, it’s important. But by definition in nutrition, when you see the word essential or an essential nutrient or an essential amino acid, it’s something that you have to consume. Your body can’t make it. So essentially, essential, there’s nine essential amino acids. You have to consume them for your body to function to be alive. Then there’s non-essential ones, which again, your body still needs them to function, but your body can make them under certain circumstances from other raw materials. And then within that bucket of non-essential, think of asterisks on certain ones that are deemed conditionally essential. So, there might be certain times in your life or situations where your body will not be able to keep up with demand. And so, you do have to consume them. So, one example that’s just kind of sad, I just came across this a lot whenever I worked in ICUs, initially out of school, kind of in clinical care is like in burn units. So, to repair from burns, there’s an amino acid called glutamine. In those situations, you have to consume glutamine to heal. But normal day-to-day, there are certain times that you can just take glutamine, right? It can be used as a supplement, but you don’t have to have it in order to like be alive and function.

So Sam, let’s talk about, you mentioned our amino recovery. I think it’s always great for people to understand what exactly that is and why it’s beneficial to those individuals who are working out daily. Or maybe if you’re not working out daily, why this is still something that’s essential. Can you talk a little bit about our amino recovery and some of the benefits from it? Yes. So, the LTH amino recovery, we were just talking before we started recording, is in my top five personal favorite supplements, hands down. So, part of the reason that I love it is that it contains all the essential amino acids. Within that group of essential amino acids, there are certain amino acids known as branch chain amino acids. There’s three of them. There’s isoleucine, leucine and valine. Research shows that especially around periods of working out and exercise and strenuous activity that getting in three grams of leucine and then getting in that leucine, isoleucine in the right ratio, 2:1;1, can really enhance how muscle protein synthesis. So essentially, it’s a fancy science way of saying being able to build strength in lean tissue, which should be a goal no matter what your kind of overall health outcome is. So, I love it because it all the essential acids and it has the right breakdown and amounts needed to be really, really effective for those people that are exercising because there’s a lot of reasons outside of exercise to use amino recovery. We can get into those. But if you’re exercising, that alone qualifies you to really need this because you are breaking down muscle tissue and you can only progress as hard as you recover, right? Exercise is a stress on your body. You’re breaking things down. It’s catabolic. You can’t build muscle and strength out of nothing. So, the amino acids are the building blocks you need to recover and rebuild. Does that help?

Absolutely. That’s super helpful. One thing I just want to talk about. So obviously we’re talking about amino acids for recovery, amino recovery as our supplement. Are there other health and wellness benefits from this supplement that you would want to talk about?

Yes. Essential amino acids in any blend of them, you know, they’re precursors for certain neurotransmitters. So they can help with mood. They’ve been shown to help support joint and tendon health. They’ve, similar to kind of the exercise benefits that I’m talking about, they can help prevent breakdown of muscle. So this becomes really important for every single one of us as we age. There’s a condition called sarcopenia, basically means muscle loss as we get older, can help fight that. The other thing, if anybody is sick at all or injured, if you’re recovering from an injury, it can help a lot with recovery. It supports fast-switch muscle fibers, which is important for blood sugar control. And I know we have a ton of content, podcasts and articles on that, on Experience Life. So it’s important for blood sugar control. It can stimulate leptin, which helps you feel full. So it’s a really good natural appetite regulator too. There’s a whole lot to amino recovery, but the main thing is, that it’s well known for, should say, is the recovery piece, which is why its part of the name.

Got it.

Let’s think about this. 220 pounds is where I’m at right now. How much should I be taking? How many scoops should I be taking from an amino standpoint? Because I think everybody’s like, alright, I’m going to take a scoop. I’m good. Can you kind of break down how much we should be taking?

Yeah. So generally, if you’re using the Life Time product, I would say aim for, if you’re trying to get really precise and I know that you’re, take your like athleticism and workouts really seriously, I would say a scoop per hundred pounds that you weigh. So, if you could do two scoops during or immediately after exercise, that would be most beneficial in your case. What research says is 0.07 grams of essential amino acids per pound of body weight. And so if you do the math and back it into the Life Time amino recovery product, it’s about a scoop per hundred pounds you weigh.

And then could you take too much? So if I did that after my workout, I’m like, alright, I’m going to do another two scoops later on tonight. Is that too much?

What I’ll tell you is it won’t hurt you. It’s just depending on how much benefit it’ll give you. So, where it becomes really important, and this, I can’t emphasize this enough. The majority of people that I’ve worked with, even people that are really health passionate are not eating enough protein. They’re not hitting their target. And in that case, really can’t, you can’t overdo it if you’re under eating your target protein. So you want one gram of protein per pound of sort of ideal or goal body weight. Most people aren’t getting that without a concerted effort. And so that’s where amino recovery can really help close the gap, especially when they’re on that journey of increasing their protein and they’re just getting too full. Or let’s say there’s a decent amount of people with gut issues and amino recovery mixes into water. It doesn’t make like a shake, it makes like a clear liquid, right? That kind of tastes good, or at least our product tastes good, I should say. I’ll circle back to that in a minute. It’s really easy to drink in between meals too, to help kind of keep your amino acid pools balanced and stable. You’d have to try really hard to do too much. In short, that’s not a concern of mine, for sure. And then for the taste, one thing I wanted to mention real quick is that when I was in clinical care, people with severe gut issues, we would put them on like basically a, like a G-tube or a J-tube, basically like a tube feed of amino acids because they’re so easy to absorb. There’s no digestion required. It’s already broken down. So it’s so gentle and easy on the stomach. So, people don’t tolerate protein powders well, or they have digestive issues, this is a go-to supplement. But I remember whenever I was in my internship learning how to be a registered dietitian, they made us taste all of the different formulas that we would put in those tubes. And amino acids by nature are so bitter and disgusting because they’re broken down, fully broken down. So, when you’re looking for a product or a supplement, you’ve got to be really careful because they are really prone to a lot of artificial flavorings, artificial sweeteners to make them palatable, which obviously ours doesn’t have those things and they still taste great.

That’s awesome. So, you mentioned really if you’re someone who exercises, amino recovery is for you. Is there anybody who would need to avoid it? I can’t imagine if these are essential, but you know what I mean? Is there anyone who would have to take any sort of caution?

Not outside of some extreme, extreme issues. I mean, obviously, if you’re on any type of complex medications, you know, then sure, you might want to check with your pharmacist. You know, I read something before where there was a contraindication with a certain seizure medication. So, something like that. But I haven’t — I’ve been practicing for too many years to count 15 years as a dietitian, 20. I won’t land on the exact number here, but I haven’t come across somebody where it was contraindicated that I’ve been working with. And again, we use it. We use essential amino acids for some of the most critical cases and like acute care too. So, it’s even not much more beneficial whenever you’re generally healthy as well.

Got it. And you mentioned just in terms of timing, I want to revisit that for a second, because you said ideally you’d start taking it kind of during your workout or right after, but it’s fine to take it any time if you want a supplement. I think about this a lot because this is my one of my go-to supplements as well. And I’m like, I’ll get home from my workout and be like, OK, I to take this. And then an hour has passed. Is that that’s still beneficial for me, even if it’s not right within a certain window.

Yeah, so if we’re looking at ideal timing during or immediately post workout or between meals, and I don’t say that because taking it with meals, it’s dangerous or anything, but if you think about it at the meal, you’re probably eating protein and getting all the essential amino acids from food. So you’re just adding more. I’d rather you do it between meals to kind of bolster your overall amino acid status, if that makes sense. David, you looked like you were going to ask a question. I could see it on your face.

No, I mean, Jamie, Jamie took it right out of like what I was thinking. You said it. I was curious about the timing. Should it be, you know, first thing you wake up? So you kind of answered it. So, I appreciate that, Jamie, for taking it right out of my mind, through your mouth. I love how you did that. So, what else should we know about aminos that we probably haven’t touched on? Yeah, I know there’s probably a lot of information. I know we’re on a mini episode, but we hit on a few great things. Is there anything that you think that any of our listeners should know that we didn’t touch on yet?

A couple things that pop in my head. Number one is I literally talk about this as the workout game changer, right? It’s also known, one thing that I didn’t mention, there’s research behind the fact that it can help reduce delayed onset muscle soreness from exercise. So, we all know when we’ve had a hard leg day and you got to kind of like lower yourself down onto the toilet or grip on for dear life on the stairs, going down the stairs. That again, if you’re over training, it’s not going to get rid of that, but it is known to help reduce delayed onset muscle soreness. So, I even just know this in my own life, like talking to my mom, I sent her some to use, right? She’s kind of getting back into the groove of strength training. She’s like, oh I’m not working out hard enough to need those. I’m like, no, you absolutely, this isn’t like a qualifier. You have to work out at a certain intensity to benefit from them. I would start them from the beginning. So that’s number one. So, the soreness impact. And then number two is if you have anybody in your life, like I said, that is immobile, injured, aging, those types of things. It’s not only a game changer for fitness professionals. I work a lot with our classes instructors nationwide that might be teaching back to back to back to back classes. And this is the thing that gets them through without their bodies breaking down because it helps maintain their lean tissue. But if you also have on the other end of the spectrum anybody that’s kind of sick or injured, it’s definitely good to add them on as well. But if you’re somebody that works out a lot, I know a lot of our members take class after class, please, please, please be taking amino recovery in your water bottle during those classes. It’ll make such a huge difference for your health.

One quick thing I do want to just follow up on, you mentioned avoiding kind of the artificial flavors to make these taste better. Are there any other ingredients people should watch for an amino supplement if it’s not Life Time’s?

Yes. Well, I would say, OK, artificial sweetener. We avoid things like sucralose. We avoid things like the artificial colors. Again, the colors are a big one that come through. There’s oftentimes ergogenic aids that are added. Those are things that can help enhance performance. Ours have some good ones in there, like citrulline and beta-alanine and that type of thing. I would say, or it’s paired with it, right? We have products that we pair with it that do that. But you really just have to look at the label. There’s a lot of muck out there. Some people might be doing aminos plus, you know, huge doses of caffeine or something, then you got to make a decision. Like, is that too much caffeine for me? Am I avoiding caffeine? Am I taking this at night and it’s now disrupting my sleep? Those types of things. But the main things that I see with aminos are the artificial flavors, artificial colors. And then also there are still some companies that sell just branch chain amino acids. And we used to do that, too. The science has evolved. It shows that you really do need an essential amino acids blend of all of them to get the most benefit, which is why we’ve evolved to as the science has.

David, any other final questions?

No, I think she knocked it out the park with a lot of the things that we threw at her. So coming back to you, Sam, like if we want to be able to connect with you, where can we find you on Instagram? So, you can let our listeners know.

Sure. Yeah. On Instagram, I’m @coachsam.rd and then you can also find a lot of content on Experience Life in the form of podcasts and articles and stuff that I’ve contributed to as well.

Sam, as always, thanks for the great info. We’ll see you again soon.

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Thanks for joining us for this episode. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our conversation today and how you approach this aspect of healthy living in your own life. What works for you? Where do you run into challenges? Where do you need help? And if you have topics for future episodes, you can share those with us too. Email us lttalks@lt.life or reach out to us on Instagram @lifetime.life, @jamiemartinel, or @freezy30 and use the hashtag #LifeTimeTalks.

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Life Time Talks is a production of Life Time Healthy Way of Life. It is produced by Molly Kopischke and Sara Ellingsworth with audio engineering by Peter Perkins, video production and editing by Kevin Dixon, sound and video consulting by Coy Larson, and support from George Norman and the rest of the team at Life Time Motion. A big thank you to everyone who helps create each episode and provides feedback.

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