Is Beta Alanine a Good Pre Workout Supplement?

Today’s episode begins with a spoiler in the Feats of Strength segment, as we discuss the winner of this year’s World’s Strongest Man competition. After that, Eric presents a Research Roundup segment about buffering strategies. The segment is mostly about new research on beta-alanine and a couple of related ingredients (carnosine and anserine), but also includes discussions about hyperventilation and the mechanisms involved with various buffering strategies. After that, Greg discusses his newest article on the MacroFactor website, which is called “The Problems with Calorie Counting.” It explores the shortcomings of many common strategies implemented by calorie counters, such as aiming for generic calorie targets or using wearable technologies or predictive equations to estimate energy expenditure. Finally, the show closes with a music recommendation from Eric, and some interesting lichen facts presented by Greg.

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TIME STAMPS

Intro/Announcements (0:00)

Road to the Stage / Road to Athens (3:18)

Feats of Strength (4:26)

Research Roundup: Buffering strategies (6:36)

Beta-alanine (7:34)

• Does beta-alanine supplementation enhance adaptations to resistance training? A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study

Mechanisms (17:41)

Hyperventilation (23:41)

• Hyperventilation-Aided Recovery for Extra Repetitions on Bench Press and Leg Press

Carnosine and Anserine (30:55)

• The ergogenic effect of acute carnosine and anserine supplementation: dosing, timing, and underlying mechanism
• Ergogenic effect of pre-exercise chicken broth ingestion on a high-intensity cycling time-trial

SBS Article Discussion: The Problems with Calorie Counting (43:20)

Issues with generic calorie targets (46:53)

Issues with wearables for estimating energy expenditure (54:05)

Issues with common TDEE estimation equations (1:00:56)

 To Play Us Out: Wilco and Lichens (1:19:21)

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