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What Does Beta Alanine Do? Will It increase Performance? | Nutritionist Explains... | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Expert nutritionist explains what Beta-Alanine does and how it helps performance when exercising.
In this video, Dr Richie Kirwan, a specialist in Nutrition, talks all about one of the most common ingredients in pre-workout mixes, beta-alanine. What it is, how it works, what it’s good for and how much is effective.
Supplementing with beta alanine helps to increase carnosine synthesis and leads to higher carnosine levels in the muscles. In fact, supplementing with enough beta alanine for long enough (for example, 10 weeks) can lead to an 80% increase in muscle carnosine levels.
So, not tried beta-alanine before or want to understand what it is? This is the video for you.
Follow Richie on IG: dr.richie.kirwan
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Chapters:
00:00 - What is Beta-Alanine
02:50 - Pre-workout tingling sensation
03:26 - Can it help performance?
05:00 - What's the correct dose?
06:33 - Does it build muscle?
07:47 - Any more Beta-Alanine questions?
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0:00
you've probably seen it in your favorite
0:02
pre-workout but what does beta alanine
0:04
actually do let's talk about that
0:06
[Music]
0:10
how's it going guys my name is Richie
0:12
Kerwin and today we're going to talk
0:13
about one of the most common ingredients
0:15
in pre-workout mixes beta-alene what it
0:18
is how it works what it's good for
0:21
and how much is effective as always I
0:23
want to point out that I'm not telling
0:24
you that you need to take beta-alene or
0:26
any supplements for that matter what I
0:28
do want to explain what effect it might
0:30
have and you can use that information to
0:32
help you make more informed choices
0:34
let's get started just so you know I got
0:37
a lot of the information from this video
0:39
from a great review paper by trexlertal
0:41
so go check it out in the references if
0:43
you want to geek out so before we
0:46
actually speak about beta almin we need
0:48
to understand a little exercise
0:49
metabolism
0:50
when we exercise intensely we need to
0:53
produce ATP in our muscles to fuel that
0:55
movement something I've spoken about a
0:57
lot before in my creatine videos so
0:59
check those out later making ATP and
1:01
especially making a lot of it in a short
1:03
amount of time also causes the buildup
1:05
of some metabolic byproducts and one of
1:07
those metabolites is lactic acid or
1:10
specifically the hydrogen ions that are
1:12
produced with it
1:13
when these hydrogen ions build up in the
1:15
muscle they cause the burn that people
1:17
associate with exercise
1:19
basically the burn happens when our
1:21
muscles become a little more acidic and
1:24
this can actually limit our muscles
1:25
performance and make it harder to
1:27
continue exercising now our body has a
1:30
few systems to help counteract this and
1:32
one of those is by using carnosine which
1:34
acts as a pH buffer if any of you
1:37
remember from high school chemistry a
1:39
buffer is a substance that can help to
1:40
resist changes in PH so basically
1:42
carnosine can help stop our muscles from
1:45
becoming too acidic which should help
1:47
improve performance and allow us to
1:49
continue exercising a little bit longer
1:51
another way carnosine might help improve
1:53
performance is by acting as an
1:55
antioxidant that can help scavenge free
1:57
radicals producing the muscles during
1:59
exercise so at this point you're
2:00
probably saying I thought this video was
2:02
about betterlining what's all this talk
2:03
about currency
2:05
trust me I'm getting to it
2:07
see we can make carnosine in our bodies
2:09
by combining the amino acids histidine
2:11
and yes you guessed it
2:14
like I said we produce it in our bodies
2:16
and can also get it directly from the
2:18
foods that we eat like meat poultry and
2:20
seafood this is also why vegetarians who
2:23
don't eat meat and older people who tend
2:24
to eat less meat have lower levels of
2:26
carnosine in their muscles this also
2:28
means that these are groups of people
2:29
that could potentially benefit even more
2:31
from taking better you see supplementing
2:34
with beta-alanine helps to increase
2:36
carnosine synthesis and leads to higher
2:39
carnosine levels in the muscles
2:41
in fact supplementing with enough
2:43
betaline for long enough for example 10
2:46
weeks can lead to an 80 increase in
2:48
muscle carnosine levels if you've ever
2:51
taken a pre-workout there's a good
2:52
chance that you've noticed that your
2:54
skin especially the skin on your face
2:55
neck and ears feels really weird and
2:58
tingly
2:59
the fact is called paresthesia and is a
3:02
very common side effect from taking a
3:04
single big dose of betaline It's
3:07
Perfectly Normal and perfectly harmless
3:08
too and usually disappears within an
3:11
hour
3:11
you can actually reduce the effect of
3:13
paresthesia by taking a timed release
3:15
form of beta-alanine which will release
3:17
more slowly into your bloodstream or
3:19
taking smaller doses so that's what you
3:21
feel when you take beta-alene but what
3:23
actually happens in terms of performance
3:25
when you take it
3:26
well if an athlete takes the correct
3:29
dose of beta-alene and we'll get to that
3:30
in a minute they should see an
3:32
improvement in high intensity anaerobic
3:35
activities that last longer than 60
3:36
seconds but especially those that last
3:38
between two and four minutes a good
3:41
example of this is time to exhaustion or
3:44
tte trials this is where you get an
3:46
athlete to do a very high intensity
3:49
activity like running swimming or
3:51
cycling at or above their maximal power
3:53
output until they just can't do it
3:55
anymore remember these are the kind of
3:57
high intensity activities that would
3:59
lead to a buildup of hydrogen ions that
4:01
cause serious muscle burn which is where
4:03
a buffer like beta-alanine comes in
4:06
handy
4:06
beta-alene has been shown to increase
4:09
time to exhaustion by around 10 to 20
4:11
percent in these tte trials that last
4:13
between two and four minutes
4:15
interestingly there doesn't seem to be
4:17
an effect of beta alanine on very short
4:19
duration high intensity activities that
4:22
last under 60 seconds and this is
4:24
probably because that's not enough time
4:26
for hydrogen ions to build up and cause
4:29
problems from muscle function beta-alene
4:31
might also be useful for aerobic
4:33
activities of under 25 minutes such as
4:36
running and cycling Again by increasing
4:38
time to exhaustion
4:40
some research has even shown that beta
4:42
alanine supplementation may help shave a
4:44
few seconds off time trial events like
4:45
2000 meter rolling trials while a few
4:48
seconds might not sound like much for
4:49
competitive athletes it could mean the
4:51
difference between a win and a loss now
4:54
I briefly mentioned that you have to
4:56
take the right dose of beta-alene to get
4:58
the effect
4:59
so what is the correct dose well if you
5:01
remember my creatine videos I explained
5:03
that to get the best effects of creatine
5:05
you need to supplement it daily to help
5:08
build up the level of creatine in your
5:09
muscle
5:10
it doesn't have any instant or acute
5:13
effects
5:14
well beta alanine is similar you have to
5:17
build up the level of carnosine in your
5:18
muscles by taking beta-alanine daily for
5:21
an extended period of time
5:22
so if the only beta Island you take is
5:25
in a pre-workout once a week it's not
5:28
giving you any sports performance
5:29
benefits even if your face does feel so
5:33
itchy it's going to fall off
5:35
the correct dosage of beta-alene seems
5:38
to be about 6 grams per day for an
5:40
extended period of time of at least two
5:42
weeks but preferably four weeks or more
5:45
now if you took six grams of beta
5:47
alanine all at once you might get a
5:49
serious dose of paresthesia not everyone
5:51
wants to be scratching their face during
5:52
their workouts so the recommendation is
5:54
to divide the dose of beta anine into
5:56
four even doses throughout the day so in
5:59
reality that would look something like
6:00
1.5 grams each at breakfast lunch dinner
6:04
and one more at another Point throughout
6:06
the day supplementing with beta-alanine
6:08
is by no means simple and I hope you
6:10
realize now why taking a single dose
6:12
before hitting the gym is probably not
6:14
going to be doing a lot for you and just
6:16
because I know somebody is going to ask
6:18
after supplementing with beta-alene for
6:20
like three months if you stop taking it
6:22
it can take another three to four months
6:24
before your muscle carnosine levels
6:26
return to their Baseline
6:28
now there's one question I haven't
6:30
answered yet and that's whether
6:31
beta-alene is any good for building
6:33
muscle and strength in the gym here's
6:36
the thing there's not as much research
6:38
on beta-alene in strength Sports and the
6:40
research we do have suggests that it
6:41
might help to increase training volume
6:43
meaning it might help you get a few more
6:45
reps in resistance exercise particularly
6:47
with high rep sets but and it's a very
6:51
very big bot there is no evidence that
6:54
shows that beta-alene on its own leads
6:57
to Greater increases in strength or
6:59
muscle size
7:00
so if you're hoping to improve your
7:02
intense anaerobic or aerobic performance
7:04
in sports like running cycling swimming
7:06
rolling or similar Sports beta alanine
7:08
could be useful for helping to reduce
7:10
fatigue but on the other hand if you're
7:13
trying to get big and strong in the gym
7:15
beta alanine might not be for you
7:18
now that's it higher doses of beta
7:21
alanine might have effects for muscle
7:23
growth but we still don't have any
7:25
research showing that so until then we
7:27
can't say if it has any benefits for the
7:29
Bros just like anything in nutrition if
7:32
we don't have a clear amount of evidence
7:35
showing its benefits I'm not going to be
7:37
able to recommend it so when it comes to
7:39
Beta alanine and muscle gain there isn't
7:41
a clear effect so it may not be for you
7:45
so did that clear everything up above it
7:47
Allen as always if you have any more
7:50
questions let me know in the comments
7:51
below and remember to like And subscribe
7:53
to the myprotein YouTube channel for
7:54
more great evidence-based nutrition
7:56
information
7:59
foreign
8:01
[Music]
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