The Science Behind iSatori's Amino-Gro

Muscle growth occurs whenever the rate of muscle protein synthesis is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown. Lifting weights is known to break down the muscle, while eating, rest and recovery can contribute to building it back up. This concept of breaking down and building up can be measured by a concept called “nitrogen balance”, or more specifically driving a positive nitrogen balance for growth.

The process of pushing your body into positive nitrogen balance typically happens for the 22.5 hours you’re not in the gym – the hours where you are feeding it with proteins, carbs, fats and amino acids. But trust me, we can even challenge the status quo for the 90 minutes a day you train to approach positive nitrogen balance 24 hours a day!

That’s why the age old muscle-building adage holds true: what you put into your body is equally, if not more important, than how intensely you train your body.

Assuming you are busting it in the gym, I’m going to break down three essential elements needed to perpetuate the biochemical process of rebuilding fresh, new muscle mass.

(1) Building Blocks of Muscle   

You’ve likely heard it before; amino acids are the building blocks of protein and ultimately muscle. The most important of which are branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine. Over the past decade, research and advancements in the understanding of BCAAs and how they affect muscular performance has progressed a great deal. BCAAs play a number of important roles in the body, but for our sake, we’re interested in their primary roll—preserving muscle (anti-catabolism), and triggering muscle growth (anabolism).  In 2011, a study published in the American Journal of Physiology discovered that modest amounts of BCAAs (6.8g BCAA/80kg bodyweight) not only had anti-catabolic effects by triggering multiple bio-chemical pathways, but also anabolic effects through the mTOR pathway. This is a ‘win-win’ for muscle growth – providing the muscles with the signal and amino acids (building blocks) needed to repair themselves, while also preventing the muscle from breaking itself down, due to hard training.

(2)Reconstruction of Muscle

One of the newest and most innovative advancements in the muscle-building supplement world is known as “Bio-Active Peptides” or BAPs for short.  Out of full disclosure, I invented bio-active peptides, along with some really smart PhD associates, and through a lot of hard work in the lab, I am the name on the patent for these tiny powerhouses.

Without getting too technical, BAPs are tiny protein fragments, isolated through a complex and patented manufacturing process, whereby growth factors are extracted from bovine (cow) colostrum and concentrated into specific ratios where the final supplement is a raw, unadulterated “bio-active peptides” powder.

Bio-active peptides, in the simplest terms, work by triggering a strong ‘cell signaling’ effect to turn on protein synthesis. Bypassing the mTOR pathway that BCAAs affect, BAPs trigger a different muscle-building pathway known as the AKT pathway that also tells your muscle cells to ‘call for’ more amino and increase the rate (speed) of protein synthesis.  More simply put, you can think BAPs like workers, who use amino acids (building blocks) to rebuild the muscle, faster. BAPs are a true breakthrough when it comes to speeding recovery, increasing strength and ultimately building fresh, lean muscle.

As you can imagine, BAPs found under the brand name BIO-GRO™ are exclusive to iSatori, where I’m the founder and CEO. But what’s more important, is they have now been studied in multiple human clinical trials. Results from the most in-depth muscle building study, published at the NSCA Conference in 2015, not only showed improved recovery time (and less muscle soreness), but also showed an average increase of 6.3 pounds of body mass in 8 weeks, which is significantly greater than the placebo it was compared against. Both the BIO-GRO group and the placebo group followed the same training and diet protocol in this study. On top of this, the BIO-GRO group put on 16.5 pounds on their max bench, 118 pounds on their max leg press and an incredible ¾ inch on their flexed arm measurement! BAPs certainly can do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to building muscle… fast.

(3)Hydration of Muscle

Hydration and electrolyte balance is one of the most important, yet most underutilized factors when it comes to your muscles performing optimally. Coconut water powder is a little known secret when it comes to ensuring hydration and electrolyte balance. Specifically, Cococin™ is a coconut water extract that is dried and purified to be used in powdered supplements.

As you can see in the chart below, compared to some commercially available sports drinks, coconut water affords many advantages when it comes to hydration and electrolytes.  Key electrolytes, that are important to hydration are sodium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Without these minerals your muscle cells cannot stay adequately hydrated and fully volumized with water. Knowing that your body is approximately 70% water, including your muscles, it is easy to see why optimal hydrations in necessary for gains… where an under-hydrated muscle stands little chance of rebuilding and recovering properly.

The Ultimate Muscle-Building Cocktail:  AMINO-GRO®

So, what happens when you take instantized BCAAs, Glutamine (the most abundant amino acid in the body), BIO-GRO bio-active peptides, essential minerals/electrolytes and Coconut water powder? You get iSatori’s newest innovation AMINO-GRO. Add that it comes in three delicious, easy mixing, sugar free flavors and I believe it is a clear winner for recovery, muscle building and performance. It’s a formula I’m proud to have developed that is changing the game as we know it.

How I Use AMINO-GRO

You can drink AMINO-GRO whenever you’d like, preferably around or during your workout.  For me, I drink AMINO-GRO during the day, by adding it to my water bottle; then, on training days, I take one scoop of my favorite pre-workout 30 minutes before training, then I take another scoop of  AMINO-GRO, to my shaker bottle. I sip on this muscle-building cocktail to fuel my entire workout, keeping me hydrated and to start the recovery process while I’m actually training.

Now, as long as you’re training hard and eating plenty of protein (which I know you are), adding in AMINO-GRO today will put you be well on your way to building new muscle faster and furiously than you ever imagined.

By Stephen Adelé, CEO/Founder iSatori