Catabolism!!! Its a dirty little word and a word that every athlete should avoid at all cost. I know a lot of you are thinking what is catabolism? and why should I avoid it? Well catabolism muscle loss, its a state in which your body reverts to when there are not enough resources available in the athletes body to support anabolism or muscle repair and growth.
Factors that lead to catabolism are lack of sleep/rest, lack of proper supplementation and nutrition and improper training. When you engage in a rigorous training routine your muscles "tear" or break down. Shortly after the conclusion of your workouts, your body enters a catabolic state because the rigors of your workout have caused the body to have a protein deficit, this is bad because at this stage the body has also activated its MPAK signaling pathways. MPAK signaling pathway is simply you body's way of signaling muscle growth.
From this point its as simple as 2+2=4. Protein repairs broken down muscles, if your body is signaling for protein and there is none available, your body is not going to repair those broken down muscles. In fact it can work the opposite way, the body will begin to burn muscle for fuel, which of course will lead to a decrease in muscle mass, and of course decreased performance benefits.
When you ingest BCAA's (branched chain amino acids) after a workout, they create what we call "metabolic pathways" a metabolic pathway is a chain of chemical reaction inside of a muscle cell.
When you ingest the correct amount of BCAA's the metabolic pathways created lead to protein synthesis which results in greater muscle growth and faster muscle repair. As you can guess this leads to faster and greater gains from your speed and vertical jump training routine.
If you are training hard you need to be ingesting 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per every pound of your body weight.
Jamillian Momon is a former professional athlete, current CSCS and BMS. He has worked as a consultant on many of the top vertical jump programs available and is also the creator of the Program 51 Hyper Hybrid Training System. You can find more in-depth training information at: http://www.program51.com
