CrossFit athletes know how demanding the workouts can be. You need to perform at high intensity, push through fatigue, and recover quickly for the next challenge. That’s why many CrossFit athletes use beta-alanine as a supplement to boost their performance and endurance.

What is Beta-Alanine?

Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid that your body produces on its own, but also gets from some foods like meat and fish. Beta-alanine combines with another amino acid called histidine to form carnosine, a molecule that helps buffer the acidity in your muscles during exercise. Carnosine reduces the accumulation of lactic acid, which causes muscle fatigue and soreness (aka the juicy burn).

How Does Beta-Alanine Benefit CrossFit Athletes?

Studies suggest that by supplementing with beta-alanine, you can increase the carnosine levels in your muscles by up to 80%, delaying the onset of fatigue, increasing your time to exhaustion and improving your training and performance capacity. Beta-alanine helps:

• Explosive strength and power: Beta-alanine can enhance your ability to perform short bursts of high-intensity exercise, such as sprints.
• Muscle mass and body composition: Beta-alanine can stimulate muscle protein synthesis and prevent muscle breakdown, leading to improved muscle mass and improved fat levels.
• Aerobic endurance: Beta-alanine can improve your oxygen uptake and utilization, allowing you to sustain longer periods of moderate-intensity exercise, like running.
• Recovery: Beta-alanine can reduce muscle damage and inflammation, speeding up your recovery process and reducing soreness after a workout.

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How Should You Take Beta-Alanine?

The recommended dosage of beta-alanine is 2-5 grams per day. You can take it at any time of the day, but preferably with a meal or a drink that contains carbohydrates or protein, as this can increase its absorption and effectiveness. You can also split your dose into smaller servings throughout the day to avoid the tingling sensation that some people experience after taking beta-alanine. This will subside over time as your body stores amino-acids more effectively.

Beta-alanine works by saturating your muscles with carnosine over time, so you need to take it consistently for at least 2-4 weeks to see noticeable results. You might want to do a loading phase of 4-5 grams per day for 3-4 weeks, followed by a maintenance phase of 2-3 grams per day; which can speed up results and help with paraesthesia (ants under your skin feeling).

To maximize the benefits of beta-alanine, you can combine it with other supplements that work on different pathways of energy production and recovery. For example, creatine can enhance your phosphagen system, which provides energy for very short and intense activities. Nitric oxide can increase blood flow and oxygen delivery to your muscles and is found in beetroot juice. Increased protein supplementation (1.6-2.3g per kilogram of body weight per day) provides amino acids for muscle repair and growth.

If you want to take your CrossFit performance to the next level, consider adding beta-alanine to your supplement regimen. It can help you work harder, longer, and better in every workout. Just ask Mat Fraser, who said that beta-alanine gives him “a third lung” on the Joe Rogan podcast, as if the five-time CrossFit Games winner needed it.

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