Leucine and Muscle Growth

We had a fun question on the forum today and I thought I would share it here for maybe more talk and well just to share it maybe others will find it interesting.

Originally posted here

Tony asks:
So exactly how does leucine (sp?)cause the body to lay down or synthesize more muscle tissue? Is this even true?

For that matter how can a muscle tell if it needs to get bigger? Can it tell? Or is that something handled back at central command (el braino and nervous system)? Is it a hormonal trigger caused by the breakdown of muscle?

Me:
I am NO scientist which you all know but Ill do my best here. the last ISSN I went to Leucine was like the resounding theme. From my understanding Leucine is the on switch for protein synthesis in the body. Lets think of the body as a circuit with a power source, a switch and a light bulb. Light bulb = muscle tissue power = other aminos, and even then some things that carry along with that calcium, creatine water etc.

You create a stimulus (training) and event that does damage to tissue, and even everyday life causes muscle tissue damage and then turn over which is why protein synthesis is needed all the time, But with hard training you create an event that requires adaptation to that event does lots of damage and calls for attention. The presence of leucine in the chain is like I said above simply the ON switch a Nice big switch that turns the action or repair flushing of old bringing in of new aminos to repair and rebuild the damaged one.

So Leucine is great and much needed a nice big dose to turn that BIG switch on all over the body open up the cells for the turn over make the cell wall penetrable and permeable, BUT that stuff is useless without 2 things. A stimulus to require and ask for the demand of a great amount of protein synthesis in the muscle (the light bulb), and the other stuff( the power) the other aminos that actually do the work, fill the gaps and turn that light on and other micro and macro nutrients.

This is where people / companies go wrong in saying add leucine to any food and make good food crap. Well yhea leucine is great but with out a reason ( training/ a stimulus / damage) and with out the power ( other aminos etc ) its worthless. If you have big dose leucine and NO on the other EAA's sure you just turned a BIG ass switch on but its like turning a light switch on after only having ran the wire to the bulb and not one to the power source. Not a thing is going to happen as you dont have power, or even worse you may rob power from other places to repair the damaged stuff.

This is also where from the talks Leucine fell short on the pulsing of it and it seems more important to get the THE aminos. After a BIG done of Leucine one large enough to turn all the switches on the protein synthesis switch stay on for many hours. The only reason it seemed to stop was it ran out of power ( the other required goods) the switch was still on due to the leucine in the blood stream but al,l the power had been used up.

So yes luecine has some very cool and almost drug like effects when used in a nice big dose. im thinking it was 4-6 grams but after that you better turn your attening to the actual building blocks, other aminos and macro nutrients as once you turn the swtich on is does no good to go push on the switch again as its already on.

As far as muscles bigger. I don't think the muscle can tell and yes this is something handled by central command as you put it. What this takes is events. Hard events that cause the body to say WTF!!! that's was hard. the body doesn't like things to be hard, that's not safe, that could mean injury or death. The body thankfully for us seeking strenght and growth, is Lazy and wants our daily life to be easy. So the body after one event says WTF was that shit Tony better not do that to me again. Whats he trying to do man lets get all sore so he knows better. But then Tony does it again and again so the body then say's Damn something is happening I better change, adapt and grow the parts he is putting this huge demand on bigger and stronger as the things he is doing look like they are going to be a life long occurrence. So the body grows stronger, bigger in muscle, bones and neural pathways to make the consistent demand you put it easy and not a threat. This is how we adapt and grow and why it takes time to grow muscle. Its not from a single event but from consistent training and convincing the body it must adapt and evolve to be safe and make that new stimulus easy.

The leucine, other EAA's, carbs, fat, water, micro and macro nutrients are all then tools and materials the body then uses to create that adaptation

Wow does that help LOL that was fun!!!