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Beyond Raw Precision BCAA
Pros
- Aids recovery in multiple ways
- Interesting Flavors
- More effective than pure BCAA supplements
Cons
- Subtle effects on workout
- Taste suffers greatly when warm
- More expensive than pure BCAA supplements
Muscles aren’t made in the gym.
They’re made when you’re resting.
Some supplements, such as creatine, improve your gym performance and let you workout harder.
Others help you recover, both more quickly and with greater efficiency.
But what if there was a supplement that does both?
Beyond Raw Precision BCAA claims to do so. Without being a caffeine-ridden pre-workout supplement!
What is Beyond Raw Precision BCAA Supposed to Do?
Simply stated, this supplement is supposed to help you grow larger muscles, faster.
It’s not the only BCAA supplement on the market. However, Beyond Raw Precision BCAA contains more than just BCAAs.
Because of this, it does more than just stimulate your muscles to synthesize better.
It also helps your peak power and performance, so you can workout harder.
There are also ingredients which help your inflammation response. Your body can become slightly inflamed from working out (but in a good way; smart exercise combats chronic inflammation), so a better response here helps you recover faster.
Maybe it will even let you workout everyday…
What’s in Beyond Raw Precision BCAA?
The main ingredients are, well, branch-chained amino acids.
These are Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine. Beyond Raw Precision BCAA contains these BCAAs in their micronized form.
I have already gone into great details about what BCAAs are, what they do for you, and how to take them. You can find that information here.
For a shorter version, they have three primary benefits:
- Muscle growth stimulation
- Faster recovery after exercise
- Protection against catabolism
Catabolism is when your body is tearing down your muscles and converting them into fuel.
Fuel is good, but losing muscle isn’t. BCAAs help minimize this process.
You can’t avoid catabolism, by the way. While working out you’re in a catabolic state.
Also, when you’re anabolic and therefore growing muscle, BCAA supplements help stimulate just a little more muscle protein synthesis.
Your insulin response helps get BCAAs into the muscle, so Beyond Raw includes Opuntia fiscus-indica extract to modulate the insulin response.
Beyond Raw Precision BCAA also contains electrolytes to replace the ones you sweat out.
Citrus fruit extract is included, to help power your mitochondria (so Beyond Raw claims).
Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, after all.
Finally, flavonoids from plants help your body your body react to inflammation properly.
And no, Beyond Raw Precision BCAA does not contain caffeine. It’s not a stimulant cocktail, unlike pre-workouts such as Mr. Hyde.
Does Beyond Raw Precision BCAA Work?
I’m not entirely sure about the efficacy of every ingredient, however, as a whole, this supplement works.
Like many supplements (except perhaps pre-workouts like Bucked Up), the effects are subtle.
You may have to be in tune with your body to observe the results.
However, if you pay attention, you’ll find yourself recovering more quickly and growing muscle slightly faster.
Fitness is a journey, not a race, so these effects will compound upon themselves and bring you to your goal more quickly than expected.
Unless you expect to turn from Peewee Herman to Captain America overnight. This won’t help with that.
What I Liked
I’ve been too scared to try this flavor
The main aspect of this supplement I liked is that it works, and for me, it works a little bit better than BCAAs alone.
Unlike creatine, you won’t see a size gain when using Beyond Raw Precision BCAA, at least not until down the road.
But I can tell that I recover from hard workouts faster when taking this supplement.
Goodbye delayed onset muscle soreness!
I may have even detected a little more ability to perform, though I’m not sure if that was the citrus fruit extract or the placebo effect.
Though, that’s more with cardio than with weight lifting.
I also like the flavors. What other supplement has a gummy worm flavor?
My favorite is the iced tea lemonade flavor, especially when iced.
What I Didn’t Like
The directions say to mix the scoops with cold water.
You’d think that’s for a little better mixing or slightly better flavor. I can handle warm soda, so I thought I’d use lukewarm water.
You need these for the drink to be palatable!
Bleh!
Don’t just use cold water, throw some ice in there!
The flavor doesn’t just taste worse when it’s warm, it graduates from the school of Hurt Your Tastebuds Tech.
And that’s with a flavor I liked. I can power through some pretty odd stuff, but these were love-it-or-hate-it.
Also, I’m not a fan of the artificial colors used to make the drink look pretty. But that’s not a problem with the supplement’s efficacy.
Recommendations
My advice is to use a BCAA supplement so you can recover faster and have more frequent workouts.
So, since Beyond Raw Precision BCAA works, I recommend it.
The main hiccup is with the flavors.
It’s not the cheapest product on the market and has some pretty strong, divisive flavors.
So whether or not you’ll like it can be hit or miss.
Also, I do not recommend taking it every day.
BCAAs are good for daily supplementation, but the extra ingredients? They might be a wasted expense on rest days.
I like to take Beyond Raw’s BCAA supplement for my workout and something less expensive that’s nothing but amino acids when I’m not working out.
Alternatives
Good for BCAAs, though it lacks the extra ingredients
Perhaps my favorite BCAA supplement is the one by BulkSupplements. It’s so lacking in frills that it doesn’t even have a fancy name.
Perfect when you want nothing but BCAAs.
Scivation Xtend BCAA Powder is another great choice, especially when you try to pronounce the name.
It also contains electrolytes but lacks some of the other fancy ingredients.
Finally, if you prefer taking pills instead of powder, Optimum Nutrition has BCAA capsules.
They are convenient for taking BCAAs in between classes or for when you reach the gym only to realize you left your blender bottle at home.
The BCAA pills are nothing but amino acids, so you get 5 grams of goodness in each capsule.