Leucine prevents muscle loss during bed rest

Too much bed rest will kill you. In 1947, British doctor Richard Asher wrote "Teach us to live so that we shun unnecessary time in bed. Make people get up and we may save our patients from an early grave."

Bed rest studies conducted by NASA scientists showed that three weeks of complete bed rest (subjects were not allowed to get up during the experiment.) caused a 25 percent reduction in aerobic capacity, a 13 percent decrease in muscle mass, and a 25 to 35 percent decrease in strength and power. Everyone gets sick from time to time. So how can you maintain your previous training gains if you have to stay in bed?

A study led by Kirk English of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, found that supplementing with the amino acid leucine with every meal (0.06 grams per kilogram of body weight) during 14 days of bed rest prevented some negative changes in muscle mass, strength, power and body fat compared to a placebo. Leucine is an amino acid that acts as a chemical signal that activates the synthesis of protein in muscle cells.

Leucine can prevent physical breakdown during short breaks in training or when you are confined to bed due to the flu.

(American Journal Clinical Nutrition, 103: 465 - 473, 2016)