Best BCAA for Women

For years, branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplements have been used by bodybuilders and professional athletes to improve exercise performance and muscle maintenance, but you don’t have to be a fitness professional to enjoy some of the benefits they have to offer. These products support muscle protein synthesis, allowing you to build lean muscle mass while reducing fat and preventing post-workout fatigue.1

As far as what makes one BCAA supplement better for women than another, there aren’t a lot of differences to highlight. On average, women may not need the same dosage as men to achieve similar results, but there are some additional nuances and caveats here that are worth exploring, so our team set out to do just that.

If you don't have time to read the complete guide, glance below at our top picks.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service or product we review, including BCAA supplements. Our experience with amino acids and fitness supplements is vast, including nearly 1,000 hours spent digesting nearly 250 scientific articles about metabolism, fat management, and muscle building, with a specific set of articles dedicated to BCAAs.

To give you the most realistic expectations for BCAA use, we also ordered and tried these supplements for ourselves, allowing us to honestly and accurately report on things like taste, mixability, and how they made us feel after consumption and in the vicinity of a workout. We relay all those findings to you here.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy. We’ll continue to monitor developments in fitness science in general — and BCAA supplements, in particular — to keep this content up-to-date.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

We considered four primary criteria to evaluate our top choices in women’s BCAAs: effectiveness, safety, taste, cost, and customer support. In selecting our winner overall and the winners for various subcategories included in our summary of recommendations, we gave the most weight to effectiveness, and safety was close behind. For the most part, costs and customer service experiences were fairly similar across companies, but they still play an important role here, especially if you’re torn between two products and need something that can tip the scales.

Understanding how our top picks performed in these categories can help you decide which product is best for you, so let’s take a closer look at each criterion for more information.

Effectiveness

Winner: Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine

For the most part, those taking BCAA supplements are looking for some kind of edge during their workouts, whether that’s the power to push through one last rep or the ability to run an extra mile without the added intensity resulting in muscle loss. Toward either end, a BCAA supplement’s effectiveness is directly proportional to its dose. And of the BCAA supplements we recommend, Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine offers the highest dose per serving.

Specifically, one serving of this supplement contains 8g of BCAAs in the typical 2:1:1 ratio. That is an extra gram above the next highest dose among the brands in our guide. It also contains a hefty 5g of glutamine, a conditionally essential amino acid that’s been shown to help with everything from cognition and immunity to digestion.2

Even if you cut the dose in half, this supplement would still provide more BCAAs than some other well-regarded alternatives. That means you can titrate up from a half dose if you want to see how it affects your performance and potentially save some money by stretching a single bottle out for more than a month.

Safety

Winner: Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine

Several legitimate concerns exist about long-term BCAA consumption and amino acid supplementation in general. Some of these come from the supplement industry’s previous reliance on suspect sources for BCAAs, including things like human hair harvested from corpses. That’s not the kind of thing most people want to ingest. Fortunately, most BCAAs on the market today derive their amino acids from plant sources, though some may still use animal products.

Research points toward a few other issues with BCAA supplementation, though. Those can include:

• Renal complications such as kidney stones
• Blood glucose dysregulation
• Irritability

The issue of insulin resistance and glucose dysregulation is fraught with contradictions in the research, with some papers asserting that exogenous BCAAs could be a cause for insulin resistance and others claiming that genetic predisposition to diabetes and dysfunctional BCAA metabolism exist in parallel but lack a causal relationship. The takeaway here is to have a thorough conversation with your doctor before starting a BCAA regimen if you have any problems with insulin resistance or have a history of diabetes in the family.3

With the various potential issues surrounding BCAAs, we see Transparent Labs as a company doing all it can to ensure safety. It does several things many other companies do not, including clearly listing the quantities of all ingredients — both active and inactive — instead of just active ingredients. Among its BCAA ingredients is coconut water powder, which has been shown to reduce the onset of kidney stones and may offer additional renal benefits to counter kidney dangers associated with taking BCAAs. It also provides access to the results of third-party testing on recently produced batches of every supplement in its catalog. Other companies may do some of these things; Type Zero, for instance, includes coconut water powder but hides its formula behind proprietary blends. Transparent Labs is the only company we recommend that checks all these boxes.

Taste

Winner: Type Zero Clean Vegan BCAA + Electrolytes

Our testing team got hands-on with the top BCAA supplements on the market, allowing us to report on their taste and how well they mix into water. You won’t necessarily use plain water as a liquid — especially with unflavored BCAAs — but we wanted to be able to report on the tasting experience for all supplements on an equal footing.

Here’s a quick look at how the top brands performed:

As you can see, Type Zero offers the best-tasting option by a long shot. Transparent Labs offered the next-best choice, and it mixed in equally as well as Type Zero, but there was still a hint of the bitter BCAA flavor hiding in the background. And since the two unflavored options are clearly miserable to drink with just water, that bitter BCAA essence is not pleasant, even behind the tropical flavoring.

Cost

Winner: Bulk Supplements BCAA Powder

Some supplements are highly effective, but their prices eliminate them from many consumers' budgets. We value efficacy alongside reasonable pricing, so we rarely highlight products we know most buyers can't afford — especially when comparable alternatives exist for less.

The BCAAs on this list are all reasonably priced, with most averaging under $1 per daily serving. The least expensive options tend to be unflavored, which makes sense given that these contain no extraneous ingredients that can add expense. The best deal among these is Bulk Supplements BCAA Powder. It’s available in six sizes ranging from a 100g bag to a 25kg barrel. In addition to very low standard pricing, the company also offers subscription savings, but at 5%, it's one of the lowest subscription discounts in this arena. You can save a bit extra, even without a subscription, using code INNERBODY5 for an additional 5% off.

Naked BCAAs also offer great value. A single $35 container delivers 100 servings and is available with twice the subscription discount offered by Bulk Supplements. That isn’t quite enough to make up the difference in their prices, however.

Check out the chart in the section below this one for a comprehensive comparison of costs and features for each supplement in our guide.

Customer support

Winner: Swolverine

When you’re investing in a new product, it’s important to consider a company’s customer support infrastructure. This includes everything from site design and shipping logistics to easy contact options to talk with support staff. We often look at money-back guarantees and return policies here, as well, but most of the companies in this space have lackluster options here, with 14-30 days being the typical return window and very few companies (none in this guide) accepting opened products for return unless there’s something specifically wrong with them.

We gave this win to Swolverine for a few reasons:

• Live chat support
• Extensive, well-written blog
• Personal fitness coaching available
• Free macro calculator

But what puts Swolverine over the top for us is the fact that the company is woman-owned, and on a list of the best BCAAs for women, that aspect cannot and should not be ignored.

The chart below shows how our top recommendations compare in terms of cost, dosage, and other parameters. Price comparisons are based on single purchases of each product and do not account for subscription plans or bulk purchases, which can earn significant savings.

Amino acids are more than just the building blocks of protein — they're involved in a litany of signaling pathways that determine when and how you build muscle, break down fat, and maintain cellular health. BCAAs, or branched-chain amino acids, comprise three essential amino acids that significantly contribute to muscle growth and repair.

And while these supplements have been a niche market among athletes in the past, their appeal today has blossomed into a mainstream audience. You don't need to be an athlete to enjoy benefits like:

• Improved athletic performance
• Muscle and strength development
• Reduction in delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
• Reduced fatigue
• Appetite suppression4

BCAAs have even shown the ability in clinical trials to benefit individuals with health conditions like:

• Insulin resistance
• Low immune function
• Cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases5
• Sarcopenia
• Certain cancers6

With regard to insulin resistance, contradictory studies claim that issues with BCAA metabolism can result in increased inclusion resistance (not a good thing).3 If you have any blood sugar issues, talk to your doctor about them before taking BCAAs.

Who shouldn’t use BCAA supplements

BCAA supplements are not fat burners or diet pills. If you’re dedicated to going to the gym, they can help you improve muscle mass and even drop pounds. But they aren’t a product you should take and expect to get results without putting in the work. And while most of these supplements are safe for healthy adults, they can interfere with medications, including those for blood sugar regulation.

Individuals with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) — also known as Lou Gehrig's disease — or other conditions that impair the metabolism of BCAAs should avoid these supplements.7

In short, if you have any chronic medical condition or take an ongoing medication, talk with your doctor before beginning a BCAA or any over-the-counter dietary supplement.

You also might be a better candidate for similar supplements that act a little differently depending on your goals. If you have a hard time putting on muscle or fat, you’d do better with a high-calorie protein powder or mass gainer than a BCAA supplement. Complete protein powders contain all nine essential amino acids, and many offer all 20 amino acids, both essential and nonessential. And the added calories from a protein powder or mass gainer can help offset what you burn in the gym and contribute to better overall growth.

Several of the companies on this list make good protein powders and mass gainers. Many of those appear as part of muscle-building stacks — supplement bundles that contain things like BCAAs, multivitamins, and protein powders or mass gainers. You can learn more about those in our guide to the best muscle-building stacks.

The benefits of BCAA supplementation appear to be relatively similar across all genders. For those assigned female at birth, they can benefit from BCAAs in the following ways:

“BCAA” stands for branched-chain amino acids. These are three of the nine essential amino acids that play specific roles in muscle development and repair and typically appeal to those seeking weight management and athletic performance benefits.

Amino acids, including BCAAs, are essential for your overall health, contributing to the following functions:

• Digestion
• Neurotransmitter and hormone production
• Immunity
• Cell development and communication
• Body tissue repair
• Maintaining healthy hair, skin, and nails

There are nine essential amino acids in total, which we must derive from food or supplements because the human body does not naturally produce them. These include:

• Histidine
• Isoleucine
• Leucine
• Lysine
• Methionine
• Phenylalanine
• Threonine
• Tryptophan
• Valine

Most individuals get enough essential amino acids and BCAAs through their diet, although vegetarians and vegans often have to combine incomplete proteins to acquire proper nutrients. Complete proteins are food sources of all nine essential amino acids (including BCAAs). Some of these food sources include:

• Poultry
• Beef
• Fish
• Eggs
• Soy
• Dairy
• Buckwheat
• Quinoa

Engaging in intense workouts like distance running or high-intensity interval training can cause you to burn through muscle mass when your body needs more energy. BCAAs have the potential to act against this drive toward muscle protein breakdown by promoting muscle protein synthesis. That’s why BCAAs make such a useful pre-workout supplement for those engaging in strenuous exercise.

What are the three BCAAs?

The three essential amino acids that make up branched-chain amino acids and support muscle growth and tissue regeneration are:

• Leucine
• Isoleucine
• Valine

These amino acids appear in most supplements in a 2:1:1 ratio for optimum muscle growth and repair during and after training sessions. Below, we’ll outline what makes each BCAA special and why their combined supplementation helps with fitness.

The long-term safety of BCAA supplementation is not settled science. There’s conflicting evidence regarding their potential to mediate blood sugar levels and insulin resistance. In some cases, studies purport that chronically high BCAA levels can worsen insulin resistance and possibly contribute to Type 2 diabetes.3 Other studies point toward a possibility that elevated BCAA levels in pre-diabetics and those with high insulin resistance are either a byproduct of those disorders or a concurrent genetic predisposition.

Because BCAA supplements can impact blood glucose levels in one way or another, it’s essential to talk to your doctor before use if you take medication(s) for diabetes or have any chronic medical condition. BCAAs are also inappropriate for individuals with ALS or other autoimmune, metabolic disorders.

There is also some concern over BCAA supplementation and kidney health, with some studies pointing toward reduced kidney function or the development of kidney stones as a potential risk. That’s why we like to see coconut water powder included in BCAA supplements whenever possible. Studies have shown that coconut water powder can reduce the propensity for renal complications involved with BCAA supplementation and even prevent kidney stones.25 Transparent Labs, Type Zero, and RULE1 each offer BCAAs with coconut water powder, Transparent Labs being the option with the highest dose.

More common side effects from BCAA supplementation include:

• Headaches
• Pain
• Nausea
• Fatigue

If you experience any side effects, you should stop taking BCAAs and talk to your doctor.

Best overall

We chose Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine as our overall winner based on its high-quality, gluten-free, non-GMO ingredients and the addition of glutamine and vitamin C for added boosts to immunity and metabolism. This powder formula comes in four flavor options, which we found to be around the middle of the pack in terms of taste.

A single serving of Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine provides more BCAAs than multiple servings of other brands. That can make a significantly positive difference in initiating and maintaining muscle protein synthesis, especially when engaging in intense workouts. It also means you can get more than 30 servings out of a single tub if you use less than a scoop per serving and find it still does the job.

This BCAA supplement also includes glutamine, which has been demonstrated to promote healthy metabolism and immune function. And a nearly 1700% dose of vitamin C can help with both energy levels and positive shifts in your gut microbiome, making this one of the best BCAA options for gut health.17

Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine’s full ingredient list includes:

• Leucine: 4,000mg
• Isoleucine: 2,000mg
• Valine: 2,000mg
• Glutamine: 5,000mg
• Vitamin C: 1,535mg
• Coconut water powder: 1,000mg

Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine is the only supplement on our list that also provides doses for the ingredients listed as “other ingredients.” This is an added level of transparency we rarely see in the supplement industry and one we certainly appreciate. The company subjects all of its products to third-party testing, and it makes batch-specific certificates of analysis available on its site. In some cases, you may receive a product with a lot number that isn’t up on the site yet. There’s little reason to believe that lots subsequent to those listed online will suddenly become dangerous, but if you’re especially concerned, you might want to wait until the results are posted before taking the supplement.

Taste and mixability

Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine was neither the best-tasting nor the worst-tasting supplement in our testing experience. It mixes into plain water relatively well, so the middling taste is further hampered by clumping or other textural issues. We tried the Tropical Punch flavor, and it resembled fruit punch to a point, after which the unpleasant flavor of the BCAAs crept in as an aftertaste. This is far from a dealbreaker for a supplement that has so much to offer, but it’s worth noting if you’re especially sensitive to flavor.

Pricing

Transparent Labs currently offers its BCAA Glutamine for $40, but you can subscribe to save 10% and unlock free shipping. Here’s how the program compares to a one-time purchase:

All non-subscription orders over $149 also include free shipping in the U.S. Shipping for orders under $149 starts at $7.99.

Best choice from a women-owned company

Swolverine offers an inverse approach to the dosage employed by Transparent Labs. Whereas Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine gives you 30 doses of a high-dose supplement, Swolverine provides you with 60 doses of a lower-dose supplement. That might make Swolverine a better choice if you’re interested in titrating up from a lower dose, as you don’t have to worry about nailing an exact half scoop the way you would with Transparent Labs. However, even at double its dose, Swolverine’s total glutamine dose is lower than a standard dose from Transparent Labs, offering just 2g to the 5g found in BCAA Glutamine. That means you’re more likely to see the benefits of glutamine supplementation with Transparent labs.

The main reason you might consider Swolverine over Transparent Labs for your BCAA and glutamine combo is that Swolverine is a women-owned company. If that’s important to you, you could take two servings of Swolverine instead of just one and still only pay about $7 more per month than you would for Transparent Labs’ alternative.

Here’s a look at Swolverine BCAA 2:1:1’s full ingredient list:

• L-Leucine: 2g
• L-Isoleucine: 1g
• L-Valine: 1g
• L-Glutamine: 1g
• Vitamin B6: 2mg
• Sodium chloride: 20mg
• Potassium citrate: 37mg

Taste and mixability

Despite being sweetened with sucralose, Swolverine BCAA 2:1:1 has a taste closer in quality to Transparent Labs than RULE1 (the other product on our list sweetened with sucralose, which we typically don’t love). The fact that it’s only available in lemon-lime might be a turnoff for some people, and we would like to see the company expand its flavor options here. Swolverine’s BCAA 2:1:1 also mixes into cold water at a similar rate and to a similar degree as Transparent Labs BCAA Glutamine.

Pricing

You can get Swolverine BCAA 2:1:1 as a one-time purchase or on a subscription basis. It’s also available as part of bundle options from Swolverine that are designed to target specific health and fitness goals. Here’s how the options compare for BCAA 2:1:1 on its own:

And here’s what your options are for BCAA 2:1:1 as part of Swolverine stacks, which are not available on a subscription basis:

These stacks are decidedly similar in their design, but their subtle differences can be important depending on your goals or the challenges you face in the gym. And most other companies in this space fail to offer as many stacks containing BCAAs.

If you’re having trouble putting on weight or maintaining a healthy caloric intake, a protein powder added to such a stack or the company’s performance series stack may be a better choice.

Swolverine only charges $6 for shipping on offers under $100, which is one of the lower shipping rates in its class.

Cleanest ingredient profile

Naked BCAAs provide an adequate dosage of branched-chain amino acids with no fillers, artificial flavors, sweeteners, or colorings. Its BCAA powder is vegan-friendly and among the most cost-effective options available. As with Swolverine’s BCAA 2:1:1, the fact that its container offers 100 servings gives you the opportunity to titrate your dose up or down as you and your physician see fit without the process becoming prohibitively expensive.

Naked also produces a supplement containing all nine essential amino acids, which is one of the top-rated products on our guide to the best amino acid supplements. The BCAA content in that supplement is lower than you get here, however, so if BCAAs are what you’re after, you’re better off with this option.

Naked BCAAs contain just four ingredients:

• Leucine: 2,500mg
• Isoleucine: 1,250mg
• Valine: 1,250mg
• Sunflower lecithin

Taste and mixability

For the uninitiated, bear in mind that unflavored amino acid powders often have two things in common: they mix into water incredibly well, and they taste awful. Unscrupulous BCAA manufacturers of years past would occasionally use swine or even human hair as an ingredient source, and while that practice has fallen by the wayside in BCAAs sold in the U.S., the final product still bears a distinct taste of burnt hair. Our testers reeled when trying it in plain water. Mixed into something like a smoothie or some bone broth, it’s much more tolerable. And it mixes in very well, leaving no clumps or even much clouding in clear water.

Pricing

Naked BCAAs is one of the most cost-effective of our top picks, with each daily serving priced at less than half of most brands. A 1.1lb tub contains 100 servings, so one purchase will last over three months. And if $0.35/day is still too much for your budget, you can earn additional savings by enrolling in Naked Nutrition's subscription program, which takes 20% off your first shipment and 10% off subsequent shipments.

Naked’s BCAAs are also available as part of the company’s High Performance Bundle. This package includes either whey or pea protein, depending on your preference, as well as the following:

• Naked Greens
• Naked Recovery
• Naked Energy
• Naked BCAAs
• Naked Glutamine
• Naked Creatine
• Protein cookies

The bundle costs $224.77, and it isn’t available on a subscription basis.

Naked provides free US shipping on all orders over $99. For orders under $99, shipping starts at $7.00.

Best budget option

While it’s true that Bulk Supplements is a place you can turn to when budget is your primary concern, you don’t really sacrifice too much by using it as a resource. The company offers a wide array of supplements, many in powder and capsule form, at various doses and bulk levels that let you save a significant amount of money or make large purchases for industrial use.

Its ingredient profile is similar to Naked Nutritions, with just BCAAs and sunflower lecithin. And its dose is even a little higher:

• L-Leucine: 3g
• L-Isoleucine: 1.5g
• L-Valine: 1.5g

Bulk Supplements’ packaging may be its downfall for many potential customers. Its BCAAs come in pouches or bags for all but the largest bulk options, and these bags don’t come with scoops. That means you have to store a bag that — in the case of the smaller bags — doesn’t stand up well on its own. It also means you need a scale to measure out the proper serving size, at least until you get to a point where you can eyeball it.

Taste and mixability

This is another area in which Bulk Supplements is nearly identical to Naked Nutrition. Neither product tastes good, but both mix well into water. Our testers found the same unpleasant burnt hair taste from Bulk Supplements that they saw in Naked’s BCAAs. Ultimately, Bulk Supplements seemed to mix in a little less completely than Naked’s formula, perhaps due to the difference in dosage.

Pricing

You can get Bulk Supplements BCAA 2:1:1 Powder in six sizes ranging from 100g all the way up to 25kg. The more you buy, the more you stand to save, but it’s unlikely that you could get through 25kg of any supplement before it went bad. Bulk Supplements has a subscription program, but it only takes 5% off the cost of each order.

Here’s a look at how the costs compare at each bulk level:

You could pay as little as $0.09/day if you’ve got nearly $400 to shell out and an insatiable appetite for BCAAs, but the likelihood is that you’ll end up buying 1kg or less at a time. Even at the 100g level, you’re spending less than the next cheapest option.

Bulk Supplements has one of the lowest thresholds for free shipping in its class, kicking in at just $59. But BCAA orders of 1kg or less don’t make it up that high, and the company’s shipping costs start at $9, one of the highest costs in its class.

Best-tasting

We consider Type Zero Clean Vegan BCAA a runner-up for best pre-workout among the products in this guide, only losing out to RULE1 thanks to that company’s ingredient transparency. Granted, it’s simple to look at the 6g dose of 2:1:1 BCAAs and figure out the doses, and the label lists magnesium, sodium, and potassium doses separately. However, the electrolyte complex is still obscured by a proprietary blend, making it difficult to ascertain how much of each ingredient you get per serving. Considering the fact that L-arginine has links to cardiovascular complications, adding an unknown amount of betaine into the mix could make this an unwise choice for women with heart problems.18

For everyone else, the electrolyte complex and arginine content serve to make this one of the better stimulant-free pre-workouts out there.

Here’s a quick look at Clean Vegan BCAA + Electrolytes’ ingredient list (we broke up the BCAA complex for you for added clarity):

• L-Leucine: 3g
• L-Isoleucine: 1.5g
• L-Valine: 1.5g
• L-Arginine: 500mg
• Acetyl L-Carnitine: 300mg
• Magnesium: 10mg
• Sodium: 120mg
• Potassium: 78mg
• Betaine: Unknown
• Coconut water powder: Unknown

One ingredient on this list that you don’t see in many other BCAA products is acetyl L-carnitine. Carnitine has been shown to attenuate lactic acid buildup and oxidative stress associated with intense exercise.19 It may also play a role in muscle preservation, making it a nice companion to Type Zero’s BCAA content.20

Taste and mixability

Taste is the best part of Type Zero’s BCAA products. Our testers have only tried the peach mango flavor at this point, but it was universally regarded as the best amino acid supplement any of us have tried. The powder mixes in about as well as many others, though there was some settling out at the bottom of the glass. We only used a fork to stir the mix in so we could see how it would respond to a poor mixing technique. When placed in a shaker bottle, the powder dissolved nicely.

Pricing

Unlike most of its competitors, Type Zero doesn’t offer bulk discounts or subscription opportunities. If you have trouble remembering to reorder products when you’re running low, this will be a source of inconvenience for you.

One container of Type Zero Clean Vegan BCAA + Electrolytes provides 30 servings and costs $31.95. Shipping costs $5 no matter how much you spend. In the future, we’d like to see Type Zero roll out a subscription platform and find a way to offer customers free shipping, even if the threshold is high. It’s pretty standard for companies in this space to offer one or both of those options, but Type Zero is younger than many of those brands, so hopefully, it can catch up.

Best pre-workout

RULE1 offers a BCAA supplement with the second-highest dose (7g) of the products in our guide. It also contains a significant dose of glutamine, though both its BCAA and glutamine contents are behind what Transparent Labs delivers. That being the case, it’s RULE1’s other ingredients that would push some women towards it over Transparent Labs.

Let’s take a quick look at that ingredient list:

• L-Leucine: 3.5g
• L-Glutamine: 2.5g
• L-Isoleucine: 1.75g
• L-Valine: 1.75g
• Citrulline malate: 1.5g
• Taurine: 500mg
• Raw coconut water powder: 500mg
• Chloride: 280mg
• Sodium: 160mg
• Potassium: 80mg
• Calcium: 20mg

RULE1’s electrolyte complex and coconut water powder make it a smart pre-workout choice because electrolytes fuel the systems that keep your muscled firing, while coconut water powder can contribute to hydration and renal health.24

Citrulline malate and taurine are the two ingredients outside the electrolyte complex that offer benefits not seen in other BCAA products.

• Citrulline malate: Studies have shown that citrulline malate can improve aerobic performance and reduce muscle soreness after exercise.21 Studies typically use much higher doses (up to 8g), though it’s important to remember those studies look at citrulline malate in isolation, without BCAAs and other ingredients involved.
• Taurine: Some research suggests that taurine can reduce muscle soreness resulting from exercise, but the balance between dose and exercise intensity is more delicate than other supplements.22 A lower dose, like the 500mg in RULE1’s BCAA supplement, will likely be sufficient for shorter, slightly less intense workouts.

Vegans and vegetarians should be aware that RULE1 uses both animal and plant-based sources for its BCAA content (fermented corn and poultry, respectively). The company cites supply chain issues when defending its use of either or both sources in unverifiable batches of its products, but we’ve been actively testing BCAAs and EAAs for months and have seen no such supply issues from other companies that consistently offer vegan options.

Taste and mixability

For taste and mixability, RULE1 has been below the middle of the pack in our testing of both its Essential Amino 9 EAA supplement and its Train BCAA + Electrolytes. The biggest issue with its flavors is a chemical taste resulting from artificial flavors and sucralose. Unrelated to taste, it also contains yellow #5, an artificial food coloring that’s banned in many countries.

RULE1 offers its Train BCAAs in the following flavors:

• Golden Gummy
• Blue Raspberry
• Fruit Punch
• Juicy Grape
• Orange Burst
• Watermelon Splash
• Peach Mango

RULE1 products resulted in some of the cloudiest mixes we saw when combined with cold water. To its credit, clumping wasn’t an issue, but individual particles were plainly visible throughout the drink, and the mouthfeel had a texture to it that superior mixes did not.

Pricing

A single 30-serving container of RULE1 Train BCAAs + Electrolytes costs $32.99.

RULE1 does not offer a subscription program or any savings for buying in bulk. That brings it in line with Type Zero, but both companies seem behind the times compared to the likes of Transparent Labs, Naked, and Swolverine. Unlike Type Zero, RULE1 at least offers free shipping on orders above $100. For orders under $100, shipping starts at $10, the highest cost for shipping on our list.