1. Biotest takes obsolete, or otherwise standard products, claims to work some sort of scientific magic on them to make them 4000% more effective than any other company's products, charges a shit ton for them, and plants them into every t-nation article on the site. The company is just obnoxious and douchey. And their "Magnum levels" are the most ass-hat thing ive ever seen
"T-Nation / Tmagnum Levels
"Levels" are used to indicate each member's online purchase dollar amount in comparison to all other members.
Level 0: Never purchased from us
Level 1: Biotest Customer
Level 2: Top 30,000 purchasers
Level 3: Top 20,000 purchasers
Level 4: Top 10,000 purchasers
Level 5: Top 500 purchasers"
2. Nevermind. I must have been confusing phosphatidylserine with another big word starting with P. Now that i think about it, the data on PS is promising, but real world experiences are mixed. Could be beneficial, could be a crapshoot. Ive actually considered giving it a try in the past. Now that the issue has been brought back up, i may give it a go.
3. There is no controlled data suggesting they do anything in the context of a diet containing adequate protein. Drop protein in half and add BCAA's and magically they appear beneficial, or compare BCAA's during excercise to nothing, and zomg they are better than nothing. Keep protein at an adequate level and add BCAA's and they do nothing.
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/6/1591S
Some athletes can have quite high intakes of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) because of their high energy and protein intakes and also because they consume protein supplements, solutions of protein hydrolysates, and free amino acids. The requirement for protein may actually be higher in endurance athletes than in sedentary individuals because some amino acids, including the BCAAs, are oxidized in increased amounts during exercise compared with rest, and they must therefore be replenished by the diet. In the late 1970s, BCAAs were suggested to be the third fuel for skeletal muscle after carbohydrate and fat. However, the majority of later studies, using various exercise and treatment designs and several forms of administration of BCAAs (infusion, oral, and with and without carbohydrates), have failed to find a performance-enhancing effect. No valid scientific evidence supports the commercial claims that orally ingested BCAAs have an anticatabolic effect during and after exercise in humans or that BCAA supplements may accelerate the repair of muscle damage after exercise. The recommended protein intakes for athletes (1.2 to 1.8 g · kg body mass–1 · d–1) do not seem to be harmful. Acute intakes of BCAA supplements of about 10–30 g/d seem to be without ill effect. However, the suggested reasons for taking such supplements have not received much support from well-controlled scientific studies.
