Muscle Elements PowerDown Amino PM is Here!

Muscle Elements PowerDown Amino PM, a groundbreaking new nighttime amino acid supplement, is now here, and it’s fantastic!

You can click here to see it at the best-priced store, or read more about it below.

The front of the label has now been unleashed, and it looks both powerful and innovative:

The front label of PowerDown Amino PM gives us a peak at some of the ingredients.. of note is the new ActiveTR time-released leucine — PERFECT for a nighttime supplement!!!

What is Amino PM?

1. It is a nighttime amino acid formula with time-released leucine for extended anabolic / anti-catabolic support while you sleep
2. It is a powder-based product, and is flavored.
3. There is nothing on the market like it, with an ingredients whose effects are greater than the sum of its parts!
4. It is open formula, just like other Muscle Elements supplements.

The key points

The entire ingredient label is below. Here are the key highlights from the front of the bottle:

• 3g Time-Released Leucine (ActiveTR)
• 2g L-Leucine (making a total of 5g Leucine)
• 2.4g Essential Amino Acids
• 1g GABA
• 3g L-Glutamine

This is exactly what many of us have been looking for – especially those who get ridiculously sore or wake up overly hungry after a hard day’s training.

Before we get started, sign up for alerts, then keep reading:

Amino PM Ingredients

Muscle Elements: Build a Better You with Me

There are six different sections to the ingredients in PowerDown Amino PM, and they’re all 100% open formula, so we can get down to the details.

In general, we’re looking for Amino PM to do the following things:

• Assist in our muscle-building goals for the entire night
• Reduce soreness and increase recovery speed
• Help us fall asleep, which can be done in different ways:
  • Reduce anxiety / induce calmness
  • Regulate the circadian rhythm
• Improve the actual quality of sleep once we get there
• Yield a high quality of life the next day (ie next-day drowsiness is unacceptable)

As we dig through the ingredients, you’ll find that every one of these bullet points is hit multiple times, yielding a masterfully-crafted product that’s unlike anything to come before it. This is what makes it a clear front-runner for the #1 spot in our Best Sleep Aid guide.

The Muscle Elements PowerDown Amino PM Ingredients, in its full, non-proprietary glory!

A quick note on the dosage

Each serving size listed is from two scoops, which would leave you with 20 servings in the tub. The driving force for how much you’ll want to use is most likely going to be the melatonin dose – there is 1.5mg in one scoop and 3mg in two scoops.

We’ll focus on melatonin later, but two comprehensive studies haven shown 2-3mg to be the general sweet spot^[1,2] for most users, with a mean dose of 2.69mg stated in the second study.

This means that the “average ideal dose” of AminoPM will likely be around 1.5 scoops, which puts most users in the 30 servings per container range – perfect for one month!

Finally, on to the formula:

• Multi-Stage mTOR & Recovery Elements

  The following three ingredients work to boost muscle-building processes (as in the case of leucine) or help with muscle recovery (from glutamine):

  • Time-Release L-Leucine (As ActiveTR) (3g)

    

    ActiveTR is a trademark of Compound Solutions, Inc.

    ActiveTR is a time-released form of leucine that’s been a hot new ingredient introduced to the market in 2015.This is the absolute perfect use for it.

    Most of us know that leucine is the most anabolic of the branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), thanks to its activation of the anabolic mTOR pathway.^[3,4] We always look for a solid leucine dose in any protein or amino acid product.

    But when combining ActiveTR with normal free-form leucine (the next ingredient below), you get two surges of leucine, which will keep your anti-catabolic / anabolic activities running while you sleep for far longer than you otherwise would have had.

    

    ActiveTR Time Release Leucine

    In the image above, you can see the ActiveTR “unloading” after a couple of hours, which then surges leucine levels for roughly 8 hours – just long enough for you to finish sleeping and get on with your high-protein breakfast meal!

    We have a great feeling about this for the long-haul, especially if you’re in a month of beast-mode training.

    ActiveTR is a trademark of Compound Solutions, Inc. A note for any of you who care, Muscle Elements had to wait for ActiveTR to get out of exclusivity before they could launch this label and product.

    The good news is that this gave them time to get all of their ducks in a row with Amino PM, and as you’ll see when you keep reading about the supplement… it was worth the wait!!

  • L-Leucine (2g)

    Paired alongside the ActiveTR are two more grams of free form l-leucine, which bring the muscle-building and catabolism-killing benefits discussed above.

    The issue with using leucine alone before bed is that it wears off quite a bit, especially after just a few hours. When we’re awake, that’s fine, since we get to eat another meal. But when we’re sleeping, it’s not as ideal of a situation.

    But combining this with ActiveTR gives you the best of both worlds, and you’ll have an amino acid burst that looks something like the graph shown above – enough to get you through your sleep and onto your high-protein breakfast!

  • L-Glutamine (3g)

    Glutamine brings the recovery to the Multi-Stage mTOR & Recovery Elements. Although this isn’t necessarily a muscle-building amino acid that many companies marketed as over the past decades, it is great for our muscle-saving purposes here:

    • Glutamine promotes more storage of muscle glycogen^[5], a process already underway when sleeping.
    • It prevents muscular cell death caused by any damage from working out hard.^[6]
    • It reduces ammonia levels in the blood^[7], and thus should reduce soreness.
• EAA & Uptake ElementsThe various EAAs, or essential amino acids, consist of the two other branched chain amino acids that are typically paired with leucine (isoleucine and valine), as well as others that you must get through your diet or supplementation — that is why they’re called essential.
  

  Leucine, Valine, and Isoleucine are the three BCAAs, and they’re an extremely important part of your diet

  Beyond the muscle-building benefits that these building blocks of proteins provide, the bigger issue is that our central nervous systems get far out of whack when we’re deficient, leading to anxiety, stress, and other imbalances that throw off sleep patterns:

  • L-Lysine (720mg)

    Lysine, when paired alongside L-arginine (which is in another section in Amino PM), have been shown to reduce anxiety and levels of stress hormones.^[8] It also worked well on its own in this regard even without the arginine^[9,10] but we have the privilege of having both in this supplement.

    It’s typically used as a supporting ingredient for other proteins, and it may increase collagen formation^[11], which could help with those sore joints when sleeping. That connection requires a bit more research though.

    Lysine is also implicated in bone health – when paired with arginine, it helps to heal bone fractures faster – reducing healing time by a significant two weeks!^[12]

  • L-Valine (600mg)

    The second BCAA in the Amino PM formula, Valine isn’t frequently used alone, but it may provide the immune system benefits^[13,14,15] that are sometimes attributed to the BCAAs.

    Like glutamine, valine also promotes glycogen synthesis.^[16]

  • L-Threonine (600mg)

    Threonine is most commonly found in the central nervous system and in connective tissues^[17], where it helps keep elasticity.

    This is one of the ingredients where it’s supplementation doesn’t necessarily add a ton of additional benefits, but it’s best to avoid deficiency. Having a threonine deficiency reduces protein synthesis / muscle-building^[18,19] and can even lead to neurological dysfunction^[20], so its benefits can be considered from what potentially happens when we don’t have enough.

  • L-Phenylalanine (500mg)

    This essential amino acid is frequently used to increase mood and reduce anxiety.^[21]

    This is another ingredient where studying what happens when one is deficient shows the kinds of benefits it provides: alongside some other aminos also in Amino PM, such as tryptophan, a phenylalanine deficiency can lead to low serotonin levels, which creates all sorts of problems from anxiety to poor sleep.^[22,23]

    Lastly, having more L-Phenylalanine is known to increase the synthesis of dopamine,^[24,25] further supporting its role as an anxiety-reducer.

  • L-Histidine (480mg)

    Histidine is a conditionally essential amino acid that helps protect against oxidation.^[26] It is liver-protective^[27], but more important for our purposes, it may have “antidepressant-like effects”.^[28]

    When deprived of histidine, cognitive function and response is impaired.^[29]

  • L-Isoleucine (480mg)

    The third of the branched chain amino acids (alongside leucine and valine), isoleucine is most commonly known for its anti-catabolic roles, so that it helps prevent muscle breakdown. It does this by reducing the rates of gluconeogenesis.^[30]

    Our bodies have a 24 hour amino acid profile that rotates regularly – isoleucine and valine are two of the aminos that have “rhythms” regardless of supplementation, but they do peak at night.^[31] There is a possibility that additional supplementation may be therapeutic for some sleep issues.

  • Bioperine (Piper Nigrum) (5mg)

    Bioperine is the trademarked form of piperine, which is black pepper extract. It’s used to improve uptake of other ingredients, and it works by inhibiting enzymes that break down certain amino acids and compounds. More specifically, it downregulates the phase II detox enzymes,^[32] ultimately slowing down our metabolism of various compounds.^[33]

    Bioperine’s effectiveness really depends on what ingredient you’re trying to extend the life of, but there aren’t studies pairing it with every ingredient out there. As an offtopic example, it is able to boost the bioavailability of curcumin by 2000%!^[34]

    This has become a common ingredient in supplements, and many of the most popular products from 2014 and 2015 have included it just to squeeze out every last inch of ingredient effectiveness.

• GH Support & REM Elements

  This subsection consists of three ingredients, each dosed at 1g (per two scoops), that provide the support to boost your own natural growth hormone levels so that your body can repair and build muscle. On top of that, they all either have roles in sleep or reduction of anxiety:

  • GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) (1g)

    One of the keystone ingredients in Powerdown Amino PM, GABA is the ‘downer’ neurotransmitter that has an incredible sleep-inducing effect.

    GABA is actually a naturally-occurring neurotransmitter that’s implicated in several sleep mechanisms along with its receptors. These include REM sleep, dreaming, and even waking up.^[35,36]

    But what about supplemental GABA? The most interesting research shows that it increases alpha waves and decreases beta waves in the brain.^[37] Both of these are good, since alpha waves are the deep relaxation waves, whereas beta waves are the awake/conscious waves.

    The study cited above concludes that GABA is a natural relaxant and its effects are seen within one hour of taking it. This was replicated in another study performed on both males and females.^[38]

    GABA may also have some kind of pain relief potential, which may possibly help some readers,^[39] but that definitely warrants further research.

    A 500-1g dose of GABA is absolutely perfect to help Power you Down.

  • L-Arginine HCL (1g)

    We’ve already mentioned a couple of studies implicating L-arginine as an anxiety-reducer, especially when paired with lysine.^[8]

    However, the real reason L-arginine is here is because of its ability to help your body boost growth hormone levels.^[40] However, the study cited used a higher dosage than what is inside Amino PM, so your mileage may vary on the GH front with this one.

    Another higher-dose study showed that it enhanced the GH pulse during slow-wave sleep.^[41]

    There are several other benefits, such as a general (yet sometimes inconsistent) boost in nitric oxide levels^[42], an increase in lean mass^[43], and a decrease in fat mass when taking arginine supplementally.^[43]

    So while we’re not sure how 1g will affect GH levels, it should have at least some effect, as well as the anxiety reduction from its synergy with the lysine.

  • L-Ornithine HCl (1g)

    Like arginine, there are multiple reasons to have L-Ornithine included.

    The main reason is because ornithine can cause an acute boost to growth hormone secretion after its supplementation.^[44,45,46]

    However, its potential at improving sleep quality often goes unmentioned, although one study showed lengthened sleep time and reduced cortisol after taking just 400mg of ornithine.^[47]

    The growth hormone benefits won’t last all throughout the night, but they may serve to kickstart the GH process which is already strong during nighttime sleep.

• Mind & Mood Recovery Elements

  • L-Glycine (1g)

    Like GABA, glycine is both an amino acid and a neurotransmitter, and serves multiple functions in the body – some of them for ‘downer’ like processes.

    The long story short is that this amino acid is one of the most underrated sleep enhancers out there — it can both improve sleep quality and help one fall asleep faster.

    But those aren’t even the best benefits! The truly best benefit is that when glycine is taken at night, it improves the quality of life the next day!

    Glycine can both improve sleep quality and help one fall asleep faster, but the key takeaway is that it helps its users feel better the day after.

    There are three studies showing glycine’s effectiveness for sleep:

    1. Women using glycine before bedtime self-reported better quality and less fatigue.^[48]This was the study where the key takeaway was that they felt better after awakening from sleep.
    2. Another study with both sexes reported that users had less daytime sleepiness and better cognitive performance (better memory recognition) after taking glycine the night before.^[49]To top it off, they fell asleep faster and reached deep sleep phases more quickly, yet there was no change or loss in the important REM sleep.
    3. Another study was performed on sleep-deprived men who self-reported that they received better rest with glycine.^[50]

    Glycine is a relatively cheap amino acid (which is why we don’t want it added to our protein shakes), making us wonder why it’s not in more sleep formulas. Muscle Elements has you covered with it in Amino PM, though!

  • Mucuna Pruriens Extract (Standardized for 50% L-Dopa) (250mg)

    Also known as Velvet Bean, Mucuna Pruriens is a very popular growth hormone booster. It is a great source of L-Dopa, but having a 50% standardization for L-Dopa allows Muscle Elements to include other compounds that provide auxiliary benefits.

    Amongst the slew of benefits from mucuna:

    • Elevated growth hormone levels.^[51,52] This effect primarily comes from the L-Dopa.
    • Lower cortisol in stressed men.^[53]
    • Improved dopamine levels.^[54]
    • Increased testosterone levels in infertile men.^[54,55] Note that the doses here are much higher than what’s in PowerDown Amino PM, but it’s very cool to see that there’s a positive hormonal connection out there.

    There are no studies pitting L-Dopa directly against the more “broad spectrum” Mucuna Pruriens, but looking at the research that’s actually been performed, mucuna has a more impressive body of work. When it comes to a dual-purpose supplement like Amino PM, the 50% standardization is exactly what we want.

    When you try Mucuna Pruriens, it’s important to note what you’re getting – if the standardization isn’t listed, you really don’t know what you’re getting, and should skip that product in lieu of something more fully disclosed.

  • Acetyl L-Carnitine HCl (200mg)

    Commonly known as ALCAR, Acetyl L-Carnitine is the form L-Carnitine that’s most frequently associated with brain function improvement. It’s our favorite ingredient in the L-Carnitine “family”.

    There are a ton of benefits to discuss when it comes to L-Carnitine supplementation — especially for those who are carnitine-deficient (notably the elderly or vegetarians), but we’re going to focus on sleep, where there have been two studies of note:

    1. One study was performed on 96 aged subjects who had fatigue. Not only was ALCAR able to prolong their exercise, but it significantly reduced sleep disorders, especially those due to post-exercise fatigue.^[56]If you’ve ever been “so sore you couldn’t figure out how to fall asleep”, this could be one ingredient for you.
    2. Another study found an improved quality of sleep with L-Carnitine, but note that many of them were deficient.^[57]The lesson learned is that this could be a quality ingredient to take if you haven’t eaten enough meat on a given day.

    There are several other benefits to ALCAR, including the cognitive ones, but this is a relatively small dose that is likely here for the “fatigue-based sleep” purposes.

• Adrenal Reset Elements

  The main idea in this section is that we’ve gotten ourselves too stressed out and too stimmed out lately! The following ingredients will help regulate you and take the edge off so that you can rest peacefully while your brain sorts its business out, getting you ready for the next day ahead:

  • Ashwagandha Extract 2.5% (300mg)

    Ashwagandha is one of the most potent and well-known herbs in Ayurvedic medicine. It’s sometimes referred to as “Indian Ginseng,” but it’s not part of the same botanical family as ginseng.

    Why include this in Amino PM?

    Ashwagandha is a potent adaptogen that’s often used to combat anxiety and stress.^[58]

    Additionally, Ashwagandha exhibits many neuroprotective benefits by fending off certain neurotoxins^[59] and can even help induce neurogenesis.^[60]

  • Avena Sativa 20:1 (200mg)

    If you’re feeling tired, depressed, sad, or run down, you may be not getting your daily dose of avena sativa, a.k.a. OAT Extract!

    Typically thought of as a slow digesting, high fiber carb source for breakfast, oats provide a host of benefits aside from filling our bellies. They are rich sources of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing properties.^[61]

    Avena Sativa can also help improve cognitive performance, improve glucose sensitivity, and fight the effects of aging.^[62,63,64] So, if you’re not getting your daily helping of oats, Amino PM will make sure you’re covered!

  • Licorice Root Extract (22% Glycyrrhizin Glabra) (100mg)

    Licorice root is often used by many herbalists and natural remedy practitioners for combating stress and supporting adrenal health. The adrenal glands are responsible for releasing the cascade of hormones that help us deal with stressful situations. While this is good in limited spurts, the circumstances of today constantly wreak havoc on our minds and bodies by throwing us into unending bouts of stressful situations.

    As it turns out, those practitioners of Ancient Chinese medicine were on to something. Licorice root does in fact combat the effects of stress and helps the body and mind to unwind.^[65]

• PowerDown Elements

  The hilarious part of this entire formula is that we’ve discussed several ingredients that can improve various parameters of sleep… but we haven’t even gotten to the MAIN two agents that will help you fall asleep! That’s how comprehensive PowerDown Amino PM is.

  With that said, here are two of the most powerful ways to help you get asleep and stay on rhythm:

  • L-Tryptophan

    Everyone knows about tryptophan because you can’t get through a single Thanksgiving without hearing a ton of jokes on TV regarding this “turkey-based” amino acid’s ability to help you fall asleep.

    It works because it converts to serotonin, and that can then be metabolised into melatonin.^[66]

    When depleting a brain of tryptophan, serotonin goes down, and with that, so does mood.^[67]

    It must be stated that typtophan’s effects seem to have been overstated by the media, as it’s been shown that carbohydrates before bed, in conjunction with tryptophan, are what really cause a “feast-induced crash”.^[68,69,70]

    After all, eating turkey or chicken breast alone doesn’t typically put anyone to sleep. But before bed, a blast of tryptophan can both induce serotonin, assisting with mood, and then get a “time-released” spike of melatonin, which is the sleep hormone we discuss next.

  • Melatonin

    Any kind of sleep formula has to have melatonin! It’s actually a natural hormone that you produce during various times of the day (such as in darkness). But it’s further supplementation helps to normalize sleep patterns.

    There’s really not much of a question of whether it works — several double-blinded studies have proven it successful at helping people fall asleep.^[2,71,72] The bigger question is what dose you want.

    Not only does it help you fall asleep, though, it improves the quality of sleep too.

    Regarding the dose, studies have shown it to be be successful at 0.5mg^[73] all the way up to 10mg.^[74]

    The important thing to note here is that melatonin’s effects are not dose-dependent — more is not always better! So everyone has a bit of a sweet spot.

    However, in general, 2-3mg seems to be the best area^[1,2], and that’s perfectly within the ~1.5 scoop range for Amino PM.

    Despite it being a hormone, melatonin has been shown to be safe for long-term use (of one year), and there is no tolerance build-up for melatonin^[75]. This means that once you find your sweet spot, you won’t need to continually add more, like you do with some other supplements.

General conclusions on the formula

As you can see with our 75 citations, this product is not only revolutionary, it has a rock star cast as well. Muscle Elements did it first, but they also did it right, as they’re so apt to do.

Even if you think you sleep well, Amino PM is a must try supplement. Why? Because we thought we slept well too, until we beta tested a few samples and had no clue what hit us until we woke up totally fresh in the morning.

Different is good.. very good

Amino PM truly is different than any other product in the entire nutrition / nutraceutical industry.

Nobody is mixing the amino acid and sleep category, and that’s why we’re so excited — 99.9% of products are the same thing over and over (another underdosed pre workout, anyone??), and since we’re always looking for the Next Big Thing(TM), we get excited when something new comes along.

This will just be that product.

Muscle Elements is doing a fantastic job innovating with new supplements since they launched last year.

While other companies are trying to unload more aminos by simply adding caffeine to them (as if we need more stims lately)… Muscle Elements turned a complete 180 and perfectly put them to the opposite use: before bed, when they’re needed most!

It’s one of those times when you think “why hasn’t anyone done this before?”

Many of you love your sleep aids / sleeping pills… but mixing them with a time-released amino acid formula? Brilliance in its sheer simplicity!

Stay up to date with Amino PM and other Muscle Elements products

Sign up below if you want to get notified when there’s deals! You can also request price drop alerts on all Me Supplements:

Mike’s pre-review

Sure to please your inner Ironman, Muscle Elements’ Amino PM will be unlike anything you’ve ever tried before.

Muscle Elements loves combining categories

Muscle Elements takes a whole new approach to building effective supplements. Whereas most companies focus on combining ingredients to create a product, ME takes it one step farther by combining categories.

True to their name, they mix the best elements of one kind of product with the best element of another, creating a new kind of supplement that’s not only better than the previous two – it’s totally different as well.

Haven’t heard of AmiNO Flow? Then meet your next gym-time BCAA Supplement

AmiNO Flow was the first Muscle Elements supplement to completely break the mold, and is now our favorite BCAA supplement for flat out LIFTING. Will AminoPM be able to match it at night?

They did it first with AmiNO Flow, a BCAA supplement that is considered an “Amino-Oxide”, combining amino acid supplements with nitric oxide supplements.

As simple as it may sound, it’s never been done well until now, and holy hell AmiNO Flow it give you some insanely sustained pumps during your workout. It has so many nitric oxide boosters that it may as well be a stimulant-free pre workout supplement — and you can in fact use it for that.

Even if you have a cheap pre workout with weak NO boosters, you’ll find yourself getting stronger and stronger throughout your lifts when sipping AmiNO Flow throughout.

Next in line: Amino PM

Now they seem to be doing the same with AminoPM — combining something we want at night — amino acids — with something we also want at night – deep sleep!

We’ll explain more as the information comes available to us, but keep your eye on Muscle Elements over the next year or two – they’re giving us a completely new way of looking at supplementation.

Meanwhile, because of AmiNO Flow’s insane effectiveness in the gym, we’re happy to say that it’s going to be listed as the #1 amino acid product for weightlifters on our upcoming Best BCAA Supplement buyer’s guide.

We believe Amino PM is a category-crusher too.

Who is Muscle Elements?

Muscle Elements: Build a Better You with Me

You can read more about this popular “new” brand on our Muscle Elements page, which has a title that steals their tagline, “Building a Better YOU with Me”.

We put the word “new” in quotes because the business is new, but the leaders are not – they’ve been working in the supplement space for well over a decade!

TRUST in TRUTH: Open Formula, 3rd-party validated protein

Our trust in them is about as high as it can get. In a time when protein spiking was done by too many companies to count, Muscle Elements allowed Stack3d to buy any random bag of their open-formula TRUTH Protein Powder, and it came in overfilled, passing the test with 25g of non-adulterated protein – no spiking here!

So when a trustworthy company steps up even higher and comes out with a groundbreaking new product, you can bet your ass we’re interested.

The Amino PM Release Date

Right now, Muscle Elements is guessing that this will be released around August or September of 2015. These dates are tough to keep, so no promises there.

Note that Amino PM is the final product name, and we’ll be the first to let you know when it comes out!

It will remain lurking in the shadows, so until then, sign up for alerts above or below and follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter!