A brand spanking new review just published days ago by Jang, J. et al says EAAs may “bypass” the cardio / lifting interference effect.

Is this a mouse trap or meathead magic?

Strap in, you beautiful iron-slinging mitochondria hoarder as we break this down.

A peer-reviewed review dropped in Nutrients this June, and buried inside the usual academic furniture was a sentence spicy enough to make the supplement aisle start levitating.

One sentence basically walked into the strength-and-cardio cage match wearing brass knuckles and a lab coat.

The Quote

“Can bypass.”

That is their phrase.

Not mine.

Also not some supplement bro with frosted tips yelling into a podcast mic next to a tub of neon mango pre-workout.

A peer-reviewed paper casually wandered into the room and said free essential amino acids might sidestep the old resistance training plus endurance training interference problem.

Yes, that interference problem.

The one lifters have been arguing about since cardio first crawled out of the swamp wearing tiny blue running shorts with full berries and twig on display.

Before you shotgun EAAs into your blender bottle and declare the 30-year war over, park the hype bus.

Because this is where the story gets weird, useful, and very rodent-shaped.

The Mechanism

Free-form EAAs are interesting because they do two jobs at once.

1) They can activate mTORC1, the cellular foreman that screams, “Start building, you magnificent bastards”

2) Those same EAAs also provide the raw material for muscle protein synthesis.

Contractile proteins? Yes — the stuff that helps you move more iron.

Mitochondrial proteins? Also yes — the endurance machinery that keeps your engine from wheezing like a leaf blower full of gravel.

That is the trick the authors are pointing at.

Not fairy dust.

Cellular logistics.

Resistance training wants amino acids for myofibrillar remodeling.

Endurance training wants amino acids for mitochondrial remodeling.

Free EAAs, in theory, may help feed both crews without one crew mugging the other in the parking lot.

Clean idea.

Very seductive.

...but also not remotely settled in humans.

The Receipts

The bold “can bypass” line leans heavily on Jang et al. 2024, their mouse study in Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.

In that study, free EAA feeding plus resistance training improved endurance capacity in mice, apparently through DRP1-dependent mitochondrial remodeling.

DRP1 is involved in mitochondrial fission and remodeling, which is nerd-speak for your mitochondria not being static little magical energy producing beans.

They are dynamic, twitchy, shape-shifting power plants that remodel based on the stress you throw at them.

Awesome.

Useful.

Mechanistically tasty.

However, still in mice.

Lab mice are not 44-year-old meatheads trying to squat on Monday, hit a 2K row on Tues, and survive a work meeting where someone says “circle back” 14 times.

Rodent data can point the flashlight.

Human trials have to walk the trail.

Right now, zero human trials show complete EAAs bypass the interference effect in lifters doing concurrent training.

However, that does not make the claim stupid.

It makes the claim early.

One more adult-in-the-room note: the senior authors have patents and consulting ties related to EAA compositions.

Conflict does not automatically equal fraud.

But it does mean your hype detector should not be asleep in a recliner with nacho cheese on its shirt.

Read the paper.

Respect the mechanism.

Calibrate the verb.

What This Means

At base level, not a ton changes.

Lift heavy.

Keep your easy cardio easy enough that your soul is not trying to leave your body and when you go hard on cardio, go hard.

Fuel like an adult.

Stop treating one mouse study like Moses came down from Mount mTOR holding EAA tablets.

However, we have other data in hoooomans that EAAs are showing to be more and more useful. A fulll podcast on that and more is coming up on Monday.

How I Use EAAs

I have added a high dose of EAAs in the AM as soon as I wake up, do my AM walk and then my morning cardio on the rower / bike.

I've been doing this now for 8 months it seems to be helping as I feel better in the AM (more on that next week with blistering data from ISSN that is not even published yet) and almost zero muscle soreness, afternoon lifting sessions have been great.

Not a miracle or drug like effects and more like sending a fast-response construction crew into a job site before the drywall guys start fighting the electricians.

Complete EAAs are already well-supported for stimulating muscle protein synthesis in humans, especially when they include enough leucine.

The bleeding-edge part is whether they can truly blunt or bypass interference between resistance and endurance training adaptations.

I currently recommend the Kion Amino as they contain all nine essential amino acids with plenty of leucine.

Plus they taste pretty good and much much better than most EAAs. I have used raw EAAs and they don't mix worth a crap and smell like cat piss.

Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate and got to chat with Angelo the formulator / head chief at Kion again this past week at ISSN. Check out my podcast HERE with him if you want the deep dive into all things EAAs.

👉 Grab Kion Aminos here: http://getkion.com/drmike​

Takeaway

The boring answer is still the powerful one.

Do the big rocks first:

Lift hard.

Violent consistency.

Keep your cardio intelligent as I teach in the Flexible Meathead Cardio Level 1 and 2 courses.

And toss EAAs in if you want to push the envelope.

Much love, gainZ, and mitochondrial mischief,
Dr. Mike

PS — Speaking of mitochondria mischief, if you missed my free PDF the other day check it out below on the mitochondria peptide SS-31.

​​​>> SS-31 PDF << ​​Full PDF

References

Jang, J., Kim, Y., Song, T., Park, S., Kim, H., Koh, J., Cho, Y., Park, S., Sadayappan, S., Kwak, H., et al. (2024). Free essential amino acid feeding improves endurance during resistance training via DRP1-dependent mitochondrial remodelling. Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, 15, 1651–1663.

Jang, J., Wolfe, R. R., & Kim, I.-Y. (2026). Balanced essential amino acids as synergistic therapeutic agents in resistance training: Mechanistic and clinical perspectives on muscle and metabolic health. Nutrients, 18(12), 1990

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Mike T Nelson CISSN, CSCS, MSME, PhD
Associate Professor, Carrick Institute
Owner, Extreme Human Performance, LLC
Editorial Board Member, STRONG Fitness Mag

Mike T Nelson is a PhD and not a physician or registered dietitian. The contents of this email should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any health problem - nor is it intended to replace the advice of a physician. Always consult your physician or qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health.

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