SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

You will probably have read about the results of this recent study from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences  elsewhere already - hopefully in an article that applied the same rigorous scrutiny as this one. "Wait: EAAs are better than whey?" If that's your overgeneralized and essentially wrong (there was no comparison of EAA vs. Whey, but one of EAA+whey vs. whey 😎) take-home message from the abstract of a recent study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition  you may have recently read about on Facebook, you better read the rest of today's SuppVersity article on Park's paper, of which I would like to point out that the authors come to a very different, accurate, and more nuanced conclusion, that reads as follows: "that a composition of a balanced EAA formulation combined with whey protein is highly anabolic as compared to a whey protein-based recovery product, and that the response is dose-dependent" ( Park 2020 ...

Is the literally "raw" raw material that's used to manufacture "native whey" worth the extra bucks the final products cost? Native whey fails the real world test. In February this year, I already predicted that the "benefits" of "native whey" will probably turn out to be practically irrelevant. In the corresponding article "Native Whey, a Superior Muscle Builder? Recently Observed Impressive Absorption Rates Tell You Nothing About 'Gains'" ( re-read it ). Back in the day, I made a point that the improved amino acid kinetics, i.e. the more rapid appearance of amino acids Hamarsland et al. observed in their first study this year (Hamarsland 2017) for native compared to 'regular' whey protein was unlikely to trigger significant differences in actual protein synthesis - let alone long-term gains. Now, a recent study by Hamarsland et al. (2017b) confirms just that - as early as in the title, by the way: "Nati...

While being misinterpreted as an "anti-whey" study by one of you, the latest whey as your main protein source study from Brazil only adds to the evidence that there's something special about whey. One thing I like about writing this blog is that I have a lot of contact to you, the readers. One of you recently sent me the link to a study from the  University of Ouro Preto  in which the authors report what he called a "disconcerting" weight gain when exercise and weight training were combined. A closer look at the study reveals, however, that this "disconcerting" weight gain (even though that is not totally obvious) is probably good news. But before we get to the implications and interpretations, let's first take a look at what the scientists did and what they observed. You'll see that this is of paramount importance wrt to not misinterpreting the weight gain in  Figure 1 . Note that the study at hand is not about High-protein diets - w...

MyoPS - muscle damage = gainz - It's as easy as that, but this simple equation gets complicated by decreases in both... You will remember from previous SuppVersity  articles that the assumption that an acute increase in myofibrillar protein synthesis (MyoPS) you measure after a workout would necessarily translate into "muscle gains" is oversymplistic. In fact, a correlation between muscle hypertrophy and acute MPS has been shown not  to exist ( learn more ). In the introduction to their latest paper, Felipe Damas et al. (2016) highlight our lack of understanding of the different mechanisms that eventually determine t he hypertrophy response to resistance training. If you want to build muscle you have to make sure to optimize your protein intake   Protein Timing DOES Matter! 5x More Than the FDA Allows! Protein requ. of athletes High EAA protein for fat loss Fast vs. slow protein Whey vs. Pea Protein To investigate how muscle hyp...

Rest is not a waste of time ;-) You may remember Schoenfeld et al's 2015 study with the telling title "Longer inter-set rest periods enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men" (Schoenfeld. 2015) and Henselmann's and Schoenfeld's previous review of "The Effect of Inter-Set Rest Intervals on Resistance Exercise-Induced Muscle Hypertrophy" stating that "the literature does not support the hypothesis that training for muscle hypertrophy requires shorter rest intervals than training for strength development or that predetermined rest intervals are preferable to auto-regulated rest periods in this regard" (Henselmann. 2004). Eventually, it can thus not be surprising that James McKendry and colleagues write in their latest paper that "short rest (1 min) between sets of moderate-intensity, high volume resistance exercise blunts the acute muscle anabolic response compared with a longer rest period (5 min), despite a su...