Protein synthesis is a process carried out by the body that is used to build muscle after a workout such as weight training.
Sounds simple, right? When you look at the basics of what happens during the process of protein synthesis, everything sounds so straight forward, but like any other biological process, protein synthesis is very complicated and must be studied in order to really understand how its works.
By understanding protein synthesis, we can learn how it effects muscle growth and what we can do to take advantage of it.
Today, we are going to be learning about protein synthesis and hopefully, with the information given, you’ll finally know how muscle grows and what we can do to assist in its development.
The Basics of Protein Synthesis
By working out or using resistance exercises, our body begins to create small microscopic tears in our muscles. These tears are created through the breaking down of muscle or in other words, muscle protein breakdown (MPB). When this occurs, muscle is broken down into their amino acids and, most commonly, discarded.
Directly after exercising, it’s very important that you consume a meal that is high in protein or take a dose of protein supplements because this is where the most muscle growth occurs. When you digest the protein directly after exercising, the contents are brought straight to the aid of the muscles in order to heal the damaged tissue. This process is called muscle protein synthesis (MPS).
It’s important that this protein is consumed within the first hour after exercising and should be a faster digesting type of protein as well. I suggest using whey protein as it digests faster than any other protein type and is generally low in cost.
After consuming enough protein, the muscles begin their healing process. Near the end of this process a small amount of protein is fused with the tissue after every workout which, eventually and over a long period of time, creates muscle growth.
It’s also very important to ensure that throughout the rest of the day after exercising, regular snacks and meals are eaten. I also suggest you take a small scoop of a casein protein supplement before going to bed. This is because protein synthesis will usually take 24-48 hours to fully complete after exercising. This time is completely dependant on the intensity of the workout along with the age and body type of the person.
Here’s a quick animated video showing how muscles grow. Pay attention, because a lot of the information is very useful.
Protein Synthesis: Exercising
Obviously, in order to activate protein synthesis, exercise is required. Without using muscles regularly, atrophy (a biological process that causes the loss of muscle) takes place. Whether we wish to reduce atrophy or promote hypertrophy (the biological process of muscle expansion), exercising is required.
To gain muscle through exercising, exercise intensity levels must exceed more than 40% effort. The amount of effort we put into an exercise dictates our MPB or in other words how many micro tears our muscles will obtain.
The MPB of muscles is directly related to the MPS of muscles which means the more tears we create, the more muscle we gain during protein synthesis.
This is why I try so hard to promote exercise intensity in all of my articles. The more intensity that you establish and the harder you try, the faster your muscles will develop and expand. Its not the length of your workouts or the weights you use to exercise, even though these factors can play a role in intensity, but it’s the effort you put into your workouts that promotes the real results.
To increase intensity in workouts I suggest exercising until failure or even using drop sets to obtain as much muscle growth as possible. Studies have shown that maximum muscle growth occurs when intensity levels reach 70-90 percent. This means you better be pumping your muscles as hard as you can when working out because the harder it is, the better the results.
If you want to explore more strategies to intensify your workouts, you can visit my other blog: Increase Your Workout Intensity and Endurance
Protein Synthesis: Diet
Before working out, have a light snack rich with carbs to provide you with energy throughout the workout. I suggest having a banana or any other juicy fruit that can give you a small boost before exercising.
To healthily synthesize muscle after an intense exercise, an abundant amount of food is required to properly heal and grow the muscle tissue.
To effectively grow muscle after an exercise the overall MPS must be greater than the overall MPB. This basically means that more protein must be fused to the tissue in comparison to the amount that has been broken down during the exercises.
Without an adequate supply of protein after an exercise, protein synthesis cannot be carried out as effectively.
A study carried out by the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton Canada showed the effects that protein had on 6 young and healthy men. Each man was asked to come to the laboratory to carry out intense lower body exercises on 5 different occasions. After each bout, they each had a specific dose of protein.
This study proved that MPS levels increased drastically from the consumption of 10-20 grams of protein after exercising while any dose that exceeded 20g had little to no more effects on protein synthesis over the 4 hours each person was studied.
Most of the time, the protein contained within each scoop of supplements is designed to promote maximum muscle growth. You will find that these doses contain 20-30 grams of protein. The perfect amount when considering the study above.
Like stated previously, protein synthesis commonly lasts within the body for a solid 24-48 hours after exercising but it is within the first 2 hours when most growth takes place. Within these two hours, it’s very important that you rest and consume highly nutritional food along with a healthy amount of protein.
Throughout the rest of the day, your muscles are still synthesizing so maybe pick up a few almonds to munch on while you do your other daily activities. Have a granola bar or some fruit as well to replenish your energy after your intense bout of work.
Conclusion
Muscle protein synthesis is a very important process involved in the development of muscle and only occurs after an intense bout of exercise.
Building muscle is hard, and there is no way to make it any easier, but there are strategies that you can use to accelerate the effects of protein synthesis in order to achieve accelerated muscle growth. To do so, I suggest you begin by increasing your workout intensity and begin consuming regular doses of protein after exercises. Anywhere between 20-30 grams is a good start.
Eat light nutritious snacks through the day that supply you with a healthy balance of protein and carbs and maybe, if you want to take it a step further, consume a small scoop of casein supplements before bed for a long lasting supply of energy and protein to synthesize your muscles.
We all have our goals when we decide to hit the gym, and most of us will do whatever it takes to reach them as fast as we can but accomplishing something is not always about speed. Muscle growth is a very slow process and requires a lot of discipline along with patience.
While there are a lot of different paths we can take to speed up muscle development, it’s important that we recognize there are no shortcuts to getting to where we want to go. Avoid creating an obsession of muscle and body image because doing so will lead to nothing but impatience and maybe even dissatisfaction.
Take it slow and results will come.
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Sources:
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/1/161/4598235
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3381813/#b12
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