protein and muscle repair

[tempest818]

Hello wise gurus and shamans of bodybuilding. Out of curiosity....say you had a workout right? Do your muscles rebuild/strengthen solely on the nutrition given AFTER the workout (or the 24-48 time frame of muscle protein synthesis)? More specifically, do they repair themselves only with proteins?

I am trying to understand how some of my new-lifter friends can get so strong and big considering they dont care for diet and dont make sure they get adequate protein after lifting or even in the hours of MPS. I understand if they were eating in excess in the first place...but how are noob gains even possible on a deficit?

Sorry for the annoying questions, i just really like to break everything down to the science!

[novastepp]

Hello wise gurus and shamans of bodybuilding. Out of curiosity....say you had a workout right? Do your muscles rebuild/strengthen solely on the nutrition given AFTER the workout (or the 24-48 time frame of muscle protein synthesis)? More specifically, do they repair themselves only with proteins? I am trying to understand how some of my new-lifter friends can get so strong and big considering they dont care for diet and dont make sure they get adequate protein after lifting or even in the hours of MPS. I understand if they were eating in excess in the first place...but how are noob gains even possible on a deficit? Sorry for the annoying questions, i just really like to break everything down to the science!

If they are new, their CNS is adapting and those gains tend to be the most noticeable. The tough gains are after neurological adaptations when you really have to be an animal and push past plateaus and make gains.

Proteins, amino acids to be specific, do the repairing of muscle, so make sure you are taking in adequate amounts of BCAAs. They repair as long as needed, with an increased uptake after training and in the 24 hour window following training. But again, they are always repairing and creating new and improved neuromuscular connections if training was adequate.

[hellomycognomen]

The mythical "anabolic window of opportunity" has already been debunked. There is no need to hurry up and chug down an protein shake post workout as long as you have had an adequate protein rich meal within a 4 hour span. If its been 4 hours since then, then a fast digesting whey would be optimal. Muscle synthesis and breakdown is constantly taking place and involves numerous complex cascade events. The "adequate" amount of protein intake varies by person anywhere from 0.5 to 3g/lb, with 1-1.5 being a good average. Consuming more protein will not increase MPS. So while you may think that they are eating like crap, and under in protein macros, they may in fact be within the range their body is requiring. As for their increase in strength, this is fairly common in new lifters. Once your body adapts it becomes harder to build new muscle and increase in strength. If strength is your primary goal your training protocol will be more selective. A powerlifting workout is very different from a bodybuilding one. Some people are also genetically gifted and need hardly any stimulation to put on size, while others are "hard gainer" types with varying distributions inbetween. You should analyze what your primary goal is (strength, hypertrophy, etc) and focus on yourself. Leave your ego at the door once you enter the gym and forget what others do or look like. Lift with good form, work the muscle not the weight, and you will see improvement over time.
-Cheers

[tempest818]

Interesting answers. I know the anabolic window is a myth, i just didnt realize that proteins were constantly being used in the process to rebuild. I just figured that there is a period "after working out" where your body is more selective in how it uses nutrients and works harder to repair a muscle compared to when youre fully rested and refreshed, and how this translates into people who are new lifters and might explode in their progress for a brief time. I dont care for strength...its a nice indicator of progress but i love the feeling of working a muscle to its fullest and the rush of blood and pump and adrenaline that comes with it. I just like to ask these questions because once you KNOW how a certain thing works in your body with respect to nutrition training or rest, down to the fvcking science of it, you become more aware of these factors day to day and consciously or subconsciously make adjustments to make it work towards your goal. People preach "eat lift and sleep"...but eat how and when? Lift how? Why do it this way? Etc. Sorry ive had well over 800mg of caffeine today and i am wired.

[hellomycognomen]

Yes knowing the why and how of exercise physiology is very important, unfortunately no one will be able to completely answer your question as the human body is a highly complex organization of systems, each of which interplays with the other and leads to various cascade events and feedback loops in an effort to maintain homeostasis, adapt, and prepare for future stress. Building muscle is more than just amino acids assembling into proteins, everything needs to be working together from the immune system, to hormones, to individual organnelles inside the cell, etc.

After a workout the body is under stress and "damaged" so it must not only activate repair mechanism to fix the damage, but it will also adapt to mitigate future stress. This is why nutrients are particularly important as they will provide the pool which will be used in the repair. Additionally some nutrients are difficult to attain in optimal amounts via food, this is where supplementation becomes important, creatine is one of these. Its incredible how much strength gains a new lifter will increase when they start taking creatine.

You could always go to a book selling site and get some used cheap book on physiology and read those to get a more in depth understanding. Muscle biomechanics is also very useful to know and will probably save your joints in the future knowing which exercises are high risk/low reward and minimizing them or completely eliminating them from your routine (IMO upright rows, shoulder press, etc). Lastly I would recommend reading scientific peer reviewed studies, free using scholar search on google.

-Cheers