I don't remember if this has been asked or was already mentioned will Pepti-plex have to be cycled
I know you didn't ask me this question, but the research does not show anything to indicate that cycling is necessary. On top of that, simply having a basic understanding of protein peptides indicates cycling is unnecessary. PeptiStrong is a peptide fragment isolated from a whole protein source. Namely, fava beans. This particular peptide, which makes up a tiny portion of the actual protein within fava beans, functions as a mTOR activator...and a potent one, at that. It also significantly reduces myostatin levels!
However, don't confuse PeptiStrong with protein powders. PeptiStrong is NOT a complete protein. It is simply a small part of a particular protein and does not serve as a building block, such as EAAs. Rather, it serves as an anabolic messenger. It sends a message to upregulate protein synthesis via mTOR signaling (via multiple pathways). So, you cannot substitute this stuff for protein powders or EAAs, but when added to protein powders/EAAs/whole food, it enables the body to take greater advantage of those building blocks for muscle growth.
Research shows that PeptiStrong has the ability to increases protein synthesis 400% more than milk protein isolate. That's pretty darn impressive. In terms of real world results, is has been shown to enhance recovery, increase strength, prevent muscle loss, and activate the body's primary muscle building machinery. We haven't yet seen any studies demonstrating significant increases in lean mass, but that that is ONLY because the clinical trials conducted so far haven't been designed to evaluate muscle gain. Instead, they have evaluated it's ability to prevent muscle loss in injured patients (non-training people), as well as it's ability to promote recovery after training. The latter was a short study, with the data being evaluated after just 3 days of training, so we shouldn't expect to see any meaningful growth within such a short period of time. Aside from that, I don't think the researcher's even bothered to check if any lean mass had been acquired. They had other priorities, I suppose.
I could be completely wrong about the following, but I anticipate PeptiStrong becoming one of the industry's top muscle builders, with Phosphatidic acid being the other one. Which one do I think will be a better muscle gainer? I'm not sure, but honestly, I am leaning towards PeptiStrong, especially when used at optimal dosages. The thing with PeptiStrong is that it has a wide, yet universally effective dosing range. Researchers have evaluated the effects of as little as 2.4 grams daily and as much as 20 grams daily. The 2.4 gram dose was used in the study that evaluated recovery, strength gain/retention, and genetic markers of muscle growth 72 hours post-training. The results were good, even with a small dose like this.
We haven't yet been able to see what large doses can accomplish...because even though 20 grams was studied, it was in a hospitalized setting with injured, non-training people. Clearly, such as study design will NOT yield the information we all want to know, which is
"what kind of gains can this stuff actually produce?" If it is like most muscle building ingredients out there, larger dosages will probably yield superior results, but to what point? Does it provide linear, dose-dependent increases in muscle mass? If so, at what dose do we begin to see diminishing returns? And if the dose-response curve is not linear, how out of sync is it? What is the cost-effective dosing range? We don't yet know any of this yet.
I am sure we'll receive all these answers eventually, but for now, my guess is that the dose-response curve is probably fairly linear when dealing with lower doses, and begins to gradually fall off as the dose rises. But who knows how wide its effective dosing range might be. Results might abruptly fall off after just 5 grams, or it might be 30 grams. Who knows, but I am excited to find out! Cost is going to be the main deterrent when it comes to exploring larger doses, so fully answering this question might end up taking years.
To my knowledge, only a few companies have included it in their products at this point. I believe Glaxon was one of them (basically as a solo ingredient), as well as one other company that added it to their protein powder product (which is a great idea). I can't remember for sure, but I think both companies used the 2.4 gram (per serving) dosage.
... I wonder if anyone has any experience combining these...
It will be a while, though.
