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Muscle Protein Synthesis Made Simple - A Better Understanding
Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) is a term you hear a lot when discussing bodybuilding and fitness supplements, but it’s a term that doesn’t mean what a lot of people think it does, and there is a lot of confusion and misconceptions surrounding it.
The purpose of this article is to explain in simple terms what it is, what it does, and misconceptions around it – Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) made simple.
As with many of the upcoming articles, keep in mind that the purpose isn’t to be super scientific and use terms that the average person doesn’t understand; the purpose is the opposite, to explain things in a way that the average person can understand it.
Muscle Protein Synthesis Made Simple - Sections:
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What is muscle protein turnover?
Muscle protein turnover (MPT) is the ongoing process of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and muscle protein breakdown (MPB). It is a metabolic process that regulates muscle mass and function. This process is essential for muscle growth, repair, and maintenance.
Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and muscle protein breakdown (MPB) are opposing processes that determine muscle mass. The balance between MPS and MPB determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain muscle mass:
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What is muscle protein synthesis?
Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the process by which your body uses amino acids to build new muscle protein, essentially meaning it’s how your muscles grow and repair themselves after exercise by creating new muscle tissue from the protein you consume.
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How does it help build muscle?
Muscle protein synthesis is crucial for muscle growth, recovery, and overall muscle heath. It’s basically the body’s way of repairing and growing muscle tissue, making it a key factor in building muscle mass.
Physical activity, especially resistance training, triggers muscle protein synthesis by creating microscopic tears in muscle fibers that need to be repaired. Amino acids are the building blocks that are used to build new muscle proteins.
Muscle protein synthesis comes into play by repairing and rebuilding the muscle fibers that you broke down during exercise. This rebuilding process is what leads to muscle growth (hypertrophy). In order to make this process as efficient as possible, you need to ensure you’re consuming adequate protein (the building blocks of muscles), and it’s essential to stimulate MPS.
To gain muscle mass, you need to have a positive muscle protein balance, meaning more muscle protein is being synthesized than broken down.
How do you create a positive muscle protein balance?
By increasing muscle protein synthesis.
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What does increasing muscle protein synthesis mean?
Increasing muscle protein synthesis means to speed up the process of building new muscle protein within the muscle fibers, essentially leading to muscle growth by creating a positive balance where muscle building exceeds muscle breakdown.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How is increasing MPS different than regular protein intake?
A lot of people confuse muscle protein synthesis with protein intake.
Exercise and protein intake trigger protein synthesis and are important factors in how much muscle we build &/or retain. However, this becomes complex because protein will only activate muscle protein synthesis a certain amount at one time and only for a certain period of time.
Increasing muscle protein synthesis is an important factor in helping us build muscle &/or retain muscle.
Remember - muscle protein synthesis is a process!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misconceptions about protein intake vs. muscle protein synthesis:
This is where one of the common misconceptions come in – a lot of people think that consuming protein is enough and that they don’t need to try to increase muscle protein synthesis, when really it’s increasing muscle protein synthesis that will help you get the most out of your protein intake.
The body has a limited capacity to increase MPS beyond a certain point with protein alone.
Exercise and protein intake are the most important aspects of increasing muscle protein synthesis, and that’s why they are the foundation of most bodybuilding & fitness regimens.
Protein (amino acids) are the building blocks of muscle, but the building process has to be activated in order to build or retain the maximum amount of muscle.
So, once we have the basics covered with exercise and proper protein intake, what’s next?
That’s where supplements come in – to help you maximize your muscle protein synthesis – remember, this is a process, not a protein.
Not all supplements that claim to increase muscle protein synthesis really do, so for the purposes of this article, when we refer to supplements that increase muscle protein synthesis, we are referring to ones that really work (more on that later).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muscle Protein Synthesis & People that Don’t Consume Enough Protein
Increasing muscle protein synthesis is crucial for building muscle when someone is not consistently consuming enough protein.
MPS is the process by which your body repairs and builds muscle after resistance training. Protein intake provides the necessary aminos acids to build muscle. Without adequate protein, your body doesn’t have the building blocks it needs to stimulate and sustain MPS at high levels.
If protein intake isn’t as high as it needs to be or is not consistent, your body may not have enough resources to maximize MPS, even if you’re training hard and taking in protein. That means that muscle recovery and growth can be limited, and you might not be getting the full benefits out of your workouts.
If you aren’t consuming enough protein, supplements that help increase MPS can help you get the optimal muscle building response from your current diet.
It’s not that they take the place of increasing your protein intake (remember, increasing MPS is a process, not a protein), it’s that they help you get the best results you can with your current protein intake.
And if this seems that we’re only talking about people that are slacking on their protein intake, that’s not it at all – many people miss meals no matter how hard they try because of their schedules.
Also, many people cut their protein intake too low when dieting because protein has 4 calories per gram, so in order to meet their calorie deficit, they may cut out some of their protein intake.
Helping to optimize MPS can help you build the most muscle possible with your current diet and protein intake and can help you retain the most muscle possible on your cut/diet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muscle Protein Synthesis & People That Do Consume High Protein Diets
There is a huge misconception among some people that just because you consume enough protein, it means that you don’t need to try to increase muscle protein synthesis.
A couple of important reminders:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leucine – the ‘Anabolic Trigger’ – What does this mean?
We’ve discussed how protein (amino acids) can trigger muscle protein synthesis, but only to a certain degree and that after a certain amount, there isn’t any increase in MPS activation.
Muscle protein is in a constant process of being continuously broken down and resynthesized. Muscle building takes place when the rate of muscle protein synthesis exceeds the rate of muscle protein breakdown. One specific amino acid - L-Leucine is the most powerful and has long been regarded as an anabolic trigger – turning on muscle protein synthesis.
This is why leucine is considered the amino acid gold standard as a baseline comparison for how well other ingredients activate muscle protein synthesis, and why when researching supplement ingredients, comparing their muscle protein synthesis activation to leucine is a common baseline for analysis.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leucine & Common Muscle Protein Synthesis Misconceptions
Leucine has been shown in clinical research to be a key regulator in the pathways of muscle protein synthesis, playing a crucial role in activating muscle anabolism, and without its presence, this activation doesn’t happen. Therefore, the faster leucine gets absorbed and delivered into the muscles, the faster it can activate muscle protein synthesis and turn on this key pathway of growth and recovery.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Leucine’s role in muscle protein synthesis and what this all means and about its limitations.
A lot of people, if they read a study where something is being compared to leucine for muscle protein synthesis activation, they mistakenly think that it means to take more leucine or that the ingredient being studied is being compared directly to leucine – that is NOT the case!
Leucine is the gold standard for amino acid muscle protein activation – the study is comparing the amount of activation on muscle protein synthesis – leucine is being used as the baseline comparative standard.
There is a big difference between total leucine intake and the amount of leucine that activates muscle protein synthesis (MPS), and the key difference lies in how your body processes it and the threshold needed to initiate or trigger MPS.
What is leucine’s role in muscle protein synthesis?
Leucine is a branched chain amino acid and essential amino acid that acts as a ‘trigger’ for muscle protein synthesis (MPS).
What does this mean?
When you consume leucine, it gets absorbed into your bloodstream, and it plays a key role in activating the mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) pathway, which is essential for MPS. This activation is what kicks off the muscle repair and muscle growth process.
Wouldn’t it be better to just take more leucine?
No. There is a threshold of leucine needed to activate this pathway effectively (2-3 grams). Once that threshold is reached, taking more leucine doesn’t produce a significantly greater effect on MPS.
This is where a lot of people get confused because they think – well, why not just take more leucine? Because taking more leucine isn’t going to activate any additional muscle protein synthesis – which is why we look for things that are more powerful than leucine for activating MPS.
In Summary:
Remember – Muscle Protein Synthesis is a PROCESS!
Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) is a term you hear a lot when discussing bodybuilding and fitness supplements, but it’s a term that doesn’t mean what a lot of people think it does, and there is a lot of confusion and misconceptions surrounding it.
The purpose of this article is to explain in simple terms what it is, what it does, and misconceptions around it – Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) made simple.
As with many of the upcoming articles, keep in mind that the purpose isn’t to be super scientific and use terms that the average person doesn’t understand; the purpose is the opposite, to explain things in a way that the average person can understand it.
Muscle Protein Synthesis Made Simple - Sections:
- What is muscle protein turnover?
- What is muscle protein synthesis?
- How does it help build muscle?
- What does it mean to increase muscle protein synthesis?
- How is it different than regular protein intake?
- Misconceptions about protein intake vs. muscle protein synthesis
- Muscle protein synthesis & people that don’t consume enough protein
- Muscle protein synthesis & people that do consume high protein diets
- Leucine – the ‘anabolic trigger’ – what does this mean?
- Leucine and common muscle protein synthesis misconceptions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is muscle protein turnover?
Muscle protein turnover (MPT) is the ongoing process of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and muscle protein breakdown (MPB). It is a metabolic process that regulates muscle mass and function. This process is essential for muscle growth, repair, and maintenance.
Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and muscle protein breakdown (MPB) are opposing processes that determine muscle mass. The balance between MPS and MPB determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain muscle mass:
- Positive Muscle Balance: When MPS is greater than MPB (more protein is being synthesized than broken down), muscle mass increases (you gain muscle).
- Negative Muscle Balance: When MPB is greater than MPS (more protein is broken down than synthesized, muscle mass decreases (you lose muscle).
- Maintenance: When MPS=MPB, your muscle mass stays the same.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is muscle protein synthesis?
Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the process by which your body uses amino acids to build new muscle protein, essentially meaning it’s how your muscles grow and repair themselves after exercise by creating new muscle tissue from the protein you consume.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How does it help build muscle?
Muscle protein synthesis is crucial for muscle growth, recovery, and overall muscle heath. It’s basically the body’s way of repairing and growing muscle tissue, making it a key factor in building muscle mass.
Physical activity, especially resistance training, triggers muscle protein synthesis by creating microscopic tears in muscle fibers that need to be repaired. Amino acids are the building blocks that are used to build new muscle proteins.
Muscle protein synthesis comes into play by repairing and rebuilding the muscle fibers that you broke down during exercise. This rebuilding process is what leads to muscle growth (hypertrophy). In order to make this process as efficient as possible, you need to ensure you’re consuming adequate protein (the building blocks of muscles), and it’s essential to stimulate MPS.
To gain muscle mass, you need to have a positive muscle protein balance, meaning more muscle protein is being synthesized than broken down.
How do you create a positive muscle protein balance?
By increasing muscle protein synthesis.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What does increasing muscle protein synthesis mean?
Increasing muscle protein synthesis means to speed up the process of building new muscle protein within the muscle fibers, essentially leading to muscle growth by creating a positive balance where muscle building exceeds muscle breakdown.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How is increasing MPS different than regular protein intake?
A lot of people confuse muscle protein synthesis with protein intake.
- Protein intake – is about consuming the right amount of protein in your diet. This ensures that you have amino acids available for various bodily functions, including muscle repair and growth.
- Muscle protein synthesis – is the process that occurs after you consume protein that helps your muscles repair, recover, and grow. Simply consuming protein isn't enough on its own – MPS needs to be triggered to in order for it to be effective in building muscle.
Exercise and protein intake trigger protein synthesis and are important factors in how much muscle we build &/or retain. However, this becomes complex because protein will only activate muscle protein synthesis a certain amount at one time and only for a certain period of time.
Increasing muscle protein synthesis is an important factor in helping us build muscle &/or retain muscle.
Remember - muscle protein synthesis is a process!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Misconceptions about protein intake vs. muscle protein synthesis:
This is where one of the common misconceptions come in – a lot of people think that consuming protein is enough and that they don’t need to try to increase muscle protein synthesis, when really it’s increasing muscle protein synthesis that will help you get the most out of your protein intake.
The body has a limited capacity to increase MPS beyond a certain point with protein alone.
Exercise and protein intake are the most important aspects of increasing muscle protein synthesis, and that’s why they are the foundation of most bodybuilding & fitness regimens.
Protein (amino acids) are the building blocks of muscle, but the building process has to be activated in order to build or retain the maximum amount of muscle.
So, once we have the basics covered with exercise and proper protein intake, what’s next?
That’s where supplements come in – to help you maximize your muscle protein synthesis – remember, this is a process, not a protein.
Not all supplements that claim to increase muscle protein synthesis really do, so for the purposes of this article, when we refer to supplements that increase muscle protein synthesis, we are referring to ones that really work (more on that later).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muscle Protein Synthesis & People that Don’t Consume Enough Protein
Increasing muscle protein synthesis is crucial for building muscle when someone is not consistently consuming enough protein.
MPS is the process by which your body repairs and builds muscle after resistance training. Protein intake provides the necessary aminos acids to build muscle. Without adequate protein, your body doesn’t have the building blocks it needs to stimulate and sustain MPS at high levels.
If protein intake isn’t as high as it needs to be or is not consistent, your body may not have enough resources to maximize MPS, even if you’re training hard and taking in protein. That means that muscle recovery and growth can be limited, and you might not be getting the full benefits out of your workouts.
If you aren’t consuming enough protein, supplements that help increase MPS can help you get the optimal muscle building response from your current diet.
It’s not that they take the place of increasing your protein intake (remember, increasing MPS is a process, not a protein), it’s that they help you get the best results you can with your current protein intake.
And if this seems that we’re only talking about people that are slacking on their protein intake, that’s not it at all – many people miss meals no matter how hard they try because of their schedules.
Also, many people cut their protein intake too low when dieting because protein has 4 calories per gram, so in order to meet their calorie deficit, they may cut out some of their protein intake.
Helping to optimize MPS can help you build the most muscle possible with your current diet and protein intake and can help you retain the most muscle possible on your cut/diet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muscle Protein Synthesis & People That Do Consume High Protein Diets
There is a huge misconception among some people that just because you consume enough protein, it means that you don’t need to try to increase muscle protein synthesis.
A couple of important reminders:
- Muscle protein synthesis is a process, not a protein.
- Protein alone can only increase muscle protein synthesis to a certain degree, and after a certain point, more protein in one setting will not lead to any additional increase.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leucine – the ‘Anabolic Trigger’ – What does this mean?
We’ve discussed how protein (amino acids) can trigger muscle protein synthesis, but only to a certain degree and that after a certain amount, there isn’t any increase in MPS activation.
Muscle protein is in a constant process of being continuously broken down and resynthesized. Muscle building takes place when the rate of muscle protein synthesis exceeds the rate of muscle protein breakdown. One specific amino acid - L-Leucine is the most powerful and has long been regarded as an anabolic trigger – turning on muscle protein synthesis.
This is why leucine is considered the amino acid gold standard as a baseline comparison for how well other ingredients activate muscle protein synthesis, and why when researching supplement ingredients, comparing their muscle protein synthesis activation to leucine is a common baseline for analysis.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leucine & Common Muscle Protein Synthesis Misconceptions
Leucine has been shown in clinical research to be a key regulator in the pathways of muscle protein synthesis, playing a crucial role in activating muscle anabolism, and without its presence, this activation doesn’t happen. Therefore, the faster leucine gets absorbed and delivered into the muscles, the faster it can activate muscle protein synthesis and turn on this key pathway of growth and recovery.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Leucine’s role in muscle protein synthesis and what this all means and about its limitations.
A lot of people, if they read a study where something is being compared to leucine for muscle protein synthesis activation, they mistakenly think that it means to take more leucine or that the ingredient being studied is being compared directly to leucine – that is NOT the case!
Leucine is the gold standard for amino acid muscle protein activation – the study is comparing the amount of activation on muscle protein synthesis – leucine is being used as the baseline comparative standard.
There is a big difference between total leucine intake and the amount of leucine that activates muscle protein synthesis (MPS), and the key difference lies in how your body processes it and the threshold needed to initiate or trigger MPS.
What is leucine’s role in muscle protein synthesis?
Leucine is a branched chain amino acid and essential amino acid that acts as a ‘trigger’ for muscle protein synthesis (MPS).
What does this mean?
When you consume leucine, it gets absorbed into your bloodstream, and it plays a key role in activating the mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) pathway, which is essential for MPS. This activation is what kicks off the muscle repair and muscle growth process.
Wouldn’t it be better to just take more leucine?
No. There is a threshold of leucine needed to activate this pathway effectively (2-3 grams). Once that threshold is reached, taking more leucine doesn’t produce a significantly greater effect on MPS.
This is where a lot of people get confused because they think – well, why not just take more leucine? Because taking more leucine isn’t going to activate any additional muscle protein synthesis – which is why we look for things that are more powerful than leucine for activating MPS.
In Summary:
- Leucine activates muscle protein synthesis (MPS) by triggering the mTOR pathway, but there is a threshold (around 2-3 grams at once) after which additional leucine does not provide more benefit for increasing MPS.
- Total leucine intake over the day matters, but more leucine in one meal does not mean better muscle growth. In simple terms, you can’t rely on eating a lot of protein or taking a scoop of leucine per day to increase MPS.
- So, the difference between activating MPS and just taking more leucine is that after a certain point, your body isn’t going to trigger more muscle growth from leucine alone.
- Leucine Activation of mTOR: As mentioned, leucine activates muscle protein synthesis by stimulating the mTOR pathway. However, there’s a threshold beyond which additional leucine doesn’t provide a significantly greater boost to mTOR activation or MPS. The body has a limit to how much Leucine it can use in one go for this purpose.
- Other Factors at Play: If a different compound or nutrient is more effective at stimulating MPS, it may work through a different mechanism or pathway that complements or augments what leucine does. For example, certain peptides, hormones, or other amino acids might activate the mTOR pathway more robustly or could promote MPS through different signaling mechanisms that leucine alone doesn’t trigger as effectively.
- Leucine Saturation: Once leucine reaches a certain threshold and mTOR is maximally activated, additional leucine doesn’t have a greater effect. But another compound that stimulates MPS more effectively might continue to boost the rate of muscle growth or enhance recovery, even if you’re already getting the maximal effect from leucine.
- Synergy with Other Nutrients: Many other compounds or amino acids might work in synergy with leucine, improving MPS through complementary mechanisms. For example, there are some ingredients/nutrients that can also enhance MPS in ways that leucine alone can’t replicate.
Remember – Muscle Protein Synthesis is a PROCESS!