Posts Tagged ‘muscle growth’

Super Stack : Creatine And Protien Enhance More Muscle Mass

Researchers in Canada at the University of Regina took the research a step further. Previous research has shown that creatine increases muscle mass and whey/casein protein increases muscle mass, so what hap pens when you stack both?They took older men and gave them creatine (.1 g per kg of bodyweight), creatine plus a whey/casein protein shake, or a placebo.The subjects trained for 10 weeks three times a week. At the end of the study, the group who consumed the whey/casein protein and creatine increased muscle mass more than the creatine group alone.6
The whey/casein protein and creatine group also had greater increa; es in bench press compared to the other groups as well. As I men tioned, this study used older men, but here is the good news for older men; they found that a combination of creatine and whey/casein protein increased muscle mass more injpn older men than when given to younger men!They also used a real ly low dose of creatine (8 grams a day), which was only given on train ing days.This study is in agreement with a previous study in which creatine and protein consumed before and after exercise resulted in greater increases in muscle mass than creatine alone.” Another interesting aspect of the study is that the researchers alluded to the aspect of nutrient timing of creatine.The authors suggested that taking creatine before or after exercise seems to have anabolic effects compared to other times, much like protein ingestion. Based on these findings, it appears that the timing of creatine is just as important as whey protein before and after resistance training.

Whey Protein Before And After Exercise Alters Gene Expression

The researcher found the levels of a protein called cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdk2) mRNA increased significantly after the resistance bout only in the whey protein group. What’s so special about this protein called cdk2?This protein is a marker of satellite cell activation! Remember, satellite cells are baby muscle stem cells that are sitting around waiting to get activated so they can merge with muscle to increase muscle mass. Interestingly, the increase in cdk2 remained elevated after 21 weeks of resistance training, but again only in the whey protein group. Therefore, it seems evident that protein ingestion close to the resistance exercise bout increases cdk2 mRNA expression and is going to enhance satellite cell activity. In a separate research study, when scientists altered gene of mice to have reduced muscle gene expression of cdk2 levels, they were scrawny compared to the normal group.3 Other studies have shown that cdk2 inhibitors increase myostatin levels and inhibit satellite cells from being activated.4 So taking whey protein before and after exercise can really augment your strength and muscle mass gains, primarily mediated through enhanced satellite cell activations and it seems that as little as 15 grams of whey is all that is needed! This is the first study that has reported that whey protein shakes before and immediately after exercise enhanced muscle satellite cells. An interesting finding was both groups ate the same amount of protein during the study; the only difference was the timing of the protein!