Research

Hormonal

Resistance exercise combined with protein ingestion sustains myofibrillar protein synthesis for up to 5 hours, whereas protein ingestion alone at rest produces only a transient (peaking at 3 hours) stimulation of both myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein synthesis.

To maximize muscle growth, combine resistance exercise with protein intake. Exercise extends the duration of muscle protein synthesis specifically for contractile (myofibrillar) proteins for up to 5 hours, whereas eating protein alone only stimulates synthesis transiently (peaking at 3 hours) for both contractile and cellular proteins. Focus on getting adequate protein (e.g., 25g) after your workout to leverage this sustained synthetic window.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
In contrast, resistance exercise rapidly stimulates and sustains the synthesis of only the myofibrillar protein fraction after protein ingestion.
Daniel R. Moore et al. · The Journal of Physiology · 2009

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with within-subject design, precise isotope tracing, and clear statistical significance (P < 0.01).

Source

Differential stimulation of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein synthesis with protein ingestion at rest and after resistance exercise

Daniel R. Moore et al. · The Journal of Physiology · 2009

DOI 10.1113/jphysiol.2008.164087

crossover · n=7Cited 323×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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