Micronutrients & recovery
Post-exercise ingestion of protein-leucine (specifically 70g protein/15g leucine) modulates the skeletal muscle transcriptome by accelerating a biphasic regenerative response: an early pro-inflammatory phase (30 min) that clears debris and initiates repair, followed by a later anti-inflammatory/promyogenic phase (240 min) that promotes muscle differentiation and reduces inflammation.
After intense endurance exercise, consuming a high-dose protein-leucine supplement (approx. 70g protein with 15g leucine) split over the first 90 minutes of recovery helps your body manage inflammation and initiate muscle repair genes more effectively than lower doses or no protein. This supports a faster transition from the inflammatory phase to the regenerative phase.
The analysis suggests protein-leucine ingestion modulates inflammatory-myogenic regenerative processes during skeletal muscle recovery from endurance exercise.
Why this rating
Randomized controlled trial with transcriptomic analysis, but small sample size (n=12) and short duration.
Source
Protein-leucine ingestion activates a regenerative inflammo-myogenic transcriptome in skeletal muscle following intense endurance exercise
David S. Rowlands et al. · Physiological Genomics · 2015
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