Research

Mixed

Ingestion of 5g/day of fish protein (Alaska pollack protein) during 8 weeks of resistance training induces specific neural adaptations (changes in motor unit firing rates and patterns) without inducing measurable muscular hypertrophy in young adults.

If you are a young adult doing resistance training, consuming 5g of fish protein (Alaska pollack) daily alongside your training may improve your nervous system's efficiency (how your muscles fire) without necessarily making your muscles larger. This is different from older adults, where fish protein might help build muscle size. For young people, focus on the strength/efficiency gains rather than expecting this small dose of fish protein to cause visible muscle growth.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
These results suggest that dietary fish protein ingestion changes motor unit adaptations following resistance training in young adults.
Kohei Watanabe et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2021

Why this rating

Small sample size (n=18), short duration (8 weeks), and lack of direct muscle biopsy data for protein synthesis rates limit causal certainty.

Source

Fish Protein Ingestion Induces Neural, but Not Muscular Adaptations, Following Resistance Training in Young Adults

Kohei Watanabe et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2021

DOI 10.3389/fnut.2021.645747

rct · n=18Cited 9×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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