Research

Hormonal

Resistance exercise sensitizes skeletal muscle to amino acids for 24-48 hours, allowing a moderate protein dose (~20g) to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis (MPS) without requiring higher doses.

After your resistance training session, consume ~20 grams of high-quality protein (like whey, eggs, or meat). This amount is sufficient to maximally trigger muscle growth. You do not need to force-feed yourself 40-50g post-workout for better results; save those extra calories for your total daily intake.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Resistance exercise (RE) leads to the sensitization of the muscle protein translational machinery to the presence of AA for at least 24-48 h [4], resulting in an additive stimulation of MPS over that due to hyperaminoacidemia alone [5].
Sophie Joanisse et al. · Clinical Nutrition Open Science · 2021

Why this rating

Based on multiple stable isotope tracer studies cited in the review, indicating high-quality mechanistic evidence.

Source

Understanding the effects of nutrition and post-exercise nutrition on skeletal muscle protein turnover: Insights from stable isotope studies

Sophie Joanisse et al. · Clinical Nutrition Open Science · 2021

DOI 10.1016/j.nutos.2021.01.005

narrative_reviewCited 38×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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