Research
Macro partitioning
Timing of protein ingestion does not significantly affect upper body (chest press) strength gains.
For upper body exercises like chest press, it does not matter if you drink your protein before or after your workout. Your strength gains will be the same. Focus on getting enough total protein throughout the day.
LimitedRefutesLOW confidence
For the chest press exercise, there was no effect of protein timing on repeated maximum (RM) (SMD: 0.07; 95% CI: −0.248 to 0.395; I2 = 0%, p = 0.653).
Why this rating
The evidence is rated 'low' by the authors due to risk of bias and imprecision.
Source
Does Protein Ingestion Timing Affect Exercise-Induced Adaptations? A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis
Rafael A. Casuso et al. · Nutrients · 2025
DOI 10.3390/nu17132070
Meta-analysis · 5 studiesCited 2×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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