Hey Random Destiny,

I dont have time to look at that video, but its not uncommon to hear people say they think MPS does not correlate with muscle growth.

MPS is the addition of new amino acids to muscle protein. That doesn’t always perfectly translate to muscle growth, because some other factors are also involved that should be taken into consideration such as that the protein synthesis might be used to repair damaged muscle protein, and the breakdown of muscle protein.

That might sound like MPS is not a good measurement…

But the same concept is true for ANY measurement. Also the long-term measurement of muscle growth.

For example, if you measure “muscle mass” before and after a dehydration and glycogen depletion protocol, your measurement is incorrectly suggestion a loss of muscle mass. Because you violated the assumptions of the method.

For all methods, assumptions need to be met for the conclusion to be valid. However, methodology is very complex and not many people have a good grasp on it (and therefore imo jump to incorrect conclusions).

I think somewhere in your interview you said something like (I’m probably poorly paraphrasing) ‘MPS literally what muscle building is’. So I was surprised to hear Eric say it’s ‘largely theoretical’.

Is this just a difference of opinion or is he talking about a different aspect?

Thank you for your response. I have a few more questions.
1. Since we know it is important to intake enough calories for your body to have enough energy to maximize protein synthesis, I aim for about a 200-300 caloric surplus when bulking. Also you said that after 3 days of being in a caloric deficit it will start to lower protein synthesis and therefore hinder muscle growth. That being said, do you think I could go on a 200-300 caloric deficit 2 days a week during bulking to try to minimize fat gain without it effecting muscle growth? Or do you think that could potentially slow muscle gain so it would be more optimal to just stick to a slight caloric surplus everyday of the week when bulking?
2. I play on my high school basketball team, so during the season we have a 2 hour practice everyday. During this time I’m still trying to gain muscle. I’m not sure how all this extra cardio effects protein synthesis. Since I’m relatively new to lifting I’m going for 12 sets per week per body part. Do you think I should lower my weekly volume during the season, or am I able to keep it the same.
3. As I said above I play basketball, so one of my goals is to increase my vertical. For upper body I just lift like a bodybuilder, but for lower body I do one bodybuilder leg workout and one vertical jump workout per week. Should I count each set of a vertical jump exercise as a set for legs? Also if so, should it count as a set for quads, glutes, and hamstrings, or just quads and glutes? Also I know that you may not have a definite answer for this question as there may/may not be enough research to answer this question as of now, and this isn’t in your main realm of research as you are a protein synthesis researcher. But I’m still interested to see if you have an idea on this as you are very knowledgeable in protein synthesis so you might have an idea.
4. In addition to trying to increase my vertical, I am also trying to increase my speed. I know that weight training will increase my leg muscle mass and therefore make me faster, but I do think that doing additional sprint work on a track is also probably important for getting faster? If I do sprinting during the week, should I lower my leg volume per week, and does it matter what day of the week I do it-meaning should I do it on different days than when I weight train my legs?
Thank you so much for your time answering my questions, it really helps me a lot. Also a big fan of all your research so keep up to good work! The information you give has helped me a lot with my body composition goals, and I’m sure it’s helped many other people.
Sam

Hey Sam,

1. Not necessarily. How important/unimportant protein distribution throughout a day is not really clear from the current research. It does appear protein distribution is some super important, but that does not mean it should be thrown out of the window completely. For most people, getting 3 meals during the day with at least 20 g and an extra meal just before sleep with a bit more protein, is pretty feasible to do. That would be a good starting point to get a decent amount of total protein intake and have a decent distribution.

2. It’s not that black white that you only start to burn protein after 20 g, but after 20 g you start to burn most of it. 40 g fast protein does result in a 10-20% higher MPS response. Might be worth it for some. With slow protein, you wouldn’t get a higer MPS response, but the response might be longer (has not been directly researched, but some of my research suggests this).

3. I would take whatever approch is most practical. I don’t think the overall strategy will matter much with terms of body composition, so doing whatever you liked the best is what I recommend.

Cheers,
Jorn

Sets to failure cause a lot of fatigue. When do you a set to failure, your performance on your next sets will suffer because of it. So it’s a trade of between getting as much as possible out of each set (the closer you get to failure, the more you get out of it), and making sure your total training is solid. Therefore, it’s often adviced to get close to failure (1-2 reps in reserve), but not actually hitting failure (unless it’s the last set of an exercise/training for example).

Note there isn’t much clear studies showing that such as reps in reserve approch is superior, it’s just often advised based on the real-life experience that performance goes down fast if you take everything to failure.

Hi Stefan,

Thank you for the kind words.

I would do a slightly higher %1rm (75-80), although that doesn’t matter too much. Take sets to failure (1-2 reps in reserve), aim for about 5-10 weekly sets per muscle group. That would be the basics that give you most bang for your buck.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know how long your MPS is elevated after a meal or training session. Even with state of the art facilities and years of research we don’t know the exact time lines.

I do have a question regarding the duration of muscle protein synthesis.

Let’s say I want to maximize my gains for the time invested,

meaning: I want to be in the sweet spot when it comes to time spend in the gym vs fatigue accumulated under the constraint of muscle protein synthesis being as long elevated as possible.

how would such a training program look like for a beginner?

go to the gym every time doing work @ 70% of rm with a moderate amount of sets?

bonus question: how would i measure without hiring a lab how long my muscle protein synthesis is elevated?

are there any good proxy markers?

thank you in advance,

Stefan

Current recommendations for protein intakes during weight loss in athletes are set at 1.6-2.4 g protein/kg/day. During severe caloric deficit, you would like to be in the upper range.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29182451