April 2025

Collagen Supplementation: Save Your Money

Dietary protein has been the rage for most of the 21st century in the diet/weight loss world. The agglomeration of studies addressing protein consumption for athletes has taken the conversation deeper into the weeds searching for which proteins are best for what purposes. See these past reviews on protein intake and supplementation here, here, here, here, and here. Especially for athletes, but true for those who’ve had any tendon injuries or surgeries, the issue of building or restoring muscle tissue (myofibrillar) vs connective, tissue is one that’s grabbing the research world.

Proteins are made up of many amino acids (AA). The composition of a dietary protein may serve different purposes once the AA’s are released into the bloodstream. Our muscles use them to build muscle and our bones use some of them to build bones. Can a specific protein supplement made up of collagen peptides, taken twice daily, during a 7 period of intensive resistance training (RT), enhance connective tissue synthesis rates?  

Two groups of young male athletes did a week of intensive squats, bench presses, deadlifts, and bent-over rows, plus jumping exercises, all known to tear muscles down. One group consumed a twice-daily dose of 15 g of collagen, the other took 15 g of a noncaloric placebo. Muscles were biopsied to see where the collagen went.

They found that “hydrolyzed collagen peptide supplementation did not further increase connective tissue protein synthesis. Myofibrillar protein synthesis was also not further increased” by the peptides.

Despite robust increases in specific AA’s, there was no benefit to muscles from collagen supplementation since the latter has “low essential amino acid and leucine contents.” Save your money and eat or drink high-quality protein foods or supplements.                                            

MSSE Dec. 2024

But Protein + Collagen = A Good Investment

By the very same group that gave you the research notes above comes this additional information: while collagen supplements alone do NOT enhance connective tissue (CT) synthesis when combined with a whey-based protein supplement, they DO increase connective protein synthesis at REST.

Over the past 15 years, a consensus has formed in the protein synthesis world that a bolus of easily absorbed, high-quality protein consumed shortly after resistance training (RT) – what’s been called the anabolic window, which some research says is 30-60 minutes but other research shows otherwise – expedites and enhances myofibrillar (muscle) protein restoration. Two amino acids – proline and glycine – are in short supply in the overall protein profile and yet are more closely identified as critical components of CT. CT is everywhere – surrounding individual muscle cells, making up your fascia, tendons, ligaments, and bones. After an RT session, the anabolic process increases strength of the muscles and CT that were trained.

The question here is whether “the ability of this [protein] blend to increase myofibrillar and muscle connective protein synthesis rates at rest and during early recovery from exercise” works.

Subjects performed a high-intensity RT regimen on one leg with the other being its own control. They consumed either a placebo or the study drink after exercise and blood and muscle samples were assessed. The post-exercise blend of whey plus collagen protein “increases both myofibrillar and muscle connective protein synthesis rates at rest and further increases myofibrillar but not muscle connective protein synthesis rates during recovery from exercise.”            

MSSE Mar. 2025

Tid Bits