Abstract
Protein ingestion following resistance-type exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis rates, and enhances the skeletal muscle adaptive response to prolonged resistance-type exercise training. As the adaptive response to a single bout of resistance exercise extends well beyond the first couple of hours of post-exercise recovery, recent studies have begun to investigate the impact of the timing and distribution of protein ingestion during more prolonged recovery periods. Recent work has shown that overnight muscle protein synthesis rates are restricted by the level of amino acid availability. Protein ingested prior to sleep is effectively digested and absorbed, and thereby stimulates muscle protein synthesis rates during overnight recovery. When applied during a prolonged period of resistance-type exercise training, protein supplementation prior to sleep can further augment gains in muscle mass and strength. Recent studies investigating the impact of pre-sleep protein ingestion suggest that at least 40 g of protein is required to display a robust increase in muscle protein synthesis rates throughout overnight sleep. Furthermore, prior exercise allows more of the pre-sleep protein-derived amino acids to be utilized for de novo muscle protein synthesis during sleep. In short, pre-sleep protein ingestion represents an effective dietary strategy to improve overnight muscle protein synthesis, thereby improving the skeletal muscle adaptive response to exercise training.
Highlights
A single session of exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis rates, and to a lesser extent, muscle protein breakdown rates [1,2]
As overnight sleep is typically the longest post-absorptive period during the day, we have recently introduced the concept of protein ingestion prior to sleep as a means to augment post-exercise overnight muscle protein synthesis
While we have identified the overnight sleeping period as a new window of opportunity to augment post-exercise training adaptations, it remains to be established how we can maximize the impact of pre-sleep protein feeding on overnight muscle protein synthesis rates
Summary
A single session of exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis rates, and to a lesser extent, muscle protein breakdown rates [1,2]. Ingestion of 20 g egg or whey protein has been shown sufficient to maximize muscle protein synthesis rates during recovery from lower-body resistance-type exercise in young males [4,5]. More recent evidence indicates that this dose-response relationship may depend on the amount of muscle tissue that was recruited during exercise, with the ingestion of 40 g protein further increasing muscle protein synthesis rates during recovery from whole-body resistance-type exercise [13]. During 12 h of post-exercise recovery, an intermediate pattern of protein ingestion (20 g every 3 h) seems to increase muscle protein synthesis rates to a greater extent than the same amount of protein provided in less frequent but larger amounts (40 g every 6 h), or in more frequent, smaller amounts (10 g every 6 h) [9]. The aim of this review is to discuss the current state of evidence regarding the efficacy of pre-sleep protein ingestion to stimulate overnight muscle reconditioning
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