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Does stretching make you weaker? New meta-analysis 
A new meta-analysis of 14 studies found that the addition of stretching to weight training programs reduced strength development.
Technically, the effect was not statistically significant in the main analysis but became significant when including all literature regardless of quality. The negative effect of stretching also became significantly greater with time.
What are the biggest and smallest muscles in the body?
Most people’s idea of which muscles are small and which are large is based on their outward appearance. This is like trying to determine how many square feet an apartment has by only looking at it from the street.
My research team has compiled the data from all studies we could find that measured or estimated muscle volume in various muscles of the human body. These data are in untrained individuals to exclude confounding the measures by training experience.
Many people are under the impression that keto diets are better for fat loss but worse for muscle growth than higher-carb diets.
Last week I posted a review on the ketogenic diet for concurrent athletes that concluded keto diets are actually equally effective for both fat loss and muscle growth.
Now a new meta-analysis specifically on strength trainees, both male and female, concluded that keto diets are indeed equally effective to gain muscle.
How much brotein do I need? A 🧵
Per meal protein doses to 'optimize' anabolism? Aka, "how much protein should I eat?" I think it's pretty clear that 20g does the job (1). The incremental rise in MPS from 20-40g was 14% (using egg protein in young men after an intense
Per meal protein doses to 'optimize' anabolism? Aka, "how much protein should I eat?" I think it's pretty clear that 20g does the job (1). The incremental rise in MPS from 20-40g was 14% (using egg protein in young men after an intense
leg workout). Witard et al. (2), once again, 20g gets the job done (whey protein and leg exercises only). In that study going from 20-40g gets you an extra 16% in MPS. MacNaughton et al. (3) say 40g > 20g for whole-body resistance exercise; the difference between MPS
from 20 to 40g was ~18% (see Figure below). Now we know acute measures of MPS (over h) don't align well with hypertrophy (4), yet some insist that 40g is 'better' than 20g. My bet, since only two doses were tested that 30g would have done just as good a job in stimulating MPS.
The researchers had 2 groups of women and 2 groups of men train to either a 20% velocity loss per set or a 40% velocity loss per set. In other words, one group trained closer to failure than the other by performing more reps per set.
Overall, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups, but the magnitudes of improvement differed between groups. Women showed greater effect size gains from training closer to failure than men for 1RM strength and power.
I agree with the overall conclusion of the researchers, although we need a lot more research on strength training women.
Raw eggs are often listed as a poor protein source due to their poor digestibility. We digest barely half of the protein in them.
Yet somehow they stimulate just as much muscle growth as boiled eggs, according to this new study.
Yet somehow they stimulate just as much muscle growth as boiled eggs, according to this new study.
Anabolic signaling (mTOR) and myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis (MPS) over the 5-hour post-workout recovery period were similar after eating 30 g of protein from either raw or boiled eggs.
This finding surprised me, as well as the authors. It's plausible that raw eggs are indeed an inferior protein source, but the study was underpowered to detect the difference or that MPS hit a ceiling effect.
