The Effect of a Protein Hydrolysate on Muscle Strength Recovery

The Effect of a Protein Hydrolysate on Muscle Strength Recovery in Athletes

Overtraining is a real problem for (semi-)professional athletes. Overtraining is often caused by the bodies' lack of ability to recover between training. In addition, during high intensity training reactive oxygen species are formed up to 20 fold compared to resting values. This causes increased muscle tissue damage after intense exercise, which slows down recovery. Improving recovery may increase an athlete's ability to reach higher training volumes resulting in establishing a higher performance plateau.

It is known that hydrolyzed proteins have a positive effect on muscle protein synthesis due to its faster absorption rate. Therefore, it is hypothesized that a known protein hydrolysate may have positive effects on strength recovery.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy individuals (based on their medical history provided during a general health questionnaire)
• Participants are amateur or (semi-) professional athletes in resistance or interval sports (engage in >6 hours of intense physical activity per week).
• Age 18 - 35
• Experience in resistance training

Exclusion Criteria:

• Use of creatine supplements and/or anabolic steroids.
• Allergy to test product/protein
• Allergy to specific protein hydrolysate
• BMI lower than 18 or higher than 30.
• Lack of technique in correctly performing a barbell squat (judged by sports physiologist).
• Recent muscle injury in legs or back less than one month before the start of the study.
• Cardiovascular complications
• Use of medication
• Administration of investigational drugs or participation in any scientific intervention study which may interfere with this study (to be decided by the principle investigator), in the 180 days prior to the study.
• Abuse of products; alcohol (> 20 alcoholic units per week) and drugs