Resistance Training and Hydrolyzed Collagen Supplementation in Healthy Young Adults

The Effects of Resistance Training With Hydrolyzed Collagen Supplementation on Muscle and Tendon Adaptation in Healthy Young Adults

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the effects of resistance training with hydrolyzed collagen ingestion on changes in muscle and tendon adaptation in healthy young men and women.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does resistance training with hydrolyzed collagen ingestion lead to greater changes in tendon properties than resistance training alone?
• Does resistance training with hydrolyzed collagen ingestion lead to greater changes in muscle size than resistance training alone?

Participants will be randomly assigned to collagen or placebo groups. Participants will perform resistance training three times per week for 10 weeks and hydrolyzed collagen or maltodextrin will be given to collagen or placebo group respectively immediately before each resistance training session. Also, vitamin C will be given to both groups.

Researchers will compare collagen and placebo groups to see if hydrolyzed collagen ingestion with resistance exercise would have beneficial effects on changes in muscle and tendon more than resistance training alone. Therefore, using isokinetic dynamometer and ultrasonography, maximal leg strength, morphological, mechanical, and material properties of the patellar tendon and vastus lateralis muscle size and architecture will be assessed.

Young, healthy, active men and women will ingest 30 grams of hydrolyzed collagen or a calorie matched beverage (maltodextrin) alongside vitamin C prior to performing high-intensity resistance training 2 - 3 times per week for 10 weeks.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of combining hydrolyzed collagen supplementation with resistance training in young men and women. If supplementation with hydrolyzed collagen leads to a greater change in tendon size, stiffness, and Young's modulus than resistance training alone, this will allow us to recommend this type of intervention to young athletes seeking to improve tendon health and/or athletic performance.

The experimental design and measurements will be the same in the Arm 1 and Arm 2 but the differences will be sex where participants in Arm 1 will be healthy young men while participants in Arm 2 will be healthy young women.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy young male or female
• No history of patellar tendon injuries in the past 6 months
• No history of lower limb musculoskeletal injuries in the past 6 months
• Non-smokers (including e-cigarettes)
• Free from cardiovascular and metabolic diseases
• Nullipara (a woman who has never given birth)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age less than 18 years or higher than 40 years
• Being vegan or vegetarian (due to the mammalian source of collagen)
• Consumption of nutritional supplementation that purportedly affects muscle-tendon adaptation or recovery (i.e. protein powder, vitamin C, collagen)
• BMI over 30 kg/m2
• Previous anterior cruciate ligament injury where the patellar tendon was used as a graft