Is there anything whey proteins can’t do? Whey has been shown to boost nitric oxide (NO) amounts and blood flow to muscles. This aids energy levels for the workout, and recovery and growth after the workout is over. Whey has also been shown in a new study to boost tendon strength. Subjects completed 12 weeks of maximal knee extensor training with one leg doing eccentric contractions and the other doing concentric contractions. Twenty-two subjects were assigned to either a high-leucine whey protein hydrolysate + carbohydrate group or a carbohydrate group. This allowed the researchers a comparison of four group effects: eccentric training+ whey, eccentric training + carb, concentric training + whey, and concentric + carb. Before and after training, a cross-sectional area of the quadriceps and patellar tendon was examined with an MRI machine. The training intervention comprised machine knee extensions and was performed three times per week with a progressive increase in volume and intensity throughout the 12 weeks. The researchers did not observe any difference in muscle mass between ECC + carb and CON + carb, however, the whey group displayed greater increases in cross-sectional areas in both the quadriceps and the patella tendons than the carb group. In conclusion, high-leucine whey protein hydrolysate augments muscle and tendon hypertrophy following 12 weeks of resistance training—irrespective of contraction mode. – FLEX
