Muscular health is the foundation of athletic performance and overall well-being. Building and maintaining muscle is key not only for peak performance but for long-term health, from body composition to endurance on the field. For athletes, muscular health goes beyond just staying fit – it's about optimizing physical output, enhancing recovery, and maintaining long-term strength and endurance. Strong muscles can enhance joint stability, boost metabolism, and improve bone density, while reducing body fat and cardiovascular risk factors. Maintaining muscle health also plays a role in supporting mental sharpness and psychological resilience.
Regular physical activity helps sculpt a toned physique, but intense training can lead to delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), a common condition characterized by muscle pain, stiffness, and reduced function, which can negatively impact recovery and athletic performance.
Two recent studies explored how PeptiStrong™, made with bioactive peptides derived from the fava bean (Vicia faba), can help athletes recover faster and reduce DOMS*. Using a predictive machine learning approach, researchers pinpointed specific bioactive peptides that support healthy inflammatory responses and promote protein synthesis. These peptides could offer an innovative tool for maintaining muscle health, particularly for high-performing athletes that have intense physical training demands.
Peptides For Muscle Strength Recovery*
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (n = 30), men aged 30 to 45 were supplemented with 2.4 g per day of either placebo or bioactive fava bean peptides (PeptiStrong™) for 14 days. After this period, DOMS was induced via intense resistance exercise. Muscle strength recovery, measured in terms of peak torque per body weight (PTBW), was evaluated at 48 and 72 hours post-exercise.
Athletes who took PeptiStrong™ maintained their muscle strength even 48 hours after intense training and saw a boost in strength by 72 hours, unlike those who didn’t take it. This means faster recovery and quicker returns to your top performance levels.
Muscle Preservation and Protein Synthesis
A second clinical trial (n = 30) compared the effects of PeptiStrong™ to milk protein concentrate (MPC) during periods of muscle immobilization and recovery. Men aged 19 to 29 were subjected to knee immobilization for seven days, followed by a 14-day recovery period. Participants were divided into two groups, each receiving either 10 g of fava bean peptides or an equal amount of MPC twice daily.
During the immobilization phase, both groups experienced similar muscle size loss and strength decline, measured through tomography scans and strength testing. Upon remobilization, however, both groups showed comparable improvements in muscle size and strength recovery.
For athletes exploring plant-based options, it has been seen that PeptiStrong™ fava bean-derived bioactive peptides provide results comparable to traditional animal proteins like whey, helping you maintain muscle mass and recover faster after immobilization or injury.
Decrease Muscle Fatigue and Increase Endurance
Muscle fatigue can slow down your recovery and keep you from training at full capacity. The fatigue index (FI), which measures the difference between the highest and lowest recorded muscle strength, was used to evaluate endurance in the study participants. At baseline, no differences were observed between the groups. However, those who supplemented with PeptiStrong™ demonstrated significantly lower muscle fatigue and improved endurance 72 hours after intense exercise compared to the placebo group.
This reduced fatigue may support better athletic performance during recovery, allowing athletes to train harder with less downtime.
Benefits of Peptides For Muscle Health and Regeneration*
Beyond just reducing fatigue and soreness, PeptiStrong™ has been shown to support muscle regeneration at the cellular level. PeptiStrong™ helps your muscles repair and grow by boosting key compounds like irisin and IL-15, which help rebuild muscle and prevent the body from breaking it down. It also promotes protein synthesis, speeding up recovery and muscle regeneration after intense training.
Moreover, participants in the fava bean peptide group experienced higher rates of myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS), the process by which muscles grow and repair after resistance training. This finding suggests that PeptiStrong™ could enhance muscle protein synthesis more effectively than traditional animal-derived proteins during recovery phases.
The Future of Muscular Health
For athletes, rapid muscle recovery is key to maintaining a rigorous training schedule and preventing injury. PeptiStrong™ offers a cutting-edge, plant-based solution that can help you recover faster, reduce soreness, and build stronger muscles*. For those pushing through intense training, it could be a game-changer.
While more research is needed, the initial findings suggest that bioactive peptides could become an essential tool in maintaining muscular health and optimizing athletic performance.
