Taking peptides for muscle growth is a tried and tested method used by athletes and non-athletes alike. The best peptides for muscle growth can help you build your muscles without any of the nasty side effects of steroids.
If you’re looking to bulk up, progressive resistance-based exercise, quality rest, robust nutrition, and quality peptides for muscle growth may be the perfect combination.
But with a variety of peptides for muscle growth available, which ones actually provide the best results? To get some clear answers to that question, we need to look into nutrition and the biology behind muscle formation.
Today, we’ll dive into how peptides for muscle growth create the optimal conditions for your body to build bigger, stronger muscles. But before we talk about peptides in particular, let’s learn more about muscle growth itself.
How do muscles grow?
Your muscles grow when they respond to the stress and damage caused by resistance training.
If you consistently undertake exercises and activities that are difficult for your body, your body quickly learns that it needs to build stronger muscles accordingly.
The process of muscle growth is called hypertrophy, and if you’re looking to build muscles, you need to encourage your body to begin this process.
How?
One of the main ways people bulk is by lifting heavy weights. Lifting weights creates micro-tears in your muscle fibers. These microtears are not injuries, as they don’t prevent you from continuing to train, but do form a key part of the hypertrophic process.
Micro-tears in your muscles stimulate a repair process in the muscle tissue. You’ll have heard this process summarized before as “no pain, no gain.”
But what does this process look like under the microscope? Firstly, the micro-tears stimulate the body to produce new “satellite” muscle cells. They are called satellite cells as they aren’t yet fully connected to the rest of the muscle. As these muscle cells mature, they become myoblasts.
Because your muscles previously tore, your body knows that new myoblasts should be stronger than before. So your body uses its protein reserves, like collagen, to fuse larger myoblasts together, creating stronger and larger muscle tissues.
How to influence muscle growth
Building muscle is a process that’s influenced by a variety of factors, like your workout type and schedule, as well as nutrition. Here are some of the ways you can increase muscle growth:
Increased resistance
Increased resistance = increased muscle growth. But it’s important to increase weight or resistance training gradually over time. This stimulates muscle growth by asking for more and more from the muscle itself.
Sticking to the same weight or number of repetitions won’t encourage an increase in muscle size, since your muscles will overcome the challenge without micro-tearing.
Conversely, it’s important not to attempt to lift weights you aren’t ready for. You don’t want to be set back by an injury. This is one of the areas where a personal trainer can help you with exercises tailored to your specific circumstances and goals.
Of course, muscle growth isn’t just about what you do at the gym, but what you do outside of it too.
Rest and recovery
Your muscles need time to repair and reboot after a workout. It’s often recommended that you need to allow for at least 24-48 hours rest between training sessions for a particular muscle group. This is why personal trainers will often switch up days for different muscle groups so you can highlight some muscles while resting others.
If you DON’T rest your muscle groups between workouts, your muscles might not have time to repair the micro-tears, resulting in setbacks to your bulking, and possibly even injury.
Nutrition
Nutrition is easily overlooked as part of your bulking regimen, but is the real key to muscle growth.
Your body can’t build muscle if it doesn’t have the materials to do it with. To support muscle growth, you need to consume enough protein to provide the building blocks for muscle tissue repair.
Carbohydrates are also important to provide energy for fueling your workouts. Healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals are all also going to play their part, as you need to have good overall health in order to achieve peak performance in the gym.
But the main player in muscle growth is protein. That’s because protein is what your muscles are made of! In order to repair micro-tears and support muscle growth, you absolutely must have enough bioavailable protein in your diet – and that’s where peptides come in.
What is a peptide?
Just as protein is the building block of your muscles, amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Peptides are protein molecules that have been broken down into smaller chains of amino acids.
The benefit of peptides for muscle growth, rather than full proteins, is that they’re considerably smaller, making them easier to digest and utilize.
How do peptides and steroids differ?
Peptides and steroids are often used to support muscle growth, but they differ in several key ways. Firstly, their biological construction is very different. As we’ve learned, peptides are short chains of amino acids, whereas steroids are synthetic hormones that mimic the effects of testosterone.
A significant difference is that peptides target specific aspects of muscle growth, such as protein synthesis, recovery, and nutrient absorption, whereas steroids have a more dangerous, generalized effect on the body.
Peptides for muscle growth have a much lower risk of side effects compared to steroids. Steroids are well-known for their harmful side effects, ranging from liver damage, to cardiovascular disease, to hormonal imbalances.
By contrast, peptides for muscle growth are generally considered safe when used correctly and under the guidance of a healthcare professional.
Finally, peptides are legal and widely available, whereas steroids are controlled substances and illegal without a prescription. That being said, while peptides can be safely used for muscle growth, it’s important to note that they should never be used as a complete replacement for a healthy diet and exercise program.
How peptides support hypertrophy
Supplements can form a key part of our nutrition. Although we shouldn’t be aiming to replace our entire diet with supplements, supplements like peptides for muscle growth can offer a precise level of control over how we fuel our bodies.
When we get into the varieties of peptides for muscle growth, they all provide the tools for slightly different processes, but they have the same aim. Peptides set up the ideal conditions for hypertrophy.
Peptides play an essential role in supporting muscle growth by increasing protein synthesis, enhancing recovery, reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, and improving nutrient absorption.
The best protein for athletes and non-athletes alike will be one that supports overall health and vitality while promoting muscle growth. So let’s take a look at which proteins are best for your goals – both in and out of the gym.
The best peptides for muscle growth
When it comes to finding the best peptides for muscle growth, there are a few clear candidates. Here are some of the most popular peptides for muscle growth:
- Growth Hormone-Releasing Peptide-2 (GHRP-2): This peptide stimulates the release of growth hormone, which can promote muscle growth, reduce body fat, and increase lean muscle mass.
- Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1): IGF-1 is a hormone that is produced by the liver in response to growth hormone stimulation. It promotes muscle growth by increasing protein synthesis and reducing muscle breakdown.
- BPC-157: This peptide helps to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, promoting faster recovery and reducing the risk of injury.
- Thymosin Beta-4 (TB-500): This peptide promotes muscle repair and growth by increasing the number of satellite cells, which are responsible for muscle repair.
- Collagen: Collagen peptides are one of the best peptides for muscle growth as they directly support muscle repair while reinforcing joints – supporting a full workout and protecting you against injury.
Benefits of collagen peptides for muscle growth
Sports research on collagen peptides has shown promising results for injury prevention, muscle growth, endurance, and more.
But let’s focus on collagen’s role as one of the top peptides for muscle growth. Here are some of the ways that collagen peptides can help:
Collagen can increase protein synthesis
Collagen is rich in the amino acid, glycine. This amino acid plays a critical role in promoting protein synthesis. Studies have shown that collagen peptides can increase muscle protein synthesis, leading to efficient muscle growth and repair.
Collagen can promote joint health
Collagen peptides contain a unique combination of amino acids that can improve joint health and reduce the risk of injuries. This can be especially beneficial for people who engage in high-impact activities that put stress on their joints (like weight-lifting).
Considering that 80% of the dry weight of our tendons and ligaments is collagen protein, you can see how the body values this versatile protein. Building pure muscle is pointless if you aren’t reinforcing the tendons that allow your muscular contractions to turn into physical movement and force.
Injuries sustained by your ligaments and tendons can seriously affect how much exercise you’re able to undertake. With that in mind, collagen peptides for muscle growth can also help to prevent injuries and allow you to train with confidence.
Collagen can speed up recovery
Collagen peptides have anti-inflammatory properties that can help to reduce muscle soreness and speed up recovery time after exercise. This can allow athletes to train more frequently and at a higher intensity, leading to greater gains in muscle mass and strength.
In addition, collagen is the precise material that your body uses for wound healing. When you work out, the micro-tears in your muscles are treated exactly like tiny wounds, and collagen is what your body uses to repair them.
While you can get the amino acids to create collagen protein from other foods in your diet, the easiest way to provide your body with the exact building blocks it needs for recovery is through a collagen peptide supplement.
Choosing the right collagen supplement
The ultimate “do-it-all” protein, collagen peptides for muscle growth are a great choice for people looking to bulk up.
If you’ve previously only heard of collagen as a skin supplement for women, it’s time to wake up to the full potential of collagen.
Can men take collagen peptides? Absolutely. In fact, collagen benefits for men aren’t limited to just muscle growth, but also to heart and gut health, and even hair loss prevention!
Because of its wide range of applications, collagen supplements come in a variety of forms, and it’s important that you pick a high-quality collagen supplement.
When looking at labels, you want to see the words “collagen peptides” or “hydrolyzed collagen.”
What is hydrolyzed collagen? Hydrolyzed collagen is just another name for collagen peptides. This collagen has gone through the hydrolysis process to break the protein molecules down so they’re easier to digest.
The protein absorption rate of hydrolyzed collagen is far higher than non-hydrolyzed collagen.
In addition, you should ensure that your collagen peptides for muscle growth don’t contain excess sugar or any harmful additives. Most supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA, so it’s up to you to do some research into products and companies.
Look for a supplement that is well reviewed and backed up by scientific studies.
In our opinion, the most practical and effective way to add collagen peptides to your routine is a Frog Fuel liquid collagen shot.
Available as a single-serve pouch, Frog Fuel doesn’t require any mixing and is easy to throw in your gym bag – taking all the fuss out of deciding what to drink during workouts.
Adding hydrolyzed collagen protein to your daily routine may improve your workouts, help prevent injury, and promote muscle growth. With its range of benefits also extending to overall skin, circulatory, and gut health, collagen peptides are the obvious choice for your protein supplement.
