How Collagen Might Boost Your Explosive Strength

(Photograph: MirageC/Getty)

It’s exhausting to assert that collagen is a “sizzling new complement,” on condition that its well being advantages have been already being promoted by the twelfth-century Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen. In its fashionable kind, collagen dietary supplements have been hyped for many years for functions starting from joint ache to hair thickness, regardless of a common lack of convincing proof that they work. However curiosity has spiked over the previous few years due to a burst of recent analysis, and the newest research on the subject bolsters the declare that collagen may assist construct springier tendons and muscle tissues to reinforce explosive energy.

Why Collagen May Assist

I first wrote concerning the new wave of collagen analysis back in 2019, and adopted up with extra in 2023. The normal view is that collagen-rich connective tissues reminiscent of tendons, ligaments, and cartilage are successfully inert, with very restricted skill to develop or restore themselves after damage. What collagen proponents argue is that taking collagen dietary supplements provides the important thing constructing blocks—for instance, an amino acid known as proline—that set off the synthesis of recent connective tissue within the physique.

The skeptical view is that collagen dietary supplements are damaged up into their constituent amino acids once you digest them, identical to every other type of protein. Because of this, they’re no more practical for constructing collagen within the physique that, say, consuming a glass of milk (which additionally comprises proline). There’s, nevertheless, a little bit of proof that some collagen-specific peptides—brief chains of amino acids—make it via the digestion course of intact and present up within the bloodstream.

The proof for these claims and counterclaims has been decidedly combined. A part of the issue is that a lot of the research use some mixture of collagen and particular train protocols in an try to maximise the advantages, in the identical means that protein dietary supplements are simplest for constructing muscle when mixed with energy coaching. This can be a good thought, however it makes it tough to interpret conflicting outcomes. Did the research fail as a result of collagen doesn’t work, or as a result of the train protocol was too simple or too exhausting, or too bizarre?

The New Examine

The latest study comes from researchers at Japan’s Juntendo College—working, it ought to be famous, with scientists from Morinaga & Co., which manufactures and sells well being and sports activities “meals merchandise.” Their aim was to simplify the image by finding out the results of 16 weeks of every day ten-gram collagen peptide dietary supplements, with no different adjustments in train or eating regimen. They recruited 50 volunteers, half of whom obtained the complement whereas the opposite half obtained a placebo.

The precise speculation the researchers needed to check was that collagen dietary supplements would make tendons and muscle tissues “stiffer,” within the sense {that a} stiff elastic band takes extra power to stretch. That is what you’d count on if the collagen dietary supplements set off additional collagen formation within the tendons, that are primarily fabricated from collagen fibers, and within the “extracellular matrix” that gives structural help to muscle tissues.

Stiffer muscle tissues and tendons ought to mean you can switch power extra effectively out of your muscle tissues to your bones, making it potential to ship power extra quickly. You’re not getting stronger, however you’re getting extra explosive. This form of explosive energy is essential each for athletic efficiency and for actions of every day residing like getting out of a chair—and (as I wrote last fall) can be what we are likely to lose most quickly as we age.

What They Discovered

The outcomes, which have been printed in Medication & Science in Sports activities & Train, largely help this speculation. They used MRI to measure the dimensions of the Achilles tendon and a part of the calf muscle; an ultrasound method to measure the stiffness of the tendon and muscle; and a set of energy and energy checks to see the purposeful results of the supplementation.

Neither the tendon nor the muscle obtained any larger, and the utmost calf energy didn’t change. However the elastic stiffness of each muscle and tendon elevated within the collagen group, whereas staying unchanged within the placebo group. Right here, for instance, is the stiffness (as measured by how briskly an ultrasound wave travels) for the collagen and placebo teams:

Maybe extra importantly, the collagen group additionally noticed a rise in “fee of torque improvement,” which is a measure of explosive energy that quantifies how rapidly you may apply power:

The ultimate piece of the image is that, for particular person topics, those that noticed the largest will increase in muscle stiffness tended to see the largest will increase in explosive power. There wasn’t a transparent connection between will increase in tendon stiffness and will increase in explosive power, however general, the outcomes help the chain of logic: extra collagen -> stiffer muscle tissues and tendons -> extra explosive power.

What the Outcomes Imply

You can also make a a lot larger argument on the idea of those outcomes. Perhaps you don’t care about tendons and explosive energy (although, actually, you should). But when these outcomes are true, then it means that there is one thing particular about consuming collagen—that it’s not simply damaged down right into a potpourri of free amino acids, and that it will possibly set off the remodelling of cartilage-based tissues. Perhaps it actually will thicken your hair; perhaps it can restore your joints; perhaps it can speed up your restoration from ligament accidents.

These are massive and as-yet-unproven claims, but when collagen works for tendon stiffness, then the opposite claims change into a bit extra believable, no less than in principle. I stay skeptical however intrigued. Given the mess of conflicting outcomes produced by earlier analysis, a single research funded by a complement firm—even with a sturdy pattern dimension of fifty—doesn’t settle the query both means. However it means that it is a line of analysis that’s very a lot value pursuing, and that we must always await additional outcomes with curiosity.

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