Courtesy of Bayesian Bodybuilding !.........There are many studies that show workout nutrition increases protein balance and muscle gains from training. Many studies expose the benefits of post- and pre-workout nutrition and many studies even show that there is an ‘anabolic window’: a time period around the training session in which consuming protein has extra effect. Formulated otherwise, the anabolic window theory posits that protein intake in close temporal proximity to training sessions results in more growth than consuming the same amount of protein at other points during the day. The theory is that the training session somehow primes the body for nutrient partitioning to muscle instead of fat. An often mentioned argument for this is that the protein balance regulation during the anabolic window is mediated by insulin. Readers of this site should already be aware that this is false and that there are no benefits to consuming carbohydrates post-workout. I have also previously shown that there are also no benefits to consuming BCAAs during this anabolic window. Now, I will show you that the very existence of the anabolic window is a fiction, a fantasy used to sell workout supplements. The anabolic window is a myth that is easy to fall for due to all the studies that seemingly support its existence. However, a closer look at the methodologies employed in these studies reveals that they do not support the use of workout nutrition at all. They just support the consumption of protein in general. Practically all of these studies employed one or both of these 2 methodological pitfalls. Methodological failure 1: The studies didn’t have an appropriate control group. Usually, they compared a workout nutrition group to a placebo group. That’s fine for medicines, but what you really want for these studies is a control group that consumed the same amount of protein, only during a different time period. Without such a control group, you have no internal validity: you don’t know if the workout nutrition was beneficial because it contained protein or because that protein was ingested during the anabolic window. Methodological failure 2: The participants weren’t given enough protein the days before and of the training session and fasted overnight until whenever they received their workout nutrition. In this scenario, receiving nutrition faster is obviously better because the participants were starving, at least in bodybuilding terms. To demonstrate the presence of the anabolic window, what you want is a study that looks like this. Cribb & Hayes (2006) demonstrated that consuming protein in close temporal proximity to training at midday yields superior gains for body composition and strength than consuming the same amount of protein during the morning and the evening. That seems like pretty conclusive evidence for the importance of the anabolic window, so what’s wrong with it? The leading author, Paul J. Cribb, works for a notorious supplement company, AST Sport Science, that sponsored the study. They’re known for sponsoring/performing suspicious studies that exhibit the benefits of their products. If you look at the result of this study, they’re suspiciously unidirectional and the effect sizes are suspiciously large. For example, the average results for the anabolic window group of advanced bodybuilders in a 10 week time period were: a 6.2 lb muscle gain, a 1.1% body fat loss and a 26.8 lb strength gain on the bench press. Mind you, these were not rookies. These bodybuilders on average already benched 279.2 lb (1RM) and were drug-free. Sounds legit…
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 04:33:55 +0000
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