A protein shake before bed is a good strategy for building muscle mass!

Build muscle in your sleep?

We all kind of know that having a protein shake before bed is a good strategy for building muscle, but it's still comforting to read a new scientific paper that says we're not just right, but really right.

It's especially gratifying when it's an extensive review that examined 45 papers on the subject and was able to draw conclusions on how best to use a protein shake strategy at night.

Protein shake before bedtime: all muscle, no fat

Tim Snijders, the lead author of the review, is no newcomer to research on the topic of training and protein intake before bed. In 2015, he and his team found that exercisers who drank 28 grams of protein (14 grams of casein and 14 grams of casein hydrolysate) before bedtime gained about 4 extra pounds of muscle over 12 weeks compared to a control group.

That's pretty damn impressive, and having recently reviewed most of the papers on the subject, most of them agreed that drinking protein before bed significantly increased muscle protein synthesis (MPS) without leading to any increase in fat.

Any protein taken in before bedtime is used for protein synthesis,

explained Snijders.

When exercising earlier in the evening, much of the protein ingested is directed to muscle protein synthesis and is not stored.

It is true, however, that some of the studies he reviewed showed little or no additional muscle protein synthesis overnight, but the researchers involved in these studies may have used insufficient amounts of protein, protein that had a tainted biological value (BV), or a resistance program more suited to obese poodles than bodybuilders or strength athletes.

Timing of protein around training

Is there anything special about eating protein before bed? Or is it just about increasing your overall protein intake?

Here's Snijders' take on the question:

Despite the relatively high amount of protein ingested earlier in the day, protein intake at bedtime would likely still provide an anabolic stimulus to the rate of muscle protein synthesis during the night, thereby increasing daytime muscle recovery.

Another possible issue stems from the timing of resistance training. In some studies where they found a positive association between protein before bedtime and additional muscle protein synthesis, resistance training was performed in the evening between 20:00 and 22:00.

This is promising for exercisers who go to the gym in the evening, but what about those who train in the morning or late afternoon? Although the answers aren't clear yet, my guess is that exercisers who train in the late afternoon would still be in their "anabolic window" at bedtime and would still find it beneficial to drink some extra protein before bed.

Morning exercisers would also generally benefit from late-night protein, but whether they would enjoy an equally dramatic increase in muscle protein synthesis is unknown (they might simply benefit from the addition of total protein intake rather than a time-dependent increase in MPS).

If you train in the morning, you might try a little experiment. Save part or all of your arm workout for the evening when you're watching TV. Pull up your dumbbells and do a few sets of the 10-6-10 workout. Have some dumbbells handy to help you with the workout.

Then have a protein before bed and watch what happens to your arms, if anything, for a few weeks.

What and how much should I drink?

If you are not already doing so, definitely start drinking a good quality protein at night before bed - a casein shake. Most studies have used casein, probably because it is a slower digesting protein, so it is unknown how other proteins would perform under similar circumstances. The ideal choice is micellar casein.

When? Between 10 and 30 minutes before bedtime. How much? Up to 60 grams, but the average seems to be around 30 grams.

Source: www.t-nation.com - Do This at Bedtime to Build Muscle
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