Collagen for athletes can support bones, joints, and muscles, potentially boosting recovery and helping to prevent injury. Learn why collagen may be the secret edge that carries you past the competition.
It’s not easy being a competitive athlete. Athletes often struggle with several facets of that occupation. Balancing your dietary intake and workout frequency to gain strength makes for a tricky line to walk, and going too far in either direction is a severe setback. The need to consistently push yourself to see results often creates lengthy recovery periods, which can cancel any progress you’ve made. Injuries are common in the competitive athletic space. Collagen can help with all of the above.
Collagen is a protein that occurs naturally in the human body; however, it’s also present in many traditional protein-rich foods, like meat, fish, and dairy. You can also take it as a dietary supplement, and if formulated correctly, it can provide you with a nutritious source of pre-workout protein. These are just a few of the many benefits of collagen for athletes.
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Collagen for Athletes: 3 Surprising Benefits & How to Use It is an original (AthleticInsightNews) article.
Collagen for athletes:
Faster recovery from soreness and injury
Athletes need to continue ramping up the intensity and length of their workouts to reach and maintain a competitive level. The resulting muscle soreness is often a sign of progress; as the muscles recover, they return stronger and have greater endurance. However, that’s not always ideal. Athletes must constantly take “rest days” after intense workouts that delay and, in more severe cases, even reverse all their progress. A sufficient dietary intake of, or supplementation with, collagen can significantly diminish this problem.
Collagen decreases the recovery time of muscles after an intense workout. In a 2019 study, a group of recreationally active men took either a daily collagen peptide supplement or a placebo. The study recorded the participant’s performance in a set of 150 drop jumps and their reports on muscular pain for two days following the workout.
Forty-eight hours afterward, those taking collagen reported lower muscular soreness. When asked to perform a set of drop jumps again, the men who had taken collagen had a higher countermovement jump than those who had not. Taking collagen may reduce soreness, decrease recovery time after an intense workout, and allow you to return to your peak performance earlier than you would otherwise be able to.
Of course, as with any exercise incentivizing incremental improvements, you can push yourself too far and contract some injury. Tendonitis – an irritation of the tendons that connect muscle to bone – is a common complaint and can cause many athletes to rely on painkillers, avoid exercise, or both. Collagen can support joint and tendon health, in many cases helping to prevent such risk of injury.
Collagen for athletes:
Increasing endurance
Supplementation with collagen can help athletes recover faster from joint pain and injury caused by overzealous exercise. However, it can also help boost an athlete’s endurance, potentially taking the pain out of the pushing in the first place.
In a 2020 study focusing on women long-distance runners, one group took a supplement containing collagen peptides, and another took a placebo. At the end of 12 weeks of supplementation, researchers reviewed the results, considering the difference in the runners’ distances over the experimental period to measure their overall endurance.
They found that women who took collagen peptides had a higher increase in running distance than the women in the control group – on average, they could run over a kilometer more before reaching exhaustion than before the study. Collagen can help you recover faster from taking things too far – it can also change your definition of “too far” and allow you to challenge yourself further without becoming exhausted.
Collagen for athletes:
Improving strength and muscle composition
Many athletes take creatine to enhance their performance and increase the rate at which the body builds muscle. However, your body already has a significant natural store of creatine, one of its amino acids. The body produces creatine using collagen, so upping your collagen intake can increase the amount of creatine naturally available. This creatine growth can naturally boost your strength and improve your body’s muscular composition.
In a 2015 study, researchers compared the body compositions and muscle strengths of two groups of men undergoing resistance training: one that took collagen supplements and one that did not. At the end of the 12-week study, the men who had supplemented with collagen had greater strength in their isokinetic quadriceps and also measured higher in loss of fat and gain of fat-free mass. Collagen combined with regular resistance training can enhance recovery, prevent injury, and improve overall athletic performance.
Collagen for Athletes: 3 Surprising Benefits & How to Use It is the (AthleticInsightNews) report.
Collagen for athletes:
An excellent source of pre-workout protein
Collagen supplements can be a great way to get your pre-workout protein in – however, collagen alone is not considered a complete protein. That’s because it lacks the nine essential amino acids that the human body can’t produce on its own: methionine, threonine, histidine, valine, phenylalanine, isoleucine, tryptophan, lysine, and leucine.
High-quality brands that offer collagen supplements for athletes, such as Frog Fuel, mitigate this by fortifying their collagen with these nine essential compounds. Frog Fuel’s Power Protein goes above and beyond and contains 22 amino acids and 15 grams of protein.
It can also absorb into the body far faster than traditional formulations of whey protein; a study of Frog Fuel’s digestibility found that it was absorbed in as little as 15 minutes due to their proprietary process of nano hydrolysis. The study result exemplifies Frog Fuel’s commitment to realistic advertising and proven claims. CEO Alexander Kunz says, “We wanted to come to market with legitimate claims, everything from the absorption aspect to the recovery aspect. Every claim we make is backed by a proven study.”
Collagen for athletes:
An all-around solution
Collagen is a valuable tool in the athlete’s dietary arsenal. Its peptides can help decrease the time required to recover from muscular pain and injury, getting you back in the gym at peak performance faster. They can also improve your endurance and strength. If your collagen product is well-sourced, fortified, and hydrolyzed for quick absorption, it can kick in far faster and constitute a complete dietary protein. Whatever your training regimen or significant concerns, with its diverse range of benefits, collagen is worth a shot.
For further reading:
NIH National Library of Medicine: Effect of collagen supplementation on osteoarthritis symptoms
NIH National Library of Medicine: 24-Week study on the use of collagen hydrolysate as a dietary supplement in athletes with activity-related joint pain
Bodybuilding.com: Collagen: Health Hoax Or Superfood?
Important Note: The information contained in this article (Collagen for Athletes: 3 Surprising Benefits & How to Use It) is for general informational purposes only, and should not be construed as health or medical advice, nor is it intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease or health condition. Before embarking on any diet, fitness regimen, or program of nutritional supplementation, it is advisable to consult your healthcare professional in order to determine its safety and probable efficacy in terms of your individual state of health.
Regarding Nutritional Supplements Or Other Non-Prescription Health Products: If any nutritional supplements or other non-prescription health products are mentioned in the foregoing article, any claims or statements made about them have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and such nutritional supplements or other health products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
