How Optimising Protein Can Maximise The Benefits From Training For Cyclist

As a cyclist, any nutrition strategy that will help you get more benefits from your training without having to do any more work will always be of significant interest, particularly if you have limited time to train. 

As cyclists, we put our bodies under stress when we train. As a result of this stress, our body responds by adapting to it so that if exposed to it again, we are better prepared for it, and it causes us less stress. For example, lifting a heavy weight causes stress on the muscles, and the muscles respond by recovering from this stress by building more muscle tissues and getting stronger, so in future, lifting the same weight again won’t put us under as much stress. 

This process is called adaptation (or training adaptations) and is the fundamental process through which our performance improves with training so we become better cyclists. 

As cyclists, many of the tissues within the body that are important for our performance are made up of protein. From the muscle fibres, which contract and allow us to put watts through the pedals, to the mitochondria, which convert the energy in the food we eat into the fuel the muscle can use to contract, to the blood vessels and circulatory system, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to the working muscle. All these tissues are made up of protein. 

Protein is a crucial macronutrient in our diets, particularly regarding training adaptations. The foods we eat within our diet, which contain protein, deliver us amino acids that provide the building blocks for the repair and rebuilding of many of these tissues within the body. Not only this, but the amino acid leucine is also the trigger for the process of muscle protein synthesis, the essential process for muscle growth and repair.

Without a combination of quality training and adequate protein in our diet, we won’t maximise our training adaptations. 

So, if we want to maximise the recovery from exercise, to gain as much benefit from the training we’re doing as possible, and improve our performance, the amount, timing and type of protein within our diet is a crucial dietary consideration. 

A recent meta-analysis clearly showed us this. It evaluated the impact of supplementing with protein on adaptations to endurance exercise. A meta-analysis is where scientists pull together the data from many different studies on one topic and re-analyse it to give us the bigger picture. They took the data from nineteen studies that tested 1162 participants, so it was a pretty big sample. 

The studies combined both health and clinical populations, and where studies where there were two groups, both completed the same amount of training, but one group was given no dietary guidance and left to consume their habitual diet, and the other group was given protein supplements around their endurance training, on top of their habitual diet. 

Their results were very interesting for anyone looking to improve their performance.

They showed supplementing with protein around endurance training…

1.     Increased aerobic capacity (i.e improved VO2 Max)

2.     Stimulated lean mass gain (i.e. resulted in muscle gain)

3.     Improved time trial performance 

Compared with the groups that didn’t receive any additional protein and ate their habitual diet. Pretty mind-blowing, right?

So, the athletes that supplemented protein got fitter, gained performance and gained more muscle compared to another group who did the exact same amount of training but didn’t consume any additional protein—an impressive outcome for a nutrition intervention that would be very easy for any cyclist to implement. 

There were some limitations to the study, namely that they combined both healthy athletes and clinical populations (i.e. individuals with health conditions), so the effects may be different if they just looked at endurance athletes.

They also didn’t control for the participant’s habitual diet, as this is very difficult and expensive to do, which may have influenced the results. For example, if they had athletes who were already consuming sufficient protein in their diet and then supplemented with additional protein, they are unlikely to have seen any further benefit. But even despite this, many of the studies included did see a benefit and taken as a whole, there was a benefit to protein.  

So, in effect, if you’re a cyclist who wants to get the most out of your training, optimising your protein intake to ensure you maximise the total amount, the timing and the type of protein that you consume around training is key to maximising the benefit from training. 

- Coach Ben