Protein synthesis by Rober Castellano and Raúl Carrasco

A topic that is always current and controversial is protein synthesis and its role in hypertrophy. Would you like to debate it with them?

Muscle growth combines several factors, including resistance training and nutrient intake such as protein; muscle protein synthesis provides a means of evaluating how effectively these interventions work.

Protein synthesis is ultimately a physiological process in which increases are associated with better muscle growth, although actual gains may vary from person to person.

From this point of view, our experts and professional bodybuilders Rober Castellano and Raúl Carrasco began analyzing how it affects hypertrophy, bearing in mind that you should focus on this factor before planning your workouts and diet.

Introduction

According to Raúl Carrasco, one thing everyone knows is that it is based on science (and a little on biology), and he believes it is the closest way to stay up to date.

In other words, when it comes to theory and practice, they are two different worlds. From a practical point of view, it is clear that studies tell us that after muscle contractions, the muscle increases protein synthesis, that is, in the muscle fiber.

The three important factors for hypertrophy are produced:

• Time under tension,
• Metabolic stress due to short rest periods, and
• Muscle damage.

These factors are relevant to carrying out muscle hypertrophy.

The brain understands that, in order to recover and take that muscle to a higher level of adaptation, it increases protein synthesis. This increase begins when the workout ends and continues for up to six hours afterward, creating a high peak at 72, 36, and 48 hours (it is an average from a study), and then declining until five, six, and seven days later; in other words, protein synthesis never stops.

How the process works

When it comes to experiencing a sensation, honestly, you cannot notice in your body that six hours later it is absorbing more protein and that 72 hours later this process has gone away… well, this is not possible…

On the subject of protein synthesis, we are guided somewhat by theory, science, medicine—whatever we want to call it. For Raúl, honestly, training a muscle every 10 days seems absurd; he considers it excessive rest.

First, as he has said, without defending anything and starting from the principle of individuality:

• To build muscle mass, create sarcomeric hypertrophy, and create a new muscle fiber, he believes that rest is the most important factor.
• But to create muscle definition, Raúl thinks a muscle needs too much frequency.

In all his seminars, and he emphasizes this heavily, he has always used the same examples in a basic, straightforward way.

He compares the body’s adaptations to how the skin protects itself when someone goes sunbathing at the beach: (1) UV rays damage the skin, (2) the skin protects itself by secreting melanin to adapt to that damage, and (3) the skin becomes tan and beautiful, but…

How do we know what time of day the sun will give us a good tan? At what time of day? How long should one stay in the sun?…

So, it is somewhat comparable to this:

• How much time should you spend at the gym?
• How much rest time?

Because it is true that if you go to the beach, the sun hits you and you turn red as a lobster, and over time you see your skin gradually darkening and developing that beautiful tan; some people peel and others don’t… this is due to individuality!

The foundation is balance.

Raúl is one of those who thinks that if you go to the beach at a time when the sun is not strong enough to cause severe skin damage, and you stay for a little while, you gradually develop a tan; then, three days later, you go again and continue developing—or achieve—that beautiful tan you want.

In the context of training, where is the problem nowadays?

• People train to failure in everything and create incredible neural failure,
• That is where the neural overtraining that leaves you completely exhausted occurs, and the day comes when you can no longer go to the gym.

That is where Heavy Duty emphasizes neural overtraining (not muscular overtraining), although it also occurs to a lesser degree because muscle fibers are highly adaptable and recover very well. Well, that is when he believes long rest periods are necessary.

Our experts agree that a beginner’s athletic career, for someone starting out with weights, should be preceded by weights or Heavy Duty approached sensibly—also using good judgment to take advantage of protein synthesis.

And from that point onward, as time passes or is added to your athletic career and you need a little more quality, while avoiding muscle injuries as much as possible.

You don’t see the professionals who are on the circuit nowadays doing incredibly reckless things, and when you do, it’s in a video where you know they’re being filmed.

We do not see pros such as Kai Greene, Jay Cutler, or the current Mr. Olympia, Brandon Curry, lifting extremely heavy weights, for example. Rather, we see them doing a great deal of muscular work, many sets, and a lot of time under tension.

Theory vs. practice

So what happens? Many professionals, such as Raúl and Rober, stick with practical experience, because although the theory of protein synthesis is there, there is no machine that says, “Look, it has started to decline here.”

Raúl also thinks scientific studies fall a little short, since a study may be based on someone who went to the gym and handled a dumbbell for three seconds… but protein synthesis may last longer…

He does not argue that one must train each muscle every third day either, since sometimes he uses a frequency of every second or third day and, like all high-performance athletes, he has also overtrained.

If he had to settle on one frequency, it would be the first frequency Coleman chose: every fourth or fifth day. In other words, he repeated a muscle group on Monday or Thursday, or Tuesday and Saturday… Raúl Carrasco would choose that frequency…

By contrast, Rober Castellano explains the optimal training frequency whenever possible: dividing the body into four training days and training each muscle one and a half times per week. At certain times, use frequency two—but why? Because when competing, athletes are expected to be extremely, hyper-mega lean, with no fat at all, and so they are forced to push themselves too hard, especially amateurs.

Soreness and protein synthesis

Rober explains that if soreness lasts up to seven days of inflammation, among other things, which it can perfectly well do, it is clear that protein synthesis will be prolonged much further, because recovery has still not occurred even after 10 days.

In the face-to-face interview, Rober also asks Raúl about how, in his videos, he said that protein synthesis lasts 72 hours. Raúl replied that, if he has to use a baseline—an average—it is clear that if soreness occurs over a longer period, he agrees with Rober that it is very difficult for it to last only that long.

In his response, Raúl repeats that the three important factors in hypertrophy are:

• Time under tension: the time you have a barbell or dumbbell under tension.
• Metabolic stress, which does not result from taking five-minute rests between sets, but from resting for one minute, 45 seconds, or 30 seconds.
• Muscle damage, which, according to Raúl, he believes is related to soreness, to damaged, microscopically torn muscle fibers—a muscle tear, an injury.

So Raúl Carrasco thought, or had as his theoretical basis, that the more muscle damage there was, the more soreness there would be, and that this was more synonymous with growth.

Over time, when he had the opportunity to host Milos in Spain, he held seminars with him and shared various ideas, making him believe, or trying to show him, that excessive soreness is a sign that you have overdone it, not of growth.

• But Raúl said to Milos: “And how do you prove that?”
• Milos replied: “Which muscle group gets the most soreness?”
• Raúl replies: “The chest.”
• Milos asks him: “And which muscle gets the least soreness?”
• Raúl replies: “In my experience, as far as I know, I have never had soreness in my back,” and I practically said: “The chest is my weak point; my back is a good muscle group.”

So it became clear that realities must be defended.

Protein synthesis: “Realities”

So when you want to regulate protein synthesis, if you want to measure it in the blood, you should look at the creatine kinase level, or CPK—the level of muscle damage in the blood. You will see that even without soreness or pain, CPK can be extremely elevated because there is muscle damage.

That does not rule out having a little pain, but that excessive pain that prevents you from moving after overdoing it would occur under other circumstances.

• Raúl says that even a frequency of seven days is excessive, since you may need to wait up to two weeks because you have overdone it—you have gone beyond soreness and a muscle tear to a moderate injury.
• Rober says that people often do not understand the process of muscle soreness itself, which is related to stored arachidonic acid and the release and production of prostaglandins.

So what happens?

When you train a muscle a lot, you do not give it time to replenish much arachidonic acid… there may be muscle damage, but there is no release of arachidonic acid, and therefore no sensation of soreness…

Rober finds it curious that weak and underdeveloped muscles are the ones that get the most soreness, are injured the most, and take the longest to recover.

But of course, people always equate muscle soreness with muscle damage and muscle growth, although they do not necessarily have to be connected that way, because you can do a stretching session in which muscle damage and soreness occur, but there will be no muscle growth at all.

To conclude on this topic of protein synthesis, many people do not consider that the release of certain cytokines, such as IGF-1, occurs through certain bodily stresses, and that with activities such as stretching, although tears and soreness occur, hypermobility develops rather than muscle growth.