Whether you’re climbing a mountain, cycling in your local park, or swimming with your kids, the last thing you want is to be stopped in your tracks by painful muscles and joints.
Our bodies are made up of a network of complex systems that work together to ensure our joints, muscles, and organs function efficiently. When we exercise, these systems require energy that comes from the food and drink we ingest each day.
Alongside providing fuel for optimal performance, nutrition plays a vital role in our bodies' natural repair and renewal processes that take place when we recover. Quality protein helps to rebuild our muscle tissues, carbohydrates provide energy for our systems to function, and fats play important roles in hormone production and inflammation management.
Consuming a well-balanced diet is just one part of the puzzle in our never-ending quest for optimal health and wellness. This provides the foundation for performance and recovery.
Nutritional supplements can be seen as the icing on top of the cake, used alongside a well-balanced diet to improve our health status and enhance our quality of life. With thousands of supplements on the market and hundreds of scientific studies to digest, it's often hard to know which ones to choose and why.
When it comes to improving your hair, nail, and skin health, the use of collagen supplements has risen in popularity, mainly due to the broad range of scientific research showing proven benefits. However, the answer to does collagen help with muscle recovery is less well-known.
In this article, we’ve explored the role of collagen in muscle recovery. We’ve looked at how it can help with muscle repair, the benefits of repairing muscle damage, and ways we can increase collagen in the body.
What is collagen?
Collagen is a vitally important protein that makes up part of our muscles, bones, skin, and connective tissue such as ligaments and tendons. It accounts for about one-third of all the proteins in our body, making it the most abundant one.
There are 28 different types of collagen in our body which combine together to help our body systems to function and ensure good health. The two main types of collagen in our bodies are type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is found in our bones, skin, tendons, eyes, and teeth. Type 2 is in our muscles, blood vessels, and Intestines.
As you can see, collagen makes up a lot of the systems and body parts that we use to allow us to live and function. Making sure we have enough is vital for optimal health and wellness.
Our body naturally produces collagen. However, as we age, our collagen production declines. Factors such as smoking, increased sun exposure, and poor dietary choices can negatively impact our collagen production.
Because of this, collagen supplements have become a popular way to increase our bodies' collagen levels. Different collagen supplements exist, some of which we will discuss later in the article.
The function of collagen in the body
Collagen performs several important functions in our body which make it a vital part of our overall health and wellness. In terms of structure, collagen provides strength to our joints, tendons, and ligaments. The elastic properties of collagen also help our bodies to offset the force produced when we contact the ground in sports such as running and football.
We can view collagen as the structural glue that holds our bodies together, allowing us to perform everyday tasks whilst maintaining proper structure and function. Collagen works to stabilize and absorb impact when we move and exercise.
Can collagen help with muscle repair?
Performing strenuous exercise involves repeated muscular contractions. Over time, this results in damage to our muscle fibers which causes swelling, soreness, and pain. When combined, these reduce our function which includes markers of performance such as strength, power, and motor control.
As research into exercise-induced muscle damage continues to develop, the focus has shifted to the role the extracellular muscle matrix may play in muscle damage.
Structurally, our extracellular muscle matrix consists of different collagens, glycoproteins, integrins, and proteoglycans. Of these, collagen is the most abundant, making it an important part of its structural integrity.
Previous research looking into the response of collagen following strenuous exercise found significant increases in collagen turnover 72 hours following the exercise bout.
Recent research expanded on these findings, showing improved recovery markers following collagen peptide supplementation when taken alongside strenuous exercise. Researchers also hypothesized that this could be due to the extracellular remodeling process.
With this, ingesting collagen via exogenous means may provide a way to reduce damage to the extracellular muscle matrix and reduce recovery time following exercise.
The benefits of collagen for repairing muscle damage
With the role of collagen as a key factor in muscle damage discussed above, does collagen help muscle recovery? What are the specific things that collagen supplementation can help with?
Here are some of the main ones below.
Enhanced muscle repair and recovery
As we’ve mentioned above, we can view collagen as the natural glue that maintains the structural integrity of our joints, muscles, and ligaments.
Collagen supplementation can provide our bodies with more collagen to help with our extracellular muscle matrix remodeling process caused by muscle damage following strenuous exercise.
With more collagen, we can expect a faster repair and recovery process, helping to improve function and start the next exercise sessions after a shorter period.
Improved muscle strength
Collagen provides structure to our muscles and tendons. Therefore, it’s directly involved in the structural integrity of both of these body parts.
During movement and exercise, our muscles and tendons are under more stress as they adapt to the new stimulus, helping our bodies to function correctly.
Therefore, the structural support provided by collagen helps to promote muscle strength and prevent injuries during exercise. Stronger muscles are better at adapting and can generate more power against resistance.
Supports muscle maintenance
As you should already know, protein is essential for muscle maintenance and growth. Collagen accounts for almost one-third of the proteins in our bodies and contains specific amino acids that are the building blocks of many of our muscle tissues. Noticeable examples include arginine, glycine, and proline.
Therefore, consuming collagen as a dietary supplement can increase our overall amino acid pool to support muscle maintenance.
Reduced inflammation
As we’ve mentioned above, the role of collagen as a therapeutic agent to improve markers of muscle recovery has been popularized due to the larger focus on our extracellular muscle matrix.
This damage and remodeling process caused via strenuous exercise enhances inflammation in the target tissues. The resulting symptoms include pain, soreness, and reduced mobility.
With more collagen available for the muscle remodeling process, a quicker reduction in the normal inflammation process may be seen, improving symptoms.
Collagen improves flexibility
Collagen forms an important structural component of our muscles and joints. When moving and exercising, our muscles and joints work together to ensure our body functions normally without any restrictions.
Normal function means that our joints are flexible and well-lubricated and our muscles can move through a full range of motion.
With this, ensuring that we have enough collagen in our muscles and joints can improve our flexibility and give us a full range of motion when moving.
Collagen reduces injury risk
When we move or exercise, our muscles and joints are constantly absorbing impact. Weak or imbalanced muscles and joints are more prone to injury. This is because they’re less likely to be able to absorb the impact without losing their structure.
Collagen makes up a large structural component of both of these. Therefore collagen can reduce the risk of injury when taken regularly. As an athlete or fitness enthusiast who lives an active lifestyle, reduced injury prevention is particularly important.
How to increase collagen in the body.
Several different approaches can be used to boost or restore our bodies' collagen levels. These include dietary changes, supplements, and treatments.
We’ve detailed three of the best options below.
Oily fish
Several types of oily fish such as salmon and mackerel are rich in collagen. Their bones, scales, and skin contain large amounts of collagen, making them a great dietary source.
As a general rule, eat oily fish with its skin on for a great source of collagen. They also contain a good amount of omega-3 fatty acids, which are also great for your health.
Supplements
Collagen is made from amino acids in our body. Some of them come from collagen-rich dietary sources such as meat, bone broth, gelatin, and fish.
Collagen supplements contain a blend of amino acid sources designed to support our bodies' collagen production. Typically, they come from bovine or marine sources such as beef and seafood and are hydrolyzed to improve absorption through the GI tract.
Therefore, taking collagen supplements is an easy way to increase collagen levels in the body and improve recovery.
Red light therapy
Red light therapy uses low levels of red light that penetrate our skin and target our body cells to promote improved cell function and tissue repair via an increase in mitochondria.
Research looking into red light therapy as a way to increase collagen and elastin has shown increases in fibroblast activity. Fibroblasts contribute to connective tissue and secrete collagen and elastic to maintain their structural framework.
Therefore, exposing our cells to red light therapy can increase the production of collagen and elastin, both important components of our overall health and muscle recovery. When combined with a reduction in inflammation, red light therapy may provide a safe and painless treatment option.
Is collagen good for muscle recovery?
There’s no doubt that collagen is a vitally important protein that makes up a huge component of the overall protein in our bodies. It’s part of our muscles, bones, skin, tendons, and ligaments.
When looking at muscle recovery specifically, collagen appears to play a key role in our extracellular muscle matrix remodeling process following strenuous exercise. Increasing our collagen levels via one of the methods above can therefore speed up this process and improve our recovery time.
If we combine this with a reduction in inflammation and improvement in mobility, taking collagen would appear to be a promising method to improve muscle recovery.
Collagen FAQs
Should you take collagen supplements before or after your workout?
Whilst some people may recommend taking collagen at certain points in the day, scientific research to support this is lacking.
In terms of before or after a workout, taking it after a workout would make more sense due to the high amino acid content. However, the most important factor would be taking it on a regular basis.
Does collagen help you heal faster?
As part of the natural healing process, our bodies produce inflammation at the wound site. As collagen helps to reduce inflammation, in theory, it can speed up the natural healing process.
Is collagen better than protein powder?
Collagen and protein powder supplements can both be used to support muscle recovery and contribute to healthier skin, nails, and hair. Both work in different ways and can be used alongside each other as part of a well-rounded supplement routine.
For more articles on, muscle recovery, read:
- The Ultimate Guide to Muscle Recovery Supplements: 7 Must-Haves
- Targeted Red Light Therapy for Muscle Recovery
- Red Light Therapy For Sports Performance
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