Tendons, Collagen, mTOR & Exercise Adaptation | Keith Baar | Episode 312
Shownotes
Keith Baar explains why tendons stop adapting after 10 minutes of loading, why long low-load holds beat fast reps for connective tissue, and how vitamin C, collagen, caffeine and mTOR shape training.
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TOPICS DISCUSSED:
• Signal Architecture: The same total exercise split into two sessions spaced about six to eight hours apart gives bones and tendons two stimuli and fewer injuries than one long session.
• Tendon Design: Tendons grade from compliant at the muscle to stiff at the bone to avoid stress concentrations; people over about 45 are roughly five times more likely to rupture a tendon than 18-year-olds.
• Collagen & Vitamin C: Collagen is a glycine–X–proline triple helix; vitamin C is consumed by prolyl hydroxylase, which collagen needs before it can leave the cell, and scurvy is a failure of collagen export.
• Force Transfer: Strength depends on muscle size, neural drive, and the connective tissue that transmits force; lean “sinewy” climbers can out pull bigger bodybuilders.
• Soreness Is Not Growth: Soreness signals damage from unaccustomed or poorly matched loading, not a stronger anabolic signal.
• mTOR, Failure & Strength: Mechanical load activates mTOR by moving its inhibitor TSC2 away from Rheb; training to failure recruits every fiber for growth, while heavy loads drive strength through other pathways.
• Whey + Collagen: Whey alone lowers glycine after exercise; adding about 5 g of collagen raised both muscle and connective tissue protein synthesis in work by Luc van Loon.
• Caffeine, Keto & GLP-1 Drugs: High-dose caffeine lowered collagen and muscle protein synthesis and blunted adaptation in mice; a saturated-fat ketogenic diet extended median mouse lifespan with less cancer but can weaken bone; GLP-1 lean-mass loss looks larger when a shrinking fatty liver is counted as lean mass.
*Not medical advice.
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