When it comes to building muscle mass, most athletes and bodybuilders have the idea that they need more of everything: more training, more protein, more calories, and more supplements. While you certainly need to supply your body with the right training and nutrients for muscle growth, there’s more at work in the big picture.
There are several major limiting factors to muscle growth. Some, like lack of sleep, you can control. Others, such as genetic potential and the amount of myostatin (a protein that governs muscle growth), were always thought to be beyond our control.
While you can’t change your genetic makeup (yet), you may be able to reduce your levels of myostatin, allowing you to build more muscle mass than you ever thought possible. Here’s what science has to say about myostatin.
DISCOVERING MYOSTATIN
Myostatin is the single greatest catabolic limiting factor for muscle growth. This protein was discovered in 1997 by two scientists, Lee and McPherron, at Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. They realized that mice had a naturally occurring protein that inhibited muscle growth, and that reducing a test subject’s myostatin levels helped turn it into Mighty Mouse.
While the ability to affect mouse muscle was determined through scientific experimentation, other examples of superhero animals already existed. Belgian Blue and Piedmontese cattle carry considerably more muscle mass and less fat than their bovine brethren. Around this time, researchers realized that these breeds of cattle had grown so large and muscular because of a mutation of their myostatin gene, leading them to have more muscle cells (hyperplasia) and larger muscle cells (hypertrophy) because they had far less myostatin than other breeds.
Researchers didn’t know if it was possible to reduce myostatin in humans-or what the repercussions might be if it were possible. Then, in 1999, a newborn boy emerged from the womb with well-developed muscles. A pediatric neurologist (Markus Scheulke M.D., of Charité University Medical Center in Berlin) discovered that, because both copies of the baby’s myostatin gene were dormant, he produced no myostatin, explaining his extreme infantile musculature.
MYOSTATIN RESEARCH
With these conclusions in mind, scientists have begun to better understand how myostatin works, and they’ve sought to use this knowledge to help fight muscle-wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Schuelke’s research has led to the conclusion that myostatin inhibition increases both muscle size and strength.
Pharmaceutical companies have jumped on the band- wagon, looking for ways to reduce myostatin. But supplement companies are also seeking answers that every- one can use without having to wait the excruciating years it takes for a drug to make it onto the market.
MYOS Corporation has developed a proprietary formula, MyoT12, which has shown promise in two human clinical trials, one of which showed reduced myostatin levels in subjects by an aver- age of 46% after 12–18 hours of consuming a single serving—with all subjects showing some reduction. After 24–30 hours, the subjects’ myostatin levels returned to normal. This means that a person should take MyoT12 once a day to keep myostatin levels in check over time.
MyoT12 consists of numerous proteins, peptides, and growth factors that help spur muscular growth by reducing the impact of myostatin. While many athletes think
of protein as the inert building blocks your body uses to build muscle tissue, many proteins also function as dynamic actors within the body, causing specific physiological responses. This is the case with the constituents of MyoT12, which reduce myostatin levels and allow your body to add muscle mass beyond your natural genetic limits.
BENEFITS OF MYOSTATIN REDUCTION
Pharmaceutical and supplement companies are vying to find the answer to controlling myostatin levels to support better muscle growth. So far, the benefits of myostatin inhibition have shown no harmful side effects. In fact, Lee and McPherron’s muscular mice showed a life span equal to that of the control mice.
To take advantage of this research, consider supplementing with MyoT12, one of the few myostatin inhibitors currently on the market. Sup- pressing this negative protein could prove to be a huge positive for your performance and muscle-building goals.
Most of us can’t rely upon our genes to reduce levels of myostatin to produce maximal muscle mass. That means that we have to turn to a myostatin inhibitor such as MYO-X from MHP. With few competitors currently in the market, MYO-X may be your key to reducing the limits myostatin places on muscle building.
THE KEY INGREDIENTS
MYO-X contains myot12, specific proteins that reduce myostatin’s impact. In particular, myot12 consists of fecunded G. Gallus domesticus yolk isolate (naturally optimized, high-grade, ultrarefined isolate, dry-weight equivalent to 9,500mg isolate). MYO-X contains 80 proteins, 700 peptides, and bioactive growth factors that support muscular growth and help suppress myostatin.
HOW TO USE IT
To get the most from MYO-X, take one scoop daily to help reduce your myostatin levels. the powder is best mixed with 6-8 ounces of cold water and consumed immediately. for best consistency, mix in a blender.
