Skeletal muscle mass is critical for sport performance and in many pathological conditions. The combination of protein intake and resistance exercise is the most efficient strategy to promote skeletal muscle hypertrophy and remodeling. However, to be really efficient, certain conditions need to be considered. The amount, type and source of proteins do all matter as well as the timing of ingestion and spreading over the whole day. Optimizing those conditions favor a positive net protein balance, which in the long term, may result in muscle mass accretion. Last but not least, it is also essential to take the nutritional status and the exercise training load into consideration when looking for maintenance or gain of skeletal muscle mass.
Keywords: casein; hypertrophy; net protein balance; protein intake; resistance exercise; skeletal muscle mass; whey protein.