Phosphatidic Acid Benefits for Muscle Building

Phosphatidic acid has gained popularity in recent years because of its alleged benefits in helping people to build muscle. Phosphatidic acid is also referred to as PA.
PA is a phospholipid, which is a type of compound that’s important for protecting the cells of our bodies – including those of our muscles.

Phosphatidic acid has an even more interesting application, however: It has a powerful influence on something known as mTOR. It increases the signaling of mTOR, a compound that is found in muscle cells.

What does this mean? Well, the signaling of mTOR is necessary for the body to add muscle mass. It’s involved in the synthesis of proteins in the musculoskeletal system. This means that you could be able to enhance the rate at which your body produces muscle by signaling the mTOR to activate more frequently.

mTOR controls the way that the body signals the anabolic and catabolic state of muscles. In an anabolic state, a muscle is building mass – in a catabolic state, it is losing mass and could potentially atrophy. mTOR helps to minimize muscle loss and improve muscle gain.

PA is found in a number of natural sources, like radishes and cabbage. Unfortunately, they don’t provide enough of the stuff to be useful beyond the importance of general nutrition. Cabbage, for example, only has about half a milligram of PA per gram, whereas most studies done on the substance have the subjects using between 250 to 750 mg.

PA increases strength
One of the main studies that have been done on PA followed 16 men who were undergoing resistance training over a period of 8 weeks. Subjects were evaluated for their strength during their training sessions.
The results were quite promising: the group of subjects who were given PA reported a 12.7% increase in the strength of their squats, whereas the placebo group only showed a 9.3% increase.

Even more impressive than the way that PA improves strength is the way that it improves lean muscle mass. In the same study as mentioned above, the subjects also had their lean muscle mass evaluated.
The group taking PA saw a 2.6% increase in their lean body mass, compared to the placebo subjects who only saw a 0.1% increase.

It’s important to note that the subjects in the first study were taking more than twice as much PA, so this could have influenced the results of the test.

Furthermore, the small body of evidence leaves a lot of variables unaccounted for. The subjects could have been given a different quality of PA, since there aren’t standards for regulating it. They could have been selected from different demographics. Until there are more studies, it can be hard to draw a solid conclusion.