Collagen supplementation enhances tendon size and rate of force development 📈

More evidence supporting collagen for tendons.

Tom Coughlin

Oct 01, 2025

Study Details

This new study recruited 22 female masters hockey athletes who were assigned to either…

1️⃣ Collagen (30 g hydrolysed collagen)

2️⃣ Placebo (32.9 g maltodextrin)

…both supplements contained 500mg vitamin C 🍊

Participants completed three eccentric resistance exercise sessions per week for 8 weeks in addition to their regular hockey training 🏋️‍♀️

Supplements were consumed before each session ⏰

Here is what they found ⬇️

Key Findings

After 8 weeks, both groups enhanced maximal voluntary force and vastus lateralis muscle size 💪

But there were no significant differences between groups ❌

However, the collagen group exhibited significantly enhanced…

🦵 Patellar tendon hypertrophy

⚡️ Peak rate of force development

…compared to placebo.

Conclusion

Therefore, collagen augments resistance-exercise induced gains in tendon growth and rate of force development ✅

Would these gains have occurred similarly with whey protein? It would have been great to see that as a third “control” group to the study 🧐

Maybe next time! 🤞

Reference

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40992424/

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