After a workout, drinking protein from cricket, pea, or whey doesn't seem to turn on muscle-building signals more than just taking the protein alone — at least not in the short term.

In young, healthy guys, eating cricket, pea, or whey protein (based on body type) works the same for turning on a key muscle-building signal in the body — whether they’ve just worked out or not.

When you lift weights or do resistance training, your muscles get bigger — and one big reason is that your body turns on a molecular switch (mTORC1) that tells your muscles to make more protein, though other things are also helping out.

When you lift weights, your muscles turn on a specific molecular switch called mTORC1, which helps build more muscle protein. But just because this switch flips on right after a workout doesn’t mean you’ll definitely get bigger muscles over time—it doesn’t always line up.

If young, active guys drink a shake with 20g of milk, whey, or casein protein plus 45g of carbs after a mixed workout, all three proteins help turn on muscle-building signals just as well—even though they’re absorbed differently.

Lifting weights makes your muscles bigger, mostly because it turns on a special signal in your muscle cells that tells them to make more protein, but other things might help too.