In 2025, Xiaorong Ji and team from Shanghai University of Sport reviewed 21 studies with 1,200+ healthy adults. They looked at how whey protein, taken with exercise like weight lifting or running, helps build muscle. The studies compared groups using whey (20-40g per dose) to those doing exercise alone or with other proteins, measuring muscle protein synthesis (how muscles repair and grow) and the AKT/mTOR pathway, a cell signal that turns on muscle building.