Every intervention Outliyr has scored for muscle growth, ranked by its BioHarmony score for this use case rather than its overall rating. The number beside each name is how well that one thing works for muscle growth; the tier beside it is what it is worth once safety, cost and effort are counted across everything else.
36 of 96 evaluated interventions score 3.0+ out of 10 for muscle growth · 19 comparisons
Jackman 2017 reports Corrected PMID from audit; supports acute BCAA anabolic direction, not stand-alone long-term EAA outcome claims. Kirwan 2022 points in the same direction, but route, dose, baseline status, and outcome…
Chilibeck 2017 reports Older adults; +1.37 kg lean mass; leg press SMD 0.24. Delpino 2022 points in the same direction, but route, dose, baseline status, and outcome tracking decide whether Creatine Monohydrate…
Whey protein directly supplies leucine-rich amino acids needed for muscle protein synthesis. The strongest support comes from Shimomura Y. et al. 2006, but the practical rating stays bounded by study size, replication,…
Meta-analyses including Lixandrao 2018 confirm low-load BFR can produce hypertrophy similar to heavy-load training while using much lighter loads. The score stays bounded because Blood-Flow Restriction Training evidence for muscle growth can…
Bhasin 1996 reports Classic androgen dose-response trial; supports anabolic mechanism but used supraphysiologic dosing in normal men, not standard TRT. The score stays conditional because TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) still needs better…
WB-EMS recruits high-threshold motor units through involuntary contraction. Kemmler 2021 and Rodrigues-Santana 2023 support muscle-mass gains, but effect size depends heavily on population, protocol, and whether the comparator is active training or…
Soh 2024 anchors the most relevant signal. Glycine fits muscle growth because glycine participates in sleep signaling, glutathione, collagen, methylation, and nervous-system balance, depending on the endpoint. The score stays bounded because…
Whole-Body Vibration alone produces only small increases in muscle size, and most gains stem from neural adaptations rather than true hypertrophy. When paired with blood-flow restriction, low-load resistance, or rehabilitation protocols, Whole-Body…
Leisegang 2022 anchors the strongest signal. The existing rationale points to this narrower claim: the cited study is the main lean-mass citation, with support from aging-male and senior trials. Evidence does not…
Teichman 2006 reports CJC-1295 human pharmacology; supports sustained GH/IGF-1 increase and short-duration tolerability, not body-composition or longevity outcomes. Ionescu 2006 points in the same direction, but route, dose, baseline status, and outcome…
This is ostarine's best-evidenced use case and the reason it exists. Multiple placebo-controlled trials show consistent lean-mass gains: roughly +1.4 kg over 12 weeks at 3 mg in healthy older adults (Dalton…
Shahmirzadi 2020 supports direction more than certainty. The existing rationale points to this narrower claim: No hypertrophy RCT data. Nitrogen-balance and burn-care literature is adjacent, not proof of muscle growth in healthy…
The evidence points to a plausible use case without proving a universal response. Ferreira et al. 2025 is the best anchor here because it reports overview of 11 systematic reviews, 151 original…
Human data support a modest muscle-performance signal more than hypertrophy. ATLAS and older-adult trials suggest strength/endurance effects, but not clear muscle-mass gain. That makes Urolithin A more defensible when muscle growth is…
Accelerates muscle fiber repair; indirect support for training recovery. BPC-157 is not a proven hypertrophy agent, and WADA status should keep tested athletes away from performance-framed use.
Testosterone, collagen-marker, and strength-retention findings support a modest muscle-growth adjacency, but hypertrophy outcomes have not been directly tested.
GH/IGF-1 signaling can support lean tissue, and Adrian 2019 found increased trunk muscle area and density in HIV tesamorelin responders. Strength transfer and direct hypertrophy outcomes remain modest.
Reduced muscle damage could support training frequency, but no direct hypertrophy evidence supports a higher score.
Muscle growth is supported by the lean-mass data but undercut by what that mass did, which is why it lands mid-range. The Nass 2008 trial confirmed about 1.1 kg of fat-free mass…
Minimal hypertrophy signal. Cycling or uphill running can preserve some lower-body capacity, but the stimulus is cardiovascular rather than mechanical-tension dominant.
mTOR inhibition works against muscle protein synthesis signaling; users commonly avoid dose day near hard resistance training.
Sprints recruit and preserve fast-twitch muscle but are not a primary hypertrophy stimulus. Keep resistance training if muscle growth is the goal.
Improved mitochondrial function supports muscle bioenergetics, but no direct hypertrophy trial exists; the FDA approval is muscle strength in Barth syndrome, not muscle growth.
Aged mice nearly doubled muscle-fiber size after injury (Neelakantan 2019), yet this is an aging-rescue pathway with no evidence it transfers to young, healthy users.
The mechanism favors oxidative remodeling rather than hypertrophy. Billon et al. 2023 reported oxidative fiber changes, but no muscle-growth, lean-mass, or resistance-training endpoint exists in humans.
Cell hydration supports normal training and protein-synthesis context, but electrolyte blends are permissive rather than anabolic.
Muscle-growth stays low because GHK-Cu is not a direct anabolic. Collagen and connective-tissue support may help recovery context, but hypertrophy evidence is absent. Pickart 2018 supports tissue-remodeling biology, not muscle gain.
Walton 2019 is a direct negative for hypertrophy-focused users. Metformin is a poor fit for older adults prioritizing resistance-training adaptation unless a clinician has a stronger metabolic reason.
Bovine colostrum contains growth factors, but oral growth factors do not reliably create systemic anabolic signaling. Muscle-growth evidence is weaker than creatine, protein sufficiency, and progressive overload.
Hypertrophy benefit is not reliable. Early muscle-protein-synthesis enthusiasm has not translated into consistent strength or lean-mass gains across newer controlled work.
Omi 2019 EMIQ plus protein in 40 male athletes showed body composition gains that may include lean mass context. Direct hypertrophy RCTs in resistance-trained adults are not available for quercetin alone. mTOR…
MOTS-c is not primarily anabolic. AMPK activation can compete with mTOR-driven hypertrophy signaling, so muscle-growth claims should stay modest despite Reynolds 2021 muscle-homeostasis data.
No direct hypertrophy evidence supports NMN. Muscle-function data are older-adult and endurance-adjacent, not muscle-growth evidence.
Muscle gain is harder during appetite suppression and weight loss; the protocol must include progressive training and high protein.
No human muscle-growth trial exists for GHRP-6. The growth-hormone pulse it produces is real but far smaller than exogenous growth hormone, per Jaffe 1993, and nothing has been measured for hypertrophy in…
Inferred from MK-677, which increased fat-free mass without reliable strength gains. No MK-777 data exists, capping this below a tested compound.
Nothing matches those filters.
Monthly out-of-pocket cost at the most accessible legitimate channel, at the dose the score was given for. 10 of 36 are not priced yet; those cells are left blank rather than guessed.
| Intervention | Monthly cost | At dose | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential Amino Acids | Not priced yet | ||
| Creatine Monohydrate | Not priced yet | ||
| Grass-Fed Whey Protein | $40–$80 | 20-40 g protein | Over the counter |
| Blood-Flow Restriction Training | Not priced yet | ||
| TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) | $50–$300 | Clinician-selected formulation at the lowest dose likely to restore physiologic testosterone | Prescription |
| Full-Body EMS | Not priced yet | ||
| Glycine | $2–$3 | 3 g oral glycine | Over the counter |
| Whole-Body Vibration | $50–$100 | 30 Hz, roughly 0.3g, 10-20 min standing | Over the counter |
| Tongkat Ali | $20–$40 | 200 mg/day Physta standardized extract | Over the counter |
| CJC-1295 | $80–$200 | 1-2 mg subcutaneous | Grey market |
| Ostarine (MK-2866 / enobosarm) | Not priced yet | ||
| Ca-AKG (Calcium Alpha-Ketoglutarate) | $15–$30 | 1 g/day generic Ca-AKG oral | Over the counter |
| Ashwagandha | $15–$30 | 300 mg KSM-66 with breakfast and 300 mg with dinner | Over the counter |
| Urolithin A | $50–$100 | 500 mg/day | Over the counter |
| BPC-157 | $40–$80 | 250 to 500 mcg SC 1 to 2x/day near injury site | Grey market |
| Shilajit | $25–$50 | 500 mg purified shilajit | Over the counter |
| Tesamorelin | $250–$500 | 2 mg subcutaneous daily in the evening | Prescription |
| Astaxanthin | Not priced yet | ||
| MK-677 (Ibutamoren) | $30–$60 | 10 to 12.5 mg | Grey market |
| Norwegian 4×4 | Not priced yet | Over the counter | |
| Rapamycin | $15–$50 | 3 mg | Prescription |
| Sprinting (Sprint Interval Training) | Not priced yet | ||
| SS-31 (Elamipretide) | $200–$500 | 5-10 mg/day subcutaneous | Grey market |
| 5-Amino-1MQ | $95–$190 | 50 to 100 mg oral, once daily | Grey market |
| SLU-PP-332 | $30–$80 | 3-5 mg/day oral | Research use only |
| Electrolytes | Not priced yet | ||
| GHK-Cu | $30–$100 | 0.5-3% topical serum or cream | Over the counter |
| Metformin | $4–$30 | 500 mg with dinner for 1 week, then 500 mg twice daily for 1 week, then increase by 500 mg/week toward 1000 mg twice daily as tolerated | Prescription |
| Colostrum | $60–$80 | 20 g/day powder, split AM/PM if tolerated | Over the counter |
| Omega-3 | $20–$40 | 1-2 g/day combined EPA+DHA | Over the counter |
| Quercetin | $20–$50 | 200 mg/day | Over the counter |
| MOTS-c | $100–$200 | 5-10 mg SC | Research use only |
| NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) | $40–$100 | 500 mg/day oral | Over the counter |
| Semaglutide | $199–$349 | 0.25 mg weeks 1 to 4, 0.5 mg weeks 5 to 8, 1.0 mg weeks 9 to 12, 1.7 mg weeks 13 to 16, 2.4 mg week 17 onward | Prescription |
| GHRP-6 | $20–$40 | 100 mcg | Grey market |
| MK-777 (Acetamoren) | Not priced yet |
Head-to-head reports and category rankings that name a winner on this use case.
This page ranks by the live endurance-cardio subrating, not by BioHarmony overall, and the order flips. SLU-PP-332 leads at 6.5–7.0/10 despite carrying the lowest overall score on the…
This page ranks by the live Body Composition subrating, fat loss and body composition, not the overall BioHarmony score. Tesamorelin leads at 7.5–8.0/10, and it also carries the…
This page ranks by hormonal fit, not overall BioHarmony score. TRT leads at 9.0–9.5/10. Phosphatidylserine sits fifth at 5.5–6.0/10 despite the second highest overall score here, 7.0–7.5/10. That…
Neither, if fat loss is the goal. Both score 2.0–2.5/10 on body composition, which is the row a vendor sells them on. AOD-9604 scores 3.0–3.5/10 overall and its…
No. Berberine scores 6.5–7.0/10 and semaglutide 6.0–6.5/10, and that gap misleads almost everyone who reads it. Berberine scores higher because it is cheap, oral and easy to stop,…
Tesamorelin, unless price is the only thing deciding. It is FDA-approved for visceral fat with Phase 3 trials behind it, while CJC-1295 is a gray-market research peptide whose…
These two get sold as the same thing, a scoop for gut and skin, and they share almost no mechanism. Colostrum is a gut and immune product: gut…
On weight loss they tie, and neither is a drug you can legitimately buy. Both score 7.5/10 for body composition, and both are investigational Lilly molecules with phase…
The scores tie at 6.0–6.5/10 and 6.0–6.5/10 and every shared subrating sits within half a point, so the numbers decide nothing. Access and evidence decide it. Gonadorelin is…
Kisspeptin-10 scores 6.0–6.5/10 and TRT 5.5–6.0/10, and TRT still wins 13 of the 15 use cases both reports score. The higher number reflects dependency and reversibility, not effect.…
Start on sermorelin. Ipamorelin scores higher overall, yet sermorelin wins thirteen of the sixteen shared use cases and it is the one an anti-aging clinic actually prescribes. Ipamorelin…
Shilajit scores 7.0–7.5/10 and ashwagandha 6.5–7.0/10, but that gap is the least useful number here. These two do different jobs. Shilajit is the mineral and androgen play: male…
Essential Amino Acids, at 8.5–9.0 out of 10 for muscle growth. Jackman 2017 reports Corrected PMID from audit; supports acute BCAA anabolic direction, not stand-alone long-term EAA outcome claims.
Of the top-scoring options, Glycine is the least expensive at about $2 a month, scoring 5.5–6.0 out of 10 for muscle growth.
36 of the 96 interventions evaluated for muscle growth score 3.0 out of 10 or better, which is the cut-off for appearing on this page.
