Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking a closer look at one of the most talked-about peptides in the market. On Dec. 3, 2025, he discussed whether the ‘Wolverine serum’ BPC-157 is a miracle drug for injury healing.
Schwarzenegger is a living legend, having won the prestigious Mr. Olympia contest seven times. Though it’s been nearly 50 years since he stepped onstage, he still is after any edge he can get for exercise, performance, and health.
This mission has led Schwarzenegger to examine strategies and tools to assist tendon healing and muscle strength. According to the bodybuilding legend, BPC-157 has promise, but he explained that human studies on it are extremely limited.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Discusses If Peptide BPC-157 ‘Lives Up to the Hype’ for Injury Recovery
In the newsletter, Schwarzenegger examined the injury recovery benefits of the peptide BPC-157. Although he believes its reputation for tissue healing is growing fast, he said those wanting to use it should pump the brakes.
“Is BPC-157 Really a Miracle for Injury Recovery? Researchers Finally Took A Deeper Look
If you follow fitness TikTok or hang around any gym long enough, you’ve probably heard someone whisper about BPC-157 and refer to it as the “Wolverine” serum. Tendon issues? Fixed. Knee pain? Gone. Muscle tear? Healed faster than ever.”“But when researchers dug into the science to see if this peptide BPC-157 lives up to the hype, the answer was a whole lot of “not so fast.”
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Schwarzenegger emphasized that a recent systematic review only included one human study on BPC-157 that involved just 12 subjects.
“A new systematic review searched three major databases and screened 544 papers on BPC-157. In the end, 36 studies made the final cut, but 35 were animal or cell studies, and only one study involved humans.
That one human study? A tiny 12-person case series with no control group, no blinding, and no standardized measures.”
Given how small the study was, Schwarzenegger noted that this is the ‘lowest level of evidence’ available.
“In research quality, that’s the lowest level of evidence we have. So right away, the hype is running a marathon while the science is still stretching. That doesn’t mean the potential isn’t there, but it does mean the claims we can make with confidence are limited.”
He does acknowledge that in rats and rabbits, BPC-157 had significant benefits for muscle, ligament, and tendon strength.
“In rats and rabbits, BPC-157 looks like a superhero: Muscles repaired with higher load-to-failure strength, tendons and ligaments healed faster, even bone fractures repaired as well as bone-marrow grafts in one study.
Researchers think this might be because BPC-157 seems to boost blood-vessel growth, reduce inflammatory signals, influence nitric-oxide pathways increase growth-hormone receptor activity.”
Additionally, “The Austrian Oak” warns that safety data on BPC-157 has yet to become available for human use.
“Those mechanisms sound great. But they’re all from animal and lab data — the research equivalent of “looks promising in the trailer.”
However, there’s no reliable published human evidence that BPC-157 helps injuries heal, and we don’t even have basic safety data,” he shared. “The lone clinical study gave 12 people with chronic knee pain received an injection, and 7 said they felt better for at least six months
But with no control group, no imaging, no diagnosis clarity, and no standardized outcome measure, we can’t say the peptide made the difference. There’s simply no way to know.”
Another concern voiced by Schwarzenegger was that BPC-157 can often be contaminated with other substances.
“And that’s why it’s hard to make a recommendation. Because while it could end up being fine, at this point, there are zero controlled human safety trials. The FDA classifies it as a Category 2 bulk substance, meaning we don’t know if it’s safe and companies aren’t allowed to compound it. And studies suggests that between 12% and 58% of peptide products are contaminated with other substances. And that’s why BPC-157 is banned by WADA, NCAA, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, PGA, and others.”
“When safety isn’t tested — and products aren’t regulated — you’re not just gambling on effectiveness. You’re gambling on purity and unknown potential downsides.”
Schwarzenegger has also taken aim at the supplement industry. He’s called out fish oil and creatine gummy manufacturers, noting that they are either underdosing what individuals need or lacking the ingredient altogether.
While BPC-157 has become a common tool for bodybuilders, Schwarzenegger cautions that more research on humans is needed. Since there are no long-term studies on it, he believes there could be unknown side effects.
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