Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Published Online First: 21 June 2006. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2005.025429
British Journal of Sports Medicine 2006;40:679-683
Copyright © 2006 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Efficacy of a tart cherry juice blend in preventing the symptoms of muscle damage

D A J Connolly1, M P McHugh2, O I Padilla-Zakour3

1 Human Performance Laboratory, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
2 Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, NY, USA
3 Department of Food Science & Technology, Cornell University, Geneva, NY, USA

Correspondence to:
Dr Connolly
Human Performance Laboratory, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA; Declan.Connolly{at}uvm.edu

Background: Numerous antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents have been identified in tart cherries.

Objective: To test the efficacy of a tart cherry juice blend in preventing the symptoms of exercise induced muscle damage.

Methods: This was a randomised, placebo controlled, crossover design. Fourteen male college students drank 12 fl oz of a cherry juice blend or a placebo twice a day for eight consecutive days. A bout of eccentric elbow flexion contractions (2 x 20 maximum contractions) was performed on the fourth day of supplementation. Isometric elbow flexion strength, pain, muscle tenderness, and relaxed elbow angle were recorded before and for four days after the eccentric exercise. The protocol was repeated two weeks later with subjects who took the placebo initially, now taking the cherry juice (and vice versa). The opposite arm performed the eccentric exercise for the second bout to avoid the repeated bout protective effect.

Results: Strength loss and pain were significantly less in the cherry juice trial versus placebo (time by treatment: strength p<0.0001, pain p = 0.017). Relaxed elbow angle (time by treatment p = 0.85) and muscle tenderness (time by treatment p = 0.81) were not different between trials.

Conclusions: These data show efficacy for this cherry juice in decreasing some of the symptoms of exercise induced muscle damage. Most notably, strength loss averaged over the four days after eccentric exercise was 22% with the placebo but only 4% with the cherry juice.

Keywords: cherries; delayed onset muscle soreness; pain; recovery; strength


 

Commentary 1

L Carlson4

Castleton State College, Castleton, VT, USA; lara.carlson{at}castleton.edu


 

Commentary 2

S P Sayers5

University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA; sayerss{at}missouri.edu


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.

 

The journal is co-owned by and the official journal of BASEM

Official journal of ECOSEP

Available online to all members of ACSP, AMSSM and SMNZ