Benefits of a bowl of cherries
US researchers have come up with practical and tasty way to
keep the symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage at bay.
They found that volunteers who consumed up to 120 tart
cherries a day in the form of a juice blend suffered significantly
less strength loss and muscle pain after eccentric exercise than
those drinking a similar-tasting inactive juice (placebo).
Fourteen male college students drank 12 fl oz of either the
cherry juice blend or the placebo drink twice a day for eight
consecutive days. On the fourth day they performed a bout of
2×20 maximum eccentric elbow flexion contractions. Isometric
elbow flexion strength, pain, muscle tenderness and range of
motion were recorded before and for four days after the exercise.
The protocol was repeated two weeks later with subjects who
had had the placebo first time round now taking the cherry juice,
and vice versa.
After analysing both sets of results, the researchers found that:
● Strength loss over the four days after exercise averaged 22%
with the placebo but only 4% with the cherry juice;
● Pain in the elbow flexors peaked at 24 hours in the cherry juice
trial and then declined, whereas it continued to increase in the
placebo trial to peak at 48 hours;
● Loss of range of motion and muscle tenderness was similar in
both trials.
Numerous antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents have been found
in tart cherries, and eating them has been shown to reduce blood
concentrations of inflammatory markers in healthy men and women.
The researchers comment: ‘These results have important practical
applications for athletes, as performance after damaging exercise bouts
is primarily affected by strength loss and pain. In addition to being an
efficacious treatment for minimising symptoms of exercise induced
muscle damage, consumption of cherry juice is much more convenient
than many of the treatments that have been presented in the literature.’
Br J Sports Med 2006; 40:679-683
