Foods to reduce DOMS?

[Damon JoynerParticipant]

While the exact cause of delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) is unknown, there are some plausible theories that try to explain why the soreness after an intense bout of exercise can often occur a day or two later. Are there any foods/supplements that have been proven to (1) reduce the intensity of soreness and (2) help prevent it from happening?

[Hannah J HendricksParticipant]

Delayed onset muscle soreness has always been a problem affecting both athletes and non-athletes. In a study published in The Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation, researchers found that some forms of nutritional intervention can help prevent inflammatory responses and oxidative stress which both lead to DOMS (Kim, J). Caffeine was found to help decrease the DOMS because it blocks adenosine receptors that decrease the activity of the central nervous system (Hurley et al., 2013). Omega-3 fatty acids were also found to help decrease inflammation that leads to soreness. This is because Omega-3 fatty acids contain Eicosanoid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) which are found to prevent inflammatory response (Jouris et al., 2011). Other nutritional components that were found to help decrease DOMS were taurine and polyphenol.Taurine can be found in animal muscle tissue while polyphenol is found in many plants. By incorporating all of these nutrients into a balanced diet, DOMS will likely decrease.

Information that was shared in this post were found at:

Hurley CF, Hatfield DL,The effect of caffeine ingestion on delayed onset muscle soreness.Riebe DA J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Nov; 27(11):3101-9.

Jouris KB, Mcdaniel JL, Weiss EP. The Effect of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation on the Inflammatory Response to eccentric strength exercise. J Sports Sci Med. 2011;10(3):432-8.

Kim J, Lee J. A review of nutritional intervention on delayed onset muscle soreness. Part I. J Exerc Rehabil. 2014;10(6):349-56.

[Damon JoynerParticipant]

Thank you for your response and research on this topic. I think most athletes are interested in anything that is available to help speed up recovery after a training bout. I was also able to find an article suggesting that consumption of branched chain amino acids plus a glucose supplement was also effective in reducing exercise induced soreness (1). However, this effect was only found to be significant in females; males showed no differences when compared to the placebo group. It appears that more research is still needed to discover all of the options available to help athletes recover faster.

1. Leahy D, Pintauro S. Branched chain amino acids plus glucose supplement reduces exercise induced delayed onset muscle soreness in college age females. ISRN Nutrition. 2013; 9: 969-972.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by  Damon Joyner.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by  Damon Joyner.

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