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Principles of Sports Medicine & Exercise Science

Sports and Fitness Recovery

by Bruce E. Johansen

Category: Condition

Specialties and related fields: Athletic training, dietetics, nutritionist, personal training, physical therapy, strength and conditioning

Definition: treatment to aid recovery from the side effects of intense exercise and physical training

KEY TERMS

collagen: the main structural protein found in skin and other connective tissues, widely used in purified form for cosmetic surgical treatments

exercise recovery: the period between the end of a bout of exercise and the subsequent return to a resting or recovered state

herb: a plant or plant part used for its scent, flavor, or therapeutic properties

supplement: a nutritional product, such as vitamin, mineral, herb, amino acid, or enzyme, taken orally that augments someone’s diet to ensure that their nutritional needs are satisfactorily met

vitamin: a nutrient that the body needs in small amounts to function and stay healthy

INTRODUCTION

In the competitive world of sports, the smallest advantage can make an enormous difference in the hundredths of seconds that can determine the outcome of a contest. A dietary supplement that can improve an athlete’s strength, speed, and endurance can make the difference between tenth place and first place in a world-class, competitive race.

Supplements may play another beneficial role for athletes: aiding recovery from the side effects of intense exercise. While exercise of moderate intensity is almost undoubtedly a purely positive activity, high-intensity endurance exercise, such as running marathons can cause respiratory infections and damage parts of the body. In addition, all forms of exercise, when carried to an extreme, can cause severe muscle soreness, which may, in turn, affect training. Herbs and supplements advocated for these problems are discussed here.

PRINCIPAL PROPOSED NATURAL TREATMENTS

Extremely intense exercise, such as training for and running a marathon, also may decrease immunity; endurance athletes frequently become ill after maximum exertion. Vitamin C might help prevent this, although not all studies agree.

According to a double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving ninety-two runners, taking 600 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C for twenty-one days before a race significantly reduced the incidence of sickness afterward. Within two weeks of the end of the race, 68 percent of the runners taking a placebo developed symptoms of a common cold. In contrast, only 33 percent of those taking a vitamin C supplement developed cold symptoms. As part of the same study, nonrunners of similar genders and ages were given vitamin C or a placebo. For this group, the supplement had no apparent effect on upper respiratory infections. Vitamin C seemed to be specifically effective in this capacity for those who exercised intensively.

Two other studies found that vitamin C could reduce the number of colds experienced by groups of people involved in a rigorous exercise in extremely cold environments. One study involved 139 children attending a skiing camp in the Swiss Alps. At the same time, the other enrolled fifty-six military men engaged in a training exercise in Northern Canada during the winter months. In both cases, the participants took either 1 gram (g) of vitamin C or a placebo daily when their training program began. Cold symptoms were monitored for one to two weeks following training, and researchers found significant differences in favor of vitamin C. However, one large study of 674 US Marine Corps recruits found no such benefit. The results showed no difference in colds between the treatment and placebo groups.

There are many possible explanations for this discrepancy. Perhaps basic training in the Marine Corps is significantly different from other forms of exercise studied. Another point to consider is that the recruits did not start taking vitamin C at the beginning of training but waited three weeks before doing so. The study also lasted a bit longer than the earlier positive studies. Perhaps vitamin C is more effective at preventing colds in the short term. Of course, another possibility may be that vitamin C does not work.

OTHER PROPOSED NATURAL TREATMENTS

Glutamine is an important fuel source for some immune system cells. Like vitamin C, the amino acid glutamine may help prevent the infections that may take place after strenuous exercise. Some evidence suggests that athletes who have trained very hard experience lower-than-usual glutamine levels in their blood. One double-blind clinical trial involving 151 athletes found that supplementation with 5 g of glutamine immediately after heavy exercise and another 5 g two hours later reduced the incidence of infections significantly. Only 19 percent of those taking glutamine reported infections, while 51 percent of the placebo group succumbed to illness.

Probiotics are healthy organisms found in the digestive tract. Not only can they help prevent intestinal infections, but they also appear to help prevent colds. In a double-blind, controlled trial involving twenty healthy, elite distance runners, researchers found that a probiotic supplement (Lactobacillus fermentum) given for four months during winter training significantly reduced the number and severity of respiratory symptoms compared with a placebo. Weaker evidence suggests that beta-sitosterol might also offer some promise for this purpose. However, thymus extract, another proposed immune booster for athletes, does not seem to work, according to a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of sixty athletes.

Exercising increases the presence of free radicals, naturally occurring substances that can damage tissue. Some researchers have theorized that such damage may, in part, cause muscle soreness and perhaps muscle deterioration that can accompany a strenuous workout. Based on this theory, but with little direct evidence, various antioxidants have been proposed to help prevent muscle soreness or muscle damage. These antioxidants include astaxanthin plus lycopene, beta-carotene, cherry juice, coenzyme Q10, oligomeric proanthocyanidins, selenium, vitamin C, and vitamin E. One double-blind trial compared vitamin C, vitamin E, and placebo for muscle soreness in twenty-four male volunteers. Vitamin C relieved muscle soreness, but vitamin E did not. Two other studies failed to find C combined with E effective. Another study failed to find benefits with the algae-derived carotenoid astaxanthin.

One small double-blind study found that using a mixed amino acid reduced muscle soreness caused by endurance exercising of the arm. These researchers performed two studies. The first involved taking the amino acid thirty minutes before exercising; this study failed to observe any benefit. The second, more effective regimen added one dose immediately after exercise and two doses daily for the next four days. In addition, a specific family of amino acids, branched-chain amino acids, have shown some promise for reducing muscle damage after long-distance running.

The proteolytic enzyme supplement bromelain, used for sports injuries, has also been proposed to reduce muscle soreness after exercise. However, a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that compared bromelain with placebo failed to find benefit. Another study using a mixed proteolytic enzyme supplement also failed to find benefits.

Collagen hydrolysate is a nutritional supplement that may benefit cartilage tissue in joints. In a randomized, placebo-controlled study involving healthy college athletes with joint pain, 10 g daily of collagen hydrolysate appeared to reduce the pain effectively over twenty-four weeks.

The supplement phosphatidylserine has also failed to prove effective for reducing muscle soreness after exercise, as have chondroitin and magnet therapy. In one study, the supplement glucosamine not only failed to prove effective for reducing exercise-induced muscle soreness; it increased soreness.

Athletes who train excessively may experience a condition called “overtraining syndrome.” Symptoms include depression, fatigue, reduced performance, and physiologic signs of stress. Numerous supplements have been suggested as treatments for this condition, including glutamine and, most prominently, antioxidants, but none has been proven effective.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Johansen, Bruce E. "Sports And Fitness Recovery." Principles of Sports Medicine & Exercise Science, edited by Michael A. Buratovich, Salem Press, 2022. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=POSpKin_0121.

APA 7th

Johansen, B. E. (2022). Sports and Fitness Recovery. In M. A. Buratovich (Ed.), Principles of Sports Medicine & Exercise Science. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Johansen, Bruce E. "Sports And Fitness Recovery." Edited by Michael A. Buratovich. Principles of Sports Medicine & Exercise Science. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2022. Accessed September 16, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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