Serious athletes and bodybuilders that are looking to go through prolonged and intense training sessions are always cognizant of the fact that they might actually damage their muscles when they really start pushing things to the breaking point – but also recognize that they have to get as close to this line as possible if they’re going to break down and then rebuild their bodies to become bigger, stronger, and faster.
Thankfully, new research out of Korea suggests that those preparing to undergo intense training sessions can better protect the muscle tissue they’ve already built with the help of grape seed extract.
This would allow these athletes to continue pushing their bodies as hard as possible without as much risk for serious injury or setback along the way.
This Korean study has recently been published in the Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness, a study that involved 16 different participants separated into two different groups – both of which were provided with a supplement containing 300 mg of grape seed extract they were instructed to consume every night for three days.
Researchers were working with American supplement companies to come up with the grape seed extract formula, a formula specifically designed to provide as high-quality a level of grape seed as possible during the testing phase.
A second group of participants were given a placebo supplement and acted as the control group, and the entire process was conducted in a double-blind study to help improve the accuracy and the efficacy of the results.
During the first day of the experiment, test participants that had not been used to intense training for asked to work there biceps out on the curling machine. Test participants did two different eccentric sets of 25 reps each, really blasting their biceps – particularly since their bodies had not been accustomed to this kind of intense training to begin with.
This was certainly a recipe for major muscle damage throughout the impacted area.
After this initial intense training had taken place researchers studied the impacted muscular tissue at 24 hour, 48 hour, 72 hour, and 96 hour intervals. Researchers not only investigated the muscular damage through a variety of scientific tests but also asked questionnaires of the test participants to see what kind of pain they were dealing with.
Researchers took things another step further to determine the maximum level of strength that students had at the bicep curl during these intervals as well, taking time to measure just how much creatine kinase had remains in the bloodstream as well.
This biochemical marker is a great sign for understanding muscle damage, with a higher concentration of this form of creatine linked directly to higher levels of muscular damage.
The Korean research group discovered that not only was there last muscular damage the nose that supplemented with grape seed extract, but that the maximum level of strength for those that had been supplementing with this compound also was improved compared to those taking the placebo.
Rest and recovery times were better for those supplementing with grape seed extract as well, and the overall amount of that specific form of creatine in the bloodstream was statistically significantly lower in those that were using grape seed extract.
“These results could be helpful in the application of Grape Seed Extract supplementation as a nutritional intervention to reduce muscle damage after high intensity strength training, especially in the early stage of a new strength training program”, the researchers conclude.
Source: https://www.elsevier.com/catalog?producttype=journals
