Cherry juice helps against sore muscles
Cherry juice reduces muscle soreness and muscle damage, researchers at the University of Vermont report. Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory substances, which are found in large quantities in the fruit, are probably responsible for this phenomenon.
The research team led by Declan Connolly examined the influence of fruit juice on muscle growth, muscle movement and muscle strength in 14 test subjects who were physically active. To this end, the researchers had some of the subjects drink a cherry juice mixture containing the juice of about fifty to sixty freshly squeezed cherries, while the remaining subjects received a drink without cherry juice. Both groups received their drink twice a day, three days before and four days after exercise. The exercise consisted of a muscle flexion: For example, the subjects had to stretch their arms twenty times and bring them back to their bodies. Connolly measured the subjects' muscle build-up daily and asked them to rate their muscle tension on a scale of one to ten. The researchers repeated the experiment two weeks later, with the control group now receiving the juice and the cherry drinkers receiving the placebo.
Collonny found a loss of muscle strength in only four percent of cherry juice drinkers compared to 22 percent of controls. Furthermore, the subjects who drank cherry juice rated their soreness on the scale with an average score of 2.4. The control group rated their soreness at an average of 3.2. Although Collonny could see little difference in muscle tension between the two groups, he observed that the muscles of the cherry juice drinkers were significantly less painful. In the subjects who took the juice, the muscle pain peaked after 24 hours and then subsided. The control group struggled with the pain for a day longer.
