Effects of different doses of branched-chain amino acid supplementation on recovery following acute eccentric exercise

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of different amounts of Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) supplementation on recovery from eccentric exercise. Nine healthy male subjects undertook 4 trials in a randomized crossover design. Participants ingested either a three different amount (2g, 10g, and 20g) of BCAA supplement or placebo before the eccentric exercise. Muscle pain, hunger, vertical jump, balance, and sprint performance were measured before exercise, immediately after exercise, 1, 24, and 48 h. after exercise. All the variables were checked regarding their normal distribution using the Shapiro-Wilk test and data were presented as means ±SD. A repeated-measure, two factor ANOVA was used to examine differences between the four trials over time for balance, speed, vertical jump, hunger, and muscle pain change. No differences were found at baseline values for balance, velocity, vertical jump, hunger, and muscle pain for four trials (p > 0.05). While the main effect of time was statistically significant for balance, speed, vertical jump, hunger, and muscle pain (p<0.05), the main effect of trial and the interaction effect (time*trial) were not statistically significant. It indicated that the measurements changed during the time, but not influenced by different doses of BCAA. In conclusion, there are no significant effects of different amounts of BCAA supplementation on recovery performance after acute eccentric exercise.