Get All-Natural Protection From Post-Workout Pain

By VRP Staff

Nobody expects exercise to be completely a painless endeavor. In fact, if you’re not hurting after a hard workout, chances are good that you’re not going to get the results that you want. It’s the most well-known catch-22 of exercise… but luckily, that doesn’t mean you’ll have to bite the bullet and suffer if you want to tone up.

While there are a lot of reasons why you could be hurting for days after your last trip to the gym, the most common cause is called delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS)—an inflammatory reaction that usually occurs 24 to 28 hours after heavy exercise.¹ This reaction plays a part in the onset, amplification and resolution of exercise-induced injury… but while it may lead to a fair share of discomfort, it’s not all bad.²

It’s easy to forget that inflammation actually plays an important role in repairing damage in your body—and in the case of vigorous workouts, it’s merely a response to the minuscule tears that affect your muscles from bearing significantly more force than they would during a day spent on the couch. Thus, the inflammatory molecules that start circulating afterwards, as well as the resultant pain, are just telling your body to repair these muscles—a process that will eventually leave your body in stronger, leaner shape than before.³

Ultimately, a little post-exercise pain simply can’t be avoided—but there are a number of nutrients that can help to make your recovery faster.

The antioxidant herb turmeric, for example, delivers powerful anti-inflammatory benefits by safely modulating and inhibiting key inflammatory chemical mediators like leukotrines, prostaglandins and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)—so it’s no surprise that this natural compound has shown great promise in curbing sports-related muscle injuries.^4-6

Boswellia serrata is another natural anti-inflammatory compound, which prevents collagen degradation in your joints and tissues, and effectively halts inflammatory signaling by way of prostaglandin E2, COX-2 and matrix metalloprotein (MMP) inhibition.⁷ Finally, the amino acid dl-phenylalanine can boost levels of your body’s own pain-relieving chemicals, called enkephalins, to increase your post-workout comfort naturally—while nattokinase may help control pain through its actions as a fibrinolytic enzyme, which means it breaks down fibrin deposits by inactivating plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1).^8-9 The fibrinolytic system is closely linked to control of inflammation, and plays a role in disease states associated with inflammation.

You’ll find all of these anti-inflammatory nutrients as part of a single formula called Back In Action™, available now from Vitamin Research Products.

Unfortunately, another unpleasant side effect of exercise is temporarily weakened immunity, due to the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine during strenuous physical activity.^10-11 Endurance based exercise that lasts more than 90 minutes is associated with increased infection susceptibility and depressed immunity, which scientists have linked to low plasma levels of the amino acid glutamine that accompany heavy training.^12-14

L-glutamine is available in both capsule and powder form from VRP—and supplementing with an ample dose of both during and immediately after exercise is recommended for athletes and casual exercisers alike.

References:

1. Coudreuse JM, Dupont P, Nicol C. Delayed post effort muscle soreness. Ann Readapt Med Phys. 2004 Aug;47(6):290-8.

2. MacIntyre DL, Reid WD, McKenzie DC. Delayed muscle soreness. The inflammatory response to muscle injury and its clinical implications. Sports Med. 1995 Jul;20(1):24-40.

3. Suzuki K, Nakaji S, Yamada M, et al Systemic inflammatory response to exhaustive exercise. Cytokine kinetics. Exerc Immunol Rev. 2002;8:6-48.

4. Zhang F, Altorki NK, Mestre JR, et al. Curcumin inhibits cyclooxygenase-2 transcription in bile acid- and phorbol ester-treated human gastrointestinal epithelial cells. Carcinogenesis 1999;20:445-51.

5. Menon VP, Sudheer AR. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2007;595:105-25.

6. Davis JM, Murphy EA, Carmichael MD, et al. Curcumin effects on inflammation and performance recovery following eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2007 Jun;292(6):R2168-73. Epub 2007 Mar 1.

7. Blain EJ, Ali AY, Duance VC. Boswellia frereana (frankincense) suppresses cytokine-induced matrix metalloproteinase expression and production of pro-inflammatory molecules in articular cartilage. Phytother Res. 2009 Nov 26.

8. Walsh NE, Ramamurthy S, Schoenfeld L, et al. Analgesic effectiveness of D-phenylalanine in chronic pain patients. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1986;67:436-9.

9. Urano T, Ihara H, Umemura K, et al. The profibrinolytic enzyme subtilisin NAT purified from Bacillus subtilis cleaves and inactivates plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1. J Biol Chem. 2001 Jul 6;276(27):24690-24696.

10. Mignini F, Traini E, Tomassoni D, et al. Leucocyte subset redistribution in a human model of physical stress. Clin Exp Hypertens. 2008 Nov;30(8):720-31.

11. Gleeson M, Nieman DC, Pedersen BK. Exercise, nutrition and immune function. J Sports Sci. 2004 Jan;22(1):115-25.

12. Nieman DC, Pedersen BK. Exercise and immune function. Recent developments. Sports Med. 1999 Feb;27(2):73-80.

13. Gleeson M. Dosing and efficacy of glutamine supplementation in human exercise and sport training. J Nutr. 2008 Oct;138(10):2045S-2049S.

14. Castell LM, Poortmans JR, Newsholme EA. Does glutamine have a role in reducing infections in athletes? Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1996;73(5):488-90.