Post- workout supplementation with CoQ10 and sports drink on exercise performance and muscle recovery after exercise in normal and overweight males

Abstract

Background: Post- workout supplementation has been used in athletes and recreational exercisers; however, responses between normal and overweight individuals on exercise performance and muscle recovery are less known.

Methods: Normal and overweight young adult males (21 subjects/group) participated in resistance and fatiguing exercises before receiving post-workout supplements: placebo, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), or sports drink in a crossover design. Resistance exercises included upper body exercise (bench press, upright row, and standing shoulder press) and lower body exercise (dead lift, back squat, and front squat) at 75% of one-repetition maximum (1 RM). Fatiguing exercise was performed on a cycle ergometer with 3 ​min of all-out effort at 3.5% of body mass. Participants consumed post-workout supplements within 10 ​min of exercise completion and repeated-bout exercise was performed 1 ​h later, followed by cardiovascular responses, urinary biomarkers, and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) assessments.

Results: There were effects of overweight on resistance exercise volume, critical power, fatigue index, and post-exercise diastolic blood pressure (DBP). However, no differences in urinary biomarkers of muscle damage (potassium and creatinine) or DOMS between normal and overweight individuals. After supplementation, CoQ10 and sports drink increased resistance exercise volume regardless of body mass and increased critical power in the normal group. Additionally, CoQ10 supplementation was associated with a reduction in urinary biomarkers and DOMS in both groups.

Conclusion: These findings are beneficial for sport scientists, nutritionists, and exercise physiologists in guiding post-workout supplementation with CoQ10 and sports drink to improve exercise performance and muscle recovery in normal and overweight individuals.

Keywords

Body mass / Coenzyme Q10 / DOMS / Muscle damage / Sports drink / Urinary biomarker

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Phyo Pyae Thar: Writing - original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Teerarat Likitwattanasade: Supervision, Methodology. Ratchakrit Srikuea: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Visualization, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization.

Data statement

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethical approval statement

The experimental protocol used in this study was approved by the Mahidol University Central Institutional Review Board (MU-CIRB) with Certificate of Approval No. MU-CIRB 2021/165.1207. Informed consent was obtained from all the subjects involved in the study, and this study was implemented in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This research project was supported by the MUSC- TU Scholarship for Human Resource Development in Science & Technology in the Remembrance of Late King Rama IX of Thailand and Partial Funding for Graduate Student Thesis for the Year 2021 by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Graduate Studies of Mahidol University Alumni Association.

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