Muscle Damage, Fluid Ingestion, and Energy Supplementation during Recreational Alpine Skiing
in International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise MetabolismThis study examined energy and fluid supplementation on indices of muscle damage during alpine skiing. Skiers were assigned to a carbohydrate-protein (CP), placebo (PL), or no fluid (NF) group. CP and PL ingested 1.62 L during and after skiing. Myoglobin did not change from pre-skiing (PS) to 2 h post-skiing (2PS) for CP (24.8 ± 1.4 and 25.6 ± 1.6 ng/mL), but rose significantly from 26.4 ± 1.3 to 40.0 ± 2.8 ng/mL for PL and from 29.0 ± 1.3 to 82.9 ± 3.6 ng/mL for NF. Creatine kinase was maintained from PRE to 2 PS for CP, but increased significantly from 117 ± 7.2 to 174 ± 43.4 U/L for PL and from 126 ± 23.2 to 243 ± 34.3 U/L for NF. This study demonstrates that ingestion of a CP beverage minimized muscle damage indices during skiing compared to PL and NF and that ingesting fluids may also minimize muscle damage compared to a NF condition.
Seifert and Gazal are with the Human Performance Laboratory, Saint Cloud State University, Saint Cloud, MN 56301. Kipp and Amann are with the Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, Murray, UT 84107.
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