MYTH MASTER

Fact or fiction:

Taking ibuprofen (Advil) after tough workouts is the best way to blunt muscle pain

Like the cold shoulder from your girl after you forget yet another anniversary, you know it's coming. But you usually don't find out until well after it happens. Unfortunately, we're not talking about make-up sex. We're talking delayed onset muscle soreness, which we all get at times after a blowout workout.

At these times, you may be tempted to reach for an over-the-counter pain killer and anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen or another nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug to blunt the pain. After all, they work, and work well, by inhibiting an enzyme present in muscle cells called cyclooxygenase. COX initiates an important step that results in inflammation and pain following a muscle injury, such as the microtrauma to muscle that follows a balls-to-the-wall workout. So next time you're feeling sore a day or two after a grueling workout, you should reach for the medicine cabinet and say hello Advil, goodbye pain, right?

VERDICT Fiction
REASON
Pain and inflammation appear to be necessary evils of muscle growth. NSAIDs can reduce pain and inflammation, but they also reduce muscle protein synthesis (the process that leads to muscle regeneration and growth). For example, a team of University of Florida (Gainesville) researchers recently studied the overloading (basically what happens to muscles during a workout) of a small calf muscle - known as the plantaris - in rats. For two weeks, the animals were given ibuprofen or a placebo daily. The plantaris of rats that received the ibuprofen increased size by 30%. Not bad, you say. Well, in the rats that were given the placebo, the plantaris increased by 60%. In other words, taking ibuprofen reduced muscle growth by 50%!

SOLUTION
Skip the ibuprofen or other NSAIDs after a killer workout, and just deal with the pain. Knowing that that muscle pain indicates muscle regeneration and growth should help you deal with the pain, if not actually to enjoy it. If the pain is really severe, try icing the muscle or getting a massage after training. Both methods have been shown to help reduce DOMS to some degree.

ALTERNATIVE
Several supplements have been shown to reduce DOMS. Two hundred milligrams of caffeine has been shown to blunt muscle pain during workouts and the DOMS afterward. Five grams of branched-chain amino acids taken 15 minutes before training has also been shown to significantly reduce DOMS for several days afterward. In addition, as little as 10 grams of protein taken immediately after workouts has been found to significantly reduce DOMS.

by Jim Stoppani

taken from FLEX Magazine, October 2007