Watch Out for Those Over the Counter Remedies!

I saw recently on the guestbook that one lady mentioned she and her husband both take Ibuprofen with their pre-workout shakes in order to avoid the soreness that often occurs from a workout.  She seemed to think this was a great idea, but I wondered about it even at that time, given what I had heard about how Ibuprofen may cause the body to lose muscle mass or at least forfeit the opportunity to build muscle, under certain circumstances.

A physician who is also a Body for Life participant directed me to a study first published in 2001 and fully published in the American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2002 concerning the effects of ibuprofen and acetaminophen on muscle synthesis.

Suffice it to say that the study utilized generally accepted scientific, investigative and statistical principles and though relatively small is carefully controlled and seems quite reliable. It concluded that both ibuprofen and acetaminophen in the maximal over the counter dose strengths DID inhibit protein synthesis, meaning that if it is taken during or right after exercise you are certainly likely to cause your body to not grow muscle mass in response to the exercise you just did. 

Not only that, but both the study and my own anecdotal experience have concluded that the pain reliever doesn’t do any good anyway. There was no real difference in perceived pain among the participants in the post workout, post drug dose whether they received ibuprofen, acetaminophen or a placebo.

So, in conclusion, probably the best remedies for post-exercise delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) remain self-massage, icing, elevation, mild stretching, and grinning and bearing it! Ibuprofen and acetaminophen will not only not work, but will give you one more thing to worry about!

Oh, want to know how they induced DOMS in the study participants? They made them do negatives (eccentrics–letting the weight down) with weights 120% of what they could lift, and made them do them very slowly. This could be a clue both how to avoid DOMS and how to gain muscle mass.