Media Release
February 16 2006
New supplement may be the key to muscle recovery for athletes
Feeling those aches and pains after your last run, ride or game of footy
– well the answer may be a new supplement designed to aid muscle
recovery time and diminish inflammation.
For a number of years researchers at UniSA’s Nutritional Physiology Research Centre have been investigating the effects of sports supplements on athletic performance.
Supplements developed at the Centre have been used to great benefit by Olympic and Commonwealth Games athletes, Australian Rules Footballers, and National Basketball League basketballers, including by players with the Adelaide Crows, Port Power and Sydney Kings in their premiership winning years.
Leader of the of the Centre’s sports supplement research team, Dr Jon Buckley says at the elite athlete level, the ability to recover from training is as important as the training itself.
“If athletes are able to speed their recovery they can take on more training and achieve greater improvements in performance,” Dr Buckley says. “It also means they recover more quickly following a game, so they are better prepared for the next competition.
“Right now we are investigating the effect of a new supplement which in preliminary testing has been shown to potentially assist in improving the ability of muscle to recover from exercise.
“This new supplement contains dairy components which have been shown to cause changes in muscle tissue potentially suppressing inflammation and promoting growth and repair.”
Dr Buckley says the research team is now keen to test if these effects can improve the recovery of muscular function following fatiguing exercise.
While the study may result in the development of a supplement which could eventually help to improve the performance of elite athletes, the research team is intending to conduct their current research using untrained volunteers, to avoid the effects that any differences in training between people might have on the study outcomes.
The research team is now looking for volunteers to take part in the study.
Participants will need to attend UniSA’s City East campus on Frome Road on two consecutive days in February or March. The visit on the first day will last approximately seven hours, and one hour on the second day.
“During these visits we will measure the strength and endurance of the leg muscles at various times before and after taking the sports supplement, and will also take blood samples to measure markers of muscle repair and inflammation,” Dr Buckley said.
To be eligible for the study, volunteers must be:
• male
• between 18-30 years
• not allergic to dairy proteins
• not involved in sports or athletic training.
Volunteers will receive a $150 payment upon completion of the study.
For more information or to express interest in participating in this
study, please contact Erin Riley on (08) 8302 2097 between 9am-4pm
Monday to Friday, or leave a message any time, alternatively, email
nutritional.physiology@unisa.edu.au
Contact for interviews
- John Buckley office (08) 8302 1853 mobile 0417 880 030 email jon.buckley@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
- Michele Nardelli office (08) 8302 0966 mobile 0418 823673 email michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au