Effect of Consumption short-term CoQ10 supplementation on markers of delayed onset muscle soreness

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common experience after unusual activities (particularly eccentric exercises). The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of short-term consumption of CoQ10 supplement on DOMS in athletic and nonathletic boys aged 15 to 17 years.

Twenty athletic and non-athletic boys who had no muscle soreness history in previous six months, voluntarily participated in this study and were assigned into two groups of 10 athletic and 10 non-athletic boys. Physical activity program for DOMS was 70 forearm eccentric contractions. Duration of every contraction was 3 seconds and between two contractions they rest for 10 seconds. Also, they had one minute rest between every 10 contractions. Dependent variables (LD H and CK) at baseline (before) and 48h after exercise soreness were measured. For data analysis ANOVA with repeated measure was used and p ≤ 0.05 was considered as significant.

Delayed soreness was investigated by measuring the biochemical changes of studied enzymes and self-report factors (i.e. muscle strength, fatigue, and stinging pain). Statistical analysis showed that there were no significant changes in LDH and CK levels of athletic and non-athletic groups (p ≤ 0.05). Both groups’ verbal representation showed that the short term consumption of CoQ10 yields reduction of muscle pain, stinging and fatigue.

Short term consumption of CoQ10 supplement reduces the levels of main markers of DOMS and muscle pain and fatigue, but this decrease was not significant.