Effect of vitamin C supplementation on aerobic and nonaerobic performance in female handball players

Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is one of the most commonly water soluble vitamins. Extra energy is necessary for the exercise is not often attributed to intake of vitamin C, long-term and intense exercise can lead to oxidative damage to cellular compounds and also contribute to muscle fatigue and decrease exercise performance. Limited data are available regarding to the efficacy of vitamin C about antioxidant activity and their effectiveness on exercise performance in humans. Therefore we investigated the effects of extra vitamin C on aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance in Iranian female handball players.

Fourteen female handball players with aged 23.4+3.6 years were enrolled in this investigation and randomly allocated to two groups (extra of 500 mg of vitamin C or placebo) and they were evaluated at the beginning and at the end of the study and within and between group comparisons were done using paired t-test respectively.

Fourteen of the participants completed the one week intervention. There wasn’t observed any significant changes in anaerobic and aerobic exercise performance in comparing with placebo group but there was significant changes about aerobic exercise performance among vitamin C group (P<0.05).

One week consumption of 500 mg of vitamin C in athlete women did not show any significant changes in aerobic and anaerobic exercise performance comparing with placebo group.