Oh those achy, sore muscles! Muscle pain after exercise is common when you’re first starting out or when you’ve started a new routine – but pain relief could be as close as your spice cabinet. A new study shows that eating ginger may help to ease the aches and pains that make it so hard to get around after a workout.

Does Ginger Help After Workout Soreness?

Researchers at the University of Georgia gave volunteers either heat-treated or raw ginger – or a placebo for eleven days. On the eighth day, all of the participants were asked to do an arm workout using a weight heavy enough to challenge their muscles and bring on exercise induced muscle soreness.

What did they find? The groups who took the ginger supplement had twenty-five percent less muscle pain after exercise than the group who took a placebo. There wasn’t any significant difference in the degree of workout soreness between the groups who got the raw or heat-treated ginger – suggesting that cooking the ginger doesn’t increase the benefits.

Why Ginger for Exercise Induced Muscle Soreness?

Ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory because it contains natural chemicals called gingerols. Studies show that the gingerols in ginger help to reduce the pain and inflammation that arthritis sufferers experience – without the side effects of prescription anti-inflammatory medications. The gingerols so abundant in ginger root may be the reason that the volunteers in this study experienced less workout soreness.

How to Get the Benefits of Ginger for Exercise Induced Muscle Soreness

To get the natural, anti-inflammatory effects of ginger, add fresh ginger root to your recipes. It’s easier and tastier than taking a ginger supplement and you’ll get more benefits if you eat ginger every day. Unlike an anti-inflammatory pill like Ibuprofen, you can’t eat it when you’re in pain and expect to get instant relief. It needs to build up in the body to exert its anti-inflammatory effects. Fresh ginger root is best since it will have much higher quantities of gingerols than powdered ginger – especially if it stays in the spice cabinet too long.

Ginger for Workout Soreness: The Bottom Line?

Adding more ginger to your diet could help to keep exercise induced muscle pain at bay – and make your recipes taste better too. Keep some on hand.

References:

Medical News Today. “Daily Ginger Consumption Found To Ease Muscle Pain”

Filed under: Fitness

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