Milk Chocolate Restores Strength to Tired Muscles

Sport medicine scientists have good news for sportsmen who go in for daily strenuous workouts. A new study puts forth strong evidence proving that milk chocolate helps sportsmen regain their energy quicker and more efficaciously than some commercial sport drinks.

A group of scientists from James Madison University published the results of their research that was delivered at the annual meeting of the American college of Sports Medicine. 13 football players from the college participated in the research. The experiment was conducted in two stages. First they were given low-fat milk chocolate to eat after the workout. On the second stage they were given commercial drinks with high carbohydrates content to restore their strength.

The researchers made specific tests to assess the amount of muscle restoration before the strenuous workouts and at the end of the research period. The results showed that the intake of natural drinks containing milk chocolate gave a lower level of creatine kinase (the indicator of muscle damage) compared to the intake of carbohydrate drinks. Nevertheless the two drinks showed no difference as regards subjective estimation of muscle pain, psychological and physical tiredness and loss of muscle strength.

These results show that low-fat milk chocolate is very efficacious for muscle restoration after a strenuous workout even for competitive elite athletes. Many experts agree that restoration after a strenuous workout is of a decisive importance for physically active people at all levels of physical fitness if they want to make the best of their workout yet maintain an excellent shape for the next series of exercises or for the next encounter.