High-doses of anti-inflammatory drugs compromise muscle strength and hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training in young adults

Acta Physiologica

THE STUDY
A group of 31 men and women (aged 18-35) were randomly assigned to daily consumption of 1200mg ibuprofen (the recommended 24hr dose) or 75mg of acetylsalicylic acid (low dose) for 8 weeks.

They engaged in supervised weight-training exercises for the thigh muscles two to three times a week for the entire study. Researchers then measured muscle growth, muscle strength and anti-inflammatory markers in the muscles.

RESULTS
After eight weeks, the increase in muscle volume (measured by MRIs) was twice as large in the low-dose aspirin group as in the high-dose ibuprofen group.

WORDS FROM A SCIENTIST  
"The results are extremely interesting since the use of anti-inflammatory drugs is so globally widespread, not least amongst elite athletes and recreationally active individuals," says principal investigator Tommy Lundberg, researcher at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Laboratory Medicine. "We chose to look at the effect of ibuprofen as it is the most well-studied anti-inflammatory drug on the market, but we believe that high doses of all types of OTC NSAIDs have similar effects."

WAIT, BUT WHY?
The muscular inflammation processes that occurs with weight training appears to be beneficial to the long-term development of new muscle mass. This also apears to be a variable process based on age.

WHY I CARE
You finish an intense workout and you take some advil to relieve your sore body. It's a super common procedure, especially for folks like Mayweather who've been in the ring a few times. In fact, older populations are actually advised to take NSAIDs to protect against age-related muscle-mass loss.

It turns out that your better off enjoying the sweet pain of inflammation as your muscles grow. A cold shower might be a beneficial substitute.

Takeaway: If you're in the 18-35 age group and interested in weight training to increase muscle mass, then you should probably avoid regular high doses of anti-inflammatory drugs. Inflammation is a normal step in building new muscle mass, and probably shouldn't be inhibited with synthetic drugs.