Pritchett, K., Bishop, P., Pritchett, R., Green, M., Katica, C., & Carter, S. (2009). Acute effects of chocolate milk and a commercial recovery beverage on post-exercise on muscle damage and endurance cycling performance. ACSM 56th Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, Presentation Number 2935.

This study compared chocolate milk to a commercial recovery beverage as a recovery aid after intense exercise regarding performance and muscle damage in trained competitive cyclists (N = 10). Ss completed a high-intensity intermittent exercise protocol. Then 15 to 18 hours later, a performance trial at 85% of VO2peak to exhaustion was performed. Ss consumed 1.0 g carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight per hour of a randomly assigned isocaloric beverage following the first high intensity intermittent exercise session. The same protocol was repeated one week later with the other beverage.

There was no significant difference between trials for cycling time to exhaustion at 85% of VO2peak. A significantly higher increase was observed for creatine kinase from the pre- to post-measures in the commercial recovery beverage trial compared to the chocolate milk trial. Post-trial creatine kinase measures were not significant between the two trials.

Implication. There was no difference between chocolate milk and a commercial recovery beverage as recovery aids for cyclists between intense workouts [except the costs].

Return to Table of Contents for this issue.