Abstract
BackgroundTo investigate the effect of Ubiquinol supplementation on physical performance measured as maximum power output in young and healthy elite trained athletes.MethodsIn this double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 100 young German well trained athletes (53 male, 47 female, age 19.9 ± 2.3 years) received either 300 mg Ubiquinol or placebo for 6 weeks. Athletes had to perform a maximum power output test and the performance in W/kg of bodyweight was measured at the 4 mmol lactate threshold on a cycling ergometer before the supplementation treatment (T1), after 3 weeks (T2) and after 6 weeks (T3) of treatment. In these 6 weeks all athletes trained individually in preparation for the Olympic Games in London 2012. The maximum power output was measured in Watt/kilogram body weight (W/kg bw).ResultsBoth groups, placebo and Ubiquinol, significantly increased their physical performance measured as maximum power output over the treatment period from T1 to T3. The placebo group increased from 3.64 ± 0.49 W/kg bw to 3.94 ± 0.47 W/kg bw which is an increase of +0.30 ± 0.18 W/kg bw or +8.5% (±5.7). The Ubiquinol group increased performance levels from 3.70 W/kg bw (±0.56) to 4.08 W/kg bw (±0.48) from time point T1 to T3 which is an increase of +0.38 ± 0.22 W/kg bw or +11.0% (±8.2). The absolute difference in the enhancement of the physical performance between the placebo and the Ubiquinol group of +0.08 W/kg bodyweight was significant (p < 0.03).ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that daily supplementation of 300 mg Ubiquinol for 6 weeks significantly enhanced physical performance measured as maximum power output by +0.08 W/kg bw (+2.5%) versus placebo in young healthy trained German Olympic athletes. While adherence to a training regimen itself resulted in an improvement in peak power output, as observed by improvement in placebo, the effect of Ubiquinol supplementation significantly enhanced peak power production in comparison to placebo.
Highlights
To investigate the effect of Ubiquinol supplementation on physical performance measured as maximum power output in young and healthy elite trained athletes
The drop in physical performance was due to an infection, the two individuals are considered to be protocol non-compliers, and the corresponding records are dropped from computations, otherwise these two data would have had a quite negative impact of the performance of the placebo group and would have created a wrong and too positive difference in performance towards the Ubiquinol supplement group
The arithmetic means of the power output measurements increased from 3.70 W/kg bodyweight (±0.56) at time point Timepoint prior to supplementation treatment (T1) to 4.08 W/kg bodyweight (±0.48) at time point Six weeks after initiation of supplementation treatment (T3) in the experimental group and from 3.64 Watt/kilogram body weight (W/kg bw) (± 0.49) to 3.94 W/kg bw (±0.47) in the control group, respectively (Figure 2)
Summary
To investigate the effect of Ubiquinol supplementation on physical performance measured as maximum power output in young and healthy elite trained athletes. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is synthesized in the human organism and is a fat soluble, vitamin-like substance which can exist as Ubiquinone (oxidized CoQ10) or as Ubiquinol (the unoxidized, reduced form). It plays various roles in the energy production of the muscles’ cells. CoQ10 is critical for the synthesis of ATP, as 96% of all aerobically produced energy involves CoQ10. Though it is endogenously synthesized, a small amount of CoQ10 is always degraded and must be replenished from dietary sources. Organs like the heart and muscles, which require consistent and robust bioenergetics, depend on a sufficient supply of CoQ10 and produce less energy and strength if they are deficient in CoQ10
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