Effects of prophylactic anti-inflammatory non-steroidal ibuprofen on performance in a session of strength training

Abstract

Introduction: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, have been used by athletes of several sports modalities in order to increase athletic performance. Objective: To verify the effect of the prophylactic use of ibuprofen on performance in a strength training session. Methods: A crossover, randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trial was developed with twelve regular strength training male practitioners, which performed a strength training session after ibuprofen (1,2 g) ingestion and another session after placebo ingestion. Six series of bench press and squat exercises were performed in each training session with a constant load corresponding to 65% of the 1RM in each exercise. The training performance was measured through the number of repetitions that volunteers have accomplished in each exercise series of each strength training session. Results: It was verified no significant performance differences in strength training with previous administration of placebo or ibuprofen (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Ibuprofen administration at the same parameters adopted by the present study do not promote any change on tolerance to exercise in a single strength training session, which contraries this substance indication to ergogenic purposes in strength training.