Adanna Cheek
Radford University Introduction Every physically active person knows how it feels to be in the middle of a sporting event or workout and suddenly experience a muscle cramp. These cramps are inhibiting and painful, as well as cause a decrease in performance. Exercise-associated muscle cramps, or EAMC, are defined as skeletal muscle cramps that occur during or directly after exercise (Miller et al., 2010). Over the years, athletes and trainers have proposed several treatments or “home remedies” to prevent EAMCs or quickly stop them once they have occurred. One of the most common of these EAMC prevention remedies is the drinking of pickle …show more content…
Past studies have examined the effects of the ingestion of pickle juice following exercise on the body’s plasma volume, changes in the body’s osmolality, and changes in concentrations of sodium and potassium in the body. These studies have all concluded that there were no significant changes in any of these variables following the ingestion of pickle juice (Allen et al., 2013; Miller, 2014). Below is a set of graphs that summarize the data collected from one of the …show more content…
The ingestion of pickle juice post-exercise does not affect plasma volume, osmolality, or concentrations of sodium or potassium in the body (Allen et al., 2013; McKenney et al., 2015; Miller, 2014). Pickle juice has also been confirmed to quickly relieve EAMC (Miller et al., 2010). Therefore, if pickle juice is not harmful to the body and it is shown to alleviate EAMC are there other ways that pickle juice can help during exercise, such as in performance. While some athletes may believe that drinking pickle juice before exercising or before an event will improve performance there is no data to support this. A research study conducted on this theory of improved performance concluded that the ingestion of 2 mL/kg body mass of pickle juice with water before exercise did not affect performance (Peikert et al., 2014). The only confirmed data on how the ingestion of pickle juice actually effects the body is in its relief of muscle