If you’re curious about how supplementing with ribose might benefit you and your workouts, here’s one scenario. A few years ago, researchers in Copenhagen, Denmark looked at how supplemental ribose might affect the rate with which your body rebuilds ATP – the molecule that provides us with the energy to run our bodies – after intermittent high-intensity training sessions. The results of their study were published in the American Journal of Physiology.
During intense exercise, a fraction of the ATP energy pool stored in your muscles degrades. The harder that you work out, the more ATP degrades. While just about every cell in your body makes ATP, muscles are among the slowest at ATP synthesis. Without a sufficient amount of ATP, muscles can get stiff and sore.
In this randomized, double-blind, crossover study, the researchers wanted to know if supplementing with ribose after intense training might speed up the muscles’ ATP-making process. They also wanted to know if the drop in muscles’ ATP levels after that intense training had any impact on performance during the next round of exercise.
The researchers recruited eight healthy men, each around 25 years old, for this study. For seven days, the participants performed two intense cycling training sessions per day, separated by five to seven hours. After the last training session, they received either nine supplementations of Bioenergy Ribose or a placebo. They took the first supplement 10 minutes after the last training session, and supplemented again at each breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next three days.
Five to nine weeks later, they repeated the seven-day process. Only, if they had received ribose the first time, this time they received the placebo – or vice versa.
Using a combination of blood tests and muscle biopsies, the researchers determined that taking Bioenergy ribose after one week of high-intensity training helps the muscles to step up their ATP production. In the ribose group, there were no significant differences in the levels of ATP 72 hours after the last training session compared to pre-training levels. In the placebo group, muscle ATP levels were predictably lower after a week of training. Even with lowered muscle ATP levels among the placebo group, no differences in performance intensity were observed.
What does this mean for you? ATP depletion in your muscles is associated with muscle soreness and stiffness. If your fitness routine is to work out hard three times a week, supplementing with Bioenergy Ribose may help your muscles to regenerate ATP faster, so that your exercise recovery time is shorter.