Almost all of us at one time or another have used Tylenol, Midol, etc. to combat pain or maybe even muscle soreness. While Acetaminophen is commonly used for pain relief, emerging evidence suggests that it may improve endurance exercise performance too. In addition to altering pain sensation and neuromuscular function, ACT ingestion might attenuate fatigue development and enhance performance by modulating aspects of the power or torque-duration relationship. In a study by Morgan, P.T., Bowtell, J.L., Vanhatalo, A. et al. it was revealed that acute ACT ingestion increased the mean torque across 60 Maximal Voluntary Contractions (MVCs) of the knee extensors in agreement with earlier reports that ACT can attenuate neuromuscular fatigue development and improve exercise performance. The improved mean torque was accompanied by an increase in Critical Torque (CT) and greater muscle activation during the latter stages of the 60 MVC protocol. Therefore, ACT ingestion appears to attenuate fatigue development during repeated skeletal muscle MVCs by enabling a better preservation of muscle activation during exercise.
Morgan, P.T., Bowtell, J.L., Vanhatalo, A. et al. Eur J Appl Physiol (2018) 118: 595.
