Effects of taurine on acute exercise performance and recovery

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of taurine consumed before exercise on acute strength exercise performance and recovery after exercise. Ten active male volunteers with an average age of 21.4 ± 2.01 years, body weight 75.2 ± 10 kg and BMI 23.6 ± 2.5 kg / m² participated in the study. The research was carried out in double blind manner with utilizing a cross-over design . One repetation maximum (1RM) was measured in chest press , abdominal crunch and leg extension isolated exercise machines and flexibility, vertical jump, balance, leg-back strength dynamometer and 30-meter speed values measured as pre-tests 1 week before trials of volunteers participating in the study . Volunteers were randomly assigned into two groups and randomly participated taurine and placebo trials. In the trials, after a 10-minute warm-up protocol, they were asked to perform the exercises until exhausted in chest press, abdominal crunch and leg extension machines, respectively. Exercises were applied with a single set protocol and the rest period between exercises was determined as 3 minutes. Exercises applied in pre-tests were repeated 1 hour, 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours after the trials. One week after the first trial , the group participating in the taurine trial participated in the placebo trial, and the group participating in the placebo trial participated in the taurine trial. The same measurements and exercises were applied in both trials. In the taurine trial, 0.1 g of taurine per kilogram and in the placebo trial 18 milligrams of aspartame were consumed 1 hour before warm-up. Total volume (TV), lactate , glucose, heart rate , blood pressure, subjective fatigue and pain scales were utalized to determine the effect of taurine on acute exercise performance . In the analysis of the data, Two- Way Analysis of Variance in Repeated Measures was used, and in case of a difference, the difference between the trials was examined with the Bonferoni Post -Hoc test . SPSS 22.0 program was used in all statistical analyzes and the significance value was taken as 0.05. According to findings, a statistically significant difference (p <0.05) was found in lactate and flexibility in trial and time, and in dynamometer traction test in time, trial and trial * time. A statistically significant difference (p <0.05) was found in the level of difficulty felt during exercise in time and trial * time. No statistically significant difference was found in blood pressure, glucose and balance parameters (p> 0.05) . In conclusion, according to our findings, high amounts of taurine consumption before strength exercise could positively affect exercise performance.