Drink watermelon juice to ease post-exercise muscle soreness

A new study has found that watermelon juice can help post-exercise muscle soreness.

Encarna Aguayo and colleagues cite past research on watermelon juice's antioxidant properties and its potential to increase muscle protein and enhance athletic performance.

But scientists had yet to explore the effectiveness of watermelon juice drinks enriched in L-citrulline.

They tested natural watermelon juice, watermelon juice enriched in L-citrulline and a control drink containing no L-citrulline on volunteers an hour before exercise.

Both the natural juice and the enriched juice relieved muscle soreness in the volunteers. L-citrulline in the natural juice (unpasteurized), however, seemed to be more bioavailable - in a form the body could better use, the study found.

The findings have been published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.