Therefore, the effects are Tariquidar likely to have only been observed up to 24 h after load carriage in the present study. The preceding discussion suggests that carbohydrate supplementation in the present study had a minimal effect in improving muscle glycogen concentration and if so it is unlikely to account for the improved recovery

of muscle function. The carbohydrate supplement would have increased blood glucose and insulin release. Insulin increases the rate of protein synthesis at rest and attenuates the rate of protein breakdown after exercise [24]. Therefore, carbohydrate may have decreased the negative protein balance after exercise compared to placebo, slowing the degradation of structural proteins with a positive effect on recovery of muscle function. Beverages were consumed in the three days following load carriage, immediately after each muscle AZD8931 molecular weight testing session and each evening. Ingestion of additional PRO and CHO between see more meals may have provided a more consistent supply of macronutrients and increased insulin concentrations compared to PLA (when nutrients were only consumed during meal times). PRO supplementation provided amino acids and promoted insulin release, but it is likely that the insulin response would have

been higher with CHO supplementation compared to PRO. Thus, both supplementation strategies reduce the negative protein balance through different mechanisms. However, there did not appear to be a difference between PRO and CHO supplementation on neuromuscular function in our study. However, the precise effect of PRO and CHO supplementation is rather speculative as exact timings of participants meals were not recorded, but participant food diaries indicate that eating habits were similar between

conditions. In our study, whey protein and carbohydrate supplements had mafosfamide no effect on the recovery of the 20:50 Hz force ratio, contraction and relaxation times. The faster contraction and half relaxation times immediately after load carriage were surprising as fatigued muscles generally show a slowing of contraction and relaxation velocity [25]. However, the changes in the contraction and relaxation time following exercise due to neuromuscular impairment (i.e. a slowing) may have been masked by potentiation, which increases the speed of contraction and half relaxation times [26]. Voluntary activation decreased immediately after load carriage and remained above pre-exercise value from 24 h onwards during recovery in all conditions (Additional file 1). This indicates part of the neuromuscular impairment immediately after exercise could be accounted for by central mechanisms [25] but the supplements had no effect on this response. This is surprising as it has been suggested that branched chain amino acids (BCAA) are a beneficial nutrient in delaying the onset of central fatigue as they compete with tryptophan for transport into the brain and consequently reduce brain serotonin [27].