Ubiquinol supplementation enhances peak power production in trained athletes: A double-blind,placebo controlled study

Background: to investigate the effect of ubiquinol supplementation on physical performance measured as maximum power output in young and healthy elite trained athletes.methods: in this double-blind,placebo-controlled study,100 young german well trained athletes (53 male,47 female,age 19.9 ± 2.3 years) received either 300 mg ubiquinol or placebo for 6 weeks. athletes had to perform a maximum power output test and the performance in w/kg of bodyweight was measured at the 4 mmol lactate threshold on a cycling ergometer before the supplementation treatment (t1),after 3 weeks (t2) and after 6 weeks (t3) of treatment. in these 6 weeks all athletes trained individually in preparation for the olympic games in london 2012. the maximum power output was measured in watt/kilogram body weight (w/kg bw).results: both groups,placebo and ubiquinol,significantly increased their physical performance measured as maximum power output over the treatment period from t1 to t3. the placebo group increased from 3.64 ± 0.49 w/kg bw to 3.94 ± 0.47 w/kg bw which is an increase of +0.30 ± 0.18 w/kg bw or +8.5% (±5.7). the ubiquinol group increased performance levels from 3.70 w/kg bw (±0.56) to 4.08 w/kg bw (±0.48) from time point t1 to t3 which is an increase of +0.38 ± 0.22 w/kg bw or +11.0% (±8.2). the absolute difference in the enhancement of the physical performance between the placebo and the ubiquinol group of +0.08 w/kg bodyweight was significant (p < 0.03).conclusions: this study demonstrates that daily supplementation of 300 mg ubiquinol for 6 weeks significantly enhanced physical performance measured as maximum power output by +0.08 w/kg bw (+2.5%) versus placebo in young healthy trained german olympic athletes. while adherence to a training regimen itself resulted in an improvement in peak power output,as observed by improvement in placebo,the effect of ubiquinol supplementation significantly enhanced peak power production in comparison to placebo. © 2013 alf et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.