The potential benefits of ginger on muscle growth

November 23rd, 2015 by

Planning on going to the supplement store to pick up a “muscle builder”? If so, you may want to look in your kitchen cupboard first. Here’s why:

In a study published last year in the Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness, researchers split 32 overweight men into four groups. One group served as the control. So they basically did very little. The second group consumed a gram of ginger a day (250mg x 4 a day). The third group weight trained three times a week. The weight-training program included bench press, leg press, lat pulldowns, triceps pushdown, leg extensions, seated cable rows, biceps curls and crunches. Finally, the fourth group performed the same weight-training program, but also consumed a gram of ginger a week (250mg x 4 a day). Each group did this for 10 weeks.

Before and after the study, the researchers measured the body composition of each subject. What they found was that the group who did weight training and the group who did weight training and consumed ginger significantly increased their fat-free mass (e.g., muscles) and decreased their fat mass. However, the changes were greater in the group who weight trained and took ginger.

While this was a relatively small study and it would be nice to see these protocols conducted on a larger segment of the population (we’ll have to wait for this), it’s interesting to see the difference that a common spice like ginger can have on body composition.

Atashak, S. et al. (2014) Effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) supplementation and resistance training on some blood oxidative stress markers in obese men. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness. June. Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages 26–30.