Ashwagandha Root Extract Stabilises Physiological Stress Responses in Male and Female Team Sports Athletes During Pre-Season Training.

Salivary cortisol increased significantly in female placebo athletes during pre-season training but not in the Ashwagandha group.

• Female athletes in the PLA group showed a significant increase in salivary cortisol (p = 0.001)
• No significant cortisol increase was observed in the ASH female group, suggesting a stabilising effect
• Assessments were conducted over 42 days during pre-season training
• Salivary biomarkers were assessed after training sessions

Female athletes in the Ashwagandha group showed significant improvements in recovery-related perception scores compared to placebo.

• Overall Hooper Index (HI) score improved significantly in ASH females (p = 0.001)
• Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) improved significantly in ASH females (p = 0.008)
• Perception of fatigue improved significantly in ASH females (p = 0.026)
• Perception of recovery was evaluated with the Hooper Index the day following training

Salivary cortisone increased significantly in male placebo athletes during pre-season training but not in the Ashwagandha group.

• Male athletes in the PLA group showed a significant increase in salivary cortisone (p = 0.022)
• No significant cortisone increase was observed in the ASH male group
• This pattern mirrors the cortisol stabilisation observed in females, but manifested as cortisone in males

Countermovement Jump (CMJ) performance improved significantly in male Ashwagandha athletes but not in male placebo athletes.

• CMJ improved significantly in the ASH male group (p = 0.018)
• No significant CMJ improvement was reported in the male PLA group
• Muscle strength was measured during training sessions over the 42-day intervention

Pull-up performance improved in both male placebo and male Ashwagandha groups over the 42-day pre-season period.

• Pull-up performance increased significantly in PLA males (p = 0.004)
• Pull-up performance increased significantly in ASH males (p < 0.0001)
• Improvement in both groups suggests a general training adaptation effect rather than a specific Ashwagandha effect for this measure

The study enrolled 56 team sports athletes from rugby, water polo, and football in a randomised placebo-controlled design.

• Participants were 26.8 ± 4.4 years old, 1.74 ± 0.10 m tall, 79.4 ± 17.3 kg, with 11.0 ± 7.1 career years
• Athletes were randomly assigned to ASH (n = 28, 14 males and 14 females) or PLA (n = 28, 14 males and 14 females)
• The intervention dose was 600 mg/day of Ashwagandha root extract for 42 days
• Mixed ANOVA was used to determine group × time interactions with Bonferroni post hoc analyses for multiple pairwise comparisons
• The trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov with the ID NCT07041853