ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1663086
This article is part of the Research TopicAcute Interventions and Recovery Strategies for Enhancing Human Exercise PerformanceView all articles
Combined Rhodiola rosea and Eccentric Training Boost Endurance Performance and Lower-Limb Reactive Strength in Recreationally Active Women
Provisionally accepted
- 1Liupanshui Normal University, Liupanshui, China
- 2Hebei General Hospital Affiliated to Hebei Medicine University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 3Tarim Institute of Technology, Alaer, China
- 4Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei, Taiwan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study aimed to determine whether chronic Rhodiola rosea (salidroside) supplementation augments neuromuscular and metabolic adaptations to flywheel eccentric (ECC) training. In total, 30 recreationally active female students were randomly assigned to (1) sedentary placebo control (SC, n = 10), ( 2) ECC training + placebo (ECC, n = 10), or (3) ECC training + salidroside (150 mg day⁻¹; ECC + SA, n = 10) for 4 weeks. Pre-and post-intervention assessments included exhaustive cycling time to volitional fatigue, peak oxygen uptake (VO₂ max), drop vertical jump (DJ) reactive strength index (RSI), and blood biomarkers of muscle damage and metabolism. ECC and ECC + SA prolonged time to exhaustion by 33% and 45%, respectively, without altering VO₂ max. Across DJ₁-DJ₁₆₀, RSI significantly increased in ECC and ECC + SA group (p < 0.01). Salidroside conferred an additional 8%-33% RSI advantage during the final 40 contacts (DJ₁₂₀-DJ₁₆₀; p < 0.05). The ECC + SA group had lower postcycling creatine kinase and increase free fatty acids than did the SC group, respectively (p < 0.05). Triacylglycerol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels decreased in ECC + SA group compared with SC group (p < 0.05), whereas body composition remained unchanged. In conclusion, 4-weeks of ECC training improved endurance and explosive stretch-shortening cycle performance. Concurrent salidroside supplementation further enhanced late stage RSI, dampened creatine kinase release, curbed hyperammonemia, and facilitated lipid mobilization after exhaustive exercise. Therefore, salidroside provides an additive antifatigue and muscle-protective effects during high-load eccentric conditioning in recreationally active women.
Keywords: Eccentric fly-wheel training (ECC), Salidroside supplementation, Reactive strength index (RSI), Muscle-damage biomarkers, endurance performance
Received: 10 Jul 2025; Accepted: 27 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Su, Zhang, Tang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yi-Ming Chen, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei, Taiwan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.