Nutritional Strategies to Mitigate Neuromuscular Fatigue and Enhance Recovery Following Exercise Induced Muscle Damage

High-intensity intermittent exercise, characteristic of soccer, basketball, rugby, and interval-based training, imposes repeated bouts of maximal and near-maximal effort that progressively compromise neuromuscular function. Neuromuscular fatigue arises from a complex interplay of central (neural drive) and peripheral (excitation-contraction coupling, metabolite accumulation, muscle damage) mechanisms, and its accumulation across a match or training session can impair force production, sprint performance, and injury resilience.

Alongside training-load management, nutrition has emerged as one of the potential strategies capable of acting on both the onset of fatigue and the kinetics of recovery. Yet the evidence base remains fragmented across supplements, populations, and outcome measures, and much of it limited at global performance markers without modulating the underlying central–peripheral etiology.

A growing body of evidence points to specific nutritional and ergogenic strategies with measurable effects on fatigue etiology and recovery kinetics:

• Dietary nitrate: has been shown to influence muscle contractile efficiency and attenuate markers of neuromuscular fatigue.
• Polyphenol- and anthocyanin-rich sources (e.g., tart cherry, beetroot, dark berries) have demonstrated potential to reduce indices of exercise-induced muscle damage, oxidative stress, and inflammation, supporting faster restoration of maximal force capacity.
• Complementary nutritional agents (creatine, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, collagen/vitamin C, curcumin) are increasingly examined for their roles in muscle regeneration, glycogen restoration, and the inflammatory response.

These nutritional approaches are increasingly studied alongside non-nutritional recovery modalities, including hyperoxic breathing, cooling, and compression, raising open questions about their independent and combined efficacy, optimal dosing and timing, and the extent to which individual factors (training status, sex, chronotype) shape the response.

This Research Topic aims to consolidate current knowledge and stimulate new research on nutritional interventions for neuromuscular fatigue mitigation and acceleration of recovery in high-intensity, intermittent exercise contexts. We welcome original research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Acute and chronic effects of dietary nitrate on neuromuscular fatigue during simulated or competitive exercise.
• Polyphenol- and anthocyanin-rich supplementation for exercise-induced muscle damage and recovery.
• Nutritional periodization strategies across high-intensity intermittent training microcycles and congested fixture schedules.
• Interactions between nutritional ergogenic aids and non-nutritional recovery modalities (e.g., hyperoxia, cooling, compression).
• Biomarkers and functional assessments for tracking central and peripheral fatigue and recovery status.
• Determinants of inter-individual variability in the response to ergogenic nutrition, including training status, sex, chronotype, age/maturation, and habitual dietary intake.
• Evidence syntheses on ergogenic aids for team-sport and intermittent-exercise recovery.

By integrating nutritional biochemistry, exercise physiology, and applied sports science, this Research Topic will move the field beyond descriptive performance outcomes toward a mechanistic, individualized framework for nutrition-based recovery. The collection will provide researchers with a consolidated mechanistic reference and practitioners with actionable, dose- and timing-specific guidance for protecting neuromuscular function and athlete resilience across repeated high-intensity efforts.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Neuromuscular Fatigue, Dietary Nitrate, Anthocyanins, Muscle Damage, Ergogenic Aids, Exercise Recovery, High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise, Nutritional Periodization

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.