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This study investigated the effect of protein supplementation on recovery following muscle-damaging exercise, which was induced with a concurrent exercise design. Twenty-four well-trained male cyclists were randomised to 3 independent groups receiving 20 g protein hydrolysate, iso-caloric carbohydrate, or low-calorific placebo supplementation, per serve. Supplement serves were provided twice daily, from the onset of the muscle-damaging exercise, for a total of 4 days and in addition to a controlled diet (6 g·kg−1·day−1 carbohydrate, 1.2 g·kg−1·day−1 protein, remainder from fat). Following the concurrent exercise session at time-point 0 h, comprising a simulated high-intensity road cycling trial and 100 drop-jumps, recovery of outcome measures was assessed at 24, 48, and 72 h. The concurrent exercise protocol was deemed to have caused exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD), owing to time effects (p < 0.001), confirming decrements in maximal voluntary contraction (peaking at 15% ± 10%) and countermovement jump performance (peaking at 8% ± 7%), along with increased muscle soreness, creatine kinase, and C-reactive protein concentrations. No group or interaction effects (p > 0.05) were observed for any of the outcome measures. The present results indicate that protein supplementation does not attenuate any of the indirect indices of EIMD imposed by concurrent exercise, when employing great rigour around the provision of a quality habitual diet and the provision of appropriate supplemental controls.

High-intensity exercise is generally considered to have detrimental effects on cognition. However, high fitness levels are suggested to alleviate this effect.The specific objective of this review was to evaluate the literature on the effect of acute high-intensity exercise on cognitive performance in trained individuals.Studies were sourced through electronic databases, reference lists of retrieved articles, and manual searches of relevant reviews. Included studies examined trained participants, included a high-intensity exercise bout, used a control or comparison group/condition, and assessed cognitive performance via general laboratory tasks during or ≤10min following exercise cessation.Ten articles met the inclusion criteria. Results indicated that the effect of acute high-intensity exercise on cognitive performance in trained individuals is dependent on the specific cognitive domain being assessed. Generally, simple tasks were not affected, while the results on complex tasks remain ambiguous. Accuracy showed little tendency to be influenced by high-intensity exercise compared to measures of speed.Multiple factors influence the acute exercise-cognition relationship and thus future research should be highly specific when outlining criteria such as fitness levels, exercise intensity, and exercise mode. Furthermore, greater research is needed assessing more cognitive domains, greater exercise durations/types, and trained populations at high intensities.

Background: High-intensity exercise is generally considered to have detrimental effects on cognition. However, high-fitness levels are suggested to alleviate this effect. Objectives: The specific objective of this review was to evaluate the literature on the effect of acute high-intensity exercise on cognitive performance in trained individuals. Methods: Studies were sourced through electronic databases, reference lists of retrieved articles and manual searches of relevant reviews. Included studies examined trained participants; included a high-intensity exercise bout; used a control or comparison group/condition; and assessed cognitive performance via general laboratory tasks during or ≤10 minutes following exercise cessation. Results: Ten articles met inclusion criteria. Results indicated that the effect of acute high-intensity exercise on cognitive performance in trained individuals is dependent on the specific cognitive domain being assessed. Generally, simple tasks were not affected whilst the results on complex tasks remain ambiguous. Furthermore, accuracy showed little tendency to be influenced by high-intensity exercise compared to measures of speed. Conclusion: Multiple factors influence the acute exercise-cognition relationship and thus future research should be highly specific when outlining criteria such as fitness levels, exercise intensity and exercise mode. Furthermore, greater research is needed assessing more cognitive domains, greater exercise durations/types, and trained populations at high-intensities.