Research Gist
This six-week clinical study investigated whether 600 mg per day of a standardized ashwagandha root extract could support physiological stress regulation, recovery and physical performance in 56 male and female rugby, water-polo and football athletes during demanding pre-season training. Compared with placebo, stress-related hormone levels remained more stable in the ashwagandha groups: cortisol remained stable in women and cortisone remained stable in men, while these markers increased in their respective placebo groups.
Female athletes also reported better recovery, less muscle soreness and less fatigue, while male athletes showed an improvement in countermovement-jump performance. The results suggest possible sex-specific benefits, rather than uniform improvements across every outcome or athlete.
Key Learnings
- The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial included 56 sub-elite team-sport athletes, equally allocated to ashwagandha and placebo groups, with equal male and female representation.
- Participants received 600 mg/day of KSM-66 ashwagandha root extract, standardized to more than 5% withanolides, for 42 days during pre-season training.
- In female athletes, salivary cortisol remained stable with ashwagandha but increased significantly with placebo. In male athletes, the corresponding effect was observed for salivary cortisone.
- Female athletes taking ashwagandha reported improvements in overall recovery, delayed-onset muscle soreness and fatigue; equivalent significant recovery changes were not observed in men.
- Male athletes in the ashwagandha group improved their countermovement-jump performance, but pull-up performance improved in both treatment and placebo groups, suggesting that some strength gains reflected training itself.
- No significant benefits were demonstrated for aerobic performance, testosterone, DHEA-S or the testosterone-to-cortisol ratio.
- The intervention was generally well tolerated: one participant receiving ashwagandha reported a mild headache, while one placebo participant reported minor gastrointestinal discomfort. Interpretation is limited by the modest sample, convenience sampling, mixed sport types, unrecorded dietary intake and several baseline differences.
