Taking 4 grams daily of EPA or DHA omega-3 supplements for 52 days may help healthy young men with low omega-3 levels recover faster after intense exercise, reducing muscle soreness and maintaining leg strength, with EPA potentially offering better improvements in explosive power than DHA or a placebo.

In healthy young men, taking 4 grams of EPA daily for 52 days may help maintain explosive leg power after intense exercise that causes muscle damage, compared to taking DHA or a placebo.

Taking 4 grams of DHA daily for 52 days may reduce muscle soreness after intense exercise as much as EPA, but it does not improve muscle strength or power recovery as effectively as EPA.

Taking 4 grams per day of a combination of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids for 52 days in healthy young men does not clearly improve muscle recovery after exercise better than taking EPA or DHA alone, and might reduce the performance improvements seen with either fatty acid by itself.

Taking a lot of DHA (a type of omega-3 from fish oil) every day can drop your bad blood fats by about a quarter to a third—if you already have high levels—but EPA (another omega-3) doesn’t work as well, so DHA is the better choice for lowering triglycerides.

EPA and DHA are two types of omega-3 fats that work differently in your body—one might calm inflammation, the other might change how your body stores fat—and that’s why some studies show benefits when you take them together, but others don’t, depending on which one you use alone.