How Painkillers Affect Muscle Growth When You Lift
High doses of anti‐inflammatory drugs compromise muscle strength and hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training in young adults
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Young adults took either a strong or mild painkiller while doing leg exercises for 8 weeks. One leg used a special spinning machine, the other used regular weights.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
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Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Young adults took either a strong or mild painkiller while doing leg exercises for 8 weeks. One leg used a special spinning machine, the other used regular weights.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 554 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Publication
Authors
Lilja M, Mandić M, Apró W, Melin M, Olsson K, Rosenborg S, Gustafsson T, Lundberg TR
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Claims (4)
Taking a low-dose aspirin every day doesn’t seem to slow down muscle growth or strength gains when young adults do weight training for 8 weeks — and they still gained about 7.5% more quad muscle size, so it might be a safer anti-inflammatory choice for lifters.
Taking a lot of ibuprofen while working out might slow down your muscle growth — people on high-dose ibuprofen gained less muscle over 8 weeks compared to those on a low-dose aspirin-like drug.
Taking a high dose of ibuprofen every day might slow down your strength gains when doing certain types of intense exercise, especially flywheel training, more than regular weightlifting — and the type of workout could change how much the painkiller affects your progress.
When you lift weights, your muscles get a little damaged and inflamed — and that’s actually a good thing. This inflammation helps your muscles heal and get stronger, and usually your body can handle the recovery just fine on its own.