Pickle Juice for Exercise and Muscle Cramps 1

Pickle Juice’s Effects on Exercise Performance and Muscle Cramps

Aaliyah N. Speights

Seton Hill University

Pickle Juice for Exercise and Muscle Cramps 2

The article “Athletic Trainer’s Perceptions of Pickle Juice’s Effects on Exercise

Associated Muscle Cramps” talked about how athletic trainers use pickle juice for EAMC;

Exercise Associated Muscle Cramps. It goes more in-depth with how athletic trainers give

different dosages and how popular pickle juice is for EAMC. The reason for this article was to

see if pickle juice was widely used as a treatment and prevention strategy for EAMC, determine

the popularity of pickle juice as a treatment and prevention strategy, and collect perceptions from

athletic trainers who use pickle juice regarding its effects on EAMC. The studies in the article

were done by multiple credible sources from Young University and the University of Northern

Iowa and were peer-reviewed. I found this article by using the Reeves Library Database and

EBSCOhost.

There were multiple studies done. For instance, if pickle juice was the best or only

treatment for prevention strategies used in conjunction with pickle juice when pickle juice was

given to prevent EAMC, how athletic trainers first learned of pickle juice’s effects on EAMC,

and current or previous use of pickle juice. These studies were from 1000 athletic trainers in the

United States. The results of these studies showed that of the 1000 athletic trainers 25% use or

have used pickle juice to treat exercise-associated muscle cramps while 19% used it to prevent

exercise-associated muscle cramps. There were very few trainers who believed that pickle juice

was the best treatment for EAMC and many were unsure if it was the best treatment. The study

showed that a lot of athletic trainers also use other strategies in conjunction with pickle juice like

stretching, water, sports drinks, ice, etc. to prevent EAMC. For the research on the time of pickle

juice consumption, it was shown that 63.5% of athletic trainers have their athletes ingest it 30

minutes to 1 hour before exercising. The data also showed that athletic trainers had success in
Pickle Juice for Exercise and Muscle Cramps 3

reducing EAMC with pickle juice with a dosage of 1-2 oz. The most surprising thing in this

study for me was that there is an estimated dosage of pickle juice athletes should be taking and

how athletic trainers in this study do not follow the recommended amount and even give up to 20

times the recommended dosages. By digesting a high volume of pickle juice with nothing else, it

could be unsafe. If this is done, it would most likely “result in a slow gastric emptying rate due to

pickle juice’s high osmolality and low pH (Athletic Therapy Today).” There has been little

research backing the statement up but the ingestion of hypertonic carbohydrates such as pickle

juice has been shown to dehydrate athletes and increase their risk of hyperthermia. This is why

an athlete, if going to drink pickle juice, should drink it at appropriate doses and drink volumes

of hypotonic fluids to dilute the pickle juice as well.

Athletic trainers who do use pickle juice and say it is successful in preventing EAMC are

not 100% clear regarding when to appropriate time to give the athlete the pickle juice to prevent

cramping. The data collected showed that the majority of athletic trainers who use pickle juice

gave it to their athletes less than one hour before competition and practice. This time frame

“supports our other observations of athletic trainers perceiving that pickle juice prevents EAMC

by loading the body with electrolytes'' (Athletic Therapy Today). This shows that athletic trainers

think that drinking pickle juice one hour before competition or practice is sufficient to load the

body with electrolytes so muscle cramps are less likely to occur during practice or competition.

Finally, a lot of athletic trainers have been shown to recommend pickle juice to their

athletes, but there still hasn't been a lot of experimental or clinical evidence to support if pickle

juice actually does help with EAMC. Even though this article talks about how athletic trainers
Pickle Juice for Exercise and Muscle Cramps 4

use pickle juice, there needs to be more research on how pickle juice helps with the prevention of

EAMC.

The second research article called “Pre-Exercise Ingestion of Pickle Juice, Hypertonic

Saline, or Water and Aerobic Performance and Thermoregulation” talked about whether

“ingesting high-sodium drinks pre-exercise can improve thermoregulation and performance”

(Journal of Athletic Training). This study was done by different doctors and the Departments of

Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Science. The reason for this research was to see if drinking

2mL/kg body mass of pickle juice, hypertonic saline, and deionized water pre-exercise affects

aerobic performance or thermoregulation.

The researchers took 20 healthy men ages 22-25 to participate in this testing. They made

sure that the volunteers were injury-free, had any surgeries in the last 6 months, had any

neurologic, cardiovascular, or bloodborne disease, lived a sedentary lifestyle, and had related

illnesses to ensure that it wouldn't affect the results of the study. After confirming these only 9

men got to participate and complete the study to the full length. With these 9 men, the doctors

had them complete 3 days of testing that were at least 48 hours apart. They were told to “keep

their diets consistent until they completed the experiment and to consume a similar meal the

night before testing” (Journal of Athletic Training). They then were given 1 minute to ingest

2mL/kg body weight of the drinks: pickle juice, hypertonic saline, or deionized water. After

sitting for 30 minutes they then ran on a treadmill for 30 minutes at 60% speed. The intensity of

the exercises increased every 10 minutes until 90-95%.

During the exercise, the doctors analyzed the differences in time to exhaustion, the

percentage change in plasma volume, rectal temperature, and sweat volume among the drinks
Pickle Juice for Exercise and Muscle Cramps 5

over time. The participants lost around the same volume of sweat during the exercise testing

days. The time to exhaustion did not differ among treatment drinks and the rectal temperature

there was no interaction. Nonetheless, rectal temperature was higher postexercise than

pre-exercise.

The results of this study showed that ingesting 2mL/kg body mass of pickle juice or

hypertonic saline with water before exercise didn’t affect performance. Pickle juice also didn’t

alter the core temperature or sweat volume or cause plasma volume to increase. There are some

things that could have caused the results of this study to be off. First, the participants were told to

come “well hydrated”. With this, the participants could have been overhydrated before going to

the lab to start testing. Being overhydrated could have affected the treatment drinks by masking

the drinks with hyperhydration before their testing began. Also, the way the volume of the pickle

juice was calculated by doing a poll from athletic trainers and how much they give their athletes

to prevent muscle cramps. This could have had an effect because different volumes could show

more or less the effect of the pickle juice helping with muscle cramps.

The Final results showed that drinking small amounts of pickle juice or hypertonic saline

before drinking a modest amount of water had no effect on aerobic performance, rectal

temperature, sweat volumes, or plasma volume. One reason for this is “the inability of PJ or

hypertonic saline to expand plasma volume is most likely due to the dilution of these drinks in

the stomach and the inability to create an osmotic gradient that favored fluid movement into the

vascular space.’ (Journal of Athletic Training). Since the amount of pickle juice was measured

by a poll from athletic trainers, consuming more pickle juice with water could increase plasma
Pickle Juice for Exercise and Muscle Cramps 6

volumes and enhance performance and core temperature. Since this is not a huge research topic,

this is something future researchers could evaluate more.

Pickle Juice for Exercise and Muscle Cramps 7

References

Miller, K. C., Knight, K. L., & Williams, R. B. (2008, September). Athletic Therapy

Today (T. Hubbard, Ed.). Athletic Trainer's Perceptions of Pickle Juice's Effects on Exercise

Associated Muscle Cramps.

https://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=1bfe7055-3d0b-4e80-8bfc-7

9d21d5a8e40%40sessionmgr4006

Peikert, J., Miller, K., Albrecht, J., Tucker, J., & Deal, J. (2014, April). Pre-Exercise

Ingestion of Pickle Juice, Hypertonic Saline, or Water and Aer. . .: EBSCOhost. EBSCOhost.

https://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=6f220a16-ceab-44bf-b57c-1

f3e92bb3a5c%40sessionmgr4006