The Effects of Acute L-Theanine Supplementation on Muscle Damage, Physical Performance, and Cognitive Function Following a Session of Exhaustive Aerobic Activity in Female Athletes

The Effects of Acute L-Theanine Supplementation on Muscle Damage, Physical Performance, and Cognitive Function Following a Session of Exhaustive Aerobic Activity in Female Athletes

A controlled clinical trial with parallel groups, double-blind, and randomized in a block design on 20 female athletes. The website www.randomization.com will be used for randomization.

This study will be conducted at Razi University. First, the research variables will be measured. Then, two groups of participants in the study will receive the desired interventions. After the interventions are completed, the research variables will be measured again. In this study, the participants and the main research team will be blinded. Capsules similar to L-theanine capsules will be used as placebo.

Inclusion criteria: Regularly engaged in aerobic exercise (≥4 sessions per week). No history of chronic disease or musculoskeletal injuries in the past 6 months. No supplement or medication use that may interfere with the study. Normal BMI (18.5-24.9 kg/m2). Exclusion criteria: Pregnant or lactating. Sensitivity to L-theanine History of neurological or cognitive disorders.

1) Supplement = Participants are assessed before and after consuming one L-theanine capsule 2) Placebo (Control) = Participants are assessed before and after consuming one placebo capsule

Changes in muscle damage, physical and cognitive function

In this study, the block randomization method will be used through the website www.randomization.com. For this purpose, first, each subject is assigned a number as a unique identification code and a 20-digit sequence (equal to the sample size) is created. Then, the names of the intervention groups including 1) exercise + supplement group; 2) exercise + placebo group; 3) supplement group; 4) control group will be defined in the relevant section of the website. After defining the groups and in order to prevent potential problems caused by blocking with fixed-size blocks, the method of randomly selecting blocks with different sizes will be used for blocking. In this case, with the sample size being known, the block sizes will be unequal and a multiple of the number of intervention groups (for example, blocks with sizes of 2, 4, 6 or 8). The website has the ability to randomly create sequences of blocks with different sizes. In the final step, by executing the Generate Plan command on the website, all subjects are randomly assigned to blocks of different sizes that themselves have a random sequence. Finally, by using the number (code) assigned to each subject and examining the blocks, the group of each subject will be determined.

The present study will be conducted in a single-blinded manner and participants will be kept blind to the supplement or placebo, while due to the nature of exercise training, blinding will not be done in this case (exercise intervention). In order to blind the two groups that do not receive L-theanine capsules, capsules similar to L-theanine capsules in terms of appearance, smell, taste and color will be used as placebos, and information about supplement and placebo intake will be kept secret from the subjects.

Some data can be shared after de-identifying the subjects.

3 months after results are published

All persons upon formal request

Requests for access to data are permitted for any purpose.

If you need to receive documents, please send an email to Rastegar Hoseini, a member of the Razi University faculty, at the email address: rastegar.hoseini@gmail.com.

In case of formal request, stating the relevant reasons and providing full details, the data will be sent via email after 72 hours.