In a recent study of healthy older adults who were lifting weights regularly who were weight training for at least 3 months, and taking a prescribed dose of ibuprofen and acetaminophen had a much greater increase over the non active placebo group in quadriceps muscle mass and strength.
The study was conducted at the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University in Muncie Indiana. The study was conducted by Dr. Trappe and a postdoctoral student Dr. Chad C. Carroll. They reported the study at the annual American Physiological Society meeting conference in San Diego for Experimental Biology.

They showed that taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) during consistent weight resistance training reduced the metabolic response within the muscle which allowed the muscle to grow larger and resulted in considerable strength gains of the subjects. The study was conducted over the course of 12 weeks and was supervised. The subjects were men aged 60 to 78 years old, and performed weight training activities three times per week for 15 to 20 minute intervals. The doses used on the subjects were 1200 milligrams of ibuprofen and 4000 milligrams of acetaminophen, which is the current limit for over the counter use of the products. The ibuprofen group showed a much greater response over the acetaminophen group.

In past research when muscle protein synthesis was measured over a 24 hour period there were negative affects from the painkillers due to the blocking of the COX enzyme, which is necessary for protein synthesis. As we age muscle tissue starts to deteriorate and there are certain nutritional supplements that can help this catabolic state. Some of these include L-glutamine, Branch Chain Amino Acids, Free Form Amino Acids, And Whey Protein. We will be discussing these supplements in a future article which will focus on sparing muscle as we age.