Rhodiola rosea: better intermittent-endurance performance and decision-making under fatigue in football players
Participants
n=24 male competitive football players
Protocol
4 weeks of Rhodiola rosea vs placebo. Daily dose and salidroside content are not in the abstract (full text, checked 2026-09-27: 2.4 g/day, 12 mg salidroside). Outcomes: Yo-Yo IR2, repeated-sprint ability (RSA) with post-RSA lactate at 0, 3 and 5 min, passing and shooting tests, video-based decision-making (reaction time, accuracy), GPS match running, CMJ, foot tapping, haematology.
Results
Yo-Yo IR2: improved in the Rhodiola group (p=0.012), superior to placebo (p=0.046)
RSA mean sprint time: improved pre→post in Rhodiola (p=0.017), not in placebo; better than placebo post-intervention (p=0.041), no baseline difference
Best sprint time: no between-group difference (p=0.723)
Post-exercise lactate: lower in Rhodiola at 0, 3 and 5 min (all p<0.05)
Under fatigue: faster reaction time (p=0.042) and higher decision accuracy (p=0.049) vs placebo
Passing and shooting improved within the Rhodiola group (p<0.05); between-group difference only for short passing
Match total and high-speed running distance higher in Rhodiola; haemoglobin and haematocrit increased (p<0.05)
Practical Application
Finding: in 24 competitive male footballers, 4 weeks of Rhodiola rosea improved Yo-Yo IR2 and mean repeated-sprint time versus placebo, lowered post-sprint lactate and kept reaction time and decision accuracy up under fatigue; best single-sprint time did not differ. The authors read this as better performance maintenance, not higher peak capacity.
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: a candidate for later in a block when fatigue resistance is the limiter, not for peak-power goals; no data in cyclic endurance sports.
Limitations
Team-sport population, n=24, 4 weeks; dose not in the abstract; no cycling/running endurance outcome; transfer to cyclic sports untested
How this entry was checked and changed
Content correction 2026-09-27
"Peak power: NO CHANGE" -> the abstract reports best sprint time with no between-group difference (p=0.723); peak power was not an outcome.
Protocol "2.4 g/day, 12 mg salidroside" -> not in the abstract; labelled full text. Tier 4-5 -> Tier 2-3 (competitive, not elite). Sport "running, team-sport, sprint" -> football. Results completed from the abstract (within-group p-values, decision accuracy, passing/shooting, match running); "Status: week 6+" relabelled as the base's own practice.
DOI and PMID added from the Europe PMC record of this entry's own PMCID (PMC12986682; same title and authors). The entry previously carried only the PMCID, so the base read it as sourceless.
Lines labelled "full text; not checked" were read against the open-access full text (PMC12986682): 1 confirmed and relabelled.