Ливерпүүл болон Нюкасл Юнайтед багуудын 2-2 харьцаатай тэнцсэн тоглолтын үеэр Флориан Виртц сэлгээнд суухдаа интоорын шүүс хэрэглэсэн нь мэргэжлийн хөлбөмбөгийн шинэ чиг хандлагыг харууллаа.
Элит түвшний хөлбөмбөгийн багууд дасгал сургуулилт болон тоглолтын дараах булчингийн үрэвслийг бууруулж, нөхөн сэргэлтийг хурдасгах зорилгоор Монморенси төрлийн интоорын шүүсийг өргөнөөр ашиглаж байна. Нортумбриа их сургуулийн судалгаагаар энэхүү жимс нь антиоксидант шинж чанартай полифенолоор баялаг болох нь тогтоогдсон бөгөөд одоогоор Манчестер Сити, Челси, Манчестер Юнайтед зэрэг олон клуб энэхүү бүтээгдэхүүнийг стратегийн дагуу хэрэглэж байна.
Мэргэжлийн түвшний хөлбөмбөгчид интоорын шүүсийг өдөр тутам бус харин тоглолтын ачаалал ихтэй үед нөхөн сэргэлтийг дэмжих зорилгоор хэрэглэдэг байна. Үйлдвэрлэгчид хөлбөмбөгчдийн хэрэгцээнд нийцүүлэн шингэн хэлбэрээс гадна мелатонин агуулсан, нойр болон нөхөн сэргэлтийг сайжруулах үйлчилгээтэй чихэрлэг (gummy) бүтээгдэхүүнийг ч зах зээлд нэвтрүүлээд байна.
Энэхүү хандлага нь тоглогчдын биеийн онцлог болон тоглолтын хуваарийг харгалзан үзсэн шинжлэх ухааны үндэслэлтэй шийдэл болж байгааг Amacx зэрэг үйлдвэрлэгч компаниуд онцолж байна. Сүүлийн жилүүдэд дугуйн спортын мэргэжлийн багуудаас гадна хөлбөмбөгийн томоохон лигүүд энэхүү нэмэлт тэжээлийг өндөр түвшинд ашиглах болжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
As Florian Wirtz was substituted during Liverpool’s 2-2 opening day draw at Newcastle United, the German midfielder sat on the bench, retrieved a bottle of dark red liquid, and began to drink.
Was it some vampiric concoction designed to sustain the £116million attacker after a draining summer’s afternoon in the Premier League? Not quite. In fact, it was cherry juice — the latest must-have supplement in elite football.
Other endurance events, especially professional cycling, have been using it for several years. It is a common sight at the end of Tour de France stages to see riders with crimson stains on their jerseys, with onlookers never quite sure whether the spatter has been caused by a grisly crash or desperately gulped hydration.
Cherry juice stains on the kit of cyclist Alex Molenaar at the Tour de France (Jacob Whitehead/The Athletic)
Now, as top-level football seeks more edges than ever, it has hit the Premier League. Wirtz’s opponent in midfield that day, Newcastle’s Dutch teenager Sean Steur, is another big fan. The supplement is used by the vast majority of top-level clubs.
In simple terms, cherry juice targets the muscle inflammation caused by exercise, known as oxidative stress.
These are effectively small disruptions to an athlete’s muscle fibres, which have both good and bad repercussions. On the one hand, oxidative stress acts as a trigger to tell the body to rebuild and develop mitochondria in the cells — improving an athlete’s endurance capacity. On the other, it causes muscle soreness that can inhibit performance — especially in sports that demand quick recovery, such as a rider between stages of the Tour de France.
In 2010, researchers at Northumbria University discovered that a particular species of tart cherries, the Montmorency variety, contained anti-oxidative properties because of their high levels of polyphenols — particularly a type named anthocyanins. In practical terms, consuming these cherries blunts oxidative stress.
The Northumbria University team measured recovery time among a group of 20 marathon runners, giving half cherry juice and half a placebo. They recorded a significant difference between the groups — research which has since been underpinned by studies in other sports, and reported in several of academia’s top scientific journals.
This discovery meant that cherry juice as a performance supplement was born. Broadly, the rule of thumb is to drink it during periods of intense competition (to allow for muscle recovery) while avoiding it during periods of training (to promote muscle development). High-profile athletes to embrace it include the Great Britain Olympic team, the New Zealand rugby team, and almost every cyclist in the professional peloton.
Newcastle United’s Sean Steur enjoys cherry juice (George Wood/Getty Images)
“A question you always have to think about is: what is the goal of the athlete?” asks Julie Hardeel, a nutritionist at cherry juice manufacturer Amacx, which works alongside several professional football clubs to develop products. “Is it long-term training adaptation, or to recover as fast as possible. When you use cherry products, it’s not a daily supplement, but used strategically.
“So while they’re less important in preseason and friendlies, once you get into the peak of the season, where some players have multiple games each week, they might have international duty, they have the intensity of the Premier League, it’s really key to have it on both matchday and the days in between.”
It means that a clutch of manufacturers selling cherry-based products has emerged over the past 15 years — in addition to Amacx, there is British firm Science in Sport (SiS), 226ERS, Healthspan Elite, Etixx, and Enervit.
Gino Vierhouten is Amacx’s CEO, responsible for all areas of the company — including sourcing the particular species of Montmorency cherry needed to provide the maximum amount of polyphenols. He watches cherry crops around Europe hawkishly, tracking harvests and weather forecasts, while being careful not to reveal the exact source of this year’s berries — this industry is now commercially sensitive big business.
“Two years ago, we mainly saw football clubs just occasionally reaching out for advice, some products,” he explains. “Now, we just see on a regular basis that clubs from Spain, the Premier League, the Eredivisie, but also the Middle East all get in contact to speak about specific products, about partnerships, for meetings with their dedicated nutritionists.
“I know that Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, they’ve been busy with it for years already.”
Cyclists have used cherry juice as a supplement for years (Amacx)
A major breakthrough came when Merijn Zeeman, formerly sporting director at Tour-winning cycling team Visma-Lease a Bike, left to join Eredivisie club AZ.
“He called me, and said they were doing everything performance first — training, data, trends, everything,” says Vierhouten. “He said they did some nutrition, wanted to work with us, and that was the first club we really worked with — speaking to players, looking at what works, what doesn’t, going through their day.
“Afterwards, we saw other, bigger teams ordering cherry juice and asking questions about it. In the Premier League, you see more and more teams being aware — I’ve also spotted other companies’ cherry juice at PSG in the dressing room.
“I think also, with the new players who are 25, 26 years old or younger, they are more athletes than footballers. Clubs are making the shift because players are arriving who are (already) used to cherry juice.”
Vierhouten is most excited about a new product based on discussions with players.
“We developed cherry gummies alongside some football clubs this year,” he says. “In cycling, for example, you are super dehydrated because it’s a long effort. But in football, if a player is subbed off after 60 or 70 minutes, they don’t need half a litre of recovery shake and half a litre of cherry juice. They used to tell us (that) if they’re playing a game that finishes at 11 in the evening, they’d be up all evening peeing. The gummy has exactly the same ingredients as the cherry juice — just not the fluids.”
“Dark cherries naturally contain melatonin too,” adds Hardeel. “It reduces the time to fall asleep and also improves the sleep quality — and if you think about football, their games are often late in the evening. Gummies are also easier to take with you if you’re travelling across time zones, rather than lots of liquid — especially if you only have check-in baggage.”
If you see a player tucking into a sideline gummy, they have not decided that it is appropriate to tuck into a mid-game sweetie.
