The effect of watermelon juice consumption on the performance indicators of basketball girls

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC 4.0) license

Authors

1 Department Of Sport Sciences, Faculty Of Humanities, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

2 Department of Sport Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran.

Abstract

Aim: Watermelon due to its content of the amino acid citrulline, can be considered as a substitute for arginine when its concentration in the body is low.
Method: A double blind, crossover study was conducted on 14 female basketball players (age 16.07 ± 1.9, height 163.64 ± 7.5, weight 57.93 ± 13.01). Athletes consumed 250-ml of watermelon juice or dextrose solution as a placebo 90 minutes before the test. After 5-minute warm-up the squat jump test was performed first, then the back-and-forth jump tests, 20-meter sprint tests, and the agility T test were performed. The athletes rested for five minutes and the anaerobic rest and step-queen tests were performed with five-minute rest intervals. Immediately after the anaerobic tests, the Borg pressure perception index was recorded. The second session was conducted with a one-week break in a similar manner to the first-session. In this session, the supplement and placebo groups were different from the first-session.
Results: The results showed that the fatigue index in the rest test (p=0.002) and also the pressure perception index after the aerobic-test (p=0.001) and anaerobic-test (p=0.006) decreased significantly after consuming watermelon juice compared to placebo. No significant difference was observed in leg muscle strength, speed, agility, maximum oxygen consumption, heart rate and anaerobic power between the two conditions.
Conclusion: Acute consumption of watermelon juice in female basketball players can lead to an increase in the time to fatigue and an improvement in the pressure perception index of training, but it does not affect performance indicators.

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History

  • Receive Date: 19 May 2025
  • Revise Date: 04 October 2025
  • Accept Date: 05 October 2025
  • First Publish Date: 05 October 2025

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