The effect of ginseng supplement on General Health indices and ratings of perceived exertion to acute resistance training in trained males

Background : Ginseng is one the most natural popular ergogenic aid, which stated that, enhances mental operation and makes a positive sense of well-being. The aim is toexamine the effect of ginseng supplement on perceived exertion and psychological parameters after resistance training in trained athletes. Methods : Twenty four active young men who had trained for 3 months with the age range 18 to 27 years old participated in this study. Subjects randomly allocated into2 groups: Intervention group (GIN, n=12) and placebo group (PLA, n=12).Each of them daily received 2 capsules for 4 weeks. Before intervention psychological parameters by using of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and perceived exertion by the Borg’sscalefor rating of perceived exertion ) RPE( at rest (TRE, time rest), immediately after exercise (TTE, time test), 15 (T15), 30 (T30), 45 (T45), and 60 (T60) min after exercise were measured. Then they performed training program with ingesting of ginseng for 4 weeks and again GHQ-28 and RPE at those time points which mentioned above were taken . Results : The finding of ANOVA test and repeated measure showed that treatment of athletes with ginseng caused significant difference in only anxiety/insomnia subscale (p ≤ 0.05). Also, there wassignificant difference in the Borg 6-20 scale after training with treatment of ginseng in athletes (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusions : We find that ginseng supplement may improve anxiety/insomnia parameters in athletes and rise endurance time to exhaustion on resistance training.