The Effect of Consuming Quinoa on Muscle Strength, VO2max and Athletic Performance Among Adolescent Handball Players

Background: Proper nutrition is essential for sports performance. Quinoa is a gluten-free grain rich in macronutrients such as protein, polysaccharides, and fatty acids and consists of many phytochemicals such as carotenoids, flavonoids, saponins, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Phytochemicals in quinoa act as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. This will protect against several oxidative stress related diseases.

Objective: Investigate the effect of 50 g of quinoa for four weeks on muscle strength, VO2max and athletic performance among adolescent athletes.

Study design: A Double blinded randomized control trial with pre-test and post-test design.

Methods :32 subjects will be included in this trial. Subjects will be divided randomly into control and experimental group with a 1:1 ratio; the experimental group will receive two cookies that contain 50 grams of quinoa; the control group will receive the same two cookies that but without quinoa. Strength will be assessed by using hand-held dynamometer (HHD). Maximum oxygen uptake capacity (Vo2max) will be assessed by Queen's College step test (QCT). And for evaluating performance: standing long jump test, ball throw test, and agility T-test will be used. Subjects will be asked to take the cookies 1-4 hours before bedtime daily during the study period.

Statistical Analysis: Shapiro wilk test will be performed to check the normality of the data and Levenes test will be performed to check homogeneity of variance. Cohen's d will be used to check the effect size. The level of significance is set to p ≤ 0.05.