Eccentric exercise, particularly when novel and strenuous, can cause soreness and inflammation, impairing subsequent exercise performance. These performance decrements are attributable to oxidative stress and inflammation. Interestingly, a single bout of eccentric exercise can confer protective effects, ameliorating the negative consequences in subsequent bouts. This is termed the repeated bout effect (RBE), which would be of interest to athletes considering the detrimental effects of strenuous eccentric exercise. Athletes regularly consume supplements in hope of attenuating the performance decrements after strenuous eccentric exercise

. However, considering the dose-response relationship between the initial performance decrement and the magnitude of the RBE , supplements may diminish the obtainment of the RBE. This notion remains untested, and so the proposed project is a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group study aiming to assess the effects of acute vitamin C and ibuprofen supplementation on the development of the RBE. These two supplements were chosen as they are most frequently and successfully used in the literature to target oxidative stress (vitamin C) and inflammation (ibuprofen). Additionally, these doses (and the timing of supplements) were chosen to mimic protocols reporting beneficial effects

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 - 45 years of age
• BMI 18.5 - 29.9 kg/m2
• Able to perform 20-minutes of bench stepping exercise
• Capable and willing to provide consent (oral and written)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Familiarised with bench stepping exercise procedures
• Not cleared for exercise by health questionnaires or physical activity readiness questionnaire
• Participants exhibiting any alteration in clinical inflammation parameters due to other cause
• Participants currently being prescribed any anti-inflammatory medications