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Recovery is a top purchase driver in sports nutrition, and tart cherry has become a go-to natural recovery tool for weekend warriors, professional endurance athletes, and everyone in between.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at the science behind tart cherry’s efficacy. This well-studied ingredient has decades of peer-reviewed human trials behind it that use real athletes under real training and racing conditions.
Why Recovery Matters:
Strenuous exercise causes microscopic tears within muscle fibers, triggering an inflammatory response that leads to temporary strength loss, soreness, and swelling, and prevents athletes from performing at full capacity for days after. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredients have been studied for decades as a tool to blunt soreness and inflammation without the potential health risks of NSAIDS.
What The Research Shows:
Clinical studies show that tart cherries aid in exercise recovery. In 8 out of 9 studies, tart cherry consumption significantly reduced muscle pain, soreness, and strength loss in trained athletes. These benefits are attributed to concentrated phytochemicals like polyphenols with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Faster strength recovery:
- After a damaging workout, strength loss was 22% with the placebo versus just 4% after supplementing with cherry juice (Connolly, 2006)
- Marathon runners on cherry juice regained leg strength faster in the two days after racing (Howatson, 2010)
- Supplementation with tart cherry reduced strength decrements, muscle soreness, and markers of muscle catabolism during recovery (Levers, 2015)
Reduced inflammation:
- In a clinical trial, CherryCraft® tart cherry extract reduced hs-CRP in recreational marathon runners, indicating lower post-marathon inflammation (Squires et al., 2026, European Journal of Nutrition)
- Marathon runners on cherry juice showed a smaller post-race spike in inflammatory markers than the placebo group (Howatson, 2010)
Less perceived pain:
- Cherry juice lowered pain ratings after damaging exercise (Connolly, 2006)
- In a 24-hour, 315 km relay race, runners on cherry juice reported about a third of the pain increase seen on placebo (Kuehl, 2010)
Lower oxidative stress:
Marathon runners on cherry juice had roughly 10% higher antioxidant capacity and less cell damage from oxidative stress than the placebo group (Howatson, 2010).
Tart cherry’s applications extend beyond sports recovery. Clinical studies also support its benefits for sleep, cardiovascular health and cognition.
CherryCraft®
Made from polyphenol-rich European tart cherries using Iprona’s IPT technology – a gentle, solvent-free extraction process that preserves the fruit’s natural integrity and potency. CherryCraft®, the brand trusted by professional athletes, is the go-to tart cherry extract containing the highest level of polyphenols available in the marketplace!
European tart cherries offer higher polyphenol density, including more anthocyanins and chlorogenic acid than the Montmorency variety. CherryCraft® is built for exactly what today’s formulator needs: standardized polyphenol content, transparent sourcing and sustainable production.
