Table 4.

Characteristics of participants and supplementation protocols of the selected studies.

Characteristics	Types	Reference
Level of participants	Amateur competitive	[36,42,43]
	Amateur	[33]
	Recreationally	[17,33]
	Recreationally active	[38,39]
	Physically active	[16,35,37,40,41]
Administration Type	Capsule	[16,17,33,34,36,38,39,40]
	Soft gel	[35,42]
	Water with seed oil	[43]
	Unspecified	[33,38]
Total dose	High * (750 mg EPA + 50 mg DHA) Low * (150 mg EPA + 100 mg DHA)	[40]
	2 g (1400 mg: 800 mg EPA + 600 mg DHA) 4 g (2800 mg: 1600 mg EPA + 1200 mg DHA) 6 g (4200 mg: 2400 mg EPA + 1800 mg DHA)	[35]
	780 mg EPA + 606 mg DHA	[37]
	1220 mg/d (975 mg DHA + 120 mg EPA)	[36]
	2.1 g/d EPA + 0.78 g/d DHA	[41]
	2.275 g/d EPA + 1.575 g/d DHA	[39]
	2234 mg/d EPA + 930 mg/d DHA	[33]
	2.4 g/d (600 mg EPA + 260 mg DHA)	[34]
	2.7 g/day	[16]
	3.5 g/d (1 g: 407 mg/g DHA +170 mg/g EPA)	[43]
	2400 mg (1360 mg EPA + 1040 mg DHA)	[17]
	3680 mg/d (1860 mg EPA +1540 mg DHA)	[38]
	31 g ALA for the average	[32]
Dose schedule	once a day: post-lunch morning	[34]
	30 min after meals with water	[17]
	30 min before exercise	[43]
	once a day: post-exercise	[40]
	3 times/days (morning, lunch, dinner)	[41]
	Unspecified	[16,33,35,36,37,38,39,42]
Amount of supplement/d	2/4/6 capsules	[35]
	3 capsules	[36,37,41]
	6 capsules	[16,42]
	8 capsules	[17,34]
	1 g (capsule)/10 kg/BM	[40]
	7 capsules	[39]
	0.43 g ALA/kg BM	[43]
	Unspecified	[38]
Duration	twice separated by two weeks	[43]
	1 day	[40]
	30 days	[36]
	4 weeks	[16]
	4.5 weeks	[34]
	6 weeks	[37,38]
	7.5 weeks	[35]
	8 week + 5 days	[17]
	10 weeks	[39]
	12 weeks	[33,41]
	26 weeks	[42]
Exercise intervention	Endurance + functional/resistance	[33,35]
	Cycling test to exhaustion	[36]
	Maximum eccentric extensions of the forearm or elbow	[16,17,34]
	Plyometric jumps	[40]
	Resistance exercise training	[37,38,39,41]
	Running at constant speed until exhaustion	[43]
	Unspecified	[42]

Abbreviations: ALA = alpha-linolenic acid; BM = body mass; DHA = docosahexaenoic acid; EPA = eicosapentaenoic acid; * 1 g/10 kg BM; mg = milligrams; g = grams; d = day; kg = kilograms.