About 5 days after I ran the Parowan Half Marathon earlier this year, I was at the tail end of my post-race soreness when I received an email telling me about the virtues of this product that helped reduce soreness so athletes can get moving again. Still feeling the residual pain from running downhill for two hours, I was eager to take a look.

Play Again Now is a bottle of liquid hyaluronic acid that is taken orally. It contains no calories, gluten, carbs or caffeine. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally produced substance that helps cushion joins and provide elasticity to muscles. By taking it orally, it is readily absorbed by the mouth and lining of throat for use by the body to combat stiffness and soreness.

It tastes kind of like berries and if you are used to gels for sport, you shouldn’t have any problem with this. It’s not nearly as viscous as most sports gels.

They recommend a loading phase for the first two weeks, people who are over 250 pounds take 4 tablespoons a day and those who are less than 250 take 3 tablespoons a day. Once the loading phase is over you are supposed to drop down to 1-2 or 2-3 tablespoons a day, depending on your weight.

I’ll be honest with you, it seemed weird that somebody who weighs 249 pounds would have the same dosage as someone who weighs 120 pounds. So I did the loading phase but I just did 2 tablespoons a day.

I finished up my loading phase and was a couple of days into maintenance when I did the Cedar Half Marathon. I had zero soreness after that event. It’s very possible that I had already inflicted all those micro-tears in my downhill running muscles 4 weeks earlier in my race before and they were all healed and rebuilt into a stronger system. But it’s also very possible that Play Again Now helped.

They have success stories on their site from athletes (strongman competitors, cyclists, ninja warrior), medical professionals (MD, chiropractor, physical therapist) and everyday people. Basically they’re trying to convey that pretty much anyone can benefit from this product.

My running lately has felt pretty smooth and I bounce back from harder workouts pretty easily. I am willing to assume it has helped me. In fact, I ordered another bottle of it from Amazon to keep trying it. If I can keep my joints and muscles feeling overall pretty happy, I’m on board!

It retails for $49.95 per bottle on the Play Again Now website, but it’s about $10 cheaper on Amazon. (affiliate) You can also get it through GNC.