Does ginger ease muscle soreness?

Short answer

A little. Taking 2 g of ginger every day for 11 days cut next-day muscle soreness by 23–25%. A single dose after soreness set in had no effect.

Does ginger ease muscle soreness?
'Ginger = natural painkiller → less soreness after training' — does this formula hold?
Ginger is often called a natural painkiller that calms inflammation and pain. We checked whether it works on the muscle soreness that shows up the day after training, and when and how much it took to make a difference.
One dose did not help
27 people: a single 2 g dose had no effect
27 people made their arms sore with an exercise and then took 2 g of ginger or a placebo the next day and the day after. 45 minutes later, soreness, swelling and arm range of motion were no different from placebo.
Taking it daily for 11 days was different
Next-day soreness dropped 23–25%
In two studies of 34 and 40 people, participants took 2 g of raw or heat-treated ginger or a placebo every day for 11 days and did an arm exercise. 24 hours after the exercise, soreness was 25% lower with raw ginger and 23% lower with heated ginger than with placebo. Heating did not make it work better.
Running soreness was lower too
32 people: 5 days of ginger and a 40-minute downhill run
32 people took 1.425 g of ginger or a placebo daily for 5 days and ran downhill for 40 minutes on day 3. The ginger group's soreness while jogging rose less. Their 1.5-mile (2.4 km) run times did not differ.
It eased pain, but performance stayed the same
Strength and fitness numbers did not change
Pooling 7 studies on soreness, about 2 g a day for 5 days or more eased soreness a little. In 9 studies that looked at body composition, calories burned, oxygen use, strength and how hard exercise felt, there was no difference.
How much, and when?
4–2 g a day, every day for several days
The studies that found an effect used 1.4–2 g of ginger powder a day in capsules, every day for 5–11 days. 2 g of dried ginger powder is about one teaspoon. The study where people took a single dose after soreness set in found no effect.
Summary: daily ginger cut soreness by about 1/4
It did not work like a one-off painkiller
Taking 2 g of ginger every day for 11 days cut next-day muscle soreness by 23–25%. A single dose after soreness set in did nothing, and strength and fitness numbers did not change. Read ginger as a food that eases soreness a little when taken steadily for several days.