They instead are probably sipping on a high-carb or electrolyte-packed drink or gel to remain hydrated. The 10 best gym bag essentials, from self-cleaning water bottles to resistance bands.

Still, the idea that a supplement could improve our health or sport performance continues to tantalize us, regardless of our individual fitness levels. A study revealed that one in 10 recreational athletes used over-the-counter medication for performance enhancement.

Some people are drawn to pills, plants or magic elixirs because they present an ostensible alternative to spending more hours at the gym or abiding to a healthy diet. Everyone should be lifting weights. Here's why. And yet, despite the stories that companies, influencers and probably that fitness fanatic at your gym with the perpetual protein shake may peddle, not all popular substances will deliver on their promised performance boost.

Here, we explore the benefits and drawbacks of seven popular dietary supplements to find out if they are worth the hype, and whether or not they might give you an edge on the court, gym or road. Consult with your doctor about whether adding a new supplement to your training routine is good for you.

Caffeine is so ubiquitous that it sounds silly to consider it a performance-enhancing substance. But the World Anti-Doping Agency had banned it from Olympic competition until because of its purported benefits to sport. Good news for coffee lovers: The substance was eventually deemed too accessible to regulate.

Still, researchers continue to find evidence that caffeine could lead to performance benefits by boosting endurance and alertness. More specifically, ingesting the equivalent of one medium cup of coffee one hour before exercise has been shown to increase running and cycling performance, reduce perceptions of fatigue and, unsurprisingly, increase attention and vigilance especially in sleep-deprived people.

Here is the kicker: The effects of caffeine vary heavily between people. Daniel Kane, an associate professor in human kinetics at St. Someone who rarely ingests caffeine could see a significant change after drinking brewed coffee or taking a caffeine pill, whereas a seasoned coffee drinker may not enjoy much of a boost.

Popular in bodybuilding circles for the past few decades, creatine — a substance we naturally produce and also ingest from meats and fish that helps us convert food into energy — has long been shown to help build muscle and improve performance in explosive activities such as sprinting and weightlifting.

Lately, some researchers are also curious about its benefits to recovery and endurance performance. Several studies have shown that consuming as little as three grams of creatine a day can improve muscle performance and recovery.

But evidence that creatine also boosts stamina and aerobic performance is less conclusive. The substance can also increase water retention, which can slow endurance athletes down. For that reason, said Sutter, creatine is probably a better fit for high-intensity athletes such as weightlifters and sprinters.

Tart and scarlet-red, beetroot juice is popular in endurance sports in particular because it is high in nitrate: a compound that our bacteria converts to nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels and potentially improves aerobic performance by delivering more oxygen to the muscles.

A review of 73 studies that looked at endurance athletes who run, swim or cycle long distances found that supplementation with beetroot and other vegetables rich in nitrate improved time to exhaustion by an average of 25 seconds, and distance travelled by metres.

According to Kane, research indicates that recreational athletes might benefit more from beetroot juice than elite ones, but a growing body of evidence suggests that very well-trained individuals might also enjoy a bump in running economy — the efficiency at which your body expends energy when it runs — after consuming it.

Anybody who has suffered through a hard mile run or a metre dash remembers the acute, burning muscle pain that inhabited their quads, calves and hamstrings in the final stretch. That awful feeling is a product of metabolic acidosis: a drop in pH in the body, brought on by intense exercise.

In the past few decades, said Kane, substances with the ability to buffer that drop in pH and delay pain are gaining popularity, such as the amino acid beta-alanine, or sodium bicarbonate you might know it by its street name, baking soda.

Many studies have demonstrated that taking three to six grams of powdered beta-alanine over at least four weeks can delay muscle fatigue in intense exercise that lasts between one and 10 minutes — like a one-mile race or a single tennis set.

Similarly, a study found that supplementing bicarbonate boosted muscle endurance, but found no effect on muscle strength. According to Kane, the bicarbonate-curious are better off with regulated supplements, as opposed to sneaking a spoonful of baking soda from the cupboard before heading out for a hard workout, which can lead to dehydration, diarrhea and kidney problems when ingested in high concentrations.

Timing is also crucial. Although cannabis has been legalized in Canada for five years now, WADA still bans athletes from using it in competition. Olympic trials. But had she tested positive for cannabidiol or CBD , another popular compound found in cannabis thought to help with recovery, she would have received no sanction.

CBD produces no high, is fair game for use in sport and can be consumed through oils, creams or tablets. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. Clinics in Sports Medicine. In , Chandler and Blair 47 showed significant increases in knee extension strength, acceleration, anaerobic capacity, time to exhaustion during exercise, pre-exercise and maximum heart rates, and time to exhaustion during maximal oxygen consumption VO2 max testing after administration of 15 mg of dextroamphetamine versus placebo.

Most of the information to answer this question has been obtained in the past decade through studies of fatigue rather than an attempt to systematically investigate the effect of ADHD drugs on exercise.

In , Roelands and colleagues 53 studied the effect of reboxetine, a pure NE reuptake inhibitor, similar to atomoxetine, in 9 healthy, well-trained cyclists.

They too exercised in both temperate and warm environments. They showed decreased power output and exercise performance at both 18 and 30 degrees centigrade. Their conclusion was that DA reuptake inhibition was the cause of the increased exercise performance seen with drugs that affect both DA and NE MPH, amphetamine, and bupropion.

Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. Manipulations of dopaminergic signaling profoundly influence interval timing, leading to the hypothesis that dopamine influences internal pacemaker, or "clock," activity.

For instance, amphetamine, which increases concentrations of dopamine at the synaptic cleft advances the start of responding during interval timing, whereas antagonists of D2 type dopamine receptors typically slow timing; Depletion of dopamine in healthy volunteers impairs timing, while amphetamine releases synaptic dopamine and speeds up timing.

Sports Medicine. S2CID Frontiers in Physiology. Aside from accounting for the reduced performance of mentally fatigued participants, this model rationalizes the reduced RPE and hence improved cycling time trial performance of athletes using a glucose mouthwash Chambers et al. Dopamine stimulating drugs are known to enhance aspects of exercise performance Roelands et al.

Sports Medicine Auckland, N. ISSN X. World Anti-Doping Agency. In recent decennia however, it became clear that the central nervous system plays an important role in the onset of fatigue during prolonged exercise Klass et al.

This indicates that subjects did not feel they were producing more power and consequently more heat. The authors concluded that the "safety switch" or the mechanisms existing in the body to prevent harmful effects are overridden by the drug administration Roelands et al.

Taken together, these data indicate strong ergogenic effects of an increased DA concentration in the brain, without any change in the perception of effort. The combined effects of DA and NA on performance in the heat were studied by our research group on a number of occasions.

Coinciding with this ergogenic effect, the authors observed core temperatures that were much higher compared with the placebo situation. Interestingly, this occurred without any change in the subjective feelings of thermal sensation or perceived exertion.

Similar to the methylphenidate study Roelands et al. Sports Health. February Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. December International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.

British Journal of Sports Medicine. Molecular Pathology. October April Endocrine Reviews. Current Drug Targets. European Medicines Agency Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. The present meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the magnitude of the effects of methylphenidate and amphetamine on cognitive functions central to academic and occupational functioning, including inhibitory control, working memory, short-term episodic memory, and delayed episodic memory.

In addition, we examined the evidence for publication bias. Forty-eight studies total of 1, participants were included in the analyses. We found evidence for small but significant stimulant enhancement effects on inhibitory control and short-term episodic memory.

Small effects on working memory reached significance, based on one of our two analytical approaches. Effects on delayed episodic memory were medium in size. However, because the effects on long-term and working memory were qualified by evidence for publication bias, we conclude that the effect of amphetamine and methylphenidate on the examined facets of healthy cognition is probably modest overall.

In some situations, a small advantage may be valuable, although it is also possible that healthy users resort to stimulants to enhance their energy and motivation more than their cognition.

Earlier research has failed to distinguish whether stimulants' effects are small or whether they are nonexistent Ilieva et al. The present findings supported generally small effects of amphetamine and methylphenidate on executive function and memory.

Specifically, in a set of experiments limited to high-quality designs, we found significant enhancement of several cognitive abilities.

The results of this meta-analysis cannot address the important issues of individual differences in stimulant effects or the role of motivational enhancement in helping perform academic or occupational tasks.

However, they do confirm the reality of cognitive enhancing effects for normal healthy adults in general, while also indicating that these effects are modest in size. Retrieved 13 October Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology. Drug Testing and Analysis. Indian Journal of Orthopaedics. The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology. August Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Veterinary and Human Toxicology. Medicina Nei Secoli. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

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Pediatrics in Review. Drug Free Sport. Retrieved 14 April Retrieved 3 November Anti-Doping Agency — USADA". Anti-Doping Agency USADA. Pharmacological body alteration. Bodybuilding supplement Breast enlargement Clitoris enlargement Ergogenic use of anabolic steroids Growth hormone therapy Transgender hormone therapy Feminizing hormone therapy Masculinizing hormone therapy Penis enlargement Performance-enhancing substance.