Does sniffing chocolate really help ‘leg day’ at the gym?

Here's a gym hack gaining traction: sniff dark chocolate before leg day and supposedly you'll perform better. According to The Conversation, researchers tested this idea with young men experienced in resistance training. They sniffed either dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or plain water before using a leg extension machine, and sniffed again between sets. Participants who sniffed dark chocolate completed roughly eighteen more reps than when they sniffed water—a performance improvement of more than twenty-five percent, which sounds remarkable. But exercise scientist Hunter Bennett has examined the research, and he says the findings come with a major caveat. The study wasn't truly double-blind because water doesn't smell, so every participant knew which condition was chocolate. The performance measure was also subjective—it measured when people decided to stop, not an objective test of their actual capacity. Bennett concludes the effect is likely psychological rather than physiological. The upshot: there's no harm in taking a sniff before you train, but the performance boost—if there is one—is likely happening in your mind, not your muscles.

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